Category: CUPCAKES/MUFFINS

Petite Whole Wheat Plum Cakes … getting stoned this summer

“What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?”
Logan Pearsall Smith

Petite Whole Wheat Plum Cakes

Petite Whole Wheat Plum Cakes … some desserts are so homey and comforting that they hit the right spot. These little cakes fell straight into that category. Simple, earthy, flavourful and above all whole grain. Nothing spectacular to look at, so I didn’t take many photographs. I didn’t have the time too. A few clicks and we all dived in!

Dorie Greenspans Baking With Julia that sweet Suma gifted me is a book I often leaf through. For inspiration, for entertainment, for sheer reading pleasure, the book works every time. There were some oven roasted plum cakes that have inspired mine.

It isn’t easy to hide my love for stone fruits every summer. Peaches, plums, mangoes, cherries … they charm, then entice, they leap off the shelves at the bazaar, they beg me to take them home. We chomp a few, then toss plenty into smoothies. Summer also means fro yo to tease our palettes, and fruit salads that play with our senses. All light & refreshing!!

Abundance of fresh seasonal produce makes summer more than worthwhile. So much so that just turning the oven on in this blistering heat to see stone fruit juices bubble over is a delight. A virtual treat. I often wait with bated breath for ‘the moment’. The juices ooze over and run down the sides. Baking nirvana. Small things, immense pleasure!

These petite whole wheat plum cakes turned out to be hidden gems. Quite unassuming in appearance, yet packed with flavour and texture, the lad immediately asked if he could have another!

A drizzle of low-fat unsweetened cream added to the deliciousness. Alternatively, you could always try some vanilla ice cream or custard on the side. 

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Recipe: Petite Whole Wheat Plum Cakes 

Summary: Petite Whole Wheat Plum Cakes … some desserts are so homey and comforting that they hit the right spot. These little cakes fell straight into that category. Simple, earthy, flavourful and above all whole grain. Nothing spectacular to look at yet very delicious! Adapted from Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 100g butter, room temperature,
  • 100g brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 4-5 drops almond extract
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 50g almond meal
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 50ml buttermilk
  • 5-6 plums, halved
  • Low fat cream or ice cream to serve

Method: 

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C. Lightly grease  10-12 individual muffin tins, or ramekins.
  2. Beat butter and brown sugar until light and mousse like.
  3. Add eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract and beat again.
  4. On low-speed add both flours and baking soda and mix.
  5. Fold in the buttermilk.
  6. Divide batter between prepared tins. Top each with half a pitted plum, cut side up.
  7. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 190C for about 35 minutes / until done.
  8. Leave to cool in tins.
  9. Loosen edges with a butter knife and turn out on serving platter. Serve with a drizzle of low at cream or vanilla ice cream.

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Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes … Daring Bakers serve up royally delicious cakes!

“Cake is happiness! If you know the way of the cake, you know the way of happiness! If you have a cake in front of you, you should not look any further for joy!”
C. JoyBell C.

Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes … the best BEST cake we’ve eaten of late. Perfect balance of flavours, moist, flavourful, addictive good, non chocolate … PERFECT! It’s been a while since I enjoyed a Daring Bakers challenge so immensely. Everything was good about it. I have to admit that I veered off the basic recipe … but need to blame the treacherous North Indian summer for that!!

Come May and I got a very excited call from local DB Ruchira. “Guess what the challenge is? A Princess Cake! Wheee… I love it!” I was equally thrilled. A Princess cake is junior teens most favourite cake of all time. Years ago I did a recipe testing for Helene of Tartlette which included a Bavarian cream. That was a princess cake of sorts.

To date, it’s been the best ever cake for the kidlet. He repeatedly tells me how good ‘that Bavarian cream‘ was! Talk about love for food and good taste. Everything Helene does has the midas touch. The months challenge was partly inspired by her recipe.

