Professor cupcakes

You know what has been missing on this blog lately?
Cupcakes!!
I mean c'mon it's called 'Cupcakes Vs the World ' right? there must be more cupcakes !!
I have been having a lot of ideas for cupcakes lately, some fancy, some plain ol' classic ones and some very very pretty ones!!

Here is a batch of cupcakes I had to make for a birthday order. These were for a science professor and I wanted to do something a little different !! :)
Excuse the pictures, they were taken later in the evening just as the light was fading and I was in a big hurry to manage a close up of every cupcake..

Instead of keeping the base of the cupcake plain, I lined them with blue lines in order to make it look like notebook paper :)

               Tiny little books. This was an obvious choice, I know but they were so cute I could'nt resist.

             A little algebra for the geekier ones.

        Oh, and for the record, I. hate. trignometry.

                      I totally do NOT get the point.It feels like one of those random games you make up when you're a five year old and you have nothing to do in the afternoon and feel like making you an imaginary language or something.

Anyway, moving on......

    Hey, this guy was one short of the big five-oh!!!

   Might as well make it as jhataak as possible ,right?

And let me just say, this little blue bow simply makes me happy. 

:)

Mostly because it reminds me of that guy from the movie 'Up'.

Not the chubby kid, the grumpy sweet old man :)

                       It took a few times to get the bubbles on this one right, but it was well worth it.

 Nothing beats the 3-D effect!!

                                      And finally, the scholarly owl....Notice how he just graduated?? :)
                 

                             All six together!! Now all we need are a few geeks and its a party!!!

                The base as well as all the cupcake toppers are handmade from Gumpaste. It takes a little work and imagination but the ideas and possibilities are endless!!

More cupcakes coming soon!!

Easy-Peasy Chocolate cake

I've been on a little bit of a health kick lately.
You know, egg whites, grilled chicken ,green tea, soup for dinner.. blah blah. the whole shazaam.
Before, you say anything, I know that the picture above definately does'nt prove it, but in my defence the cake is from a few weeks back.
Really.
Pinky swear.

I've even managed to sneak in a KFC zinger  burger somewhere among all the healthy stuff :p
I can't remember the last time I've wasted this much time. What with the last two years spent training, completing journals and cleaning tiles in the college corridors with toothbrushs (catering college woes :/) and waking up at 6 am , the last one month has ben nothing but bliss.

       Summer is my favourite time of the year , Simply because Blue skies and sunny afternoons make me very happy. It's hard to explain. However, the only complaint I have is that my hair seems to take on a life of it's own during summer. It behaves like a spoilt, pampered child   and I literally have to tie it up kicking and screaming on most days even to make it look remotely normal :/
         Over the past few weeks,I also managed to take my first baking class at home, something I've been wanting to do for quite a while now and the chocolate cake here is something that we made on the last baking class which co incidentaly was Mothers day!! :)
I think chocolate cake is utter comfort food. Its the one thing that always works..
feeling grumpy in the morning?
Cant decide on dessert after lunch?
 Lazing around on a summer afternoon with nothing to do?
Think a cup of plain ol' tea just isn't enough?
Birthday?
Fever?
doomsday?
 Day before exam? (notice how Doomsday immediately made me think of the day before exam :/ hmmm )
Late night chocolate craving?
Apocalypse?
Midgets taking over the world?
< Insert chocolate cake here>


I mean, it's pretty much the solution to everything.
Its easy to see why chocolate cake like this, thats easy to make and even easier to gulp down should be loved. No no, not loved. WORSHIPPED.

I love hundreds and thousands sprinkles.
They are so so pretty and just plain happy :)
And not to mention jazzy and jhataak (yes, im allowed to veer off the english language a little!!
(Don't judge me!!)

Easy -Peasy Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups All purpose Flour
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
    2/3 cup   Cocoa Powder
    1/2 cup  Butter/ Shortening
 1 1/2 cup  Buttermilk
 1 1/2 tsp  Baking Soda
    1/2 tsp  Salt
    1    tsp Vanilla essence
    2          Eggs

• Preheat the oven to 175'C
• Line two 9 inch round cake tins with butter paper and grease and dust them with flour.Make sure that they are greased and dusted evenly.
• Beat all the ingredients in a large bowl on medium speed for about 1 min. until they are blended properly.
• Continue beating on high speed for about 3-4 min.
• Immediately pour the batter equally into the two pans and bake for 25-20 min. or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool completely and demould the cake from the pans.

