I tried...

So I crushed mint leaves with some powdered sugar in the pestle & mortar to get the flavours out...inspiration from an Alice Medrich recipe where the sugar & citrus zest are rubbed together to enhance the flavours.

Made a thick chocolate ganache & stirred in the crushed mint.

Went a step further, crushed some more mint & flavoured the buttercream to top the little devils with!

Have been making chocolate cupcakes with cocoa ever since I can remember. Will sound strange, but it wasn't until 2 years back that we began getting any kind of baking chocolate here! The supply is still very limited & often you will find the slabs all gone. People like me habitually buy them in bars of 1 kg & use them in a miserly fashion. Chocolate chips are unheard of in most shops!!! Hmmmmmmmmm...

Powdered sugar - 1 tsp

• Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Stir in the cream & mint. It should all come together. Divide it into 12 equal portions & keep aside as filling.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 12 muffin tray. I made 12 mini muffins in addition too from the batter that got left over.
• Sift the flour + cocoa + baking powder + baking soda + salt. Keep aside.
• Cream the butter & sugar till light & fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one, followed by the vanilla.
• On low speed, beat in the flour mix in 4 goes. Finally on low speed, gradually beat in the boiling water.
• Put a tbsp of batter into each muffin case & top with mint ganache. Put in batter over this & fill it up to 2/3 rd's full.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes till done.
• Cool on racks completely.
• Buttercream: Beat 3 tbsps of butter with crushed mint + 1 1/2 tbsps of cream. Add in enough powdered sugar to get piping consistency.
• Ice as desired with buttercream. Garnish with fresh mint leaves. Chill well & serve.

I had fun icing these beauties & loved the colours...deep chocolate & fresh, lively green. The buttercream was pretty too, speckled with bits of mint; tasted fresh & exciting too. The lily in the background is one from my garden & is my current passion.

Check it out...it went from bud to bloom in a matter of 2 hours!

Of course the devil was dancing in the mind with a festive theme at MASTER BAKERS' for March being announced...Easter candy. ! The concept of Master Bakers is Nikki's brainchild.

It's sweet & simple. She picks the ingredient & you can bake whatever your heart desires as long as it has the ingredient! Can it get any simpler? I missed cinnamon last month, & made sure I got there in time this month. With candy as this month's theme, Nikki's says..."the Easter bunny brings the best candy. Halloween is just mini candy, valentines day you get conversation hearts and read hots, but Easter is the mother load of great candy. From the beloved Peeps to jelly beans and Cadbury Creme eggs, Easter just has the best candy."

I grabbed a handful of Hersheys' solid chocolate eggs & jelly beans & hid them...just in case they did the disappearing act by the time my baking was underway.

Easter Chocolate Cupcakes...

I also did some sweet devil cupcakes topped with crystallized flowers, which reflect my fascination for nature.

It breaks my heart to see the end of winter flowers here as the sun gets hotter & hotter . It was over 37 degrees C here today! PHEW!! Every year I pick the last remaining blossoms & press them for cards & craft work etc. This year I tried something different; in addition to pressing flowers...I crystallised a few! They turned out beautiful & crisp & I believe they can be stored for a year in a dry place. How lovely is that! No mean task crystallising them, but fun nevertheless! Actually what you have to do is to paint the flowers with egg white beaten with a tiny bit of water, sprinkle Castor sugar all over them, & then leave them in a dry warm place to dry. Put them to dry on a tray lined with butter paper or parchment. I left them in the car which was in the drive...the almost here summer heat took care of the moisture good & proper. I had beautifully crystallised flowers by evening!

PANSY ... A beautiful fairy faced flower

Devil's Food Cupcakes as adapted from Stephanie's blog...

Ingredients:
Butter - 1/2 cup
Cocoa - 1/2 cup
Dark chocolate - 50 gms (2 oz)
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract or strong coffee - 1 tsp
Flour - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sour cream - 1/2 cup; or plain yogurt, or buttermilk
Buttercream / Ganache for icing
Candy / crystallised flowers etc

• In a double boiler melt the chocolate, butter, and cocoa together. I did it in the microwave)
• When everything's melted, stir until smooth, then remove the bowl and let it cool until the chocolate mixture is just barely warm.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 and line a 12-cup muffin pan with those cute little paper liners.
• Sift the dry ingredients.
• Beat the eggs + sugar+ and vanilla together in a big bowl,
• When the chocolate's cooled off, scrape it all out with the rubber spatula into the eggs and beat together.
• Add about half the flour mix, stir, add sour cream, stir, then add rest of the flour and mix gently again.
• Scoop your lovely, gloopy dark-choc batter evenly into the muffin cups.
• Bake 20 minutes, or just until a cake tester comes out clean from the center of the cupcakes. Don't overbake! Let cool on a rack, & ice only when they're completely cool.
• I used a buttercream icing for a few & drizzled a ganache on the rest. Then topped them with candy or crystallised flowers.

One of my favourite lines since I was a kid...

'Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the flowers iz?'

Eggs on a roll...the daughter's got the eggs ready; all filled with jellybeans & chocolate eggs!

Easter eggs are specially decorated eggs given to celebrate the Easter holiday or springtime. The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jellybeans. These eggs are often hidden, by the Easter Bunny, for children to find on Easter morning.

Have an eggciting Easter this Sunday!

Frosted Strawberry Orange Chocolate-chips Cupcakes...merging flavours!

I was making mini vanilla cupcakes for a friend's daughters' birthday the other day,& had some batter leftover. With Arfi's Cupcake Spectacular 2008 on my mind, I scrabbled around in the fridge looking for something different I could put together...other than a regular vanilla muffin. AHA...found 4 strawberries which were crying out to be used! Further exploration revealed some oranges too, so I set to work. These cupcakes were flavoured beautifully & made luscious little bites...good enough for dessert too; can't go wrong with strawberry, orange & chocolate! Topped them off with a strawberry buttercream & a chocolate ganache!

