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!!

Ingredients:

Method:

• Dice the fruit to the desired size, reserving some bits/slices for garnishing.
• Put them together in a serving bowl, add the sugar, zest & chopped basil leaves, & stir through. Taste & adjust sugar if required.
• Leave to macerate in the fridge for at least an hour. Chill well.
• That's just about all you gotta do!
• Put into dessert bowls, garnish with slices of kiwi & strawberries, put in a sprig of basil & you're set!! Serve with a whipped cream if you like (or without for a healthier option).

I've been tagged for a wierd meme by Rachel at Tangerine's Kitchen Hangout, & for a 5 meme by both Ivy at Kopiaste & Amanda at I'm Worthy of Being Loved. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm hopelessly lagging behind. I've decided to club the 2 together because these meme's are giving me very sleepless nights...& wierdly enough, if I don't sleep, how will I dream up my next concoction!!
And that, in other words, is about me & also my first wierd fact...

• If I've been thinking of something all day long, which is quite often, I dream up a 'solution or plan' while sleeping, & will drive myself mad until I execute it the next morning. Did it with the Star Anise Swiss Roll, the Chocolate Strawberry Cake & many more. I always complete what I set out to achieve, come hell or high water, I'll do it!
• I'm known to have a black tongue. It's very wierd but I have started zipping my mouth of late, coz I'm not always popular when I spell the prophecy. My family & friends stand testimony to my sooth-saying...it's uncanny & surprises me at times! No luck with the lottery though!!
• I love to bake, but believe it or not, I'm not fond of munching sweet somethings, & am a very uneggy person!! I rarely eat what I bake. I go by reviews of the eaters!! I'm a through & through coffee, bitterchocolate, savoury & fruit 'n' nut kinda person!
• Me & DH (& now the kids too) can watch the Die Hard series with Bruce Willis a 100 times again & again, & crack our sides laughing. We can also watch the Bourne series any number of times...& the same for Gone With The Wind (Mammy & all).
• I am not a TV person at all. TV for me is just to catch the news (even that's limited thanks to the net) & maybe cricket or soccer matches. I have so much more to do, that sitting makes me feel that I'm missing out on something...
• I have a photographic memory; ask me for something that we stowed away 6 years ago, & I'll just walk in some silly direction & find it.
• This is getting wierder...I am cookbook obsessed. I have a pile of baking books by my bedside, & can go through them time & time again, but only after I'm done with the days' newspapers!
• And finally, I'm not superstitious at all, & will only get convinced if something is logical or scientifically proven. Very exasperating for some, but true!!

Julia Child

Its amazing how simply you can get inspired from foodies on the wonderful web. And most certainly distracted too. Doughnuts of every kind have been doing the rounds & I have scribbled recipes endlessly trying to zero in on the one I was to make this morning. I had one from Susan's, another from Aparna's & a 3rd from Madam Chow...but I got terribly distracted at the bazaar & picked up fresh strawberries instead of yeast! Perils of an overactive mind!

'What's for dessert'?

DH's voice last night rung in my head! Hmmmmm...the kids had been on my case to make a strawberry swiss roll (requested the daughter) & a chocolate one (pleaded the son)! How about both...a 2-in-1...like my friend in babushka land mentioned the other day! So I did a strawberry sponge with strips of differently flavoured creams.

Roll now ready, I thought I would drizzle melted chocolate over it or a ganache...but got inspired by something I had seen on Art You Eat...chocolate art by both Arfi & African Vanielje. So here's what's for dessert tonight...An artistically inspired swiss roll served with a strawberry whipped cream!

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line, grease & dust a swiss roll tin.
• Beat the eggs, essence & sugar till mousse like (almost 10 minutes).
• Lightly fold the flour in 3 goes in figure 8 movements (so as no to release the air bubbles).
• Gently turn into prepared tray & bake for 10-12 minutes till light brown & spongy.
• Turn onto a kitchen cloth sifted with castor sugar. Remove lining & roll the cloth into a firm roll.
• Leave to cool. Unroll only once cooled.
• Chop up about 150 gms of strawberries.
• Beat the cream with castor sugar till it holds peaks. Spoon a line in the centre of the roll & grate chocolate over it.
• Mix the chopped strawberries into the remaining cream, & spoon over the rest of the roll. (see picture). Don't spoon in too much cream or it will ooze out. Reserve left-over cream.
• Gently roll back, taking care not to squeeze the filling out. Place onto serving platter & sift castor sugar over it.
• Drizzle over with dark melted chocolate. Chill well.
• Hand blend remaining cream with essence & a drop of red food colour (optional) to make strawberry cream. Adjust sugar according to taste.
• Slice & serve with strawberry cream & sliced fruit.

A slice I wish I could have shared!

Thank you, all great folk, who have written such wonderful comments. Especially for Ben, who always has a slice reserved for him, & for Pat, who's got the fork ready!

My canvas on chocolate...Julia Child's words ring so true!

Holly's had an idea: "We all want our creations to look as wonderful as they taste and there are tons of absolutely gorgeous examples out there of the amazing creations that all you beautiful bloggers create. Why not hold an event that shares the decorating and presentation tips as well as the food? After all, if someone is going to try to recreate your masterpiece, shouldn't it look spectacular too?" YES!!

My mantra...'Do It From Scratch'! It must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too!

Great idea...I think food as an art rocks! A platform for creativity & just my kind of therapeutic pleasure!

Chocolate Strawberry Cake...Quite the Ultimate Combination

Since Valentine's Day is almost here - and because it is what it is - Holly chose CHOCOLATE to kick this off with. This means chocolate in any type, but not cocoa. She wants to see what you can do with the stuff you melt, or chop, or curl, or mould, or whatever.

There you go Holly...this is what I did!

Once the honours were done...peep inside the cake!

The final one...a slice of cake!

I really & truly enjoyed making this cake. It wasn't a lot of hard work, as I did it in bits & bobs, but the end result was very satisfying. You can do the sponge a day in advance to reduce doing everything altogether. A rested mind gives a fresh perspective & makes a world of a difference!! Thanks to 'Art You Eat', this cake is seeing light of day again!!

Dressed up with grated chocolate, melted chocolate, sliced strawberries & fresh mint leaves!

I made these in dessert cups with the leftover sponge that I had frozen. Simple & effective, a rocking good dessert in one of our favourite combinations this season...'Chocolate & Strawberry'!! Ready in minutes, with nothing very involved, this is indeed a whimsical way of using left-overs!!

A pudding/dessert I made with a layer of strawberry sponge that I reserved while making the Chocolate Strawberry Cake(pictured right). I saved a layer of the sponge because I thought the cake looked a trifle higher than I wanted it to be.

Ingredients:(Makes 4-6 strawberry trifles)
Strawberry Sponge:
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 50 gms
Cornflour - 1 tbsp
Flour - 50gms
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Pinch of salt
Strawberry essence - 1 tsp