Coffee anyone?

Coffee cupcakes with white chocolate fudge frosting

   There are times in life when you are humbled by people who often are the most simple in being, but whose actions make them anything but ordinary. One such person I met was Mamta Shukla, my friend Shubham's mom. I met her on Shubham's birthday, bringing it in with a homemade cake as usual. That's when she knew I loved baking and after our miles by the minute conversation, Shubham and me said bye whilst her folks wondered in amusement how we could talk so much, so fast, simultaneously and still understand each other. 
   Met her mom again for dinner that day and her twinkling kind eyes made me like her instantly. She left to travel around and that was it. We didn't talk thereafter. Now you can imagine to my surprise when Shubham says, 'My mom has got you something from her trip.' The thought of her getting something for me, who she just met for a few hours was enough to make me smile for the next few hours in joy. Who doesn't love gifts? And unexpected ones, even better :) 
   She had remembered that I loved baking and knew my fondness for cupcakes and had gotten me Joanna Farrow's book - Cupcakes. I squealed like a child at this book, my first one on cupcakes :) Even though what she did might seem simple and inconsequential to a third person, her thoughtfulness has inked herself into my memory. Thanks aunty, not just for this, but for being there for me via your daughter in trying times as well. Shubham, you have one helluva lovely mom :) This ones for you aunty :) 

Coffee cupcakes with white chocolate fudge frosting
Recipe courtesy: Cupcakes by Joanna Farrow


For the cupcakes you will need: (makes 12)

• 150 grams unsalted butter
• 150 grams castor sugar
• 175 grams self-raising flour (You can substitute this with plain flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt)
• 3 eggs
• 1teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon strong coffee powder

You can decorate them with sprinkles like so

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 C 
2. Dump all the ingredients in a bowl and beat for 2 minutes or so until the mixture is light and creamy.
3. Pour them into your lined cupcake moulds and bake for about 20 minutes or till they have risen and are firm to touch or till a skewer inserted comes out dry.

For the white chocolate fudge frosting you will need:

• 200 grams white chocolate chopped up finely
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 175 grams icing sugar

Method:

1. Place the chocolate and milk in a heat proof bowl, set it over a saucepan of gently simmering water and leave until melted. Stir frequently to avoid lumps and burning the chocolate. 
2. Once melted, remove the bowl from the saucepan and stir in the icing sugar gently until you get a smooth mixture.
3. While still warm, spread or pipe the frosting over your cooled cupcakes. 

A yum treat to finish off a meal

Gimme red

Red velvet cupcakes, plain without trimmings, but regal regardless

I've always been in awe of red velvet cupcakes, mostly cuz the name sounds so fancy and royal. I mean, red and velvet, separately conjure up some wow images in your head, put them together and add cupcake to it and you've got heaven on a plate :)
The real tempter was when I had my first red velvet cupcake at Candies in Mumbai with my bro. Ever since, I've been wanting to make this sinful beauty. Tried it after months of eating it and waited with bated breath after making the cupcakes and making my own buttermilk, mind you :)
But as luck would have it, boom, the powers that be put a spanner in the wheels of my plan by shutting down the power supply in my area the minute I put these beauties in the oven. Thankfully, I had a second batch to rely on and the residual heat in the oven carried forward the baking process considerably enough to make the first batch bake well too. If you ever get stuck in a similar situation, I've found that mixing a teeensy amount of baking soda in the batter and mixing it again before baking (when the power comes back on) helps them rise beautifully. The result, was stunning but I decided to go all the way and decorate it with blue and white cream cheese frosting. Indulgent, aint I? :p 
I mixed up a few recipes I found online with some steps of my own.. So without any further ado, here's how you can go about making these red beauties. 


Ingredients:
1 cup flour (maida)

2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
60 to 80 grams unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
Red food colouring
Salt to taste


For the cream cheese frosting, you will need:
180 grams cream cheese that is at room temperature
200 grams icing sugar
100 grams unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Making buttermilk:
If you can't find plain buttermilk in the stores (I found only the masala variety everywhere I went), you can make your own buttermilk. Simply add half a teaspoon of lemon juice to 3/4th cup of milk, mix well and leave to rest for about 15 minutes before using.


Making the cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 180 C
• Beat the butter till fluffy (1 minute) and beat in the sugar as well, till fluffy (2 mins)
• Add the eggs, beating after each addition and beat in the vanilla essence and red food colouring too. You can add as much as you like to get the desired hue. 
• Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt and alternatively add the flour and buttermilk mixture to the batter, starting and ending with the dry  mixture. 
• Just before you pour the batter into the cupcake liners, mix the vinegar and baking soda together and add that fizzy mixture to the batter and mix it in. (This helps make the red look brighter, some say)
• Pour into your liners (1/2 to 2/4th full) and bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out dry. 
• Cool the cupcakes before decorating them.

Go wild with colour combos and patterns. Experimentation is the key...

Making the cream cheese frosting:

• Beat the cream cheese and butter till smooth.
• Add in  the vanilla essence and then, the icing sugar bit by bit, beating till it is well incorporated. You can add more or less depending on the consistency you want.
• Divide the mixture onto two halves and colour accordingly. 

