Oreo Vanilla Cupcake with Tempered Dark chocolate Icing

Do you want to dig into pure pleasure of dark chocolate crunch followed by vanilla sponge and taste gooey dark chocolate Oreo Bites?

Then read on…

Experience is a wonderful thing, irrespective of whether its good or bad. A good one definitely make one feel good but even a not such a nice on leaves with a learning. This goes word to word for me and my baking. To tell you very honestly my equation with cake batter has not changed much, remember my confession here

Kitchen still feels like boxing ring where batter calls me for a face off every time I pick up a recipe to try….But as I mentioned before, experience is teaching me tricks and tip even if batter gets the upper hand some times.

I have learnt the most important thing is that I need to give it love and attention to make it behave. Accuracy in measurement and patience while mixing and baking, is doing wonders. So yes, we are getting better in terms of sweet successes. 

This newly acquired trait “Experience” has given wings to creativity, now when I see some good recipe I don’t hesitate to try and even I think of new recipes and  ideas(Ahuum Ahumm J). As an ardent fan of “Masterchef Australia” I have learnt one thing to look at recipes as building block and use them to create something new altogether.

So what have I done so special that I am writing so much about it..well nothing indeed. Yes really just took my vanilla cupcake recipes and added Oreo and choc chips to have this divine vanilla chocolate cupcake.

Just that?? Yes!!!. Its that simple that indeed it’s feeling silly to write the recipe. Mind you!!! These cupcakes are only simple to make but the flavors are to die for. I am big fan of Oreo and have seen few dishes incorporating it. What is so great about this cookie is when baked it converts into such wonderful soft gooey texture. My plain vanilla cupcake came alive with its dark and dense chocolate taste with vanilla cream melted in the cake to intensify the vanilla taste.

Shall I talk about the dark chocolate icing…Let me do a quick dance first!! I am excited and thrilled to share this here that my first ever Chocolate tempering effort is a success. 

If you are wondering what Tempering is??? Its defined as process of producing small cocoa butter crystals to get the uniform sheen and crisp bite of properly processed chocolate is tempering.

It is actually a simple yet technical thing to do. Chocolate is melted in a double boiler which is not boiling till it reaches 46-48°C (depending on milk or dark chocolate) then a small amount of chopped chocolate is added in the melted hot chocolate. The mix is stirred to maintain the same temperature though out and then again the temperature is increased till 46-48 °C. For Dark chocolate the chocolate is melted at 46-48°C. Tempered chocolate get spread or poured warm and the temperature is maintained placing the pan back on double boiler when ever required.

I tried tempering with a small batch of chocolate  and without thermometer, just going by my instinct.Luck was on my side and my temperature instinct worked. I coated my cupcake with warm tempered chocolate and in the end I had this wonderful shiny and full of bite chocolate layer on top.

It’s a sin full delicious cupcake…don’t trust me??? you have to bake to believe. 

For the cupcake 

1/2 cup  Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup  Granulated Sugar

2 Eggs (use 1 cup curd, if you don’t want to use egg)

1 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1½ cup Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Milk

¼ Cup Chocolate Chips

6 Oreo Cookies chopped in big chunks

For frosting

200 gm Dark Chocolate Chopped

2 Tbsp Milk Chocolate grated (Optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

In a bowl beat the butter and sugar together with a handheld mixer whisker attachment on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until creamed and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat on medium speed until everything is combined, about 2 -3 minutes.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 additions and stirring by hand after each addition. Mix until just combined, do not over mix. This batter will be thick.

Fold in chocolate chips and Oreo chunks with spatula.

Divide the batter between 12 liners in your cupcake pan. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For Tempered Chocolate icing

Prepare a Bain Marie (Double boiler) by placing a saucepan on stove with some water. Take a slightly smaller pan and put ¾ of the chopped chocolate in it.

Place the smaller pan in the simmering water pan, making sure only the bottom of the pan touches the water. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE WATER IS NOT BOILING and you be careful about no water droplet gets into the chocolate pan. PLEASE FOLLOW this to the “T” or else you will not be getting tempered chocolate at all.