Korena of Korena in the Kitchen was our May Daring Bakers’ host and she delighted us with this beautiful Swedish Prinsesstårta!

A little research revealed that the original recipe was created in the 1930s by a Swedish home economics teacher named Jenny Åkerström, who taught the three Swedish princesses of the time. She published a series of four cookbooks called “The Princess Cookbooks” and in one of the editions, there was a recipe for “Grön Tårta” (green cake). One story is that this later became known as “princess cake” (prinsesstårta) because the three princesses are said to have loved it so much. 

Another story is that Ms. Åkerström actually created three very elaborate “princess cake” recipes – a different one for each princess – and that the current version is a simplified combination of all three. That explains the princess connection, but the reason for the cake being green still seems to be a mystery. 

I got to the challenge very very late. It was the 25th already. And the weather? Hot as hot can be, threatening to get worse by the minute! It was 46C at 6pm day before. Fry the eggs on the sidewalk hot, maybe bake the poor princess there too! Plans for a Princess cake were rapidly demolished. Yet I am very nostalgic about the Daring Bakers, a journey that has been long and fruitful. I have been with them for 5 years maybe, and it’s the only baking group I have continued with. I owe them most of what I’ve learnt. The journeys been full of ultimate highs, and a few heartbreaks too; entirely memorable.

Besides, the challenge this month was not just one of being a ‘baker‘. Bakers as you know double up quite often as patisserie chefs too. A finger in every pie, and so on! It was a test of skills at many different levels. I had to make something. That came by way of these sweet Princess Cupcakes that I’ve had bookmarked for years! {I baked the cupcakes the previous evening and completed them at the crack of dawn. You can find a few grainy pictures taken in a hurry to guide you through}

The components are quite the same. There is cake, pastry cream, whipped cream, jam and marzipan. A petite version in this blistering heat which hitting 48C is much easier to handle.  I had some balsamic cherries from the two ingredient dark chocolate mousse. Cherries make life a lot more worthwhile. 

The Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes turned out excellent. The cupcakes are layered about the same way as you would a Swedish Prinsesstårta. In 20 minutes, spared of a power cut, I was past stage one. Cupcakes done! While they baked, the pastry cream was stirred in the Thermomix. 7 minutes to perfect pastry cream!

I made the pastry cream a little thicker as it’s so hot. I didn’t get to the marzipan though I have made it several times in the past. It was far too hot to attempt marzipan from scratch. A special gift from my dear friend and Daring Baker Finla came to my rescue. She sent me marzipan with a truckload of stuff a few months ago. I use it very sparingly and was thrilled to have some on hand for the princess cupcakes.

This was the best part! Such fun dressing the little ones up. I did the flowers and leaves out of trimmings and it reminded me of my first and only fondant cake, the Tea Rose Fondant Cake, I made a while ago. The cupcakes were patched together on fast track as everything threatened to melt. The end result isn’t as neat as I would have liked it to be, but the marzipan was going too soft.

Thank you Korena was such a beautiful and eye opening challenge. I intend to make the original Swedish Prinsesstårta once the weather gets cooler.  Thank you as always Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!! 

 

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Recipe: Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes 

Summary: Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes… the best BEST cake we’ve eaten of late. Perfect balance of flavours, moist, flavourful, addictive good, non chocolate … PERFECT! Recipe adapted from The Cookie Shop. Makes 5 cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:

  • Vanilla Cupcakes {can be made up to 2 days ahead}
  • 100g all purpose flour
  • 85g sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 50g – room temp. and cut in pieces
  • 1 egg
  • 80g milk
  • 1/2 vanilla bean
  • Pastry Cream {can be made 1 day ahead. Only less than half quantity needed}
  • 200ml low fat/single cream
  • 50ml milk
  • 1 egg
  • 50g sugar
  • 12g cornstarch
  • 1/2 vanilla bean
  • 20g butter
  • Filling
  • 1/2  recipe pastry cream
  • 200ml low fat cream chilled
  • 1-2 tsp sugar
  • Rum syrup
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 teaspoon rum
  • For assembling
  • 5 vanilla cupcakes
  • 1/2 cup pastry cream
  • sugar syrup
  • low fat cream, chilled
  • 1/2 cup balsamic cherries {1/2 portion chopped fine}
  • 300g marzipan approx
  • food coloring
  • confectioners sugar