A cupcake (the common US term) or fairy cake (the common British term) is a small cake designed to serve one person, usually made in a small paper cup container. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations, such as sprinkles, are defining characteristics of modern cupcakes.
Cupcakes are often served during a celebration, such as children's classroom birthday parties. Additionally they can be served as an accompaniment to afternoon tea.A simple cupcake uses the same ingredients as most other standard cakes - incorporating butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.

Actually I don't make cupcakes that often anymore. I reserve them for birthdays or gifts, & normally make muffins at home because I find them more wholesome, like these 'Banana-Walnut-Chocolate chips' ones that I made this morning. They have some whole wheat flour thrown in too! The recipe is here is you wanna take a look at it.

Back to the CUPCAKE story...While making the vanilla mini cupcakes, the mind was working overtime. I didn't have an after school snack ready that day; necessity being the mother of invention (of hungry kids), the batter couldn't have been leftover at a better time! I believe the cupcakes were finger-licking good...the kids enjoyed them! I used a buttercream frosting I once found on the net. It's known as 'Kittencal's Buttercream Frosting' & is really very good. licking the buttercream off was the kids slurpiest moment!

Ingredients:

Butter - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 1/4 cups
Eggs - 2 large
Flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 2 tsps
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Strawberries - 100 gms /chopped
Strawberry essence - 1 tsp
Zest of 1 orange
Milk - 1 cup
Chocolate-chips - 1/2 cup

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Line a 12 muffin tray (this recipe makes 18 cupcakes)
• Sift the flour + baking powder + salt 3 times. Set aside.
• Cream the butter with sugar, followed by the eggs & strawberry essence.
• Beat in the chopped strawberries & zest.

• Add 1/3 of the flour & mix in on low speed, followed by 1/3 of the milk. Repeat 2 more times.
• Fold in the chocolate chips & pour into cupcake liners filling it 2/3 full.
• Bake for 20 minutes till golden brown...& smelling divine!
• Remove from tray & cool completely on rack.

Ingredients for frosting:

Butter - 6 tbsps (softened)
Cream - 3 tbsps (35% fat; or you may use 18% cream or half and half or full-fat milk, but will not be as creamy)
Icing Sugar - 3 cups
Essence & colours as required ( I used 1 tsp of strawberry essence & a few drops of pink colour)

Method:

• Beat the butter till creamy. Add the cream & icing sugar & whip till you reach the desired consistency. Flavour & colour as required!
• Pipe onto cooled cupcakes & decorate with sprinkles, sliced strawberries, dragees, chocolate leaves, ganache...

Frosted Strawberry Orange Chocolate-chip Cupcakes...

My entry for Cupcake Spectacular 2008 @ HomemadeS!

And while the mind was humming the Beatles number 'Strawberry Fields Forever', Elly's blog event, 'Eat to the Beat' was rocking my mind. Elly @ Elly Says Opa says "I love music as much as I love food, so combining the two for my first try at hosting a blog event was a given. I'm excited to present to you Eat to the Beat--my foray into hosting a blog event. I really hope that many of you will have the chance to participate! For this event, please make and blog about a food or drink that somehow relates to a song, an album, a band, etc."

There you go Elly....my mind is rocking to 'Strawberry Fields Forever' & its a great idea to merge two inseparables...music & food! You ROCK!!! Am looking forward to the next one already!!

'Espresso Comfort'...Coffee & Dark Chocolate

Here is where my two most comforting & favourite flavours meet...in these 'Espresso Chocolate-chip Cupcakes'. Meeta's Monthly Mingle this month calls for 'Comfort Foods' & comes just at the peak of winter, where the winds seem to be getting colder by the day.

Temperatures are at lows of almost 2 degrees C here in Gurgaon, & we are chilled to the bone. There was frost on the cars this morning & the kids were fascinated. I made these warming cupcakes today...just to get the better of the cold & with the MM in mind. They were really heart-warming & comforting straight out of the oven...warm with a hot cuppa coffee. I used a medium roast instant coffee & Ghirardeli dark chocolate chips...flavours right up my street!

With coffee beans sprinkled on top...adding kick to comfort!!

This is a fuss free recipe which results in just good taste & a light crumb. Its an adaptation of the cupcake recipe I use for my vanilla muffins. Simple, straight-forward & ever dependable!

Ingredients:
Flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 1/4 cup
Eggs - 2
Milk - 1 cup
Vanilla Essence / extract - 1 tsp
Instant coffee - 1 tbsp
Dark chocolate chips - 1/2 cup

On their way to the oven...

Method:

• Sift the flour + baking powder + salt together 3 times. Keep aside in a bowl.
• Line a muffin tray.
• Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
• Beat the butter & sugar for a minute.
• Beat in the eggs & vanilla till well incorporated.
• On low speed, beat in the flour & milk alternatively in 3 goes.
• On low speed, beat in the instant coffee for 1/2 a minute.
• Fold in the chocolate chips. Turn into muffin cases, 2/3 full, top with a few more chips & sprinkles if you like, & bake for 10 minutes.
• Add coffee beans on top & continue baking further for 10-15 minutes / until done.
• Remove from muffin tray & cool on racks.
• Delicious warm!

Colour of comfort...

Warming...whichever way you look at 'em!

CHOCOLATE ORANGE CUPCAKES

Festive food for Christmas!

In a span of 2 days I baked over a 100 cupcakes & iced them as well. The first 80 were vanilla cupcakes, the ones for the playschool Christmas party. These last batch I had to do a little different for my own experimen