For the truffle filling and topping:

450gms Dark Chocolate
150 ml   Fresh Cream
  50 ml   Milk (optional)
Light sugar syrup

• Melt the fresh cream and Dark chocolate over a double boiler or in a glass bowl in a microwave.
• stir properly so that no lumps remain, let the mixture cool and come to room temperature.
• Add a little warm milk if required so that the truffle is spreadable.
• Sprinke the first layer of cake with some sugar syrup and then Layer the truffle generously between the two cakes.
• Sprinkle the top layer of cake with some more sugar syrup and then lightly melt the remaining truffle o that it is easier to spread.
• Cover the cake with truffle and even it out with a palette knife.
• Decorate as you want!!

Roasted almond and coffee barfi

 

In just a few days, I'll finish college.

No more sleeping during classes.

That;s what I'll miss the most :P

I took part in the Nestle Chef competition in college yesterday.As part of the competition we were supposed to use Nescafe coffee powder to create an Indian dessert.Now let me just say, I'm not very good at making Indian desserts. I don't know if it's a mental block or I just struggle with it.So when it comes to making an Indian dessert for a competition I get a serious case of the jitters. Just deciding what to make takes hours or even days. Finally I settled with roasted almond and coffe barfi with caramel sauce and gulab jamun sandwiched with a dense coffee and dark chocolate ganache on orange steeped in cinnamon .

Not too bad, eh?

 

My initial idea was to sandwich the gulab jamun with cointreau shrikhand , but let me just tell you, i tried it and almost gagged :/

Besides, the shrikhand was'nt holding shape like I wanted it to :)

We had two hours but we had been allowed to do 80 % of the prep at home, since Indian sweets are somewhat time consuming to prepare .

I prepared the barfi the night before  and tried moulding it and cutting it into a few different shapes and finally settled on a cylinder. The chocolate garnish, the caramel sauce, and the coffee glaze along with the gold dusted almonds were all prepared in college .

I need

Honey comb Chocolates

 Chocolate makes you popular.
Yes.
It 's actually that simple.
There no need to go through all the hassle of being nice and sucking upto someone. Just hand over the chocolate and everything will be just fine .:)


Let me just say this.
Whoever thought up the brilliant idea that is honeycomb was nothing short of genius.
For years and years I've been hooked on the Cadbury crunchie that Dad would bring home after a sailing trip from abroad. And after searching high and low over many years when I finally did find one in Bombay it was 50 bucks a bar!!
WHAT!!!
Now that's just plain ridiculous!!
So I decided to try it out myself.
One problem though.
Cooking sugar,sort of scares me.
I know,it's just plain ol sugar,what harm can it do. I'll tell you what.
IT CAN BURN.
Anyway, I decided to go ahead and try it out.
and you know what, it's pretty darn easy.
There is still a possibility of it burning, but its easy to make.

I'm not saying that to scare you.
really. :p
 Baking Soda is the magic ingredient here.

Here's the recipe.
You can thank me later.:)

 Honeycomb chocolates:

Makes one 8inch rectangular cake pan size.

1 1/2 cups grain sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp Baking soda/Soda bicarb

• Line a cake tin with a silpat or a little oil.
• Bring the grain sugar, Honey and water to boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan, stirring continuously.
• Reduce the heat to medium and continue to let it cook without stirring until the temperature on a candy thermometer reached 300 degrees.
• Remove the saucepan from heat, and quickly whisk in the baking soda. The mixture will begin to bubble and rise immediately.
• Quickly pour it onto the greased mould/silpat.Once it is on the silpat,do not try to spread it out with a spoon ,the airiness will be lost. Instead, while you are pouring it out itself spread it out.
• Let it cool.
•  While it is cooling, Melt the chocolate and keep aside.
• The honeycomb will harden and turn brittle once it is fully cooled.Break it into uneven pieces,and coat each piece in chocolate and let it set.
• Store in the refrigerator.
• Try and avoid keeping the Honeycomb brittle out without being covered with chocolate for too long as it tends to catch moisture and become sticky.

Savoiardi/ Ladys Fingers

I'll tell you what this is not.


This is not some fancy-shmancy post about some exquisite food item.
It wont take you hours and hours to make and use up a million ingredients.
These are not French macarons.You know,fussy,moody and haughty.
These little cookies are simple,plain-jane and yet not so ordinary.
Because as I've been learning lately,
Sometimes we're so busy running after the french macarons in life,that we completely fail to see the savoiardis.

And then before you know it, just when you least expect it, life will smack you in the face.

Savoiardis are little Italian cookies. They're also sometimes called Ladys Fingers.(I have no idea why. I'm sure whichever lady's fingers were shaped like THAT would never have wanted to have a cookie named after them!! :P) And in Germany they're called Loffelbiskuit which means Spoon Biscuit.

If you're a fan of Tiramisu you're familiar with Savoiardi.
These are what are traditionally soaked in the coffee Liquor and layered between the light,fluffy Cream cheese mixture.