Method: 

  1. Vanilla cupcakes
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line 5 cups of a muffin pan, or 5 individual muffin tins with paper liners.
  3. Place milk, egg and 1/2 scraped vanilla bean in a small bowl. Whisk to mix with fork.
  4. Place flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in bowl of electric mixer and pulse to mix.
  5. Add the butter pieces to the flour mixture and process briefly until it resembles coarse meal {the larger pieces should be the size of peas}.
  6. With the processor on medium speed, add the milk mixture in three additions, and beat only until incorporated.
  7. Distribute the batter evenly in the prepared tins.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the cupcakes.
  8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before proceeding with the assembling.
  9. Pastry cream
  10. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat milk and cream just until it simmers.

  11. In a small bowl, whisk together egg and sugar until light and fluffy. Add cornstarch and continue whisking until smooth.

  12. Slowly pour the hot milk/cream mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk until completely smooth and free of lumps. Return the mixture to the saucepan, and place over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly, and cook for another 2 minutes, or until it thickens. Remove from heat and add the butter, whisking well to incorporate.

  13. Thermomix : Place all ingredients in bowl of TM. Pulse at speed 6 to mix for 10 seconds. Then cook at speed 4, 90 C for 9 minutes.

  14. Remove the pastry cream to a bowl. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until ready to use.
  15. Syrup
  16. Place water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the rum if using. Let cool completely before using or refrigerating.
  17. Marzipan
  18. Divide the marzipan into 5 portions.
  19. Mix the marzipan with the 4 different coloring and knead until the color is uniform. Leave one natural off-white. If it gets sticky, sprinkle a little confectioner’s sugar. Wrap with plastic.
  20. Assembling
  21. Cut off the domed tops of the cupcakes, and peel off thee liners.
  22. Invert cakes and cut into 3 layers.
  23. Whisk the cream and sugar until soft peaks form.
  24. Brush the layers with sugar syrup.
  25. Over removable bottoms of tartlet tins, start assembling the cupcake layers.
  26. first, a very thin layer of chopped balsamic cherries {or jam/preserve}
  27. over the jam, a teaspoon whipped cream;
  28. cake + syrup;
  29. a teaspoon of pastry cream;
  30. last layer of cake + syrup;
  31. Place a few cherries on top to help build the ‘dome’ if you like.
  32. Whip the remaining cream with the remaining pastry cream.
  33. Cover the whole cupcake with whipped pastry cream, trying to make the rounder the top you can. Refrigerate while you complete the next.
  34. Over a working surface, sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar, roll out the marzipan.
  35. Put the rolled out marzipan over the cake making sure to cover the entire cake and cardboard. When finished, some marzipan should drape onto the work surface all around the cupcake. There will be folds on the sides. To remove them lift the outside edge of the marzipan with a hand on either side of a fold and, without tearing or stretching, gently pull the marzipan out and down until the fold disappears. {It was too hot for me to attempt this}. Trim any extra marzipan and reserve for flowers etc.
  36. Stamp out flowers, leaves and stems from the trimmed marzipan and place on cupcakes.
  37. Sift a little confectioner’s sugar over the cakes and transfer to the serving dishes or cake stand.
  38. Note: These are best eaten the same day they are assembled.

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Lime Marzipan Mini Bundt Cakes … fresh and exciting ‘one bowl cakes’ for summer!

“Cake is happiness! If you know the way of the cake, you know the way of happiness! If you have a cake in front of you, you should not look any further for joy!”
C. JoyBell C.

