Cupcake | Aapplemint

Carrot n Coconut Cupcakes

Dec 132011

December for most of us is always the craziest part of the year. With Christmas around the corner, New Years Eve, the Big Indian wedding season, insane number of parties and events to go to and not to mention the lovely weather, which makes you want to eat much more than just the usual. There’s no way you can stick to eating healthy and maintain your Diet plans. Specially if you’re the kind, who leans a little more towards the sweeter side. Cupcakes are always the easiest to go for, as you don’t have to polish off the whole thing yourself. Keep a couple to satisfy that craving and pass on the rest ! I chose to make these cupcakes over the whole cake, smaller potions are always better and prettier too. And its always good to share the love and sweetness. And thats just what I did with these. They make the perfect thing to carry to a Christmas party too.

Preheat oven at 180C

Line the cupcake molds with the baking parchment squares. Set aside.

Self Raising Flour - 300 gms

Cinnamon Powder - 3 teaspoons

Bicarbonate of Soda – 2 teaspoons

Sift all these together and keep in a bowl.

Eggs – 4 large

Oil – 300 ml

Powder or superfine Raw Cane Sugar - 350 grams

Mix all these together in a bowl and beat with electric beater. Beat for 3- 4 minutes till light and fluffy. Mix the flour slowly in the egg and again beat with electric beater for 2-3 minutes.

Carrots ( Grated )- 400 grams

Fresh Coconut ( Grated) – 100 grams

Walnuts ( Chopped) – 100 grams

Orange Zest – 1 orange

Put all these in the cake batter and mix well. Pour in tin and bake for 15 -20 mins or till done.

When baked, remove from oven and make holes on backside of cake. ( optional)

Juice of orange – 1

Powder Sugar – 100 grams

Mix together and pour over cake and leave in tin till all is absorbed. Remove after few hours and dust with icing sugar.

Cream Cheese – 200 gms

Sugar powder enough to sweeten – 3 tbsps

Frost cupcakes with it.

Chocolate Financiers topped with Roasted Almonds in Caramel and Chocolate

All, Baking, Featured 34 Responses »

Dec 112010

Chocolate-Financiers-with-a-Roasted-Almond-n-Caramel-Topping-1

Special people deserve special treats. My son’s godmother and my best friend in this whole wide world celebrated her birthday this week. Usually I’m never in town on her birthday, but this time around I got lucky. It’s amazing how time flies when you are in the company of the people you simply adore … priceless moments. Since I’ve had very few chances to cook for my darling friend, I knew instantly I had to bake for her this birthday. She’s intolerant to dairy and doesn’t eat store bought stuff. All the more reason to make something special for her. I opted for my all time favourite financiers aka friands ‘cuz they just always turn out so good. I’ve previously made them here and here . This time around I decided to do a non-dairy chocolate version topped with a non dairy ganache (taken from David Lebovitz) and sprinkled with a Roasted Almond brittle coated with chocolate. I think they all worked so magically together … The soft, moist, delicate and not so sweet cake with a rich chocolate ganache topped with a crackling and crunchy chocolate coated roasted almonds in caramel. It was a big winner .

Ingredients

100 gms margarine/butter

100 gms grated dark chocolate grated

140 gms icing sugar

25 gms plain flour

85 gms ground almonds

3 large egg whites

The Ganache frosting

10 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

½ cup water

¾ cup margarine/butter

Roasted Almond in Caramel coated with chocolate – Topping

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon margarine/butter

2 cups roasted almonds slivered

1 cup chopped dark chocolate

Start with making the chocolate coated almonds in caramel first . You could even start a day ahead. Melt the sugar in a pot . Stir continuously and when it all melts, with the colour starting to change and turns a rich amber colour, slip in the butter mixing it well. Add the roasted almonds. The almonds should be way more and the caramel just enough to coat it. Take off the heat and pour it out on a greased surface or marble slab. Quickly with a rolling pin, flatten it out and let it cool. Now melt the chocolate in another pot and coat the brittle in the chocolate, making a thick coating and place it on greaseproof paper and let it set. Then finely chop these up making thin chards and save them for later.

