Honey Chocolate cupcakes

My 6 year old came up with this recipe all on her own. She's the opposite of me - I need a recipe to make food, bake bread, desserts - atleast for the first time. She does not want the recipe. She refuses to use it and went ahead and made this with some basic knowledge of baking.

It was delicious. Do try it and let me know what you think! (this is the recipe in her words)

K's Honey Chocolate Cupcakes

(makes 3 cupcakes)

1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Sugar
1 Egg
1 tbsp Honey
1 pinch Baking Soda
1 pinch Baking Powder
2 tbsp Chocolate, melted
4-5 Chocolate Chips
1 tbsp All-Purpose Flour

Preheat oven to 200 deg C.

Mix the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix everything together. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and eat warm (with vanilla ice cream).

Vanilla Cupcakes

If you haven't heard of Sweet and Simple Bakes, do check it out. Maria and Rosie have started a baking blog for amateur bakers about a year ago. I've tried to take part in almost all their bakes, and they've all been amazing.

This month's bake was no different. I tried them this afternoon and they were all gone in about 2 hours. My daughter and her friends thought they were awesome and literally couldn't stop eating them!


Vanilla Cupcakes
(recipe from Sweet and Simple Bakes)

Supposed to make 12, but I got about 9

6 oz Self-Raising Flour
6 oz Butter, softened
6 oz Caster Sugar
3 large Eggs
2 tbsp Milk
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Buttercream Icing:
5 oz Butter, softened
11 oz Icing Sugar
1 tbsp Milk
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and caster sugar. Add the butter, eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Spoon the mixture into paper-case lined muffin pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


Meanwhile make the buttercream. Beat the butter until soft. Add the icing sugar and combine. Add the vanilla and milk and beat well until light and fluffy. You could add food coloring too if you'd like colorful cupcakes.

Spread the buttercream onto the cupcakes. Decorate as you wish. I used Gems (an Indian equivalent of M&Ms).


Thanks, Maria and Rosie. This is something I've already made 3 times this month, and will definitely make again!

Cupcakes

This month's Sweet and Simple Bakes was a first for me (as they've all been so far!). But this was a basic cupcake recipe and I was so excited to make cupcakes for the first time! And it was perfect for Halloween to give out as treats for the kids.

Cupcakes
(recipe from Rosie @ Sweet & Simple Bakes)

1 1/3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
6 oz Butter, at room temperature
1 cup Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 - 4 tbsp Milk
Icing/frosting of your choice

You will need a 12 hole-muffin tin and 12 cupcake paper cases

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a 12 hole-muffin tin with cupcake paper cases.

Sieve the flour into a bowl and leave aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar and beat until the mixture becomes light in color and fluffy.

Add one egg at a time beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and then gently fold in the flour until combined. Stir in the milk until you have a good dropping consistency.

Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared muffin tin and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.


I realized at this point that my decorating skills are sadly lacking. My family was most amused by the cupcakes and didn't think they looked scary in the least!! Oh well. I tried my best, Rosie!!

(they are supposed to be a mummy, a gravestone and a monster!)

For a look at all the other spooktacular cupcakes, check out the round-up.


I'm running in DK's Recipe Marathon for a 2nd time. Wish me luck - one month of a recipe a day! Check out what my other marathoners made today:

DK of Culinary Bazaar,

Siri of Siri's Corner,

Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons,

Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen Corner,

PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds,

Curry Leaf of Experiments, Emotions, Experiences with Food,

Medha of Cook with Love,

Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes,

Bhawna of Tastes of India,

Raaji of Raaji's Kitchen,

Ruchii,

Kamala of Nandhu's Corner,

Roopa of My Kitchen Treats,

Divya Kudua of Easy Cooking,

Rekha of Plantain Leaf,

Divya of Divyaz Easy Recipes,

Lakshmi of The Yum Blog,

Raaga of The Singing Chef,

Sripriya of Srikar's Kitchen and

Viji of Viji's Veg Corner.

Zebras and Leopards

I've been wanting to try making a Zebra Cake for the longest time. And then I tried it. And then I tried it again. And then again. And again. FOUR times!! Each time, something went wrong - when I fixed that, something else went wrong. And I now know the entire recipe in my head!

Here's my final attempt - and I thought it was pretty good. It's still not perfect - but the reason baffles me.

Zebra Cake
(I followed this recipe exactly)

Here you have the ingredients: Sugar, All-purpose Flour, Milk, Cocoa, Baking Powder, Oil and Eggs.


First beat the sugar and eggs together. Add the milk and oil and continue to blend well. Meanwhile, sift the flour and baking powder. Start adding the flour to the wet ingredients, little by little, until well combined. Do not over beat, and don't let those bubbles form as far as possible. Of course, since I was using a hand whip, the bubbles did form! Divide the dough into halves and add cocoa to one half.


Now comes the important part. In a buttered baking dish (I think you should use a round pan, though I tried both a round and a rectangular and didn't see much difference). First scoop about 3 tbsp or 1 ladle that holds about 3 tbsp of batter in the middle of the pan. Then pour the dark batter in the middle of the original batter. Here you go:

It will look like this when you're done:


Now bake for 40 mts at 180 deg C. And try not to peek, please!


When you cut it, you can see the beautiful stripes! Its really a gorgeous cake. Do you see the holes in mine? That's what happens if you have bubbles! It's still light and moist and delicious, though.



Leopard Cupcakes

Okay, now that we're done with the Zebra, let's move onto the Leopard, shall we? It's just that I had some batter left over from the above process. So I poured two ladlefuls into a muffin tin and baked it (one ladle of the regular batter and one of the cocoa). We got ourselves some spots.


Aren't the felines lovely? :)

My daughter was delighted with her "zoo" dessert! And now that we have stripey zebras and spotted leopards, she requests a giraffe next!