Lime Marzipan Mini Bundt Cakes … charming little tea cakes and a nice departure from my recent adventures with bittersweet chocolate. These little babies came together thanks to all the yummy food gifts I get ever so often. I am eternally grateful for them, they offer a constant source of inspiration.

Finla sent me some marzipan when Haan was visiting India a while ago. She sent me sacks full of stuff actually. So much that I think of her every time I bake because there is always a connect at the baking level. I was also at the receiving end of loads of other baking ingredients that another visiting friend from the UK brought for me.

It’s a touching feeling, nice to be at the receiving end I mean. Growing up, being at ‘that‘ end wasn’t always nice. Now it’s all good! For the baker in me, it can’t get better than this.

Summer has arrived in North India with a vengeance. Not yet into May and we are already hitting the 40C mark. The promise of stone fruit, summer berries, litchis, mangoes and melons lures me, but there’s work to do. I need to get the perishables into the fridge. Can’t leave even chocolate out as ‘room temperature‘ is another story!

 Everything melts … E V E R Y T H I N G! Even poor Coco looks like she will melt, eyes and all! 

So as I sat settling stuff into my ‘baking fridge,‘ I found many yummy ingredients. So rather than settling stuff, I settled down to bake something I had bookmarked – A Lemon Marzipan Cake. It would need to go the lime way though, as we are not a ‘lemon country‘.

My penchant for mini servings and petite cakes cannot be understated. I reached out for my sweet little mini bundt cake tin that I had bought from Old Delhi in 2009. For some reason I didn’t use it until 2 weeks ago. That was the first time {post yet to see light of day} but I was smitten! A mini bundt tray is a brilliant idea.

I loved the Lime Marzipan Mini Bundt Cakes.  The batter gave me a bakers dozen – 12 mini bundts and one a little bigger! The texture of the batter was interesting; almost thick and sticky. Must have been the golden syrup doing something in there. The consistency was somewhere in between a cake batter and a cookie batter! It did get me a little unsure but then again, it was ready to bake!

This is my first time using marzipan in a cake. It added delicious new dimensions to these petite cakes. The lime and marzipan paired beautifully, the glaze adding a nice touch to them. I like mini bundts because you have the choice of adding a teeny helping of fresh fruit, or a dessert sauce, or whipped cream, maybe even preserves. For food on the go, a picnic or snack box, they are good to go as is!

It’s always fun when the kids get back in from school. The first question always is – what did you do {as in make in food terms} today. All roads lead to the kitchen! From sudden peace and quiet, it’s always a burst of activity, dog happier than ever that the kids are finally home!

So I served them mini bundts with fresh fruit, strawberries and mulberries, and strawberry & mulberry smoothies on the side! Colourful, pretty and fun, I was glad I made these little bundts! Simple, ONE BOWL {yes indeed} and fuss free, it’s a great recipe to have on hand.

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Recipe: Lime Marzipan Mini Bundt Cakes 

Summary: Lime Marzipan Mini Bundt Cakes … charming little cakes that seem perfect for a tea table, picnic, snack box or as a gift. Simple one bowl petite cakes that are fresh and exciting. A Tate & Lyle recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 125g golden marzipan
  • 250g plain flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 115g soft butter
  • 115g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Caster Sugar {I used 100g}
  • 75g Lyle’s Golden Syrup
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 2 large lime {or 1 large lemon}, grated zest
  • Icing:
  • 1 tbsp lime juice {lemon juice}
  • 75g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Icing Sugar

Method:

  1.  Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 12 mold mini bundt tray or line a 900g/2lb loaf tin.
  2. Cut the marzipan into small pieces and toss in a teaspoon of the flour. {It’s easier to chop marzipan when it’s chilled}
  3. Sift the remaining flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add the butter, Tate & Lyle Fairtrade sugar, Lyle’s golden syrup, eggs, milk and lemon zest and beat together until well mixed and smooth. Fold in the marzipan bits gently.
  4. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the surface. Place in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes {or 40-45 minutes for the loaf tin} or until well risen and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
  5. Mix the lime juice and icing sugar together and stir until smooth, when the cake is cool drizzle over the top and leave to set.
  6. Note: Serve with fresh seasonal fruit if you like.