For the Financiers , preheat oven to 180C. Melt the margarine in a microwave and keep aside. Sift the icing sugar and flour in a bowl. Stir in the ground almonds and grated chocolate. Whisk the egg whites to soft peak stage and fold them into the dry mixture. Now pour in the butter and mix gently, incorporating everything together. Pour into greased financier tins or cupcake moulds until they are 3/4th full. Bake for 15 mins. Don’t overbake them, they need to be moist within. Let them cool. To make the frosting melt the chopped chocolate with the water in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water. Add the margarine and whisk them into the chocolate until completely melted and the ganache is smooth. Cool until spreadable, which may take about 1 hour at room temperature or just chuck it in the freezer till its set. Then scoop out and put it in a piping bag with a star nozzle. Pipe onto the cupcakes and generously sprinkle with the chocolate almond topping. Tastes best at room temperature.

2di4

All, Baking 79 Responses »

Mar 022008

These are good enough to satisfy any chocolate craving. There’s dark and then there’s white. Double the goodness double the richness. The mint in the white chocolate frosting cuts through the sweetness and adds that extra element of freshness and surprise. This was actually made at the spur of the moment, from leftovers actually. I had some extra molten chocolate cake mix lying in the fridge (had made molten cakes on Tuesday while entertaining some friends), and ½ a bar of white chocolate and the only fruit lying in the fridge. I was quite surprised how well the mint works in the white chocolate, and most of all how well the cream holds its shape with the white chocolate in it. It’s so hot around here in Ghana that I can never work with cream and meringues as they just don’t whip up to full consistency. Chocolate too, actually, it just melts off at room temperature. So I love the way this worked out. This recipe makes 3 mini cakes, and I ate them all … all by myself!!! I liked them so much I didn’t have the heart to share them. Now you can imagine how I must’ve been as a kid :p

For the Chocolate cake

25gms soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
175gms best dark chocolate – melted
75g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
25gms plain flour

For the Frosting

50gms best white chocolate – melted
50 ml cream
Couple of leaves of fresh mint – chopped up.

For Garnish

Fresh Blueberries
Fresh Strawberries

Preheat the oven to 200°C
Melt the chocolate and let it cool slightly. Cream together the butter and sugar, and gradually beat in the eggs and salt, then the vanilla. Now add the flour, and when all is smoothly combined scrape in the cooled chocolate, blending it to a smooth batter.Pour into the desired cupcake cases and bake for about 15 mins or till just about set. Don’t want to over bake them. Remove from oven and cool completely.

For the frosting lightly whip up the cream and pour in the melted white chocolate. Whip together, till think and fold in the mint leaves. Return o fridge for 10 mins till nice and firm. Now put it in a piping bag and decorate the cakes with it. Garnish with berries.

And this is me trying to have a little fun with the camera. A self portrait for Lara of Still Life With‘s SLW assignment for Feb – “Food n You. ” Had to be a shot of yourself with some food. So what better than with something i love most … CHOCOLATE !!!

Chocolate Squash Cupcakes with Marzipan Centers

All, Baking 37 Responses »

Oct 292007

So I’ve started cleaning my store and am really shocked at the amt of ingredients I’ve stocked up, hoping someday I’ll make this n I’ll make that. Of course i realize I’m going to have to give away a lot of things as i cant cook it all

I’ve also been over eating as i don’t have the heart to give away so many things …. u can imagine what a pig i’ve turned into. To use up some of the things lying around – squashes n chocolate, i decided to make Chocolate Squash cupcakes . To add an ooh la la factor i made marzipan balls with a hint of lime and put them in the center of the cupcakes ( this also made me use up the almond powder n icing sugar ) . The cupcakes turned out extremely soft n not too sweet with just a hint of squash in every bite ( used a medium size grater). A little on the darker side, for those who don’t like it do dark can choose milk choc instead. The marzipan adds a element of surprise to the cupcake and adds that little sweetness which u need by the time u reach the center of the cake. Also the drizzle was a good decision. I wasn’t going to do it before but after consuming 2 cupcakes i thought it would be nice if i did.

