Beetroot and Chocolate Cupcakes

Made these cupcakes for my daughter, who after wishing her cousin a Happy Birthday on a long distance call, wanted to know "Cake kahaan hai" [ Where is the Cake]. There were some beetroots lying in the fridge and I searched for a recipe for cupcakes using them. This recipe had the most positive comments , so decided to make these.  And it turned out really moist and utterly delicious. These cupcakes are not pink or red, but dark chocolate colour.

Recipe for cake is from  here . It makes about 20-22 regular sized cupcakes. These taste best after cooling for few hours or kept overnight refrigerated covered..

Ingredients

• 250g well-drained, cooked beetroots, pureed
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 300g caster sugar
• 250ml vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 225g plain flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4. Grease and flour one 20x30cm (9x13 in) or similar sized baking tin.
2. In a large bowl, combine pureed beetroots, eggs, vanilla, oil and sugar. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa. Add to the creamed mixture, beating together well. Pour batter into prepared tin.
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until done. Cool and frost with your favourite icing. 

I have frosted with chocolate ganache.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I haven't blogged in a month and I haven't baked anything too since Christmas. I had made these Carrot Cupcakes during Christmas for my husband's colleagues and have been procrastinating since then to blog about it. The cupcakes turned out delicious and the feedback was great. Since I got to taste only a bite of it, I think maybe I should bake them again till the fresh red carrots are in market. 
The cupcake recipe is from here and for the frosting  I have modified the recipe which I used for Red Velvet Cupcake , by excluding White Chocolate. It tastes equally good. I remember, I had to use white chocolate then,as the cream cheese tasted sour, so white chocolate balanced the taste. The brand was different and now I stick to Philadelphia Cream cheese, which doesn't have a sour taste.
Ingredients
Makes 24 cupcakes
For Cupcake
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger [ I didn't use it]
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated peeled carrots
1 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

For Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz cream cheese

2 1/2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup icing sugar sifted

Preparation

For the Cupcake

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/177C. Line 24 cupcake molds with paper liners, or butter and flour them.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend.
3. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. 
4. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. 
5. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. 
6. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them. 
7. Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each.
8. Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pan for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack.
9. Let cool completely before icing them.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Beat Cream cheese and butter till light
2. Add vanilla extract
3. Add icing sugar and beat till smooth.

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

As promised, I am here with the recipe for the Chocolate Banana Cupcakes. It had been a long time since I had sent my baked goodies to my Husband's office. So I decided to make these cupcakes for them. The feedback was tremendous. My husband was asked if I delivered to home too, or if  I needed a shop. :-D
I got the recipe from tasteofhome. It was a plain banana cake to which I added chocolate. These are best when served fresh within few hours. It was great fun decorating these too..I made the flowers too ..3 flowers on each cupcake , around 60 flowers :))

Ingredients
[20 mini cupcakes]
1/2 cup shortening [ I didn't have shortening, used 1/2 cup butter + 3-4 tbsp vegetable oil)
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup dark chocolate ,melted
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk

Chocolate Ganache 
8 oz Dark Chocolate
4 oz Cream

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas and vanilla.
• Sieve the flour, baking soda, cocoa,baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
• Add the dry ingredients to wet mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.Fold in melted chocolate.
• Fill paper-lined  cupcake tin two-thirds full. Bake at 375F/190C for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• For Ganache, melt chocolate and whisk it smooth. Heat cream and add to melted chocolate. Stir till smooth. Add more cream, to reach to required consistency.  Dip the top of cupcakes into the ganache. Sprinkle some decorations and let it set in refrigerator for 30 minutes for the ganache to set.

I am sending these to following events.
 Healing Foods - Banana event by Siri hosted by Kirti 
Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday event by Aipi & Priya.
Hearth and Soul Hop

Six Months of SinFoodie

I completely forgot that I completed six months of blogging yesterday. And I remembered only a few minutes back. It was by chance that I made these banana chocolate cupcakes yesterday. Here is to celebrate the Six month anniversary.  I never thought I will be able to sustain for so long. But ,It has been for you lovely readers,silent ones too who have motivated me to keep going. Your comments, site visit counts all mean so much to me.

The recipe will follow some other day. :D:D

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes

India is playing finals of the world cup cricket match today against Sri Lanka.And things were not looking good. For the one time I entered the kitchen, a wicket fell down, so the superstition continued and I spent most of the Sri Lankan innings coming in and out of the kitchen. These cupcakes were made then, with the hope of enjoying them after India's win. But , Indian batting has started, and two of our best players are out and we have a huge score to chase. I wouldn't have been writing this post if situation was bright for us and would have been watching the game, but now, I need something to distract me. So here it is :
The recipe is from Kirbie's Cravings.

Update : India has won the world cup !!! All the cricket superstitions paid up finally :D  . Great effort by the Indian Team and very proud and emotional moment for us.