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Almond Chocolate Chip Cupcakes … and getting featured on Femina

“A good cupcake and a good life have many of the same ingredients – good timing, sugar, and spice.”
Evelyn Beilenson

Almond Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, my current favourites! A recent visit to the cupcake factory led me to hop back onto the cupcake trail after quite a long hiatus. Much to the teens delight, these little babies are beginning to show up more frequently now … dressed in butter cream and often  ‘undressed‘ too!Either way, they go like hot cakes. There is something endearing about a freshly baked cupcake! Of course, given the choice, the call is always for the ones lavished with butter cream. For school snack boxes though, the plain ones work great as it’s still quite warm here in North India.So when one of India’s most popular magazines Femina {first published in 1959} asked to interview me, with a photo shoot at home to follow, I wanted to bake something ‘nice‘, something original and something that was ‘me‘!

Femina is a magazine, published fortnightly in India. It is owned by Worldwide Media, a 50:50 joint venture between BBC Worldwide and The Times Group. It is primarily a women’s magazine and features articles on relationships, beauty and fashion,travels,women fight back, cuisine, and health and fitness. It also features articles on celebrities and cultural facets of Indian women.

The Almond Chocolate Chip Cupcakes were what I baked! A natural choice because these are my current ‘cupcakes on the go‘, healthy, requested quite often, good with frosting and good even without. You can play around with the pairings as you like. Just plain almond meal is nice and carries frosting well. Roasted chopped almonds would pair well with a chocolate ganache, or maybe hazelnuts with a Nutella frosting {YUM}. I like the texture that almond meal adds. It’s a nice feeling to throw whole almonds into your processor with a little sugar and soon have ‘healthy nut meal’. I continue to use ‘raw sugar‘ in my baking and that has worked well so far. It’s marginally better than processed sugar. The good thing is that you don’t need to grind it as it has a nice, fine grain. I’ve even begun using it in butter cream instead of icing sugar. Works a charm, and is cheaper too!!The Borgonovo Bottle Indro from Urban Dazzle has my home made pure vanilla extract that is now ready. The polka dot cupcake liners are ones that my sweet friend Bina sent me from the US quite a while ago. I use them very sparingly Bina because I really like them, and they remind me of you.  When I’m in a more rustic frame of mind, I like to line the muffin tray with parchment paper squares. It gives them a rough, earthy look!

[print_this]Recipe: Almond Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Summary: ‘Cupcakes on the go‘, healthy, requested quite often, good with frosting and good even without. The almond meal adds interesting texture and taste to them. Makes 12

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Cupcakes
  • 180g plain flour
  • 85g whole almonds
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 150g raw sugar
  • 100g butter
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1/2 vanilla bean
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
  • 220ml 2% fat milk
  • 100g dark chocolate chips
  • Flaked almonds, optional
  • Buttercream
  • 100g unsalted butter, room temperature {not too soft}
  • 50ml low fat cream, chilled
  • 75-100g raw sugar {to taste}

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 12 cup muffin tray with liners.
  2. Run the whole almonds in the processor with 30gm raw sugar in short spurts until you end up with a fine meal. Don’t over process else you might have almond paste! {Thermomix Speed 10, 10 seconds, repeat as required}
  3. Put in the flour, baking powder and salt and process briefly to mix. {Thermomix Speed 10, 20 seconds}
  4. Beat the butter and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla bean and vanilla extract and beat again for 30 seconds. {Thermomix Speed 4, butterfly attachment, 4 minutes for butter, and 2 minutes with egg. Remove butterfly.}
  5. Alternatively add the flour/almond meal mix with milk until just uniformly mixed. Donot over mix. {Thermomix: Add the milk and flour/almond meal mix and mix on reverse speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides once or twice}. Fold in the chocolate chips, and sprinkle over with flaked almonds if desired.
  6. Divide between liners and bake for 20 minutes/until risen and golden brown. Cool completely before frosting.
  7. Buttercream frosting
  8. Beat all ingredients until smooth and firm. taste and adjust sugar if required. {I keep the butter on the cooler side, almost firm, as it is still warm-ish here
  9. Place into a piping fat fitted with a star nozzle and pipe onto cupcakes.