All in all i made quite a few, lost the count as i cant remember how many i ate by the time i finished baking n taking shots. I planned on giving them all away. Started with sending 10 to my friends place, then another 5 to another family, 2 to someone who came over and thought about giving the rest to a few other people, but as time passed i had another cupcake and another , and love them sooo much that i’m having second thoughts about sharing them. Oh i just remembered they were 29 cupcakes. Odd but yes they were 29 after scraping the bowl clean.

Ingredients

For the Marzipan

175 gms caster sugar
250 gms ground almonds
175 gms icing sugar
1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg
lemon zest and juice of one lime

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl beat the eggs and zest and pour over the dry ingredients. Now pour the juice on top mixing continuously . Stop when it comes together as a dough or add more until it forms one. Make small balls and cover with cling film and set aside.

sorry the recipe had to be taken off. If u need it, pls just let me know i’ll mail it to you.

For the Icing

200 gms icing sugar
1-2 tbsps water

Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Lightly grease large muffin pans and line with muffin cups.

In a bowl mix together the sugar, butter and oil. Beat in eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, squash and chopped chocolate .
In a separate bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients. Add the liquid ingredients and mix until well combined. With an ice cream scoop fill half the cases with the cake batter. Now place a marzipan ball in the center and top with rest of the batter. Put a few flakes of the top and bake
for 35 mins. Cool on a wire rack .Sift the icing sugar and mix in the water. It should be thick and not runny. Drizzle on top and let it dry. Ready to eat Enjoy !!!

* they taste much better on keeping for half a day

Twice As Nice

All, Baking 7 Responses »

Feb 062007

Well i did have a lot of free time on my hands today and couldn’t control my urge to bake. Ah what the hell , might as well go ahead and do it. So here it is the result of my little urge…

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes and English Toffee n chocolate cupcakes.

For the chocolate cupcakes( this was the base for both the cupcakes)

475 ml egg whites
1/4 th tsp salt
1 1/4th tsp cream of tartar
250gms white sugar
150gms confectioners sugar
180 gms cake flour
20gms unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Line and case your cupcake pan.Preheat the oven to gas mark 4.
Sift together the confectioners sugar cocoa and cake flour twice.Try and get as much air in as you can.In another bowl beat together the egg whites,cream of tartar,salt till it forms stiff peaks.Keep adding the sugar spoon by spoon as you go.Fold in the flour mixture with a gentle hand making sure you have done it evenly.Now add the vanilla essence.At any point if u feel that the batter is a little thick just add a few drops of milk.It always works.

Now i took half the cake batter and put it in another bowl.
To this i added about 4 tablespoons of cherry jam.Prefable the one which has little cherry pieces in it.
Now pour them in the cupcases till 3/4th full and bake for about 35-40 mins.
I must mentiont to you that there was a slight difference in the texture of both the cupcakes.
Obviously the one with the jam didn’t rise too well.But nevertheless it was very moist.I pooped a hot one in my mouth…could’nt resist it and it just melted away….

This is picture is the one with the cherry jam

And this is just the regular chocolate one.Has rised much better that the one with the jam.

To decorate the cupcakes …the 1st being the toffee cupcakes…To make the toffee ofcourse.You’ll need a couple of cans of sweetened condensed milk.I pressure cooked the cans for about half an hour as i did’nt have patience to watch them boil for hours.And trust me its so much better .

I prefer this much more than making it over the stove with butter and sugar…could do without the extra calories:-))

Here’s what the cans look like after just half hour of pressure cooking.Pls dont try and open them when they are hot.Let them cool down completely before you do.

And then some chocolate shavings and some fun with sugar caramel resulted in this…

Now for the chocolate cherry cupcakes i just poured some chocolate ganache on top and finished it off with the glazed cherry.Could’nt be easier !

And together i ended up with this …. a whole lotta cupcakes … the only problem now is ….
Whos’s gonna eat’em ????