I was'nt planning to make these. Let me tell you what happened.
This week's Bakery class in college required us to make Tiramisu.
However,the college version uses Chocolate Sponge cake in between the layers. Not even the moist,happy kind.

I was not happy. I take offense to things like that. I mean, C'mon how much longer is it going to take to to make the actual Savoiardis.
Yes, I'm stubborn like that.
I would not have it.
No.

So I convinced the Bakery teacher to let me make my own batch of Savoiardi(which I had never made before) to  make the tiramisu.
He(surprisingly) said yes :)

Here's the recipe:

Savoiardi
Makes about 36 fingers.

3 Eggs (Seperated)
100 gms     Icing Sugar + Extra for sprinkling(Sifted)
 35gms        Granulated Sugar
100 gms     Refined Flour
50gms        Cocoa Powder(for Sprinkling)


Method:

• Preheat the oven to 190'C. Line a baking sheet with a silpat and set aside.
• In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites till foamy.Gradually ,add the sifted Icing sugar and continue to whisk until the meringue forms stiff and glossy peaks.

• In a seperate bowl,Whisk together the egg yolks and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy.

• Fold in the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites .
• Next,gently fols in the Refined flour mixture into the egg mixture in 3 parts,swiftly but gently.Fold until there are no streaks remaining,but make sure not to use too much force,or you will deflate the egg mixture.
• Pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large Savoy nozzle and pipe out about 3inchesx 1 inch each.

                                 

• Dust with cocoa powder and icing sugar through a seive and bake for about 10 minutes.
• Cool at room temperature and then store in an airtight container.

 

• If you want the cookies to be slightly more crispy,do not dust with icing sugar before baking and dry out in the oven for 5-7 min longer at 100'C.

                                     

I was extremely happy with how these turned out and ended up making a whole cake tin of tiramisu :)

I'll post that recipe soon!!










 

Yes,I'm a little cuckoo like that.

I got a tattoo.



Yes,it's a cupcake.

And it's on my ankle.

Believe it.
:)
 

White Chocolate and Strawberry Oatmeal Cookies

So much has happened in a year. There have been big 'whohooo' moments and then there have been the 'I-never-want-to-remeber-those-days' moments. There have been "lets go and kick ass' days and there have been "I never want to get out of bed "days. But all in all it's been amazing and filled with lots of love,cookies ,an endless amount of cupcakes and big,gorgeous cakes and lots and lots of sugar :).2011 was the year we pulled off the dessert buffet in college,the year I discovered that cheesecake could be made with Amul cheesepread and the year I realised just how tempremental those darn french macarons really are! What more could I ask for?
Welcome to 2012.

Sometimes it's alright to sleep a little longer on colder mornings,Sneak in an ice cream cone even though you have a terrible terrible cold,and add Big chunks of white chocolate to what were supposed to be 'healthy oat' cookies and take hurried photographs of the food you make because your rushing to go out or just plain lazy. Just sometimes.
I did that.
You can't blame me though..I made these cookies before even having breakfast!!Yes, I'm JUST that dedicated :p

 Anyway,
The strawberries that are available here at the market are not as sweet as I'd like them to be,But I've got to say I'm just happy we're getting them pretty easily atleast.Strawberries have always been somewhat of a risky fruit. I mean,even during season it is hard to get hold of sweet strawberries.These cookies are nice and different since I'm not used to using fresh fruit in cookies.Im sure dehydrated strawberries would taste much better but they're very hard to get a hold of. Also,the strawberries leave water once you cut them which might thin down your batter and give you a very 'cakey' sort of cookie.You can add s happens .a little more flour incaseyou need to adjust the consistency.

Strawberry and White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies

• 2 cups  roughly chopped fresh strawberries(big chunks)
• 1/4 cup sugar

•   2 1/2 cups       all-purpose flour
• 11/4  teaspoon baking soda
• !/4 teaspoon     salt  
• 1 teaspoon       ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cup         rolled oats
• 1/2 cup            butter, softened
• 3/4 cup            brown sugar
• 1/4 cup            sugar
• 1                     egg
• 1 cup              White chocolate chunks
• 1 teaspoon      vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C.
2. In a small bowl mix together in strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar and set it aside.
3. Grease a baking tray or line it with a Silpat.
4. Sift together the flour,baking soda and salt.
5. In a seperate bowl mix together the butter,sugar,egg and vanilla extract.Stir in the rolled oats.
6. Fold in the flour mixture little at a time .
7. Once the flour is properly incorporated,stir in the strawberries and the white chocolate chunks.
8. Spoon 1 tbsp of the mixture on the baking sheet and flatten it slightly.
9. Bake at 190 C for about 8-10 min or till the cokkies are golden in colour.
10. Remove from the baking tray while the cookies are still warm and allow them to cool completely.