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Petite Iced Cakes … Coffee Cream, Raspberry Cream & Chocolate Cream

“I loved their home. Everything smelled older, worn but safe; the food aroma had baked itself into the furniture.”
Susan Strasberg

Petite Iced Cakes for an event I enjoyed creating for. I had a blast making these, experimenting with different flavours and layering mini cakes.  Had I the time, I would have made a second batch because the first one turned out to be such fun! The event? An Interflora challenge for the baking blogger community to create a delicious treat for ‘Grandparents’ Day Baking Challenge’ on Sunday 7th October.It’s got a nice feel to it . All you need to do is bake a recipe that’s been handed down to you from generation to generation, or something you have fond memories of baking with your grandma in the kitchen or simply a delicious sweet treat to celebrate the occasion. Bake it, blog about it and mail a link to these good florists in London who are hosting the challenge. A public vote will decide the winner!I have a confession to make. My Grandma never baked, an oven in a remote Indian house unheard of at the time. She cooked a LOT, my paternal grandma that is. I still remember her sitting all hunched up in a brick and stone kitchen, cooking over a low wood fire, blowing air through an iron pipe when the flame needed some help! The aromas from that almost extinct Indian kitchen still dance in my head, and come alive each time I smell a wood fire oven!So much for connect and food memories. She even had a dark room where she stored HUGE jars of Indian pickles and preserves, the room kept locked to keep pesky kids from sticking their fingers in. We visited once every year as my father was in the Air Force and we were always posted far away. The little dark room was always open for us, much to the other kids chagrin!Thankfully my mother did bake ‘some’, in the sense that she baked an annual Christmas Fruit Cake {with garam masala} that we waited for eagerly every December, the high point of our curious little lives. The funny thing is that it always got so late that in many ways it became a New Years Fruit Cake! I’ve blogged about her Garam Masala Chritmas Cake  and am thankful the kids can remember her as baking something, anything! She used to bake a mean roast once upon a time … about 30 years ago!

So here we go … I have created little somethings to help spread the awareness about Grandparents day, a day to recognise the contribution that the older generation gave to their families and wider society. These little iced cakes may not look perfect but they hold something for everyone! There’s Coffee Cream {my personal favourite}, there’s Chocolate Cream that everyone loves, and there’s Raspberry Cream, reminiscent of the favourite British Victoria sandwich cake.Once again ingredients laid out, the mind began experimenting. I had a genoise sponge in mind, using melted butter in the batter. Thoughts of the Del Monte contest on IndiBlogger made me reach out for Del Monte Olive Oil instead! The sponge came out moist and pillowy soft! The petite iced cakes are on their way to WorldFoody as there is some raspberry fruit filling from Del Monte in one of them too.

When I started off I had just  a layered coffee cream cake in mind. As I mixed the batter, my mind went towards many little cakes, and then the possibilities exploded in my mind. I was a baker in a hurry! I narrowed down to Coffee Cream, Raspberry Cream and Peaches ‘n’ Cream.  Then ‘normal life happened’. While one terrible teen demanded to be dropped to a friends place, the other had to be picked up, some more deadlines had to be met … blah blah blah! The peaches lived happily ever after in their tin, and I made a Chocolate Cream cake instead as I had a small portion of chocolate pastry cream in the fridge. So come, put your best baking skills forward and bake something sweet to celebrate Grandparents Day … a desert that might be a family speciality, a dessert that might be just the thing to bring a smile to their face, or one that you can surprise them with. When I looked at these little almost crooked cakes,  I heard the junior teens voice deep in my head, ” Why does Nana always keep laughing so loudly at everything, I mean EVERYTHING?”