When the chocolate is melted remove from heat and add chopped chocolate and stirrer this with a spatula until all the chocolate is dissolved. Place this pan again in the simmering water pan and stirrer gently for 1 min and remove from heat.

Your chocolate must be shiny and super smooth. Cover the top of your cupcakes generously with it and sprinkle grated milk chocolate.

Leave you cupcakes alone to get the chocolate set on the top. You can tuck these shiny babies in the refrigerator for 5 min, if you are in a hurry to eat them: D

Plum Pudding Cake - Sweet, Fruity and Spicy Treat

It’s a gorgeous sweet, fruity and spicy treat – great as a pudding or with evening tea.

I find baking with fruits is very exciting and quite challenging. Getting a good texture and keeping the flavours of fruits alive is quite tricky if you ask me.  So when I got my hands on some lovely ruby red plums I thought of trying this cake. The heart and soul of this cake is good sweet plums so please taste your plums before taking the plunge. I came across this recipe long back on a BBC show and it’s just got stuck in my head. It’s not like I did not try it before, that warning above is coming from there. You need beautiful and sweet plums, ITS A MUST.

Other thing which I would insist on is brown sugar. Brown sugar not only uplifts the flavors of fruits in the cake but it does wonders to the texture. So get ready to bake a rich, buttery and gooey cake with me.

2 Cup Flour

1 lightly heaped Tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 lightly heaped Tsp ground Cinnamon

1 lightly heaped Tsp Ground Ginger

4 Tbsp of Honey

1 Cup Butter

¾ Cup Brown sugar

¼ Cup Granular sugar

 2 Cup Plums

2 Eggs (Replace with 1 Cup curd, if not using eggs)

1 Cup Milk

Pre heat the oven at 180C. Line a square baking tray with baking paper.

Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl.

Warm honey, granular sugar and butter very gently in a pan until the butter and sugar melts. Stir in the brown sugar. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

Halve the plums, or cut them into quarters if they are very large, and remove the stones.

Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk lightly to mix.

Pour the honey butter syrup mixture into the flour and mix with a large spoon. Pour in the egg and milk and continue stirring till you have almost sloppy batter without any lumps.

Tip the mixture into the lined cake tin, drop in the plums and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Server this pudding cake with a dollop of whip cream or just a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and see the magic.

Festive warmth of Christmas, bit spiced with Spice Date Cake

The breeze is getting cold, sun is not shining that bright and streets are still filled with red, white and golden sights. They all are hinting unanimously that Christmas has just gone by and new year  is around the corner. I love all the festivals (as everyone does) because they bring the hustle bustle and zing back with them to infuse happiness and cheers in our “Running as usual” life.

My memories of Christmas and new year are of long vacations, chili winters of north India. Red was synonym of the season as  most of the kids use to sport red sweaters. Another thought that strikes in my head is the aroma of freshly baked cake and cookies. As most of the Indian households don’t expertise in baking at home so we also use to get our cakes from nearby bakery.

But now I make sure to bake a cake at home and float in warm misty aroma of my Date and spiced cake. This is a very English cake and perfect of cozy winter evenings. Hope you’ll like it.

Spicy Date Cake

Flour – 1 Cup/225 gm

Baking Soda – ¾  tsp

Bicorbonate – ¾ tsp

Butter – 100gm

Sugar – 175 gm

Date – 225 gm

Black Tea – 125 ml

Egg – 3

Vanila – 1 tsp

Spice mix (Cinnamon, Ginger, Black Paper powder) – 1 tsp

·         Preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius.

·         Line the tin with butter and flour.

·         Mix and sift all the dry ingredients together .

·         In prepared black tea add the chopped date and cook for couple of minutes till the dates get bit soft

·         Beat the soft butter and sugar together till its light and fluffy.

·         Then add one egg at a time and beat lightly, add all three eggs.

·         Add the spice mix and vanilla and beat.

·         Now add the date mixture and fold in the dry mixture, adding small amount at a time.

·         Pour the batter in the tin and bake for 35 minutes.

Enjoy!!