Ingredients [ for 12 small cupcakes]
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup fat free milk [ I had only 1/2 cup of milk at home, so added 1/4 cup butter milk]
1 tsp vanilla extract
Nutella

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease cupcake tin with liners and spray cooking spray on it.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and egg until combined. Add in flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Mix until combined.
3. Then mix in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.
4. Fill each cup about 2/3 full with batter. Add a dollop of nutella to each and swirl it around a few times with a knife.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow cupcakes to cool before serving.

The addition of buttermilk made it moist, which  I loved.

Red Velvet Cupcake

Finally, I have made it !!!

     This cupcake was on my agenda since a very long long time. I was looking for a suitable occasion. Had earlier planned to bake this for Animesh's birthday, but at that time I didn't get time to shop for the red food colour and cream cheese, so settled for Devilish Chocolate Cake then. And I didn't want to miss Valentine's day, because this is the perfect occasion, even though we no longer celebrate this day. 

   I started the preparation with a lot of fear as many things go wrong for people while making this cake. Either the the cake doesn't turn to have the required red colour ,or it becomes dense. Thankfully, nothing went wrong . Though, I gave a scare to Animesh with red colur on my hand. He almost rushed to get me some bandage :D .

    The cupcake came out soft and moist and with a beautiful red colour. The white cream-cheese adds to the beauty,though it is bit sweet.The recipe is adapted from the blog Apple A day mainly and some steps from Purplefoodie ..The ingredients from AAD have been halved to make 12 cupcakes.Amount of cocoa has been increased. Chocolate hearts are my own creation :)

And before I start my recipe, Happy Valentine's Day to all those who celebrate and Happy 14th Feb to those who don't. :-)

Cupcake  Ingredients

1 and 1/4 cup All purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar [ I used powdered Sugar]
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 and 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Egg
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk [ For making the buttermilk look at Devilish Chocolate Cake recipe]
1 tbsp red food coloring [ good quality- have used Wilton Paste]
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. white distilled vinegar

Preparation

1. Prepare the cupcake pan by placing paper liners and applying a little butter.Keep aside.
2. Preheat Oven to 170 C.
3. Sift flour, baking soda and salt.Keep aside.
4. Beat oil and sugar till light and fluffy.Add eggs and beat at high speed till incorporated.
5.  In another bowl, make a paste of vanilla extract,cocoa and red colour.
6. Add this paste and vinegar to the oil mix and mix till evenly combined.
7. Add the flour mixture [1/3rd at a time] and the buttermilk [1/2 at a time] alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 flour, 2 buttermilk). Let the mixture absorb the flour before adding more buttermilk. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl after the last addition of flour. No whites should be seen,
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan or pans and smooth the top of the batter.
9. Bake for 18 -20 mins or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Mine were done in 18 mins. Don't overbake it as it will become dry.

Cream cheese and White chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

4 oz cream cheese

2 1/2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup icing sugar sifted

4 oz while chocolate melted  smooth by heating in microwave at 30 sec interval

Preparation

1. Beat Cream cheese and butter till light
2. Add vanilla extract
3. Add icing sugar and beat till smooth.
4. Add melted white chocolate and beat till it is smooth.

Assembling the cupcake

1. Apply the frosting on the cupcake by cutting the tip of a plastic icing bag . Apply less if your not too fond of icing sugar taste. 
2. I made the chocolate hearts by adding red colour to melted white chocolate and cutting heart shapes.

Chocolate Cupcake

I love cupcakes. Since they are small,you can pretend that you are taking in less calories. Though, this doesn't hold true for me because once I begin eating them I can't stop picking up the next one. I have begun my baking journey by baking the simplest of them, the chocolate cupcake. I had planned to use a chocolate frosting but was in hurry the day these were made, so finally settled for the simplest buttercream frosting. If you look at the cupcake recipes online, plenty of frosting is used , But I have used it miserly as this frosting is very sweet.
As my learning process continues ,I have learned of many other kind of frosting techniques like Italian meringue buttercream , Swiss meringue buttercream  .I am yet to  try them.

Ingredients
For 16 cupcakes.

 1/2 cup  Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup  hot water

1 1/3 cups  all purpose flour [maida]

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp  vanilla extract OR 1 tsp vanilla essense [Preferably use vanilla extract]

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 185 degrees C. 
2. Line and butter cupcake pan with paper liners. 
3. In a small bowl stir  boiling water and cocoa powder till it is smooth.No lumps should remain. Cool it to room temperature. 
4. In a separate bowl whisk  flour, baking powder and salt. 
5. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add eggs, one at a time, beat till smooth.
7. Beat in the vanilla extract/essence.
8. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated
9. Add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
10. Fill each cup about two-thirds full with batter .Don't fill it to the full as the batter will rise it will overflow and lose its shape.
11. Bake for about 16-18minutes or until risen and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
12. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
13. Start frosting when the cupcake is completely cooled.

Buttercream Frosting

2 cups sifted Icing or powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract OR 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tablespoons milk or light cream

1. Cream butter till smooth.
2. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add the milk or cream and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy.
4. If you want coloured buttercream add some food colour.

The Recipe has been followed from JoyofBaking

Notes:

To make it more chocolaty add some melted chocolate in the cupcake batter. I felt a bit more chocolate flavor was needed.