To enter the competition simply email your photos, recipe and a link to your blog article to blog@interflora.co.uk by Friday 21st September.The winner will receive a luxury arrangement of flowers of their choice plus a Grandparents’ Day Gift Basket which will be delivered to your chosen recipient in time for Grandparents’ Day. 5 runners up will also receive a Grandparents’ Day Gift Basket for their nominated grandparent.

[print_this]Recipe: Petite Iced Cakes

Summary: Dainty little iced cakes lavished with a vanilla buttercream. Each good to serve four, they are made with different flavours – coffee, chocolate & raspberry. The flavour possibilities are endless … and the fun, infinite!

Prep Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1hour 30 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Sponge
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 60g {1/2 cup} all purpose flour
  • 110g {1/2 cup} raw sugar {or Castor}
  • 20g {1/4 cup} almond meal
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 10gm / 2 tsp Del Monte Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1.5tsp 2% fat mil
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder {or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract}
  • Classic Vanilla Buttercream
  • 100gm unsalted butter, not too soft
  • 40ml low fat cream {Amul}, chilled
  • 150gm icing sugar {it was a little oversweet for me, but fine with the kids}
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 vanilla bean scraped
  • Flavourings
  • 1 tsp coffee for the coffee cake
  • Dark chocolate ganache, chocolate chips
  • Del Monte Raspberry Fruit Filling

Method:

  1. Sponge
  2. Line the bottoms and sides of three small 4″ baking tins. Preheat oven to 180C.
  3. Sift the flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt together. Reserve.
  4. Mix the olive oil and milk in a small bowl Reserve.
  5. Beat the eggs and sugar over simmering water on high speed for about 10 minutes until the mixtures becomes thick and mousse like, tripling in quantity {Thermomix, Speed 4, Butterfly insert, 37C, 10 minutes or more}
  6. Take off water and continue beating for 3-4 minutes until it cools down a bit. {Thermomix, Speed 4, Butterfly insert, 3-4 minutes}
  7. Gently fold in the flour mixture in 3-4 goes. {Thermomix, Reverse Speed 2}, followed by the olive oil and milk mixture. Blend in gently but uniformly, divide batter between tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until the sponge springs back when touched lightly, ora tester comes out clean.
  8. Cool on racks for 5 minutes, remove from tins and cool completely.
  9. Classic Vanilla Buttercream
  10. Beat the ingredients together until smooth and light. Taste and adjust sugar if required.
  11. Assembling
  12. Reserve a little buttercream for piping on top if desired.
  13. Cut the little cakes horizontally into 2-3 layers each. Sandwich one with the buttercream, add a few chocolate chips within if desired, and top with a chocolate ganache. Pipe some plain buttercream if desired.
  14. Sandwich the second with some buttercream and raspberry fruit filling, topping that cake with some buttercream and a dollop of filling.
  15. Whi the remaining buttercream with 1 tsp of coffee and sandwich and frost the little cake with it. Pipe some plain vanilla rosettes if desired and add a chocolate lace border if you have the time and/or inclination!
  16. Chill until ready to serve.
  17. ENJOY

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Almond Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