Ending on a pretty note

When vanilla beats chocolate

Vanilla queen

One might think a vanilla cake is plain and boring, but I've got news for you - it can blow you away. I chanced upon this recipe from my go-to blogger as always - Ria and modified it a bit and came up with my new favourite cake (yes, chocolate has bowed down to the humble vanilla this time). I love the lil vanilla bean specs in this white cake and white and chocolate ganache seal the deal to make this a cake you will not put down easily. I made it first for an order )sugar-free that too) and have made it twice thereafter in quick succession, thanks to popular demand :) So here's the angelic cake that will bring out the devil in you :p

The sugar-free order clicked by B'day boy Manu Srivastava

Ingredients:

• 2 cups maida
• 113 grams unsalted butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature
• 1 cup castor sugar (substitute with a sugar-free baking sugar or sugar substitute for sugar-free cakes for diabetic people) 
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 eggs
• A pinch of salt

For the dark chocolate ganache, head to my previous post or click here - ganache. For white chocolate ganache, simple replace dark chocolate with white chocolate.

Method:

• Pre-heat your oven to 180C 
• Sift the flour and baking soda so that there are no lumps formed and keep it aside.
• Slit your vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds from both halves and keep aside. You can use the bean ‘shells’ to make yum vanilla sugar. Simply place them in your sugar container and there you have it.
• In a large mixing bowl, whip up your butter and sugar with an electric mixer till smooth and fluffy.
• Add your eggs one by one and beat after each addition.
• Add in the vanilla seed mixture and beat till incorporated and you can see lovely specs of black vanilla bean seeds in the batter.
• Add in the flour and milk alternatively, beating continuously, starting and ending with flour. Make sure to beat it till the batter is light and fluffy. Do not use all the milk if the batter is too runny.
• Pour into a prepared baking mould (butter the inside or use cooking spray) or pour into cupcake moulds lined with cupcake liners.
• Bake for 30 mins or so till a toothpick inserted comes out dry.

Decorating your cake/cupcakes:

For the cupcakes, just dip them top side up into melted ganache and leave to rest.

Sugar-free cupcakes dipped in melted chocolate ganache

You can also just alternate slivers of dark and white chocolate ganache, using a spoon to let the ganache flow into ribbons.

Cupcakes drizzled with slivers of white and dark chocolate ganache

Halve the cake, fill with chocolate ganache and top up with the same, adding globs of white chocolate on the edges if desired.

Vanilla cake filled and topped with ganache

Gussying up a cake quickly

Jack Frost is in town

My Jack Frost cake

This blog has been neglected for some time and apologies for the same. I wanted to put up my best order as the post that followed me crossing a 1000 hits. (Yayyy, big achievement :)) Thanks a tonne guys for reading and encouraging my blog. This one is for you'll. Only wish I could actually share by bakes with you'll too rather than just share pics and recipes... 

     The reason for the delay is that the pictures of the winning cake (sugarless, might I add) sadly weren't all clicked by me. While I have the mini version of it, the final product has been clicked by b'day boy Manu (a talented photographer) and I haven't been able to get the pics just yet. So I decided not to wait any longer and post something else, rather than neglect my blog any longer.

     I just completed by 4th b'day order cake and frankly didn't have much time to decorate it as the darned power went off whilst baking (that's another story altogether with me frantically pacing up and down praying for the power to come back and driving everyone mad with my antics). Thank God the cake had baked its course (almost) by then so the residual heat from the oven baked it through and through, minus the power. So cut short to me having half an hour to pretty up a cake before it was to be picked up, this being a sugar-less cake, icing and butter cream was out of the question, so was melting and blitzing the butter etc for lack of time. So, I decided to go for chocolate ganache once again, only this time, I have my new and improved chocolate ganache. That still looked a lil plain so I 'frosted' it a little. No, not with icing, but with a lil sprinkling of icing sugar mixed with sugarless sugar (diet baking sugar for those in the dark). I call it my Jack Frost cake and the result was simple and stunning and I suggest you keep this as a go to decorating idea for those days when time is of the essence.

New and improved chocolate ganache:

200 grams dark chocolate

100 ml double cream or thick cream

1 tablespoon unsalted butter (you can add more if you want more gloss, but I find 1 tablespoon works fine)

Method:

Chop up the chocolate into tiny pieces or flakes if possible and place in a glass bowl (heat proof bowl). Heat the cream on a saucepan till it comes to boiling point and pour over the chocolate flakes. Drop in the butter on the mixture and leave on the counter top covered for 3 minutes. DO NOT stir it even though the cream at this stage will just about cover the chocolate, not looking liquidy enough. After 2 to 3 minutes the chocolate will still look solid but would have melted. Gently shake the bowl so that the cream covers the chocolate and you can see swirls of brown over the cream. Now, take a silicon spatula and give it a good mix till the butter, cream and chocolate have combined to form this glossy, clear chocolate thick syrup. If you find some lumps in the ganache, heat the bowl in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time and stir till it has all dissolved. Leave to cool for a while and use. I simply poured the mixture over the cake and guided it over, it till it gently slipped onto the sides. Pour some icing sugar or fine sugarless sugar onto a strainer and gently dust over the cake to get this lovely snowed on effect. Viola, you have a pretty cake in a jiffy. It does help to make the ganache before as it sets well and stays for long when refrigerated. When you want to use it, just bring it to room temperature, heat it in the microwave for 10 seconds till it is pourable and use.

Just drool

Choco ganache cake with edible glitter

A few weeks ago, I got my first 'official' cake order and I was over the moon. Chalked up the cakes and planned the design and set out with such enthusiasm that it got the better of me. Cut short to eight hours of non stop baking, piping, cutting and what not and lil me is knocked out puking and almost fainting. Lesson learned: Don't skip meals in enthusiasm, nivi ain't superwoman :p
     I was mighty pleased with the result and i'm surprised I took this long to post it. Recipes were gonna follow suit, but I'm listening to my good friend who said 'Don't share these recipes, just put up pics'. So I'm just gonna make you guys drool and keep the recipes on hold this time. If you guys want the recipes, gimme a shout out and I shall oblige :)

Layered choco cake with a peppermint cream filling