Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream Frosting

I generally prefer to justify baking sweet somethings and felt the act was well justified today! My personal favourites are mini cupcakes, but today made larger ones to accommodate the icing. It's been over a month since I discovered the flower nail and creating roses were demystified. And today was the day I put that knowledge  to use. 

A rose is a rose is a rose!

This was the first time I made buttercream icing with a spatula and not the hand mixer. I used butter (didn't know margarine for icing was different from table margarine or that commercial buttercream has nothing to do with butter!!!) and homemade icing sugar. Also, I don't thing self-made butter-paper icing bags are my thing....ziplock works!

The egg-plus or egg-less thing is a whim. Though if I'm baking for my parents or know that its going to consumed by people with egg restrictions, it's obviously eggless. I'd bookmarked two eggless chocolate cupcakes from blogs I follow and tried one today (just one tweak!). Pavithra of Dishes from my Kitchen, through sufficient trial and error created her "Best Ever Eggless Chocolate Cake/ Cupcake". I'll have to agree that they're perfect! The best part being the ingredients were simple, the process was simpler and even my three year old could mix it up!

Multi-directional mixing!

I bought a bottle of peppermint flavouring last week and decided the icing would be minty. The only crux was I wanted it to be green. Googling for answers (after the cakes were iced, BTW) revealed that green roses do exist naturally and symbolizes richness, abundance and bounty! Perfect!

So, a small batch of dark brown chocolate cupcakes all iced with mint flavoured roses........I loved my share, my daughter loved hers, saved one for DH.....just heading out to give them away before the cake monsters get to them.

Just realized that I didn't take a shot of the ultra-soft cakes. Will update that, since I'm going to be using the same recipe for some cakes this weekend!

Ingredients:
(From Dishes from my Kitchen)

Cake Flour - 3/4 cu

Light Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup (original recipe used regular sugar)

Unsweetened cocoa powder - 2 1/2 tbsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Oil - 4 tbsp (I used Sunflower oil; nothing specific in original recipe)

Vinegar - 1 tbsp (original recipe listed apple cider vinegar or any vinegar)

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Instant Coffee - 1/4 tsp (Optional)

Buttercream icing:
Butter - 50 gms (out of fridge; not soft or spreadable)
Icing sugar - 75 gms (sift to remove lumps)
Peppermint flavouring - 1/2 tsp
Green food colouring - 1/4 tsp (used gel colour)

Keep prepared 6-7 cupcake molds with liners. Set oven to 180C. Whisk the dry ingredients (except the instant coffee powder) and wet ingredients (the coffee goes here) separately. Add the wet to the dry and mix well till no lumps remain. Pour into prepared molds and bake for 15 minutes or so. Test with wooden skewer or toothpick. when done remove and place on wire racks to cool.

To make the icing, take a bowl and rub the butter against the sides with a metal spatula. Once the butter is smooth add the icing sugar in increments. Once the sugar is incorporated and the buttercream has a nice paste-like spreadable consistency add the essence and colouring. If the icing seems very thick add a drop of vegetable oil. I didn't have to do this since the essence and ambient temperature too care of things. Pipe the icing as desired. I used a no.11 tip to make those roses.




    

GEVULDE SPECULAAS - My first Daring Bakers Challenge

I've been looking at joining Daring Bakers for a while. Only kept putting it off since, I didn't think I'll be able to commit to the process of baking, recording and posting with any regularity. (Which is obvious to anyone who looks at my blog!)

This year I just decided to take the plunge. And my first challenge (and this year's) was to make Gevulde Speculaas. The recipe was put forward by  Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij.

I've followed Francijn recipe to the letter and gives a nice history of these Dutch cookies. I've as usual been remiss in taking a picture of the first batch which I made as individual cookies and had to make it once more. I used lime juice for the almond paste. I did wonder if the cookies might be too 'cinnamon-y' but spice blend was well-balanced and created a delightful melange of aromas. The lime-y almond filling added a tanginess and seemed to hold the cookie together. The only think I didn't expect was the ultra-flakiness of the cookies. 

The first batch - diamond shaped individual cookies

My second batch - so flaky couldn't cut through it without crumbling.

Thank you Francijn, I'm looking forward to my next challenge!!!

Banh Khoai Mi nuong (Vietnamese Cassava Cake Baked)

Asian cuisine isn't really on the top of my list. But when I came across the A.W.E.D - Vietnamese event announcement on Priya Mitharwal's Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes, I decided to give it a shot. 

Most of the entrees were non vegetarian and I wasn't feeling 'salad-y' so I jumped to the desserts section. There were a couple of recipes which looked promising and I settled on the Banh Khoai Mi nuong.

Cassava is tapioca or marchini kizhangu or kappa. It appears to be Cassava season, with vendors on push carts hawking these large brown tubers. Having decided on the dessert, the only think I needed was the tuber itself, which was easily purchased.

Cassava tuber

I got the recipe from here and tweaked it a wee bit. Since shredded cassava is not a luxury available here, I did the shredding.

Ingredients:

 

Cassava tubers : 1 1/2 cups 

Eggs - 2

Sugar - 1 cup

Coconut milk - 200 ml (first pressed milk extracted from 3 coconuts)

Banana/ plantain leaves - 2 sheets

Butter - 1 tbsp

Preheat oven to 200C

 

Preparing the tubers:

You'll need to buy 500 gms of Cassava (after peeling, soaking and shredding you'll be left with about 1 2/3rd cups for finely grated cassava). Peel the tough dark brown skin of the Cassava and soak in water for five minutes. Scrub the surface to get rid of any remaining reel/ mud. Stretch you arms and flex your muscles and use a cheese grater (yes, the one with the small holes) to finely grated cassava. The tuber releases a thick white liquid, not unlike first pressed coconut milk. This is the starch that gives the cake its unique consistency. Once you have 1 1/2 cups you can relax, that's all the recipe asks for.

You can read about how to extract coconut milk here. The original recipe asked for 400 ml and I stopped with only 200 ml since the batter appeared very fluid.

I also reduced the amount of egg in the recipe. I did not want a very 'eggy' cake....

Beat the eggs and sugar till light yellow and add the other ingredients. Lightly butter a baking dish and line with lightly buttered banana leaves. Use more leaves if you fell the need, the leaves should, I think, overhang from the sides of the baking dish. Pour batter into dish and bake for 35 to 40 mins. I also broiled it for a few minutes to slightly brown the upper crust. After baking, remove from oven let it cool a bit and de-pan by lifting the banana leaves. I tipped the cake onto another plate and lost the upper crust. 

Banh Khoai Mi

Piece of cake

 The cake was sticky, just like it was supposed to be. My mind refused to accept it as cake...mor like a well set pudding. And the coconut flavour was very strong. I'm not sure if the lemon peel and rum of the original recipe would have balanced the 'coconuttiness'. 

Verdict: The crust was delicious and maybe the batter can be used to make crepes? There wasn't much of a crumb to speak of and the cake does not make a good accompaniment for tea, as suggested at the site I got the recipe. We had the cake after dinner with some vanilla ice cream, which mellowed the coconut flavour. Would I make this again? I think I'm game for the steamed version of the same cake, only I just might omit the eggs the next time.

So off I send my Banh Khoai Mi nuong to A.W.E.D Vietnam hosted by Priya and inspired by DK