“When you look at a cupcake, you’ve got to smile.”
Anne Byrn

I have to confess that I am not was never a cupcake person even though I love the eternal charm of these little baby cakes, and how immensely creative you can get with them.  I fell in love with them when Nadia invited me for the soft launch of her little baby in Gurgoan, The Cupcake Factory. Came back INSPIRED, dreaming of whites and pinks, feeling strangely happy!  Nadia’s passion shone ; she inspired me to make Almond Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream.But first about this enterprising young lady, hugely talented, very creative and so fortunate to have realized her dream. Nadia grew up in Kuwait, went on being a musician in Hollywood and then came right across seven seas to India and set up a cupcake shop here … amazing!! There are plenty of bakeries here, patesseries of every kind … but this was the first dedicated cupcake stop that I heard of locally. This young lady always loved to bake and somewhere along the way her dream was born. She has her own ‘factory’ or open kitchen on the side where fresh cupcakes are baked in house, the recipes largely developed by her and the flavours that set the heart a-flutter!Yesteryear cupcake memories tumbled right back in… Somewhere along the way the kids grew up and I stopped baking cupcakes. From a batch or two a week to maybe a batch in two months, I figure I became lazy! I had forgotten the charm of these precious little cakes…A well set up shop, aesthetically designed, beautiful pinks, a state-of-the art attached kitchen, trained chefs from Kuwait, fresh flavours that had something on offer for everyone, it’s a shop that is a must visit for the ambiance, for the variety, for the freshness of flavours and for the ‘whimsical’ appeal! Cute little girls in pinks tripping along happily, tiny hands clutching cupcakes, pleading voices begging for more! Yes, the charm was alive. Offered the wide choice, I opted for espresso {what else???}. One bite later, I succumbed to cupcake magic! Fabulous beautiful flavours, light tender crumb, the sweetness just right and the butter cream silky smooth. Perfect! I savoured the cupcake to the last crumb, to the last bit of frosting! I came back home and the teens {big kids???} searched my bag for cupcakes, so I put my plans to work early the next morning and made these, frosting and all! Was pretty chuffed with myself as they came out quite nice. {Thank you Jamie; I love the little hearts!}. Slightly sweet for Mr PAB because of the buttercream but polished off by the teens… the cupcake magic lives on!It was a pleasure to visit The Cupcake Factory. If you live in the vicinity, I urge you to stop by ASAP. Those honest to goodness tender beautiful bites will have you hooked.
The CUPnCAKE Factory
Ninex Citymart (next to Fortune Hotel)
Sohna Road, Gurgaon.

… and if you can’t, there are always these delicious ones you can bake!

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Recipe: Almond Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Summary: Almond and brown sugar cupcakes with a light, tender crumb topped with a silky salted caramel buttercream

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Almond Cupcakes
  • 90g plain flour
  • 55g whole almonds
  • pinch salt
  • 1scant tsp baking powder
  • 100g brown sugar
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 1 egg
  • 110ml 2% milk
  • 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4tsp almond essence
  • Salted Caramel Buttercream
  • 15g sugar
  • 15ml water
  • 30ml low fat cream
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 1/4tsp sea salt
  • 85g icing sugar

Method:

  1. Almond Cupcakes
  2. Preheat the oven to 190C. Line a 12 mold cupcake tin with 8 liners {fill the remaining 4 with a 1/8 cup water each aid even heat distribution while baking}
  3. Process the plain flour, whole almonds, 75g brown sugar {3/4 quantity}, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a processor until ground fine. Reserve.
  4. Beat the butter with the remaining 25g sugar until pale. Add the egg and both extracts and beat again.
  5. Add the flour mix in 3 lots alternating with the milk until smooth.
  6. Divide between the 8 cupcake liners and bake for 20-25  minutes until light golden and a tester comes out clean.
  7. Cool completely on rack.
  8. Salted Caramel Buttercream
  9. While the cupcakes are baking, heat the sugar and water in a heavy bottom saucepan,undisturbed, until the colour turns light golden brown.
  10. Add the salt and cream and whisk rapidly with a balloon whisk until it all comes together into a salted caramel. {Please take care as the mixture will splutter in the beginning and will be really hot}.
  11. Let it cool completely, about 30 minutes.
  12. Whip the butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add the salted caramel and continue to whisk until smooth.
  13. Place into a piping bag and frost the cupcakes.

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