Eggless Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes / Mini Cupcakes / Muffins

[Video update on 4th March:

 ]

Who likes a hint of coffee in a moist, luscious, chocolate cupcake? I do! And so, when I was trying a batch of mini chocolate cupcakes last month, I went ahead and added some coffee in it. I loved the result and thought of sharing with you all. For this post, I made regular muffins, but given a choice, I'd go for a mini muffin any day. They are cute, just a tad bigger than bite-sized and, they've always been my favourite form of cake! If you do not have a mini muffin tray, you can use a regular muffin tray, but like I have said in my earlier posts here and here, do try to get your hands on one!

 I have not iced these cupcakes because they taste great as they are. The recipe is slightly modified from my earlier post on eggless chocolate cake. I halved the recipe and made some minor changes. If you want to make only chocolate cupcakes or just an eggless chocolate cake, then you should definitely try that recipe.

Ingredient:

1 cup water

1 ½ tsp coffee powder

1 ½ cups maida or all purpose flour

3 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 ¼cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup oil

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (or vinegar)

1 tsp vanilla essence

* Preferably caster sugar. If using regular granulated sugar, grind in a dry mixer for a couple of seconds. This is to dissolve sugar easily later. Optional step.

Method:

Bring water to a light boil and dissolve the coffee powder in it. Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile in a bowl, mix maida, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. [ Run them through a sieve if they have lumps].
In a large bowl, mix all the wet ingredients - coffee solution, oil, vanilla, lemon juice, Add sugar and blend with a hand-held electric mixture till sugar dissolves. To this add the dry maida mixture little by little and mix thoroughly to get a smooth mixture. Blend for a few seconds.

Preheat the oven to 170  ͦC [340  ͦF].  

Line a muffin or mini muffin tray with paper liners. Pour in the batter till they are 2/3rd full.

Bake for about 20  to 22 minutes for muffins (15 to 18 minutes for mini muffins) or till fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.

NOTE: If the cupcakes are overdone, the edges tend to become crisp and stick to the paper liner.  Every oven differs in baking time so keep an eye. Once they are done, leave them to cool completely and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes. Otherwise they may not come off easily from the paper liner.

You can easily double the recipe if you are looking to make lots of cupcakes. Infact I made a huge batch of these cuties for my son's birthday. The picture below is of a mini muffin tray and of the cute li'l muffins ready to be arranged for the party on their cupcake stand.

Go ahead and ice these cupcakes with icing of your choice and sprinkle some sprinklers on them if you like them pretty. As for me, I was content with these cuties adorning the dining table during the party. A proud moment indeed :)!

Basic Cake / Vanilla Cake

Under all the beautifully hand crafted fondant, the deliciously flavoured frosting and the subtle, creamy filling, lies a simple cake that holds these elements together. Here's a recipe of one such cake.

This is a vanilla cake by virtue of the vanilla essense I added, but you can experiment with any flavour of your choice. Another similar post that I have is of a simple yellow cake which is very easy to make, but I wanted one which required only 1 cake pan. So I went ahead and halved the ingredients of the famous 1234 cake adjusting butter according to the way it's packaged in India. Here we get butter in 100g slabs unlike the sticks it comes in elsewhere. 1 stick equals 113 g or 1/2 cup while a slab weighs 100g.

Ingredients :
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
100g butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

Note:
-All the ingredients, specially butter, should be at room temperature.
-Baking powder is different from baking soda.
-Please check the contents of the butter. If it has salt, don't add extra salt. You can add a small pinch if you want to. I forgot the butter was salted and I did add a pinch, but the cake turned out fine. Besides, I like salt. If the butter is unsalted, add a good pinch of salt.
-Try and use castor sugar (thin granules) if you want the butter and sugar to cream beautifully. I used granulated sugar which I found in my nearest small grocery store. The kind you run to after you start cooking. This sugar was very stubborn and did not want to get creamed easily.
-Try to get your hands on good quality vanilla essence. Always smell it before you add it. There was a time when I threw my cake because the synthetic vanilla essence I used was horrible. It was horrible. Did I tell you it was horrible?
-Try to get your hands yet again, on good quality parchment paper. It's a big boon. You don't have to grease too much and your cake will pop out right out when you invert the baking pan.
-Before using all purpose flour (maida), sift it to remove lumps/ impurities, if you wish to do so. To sift, just pass it to a large sifter / strainer.

Method:

First mix the dry ingredients. For this, in a bowl, add maida, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix well.

Now in a large bowl, take some butter. The butter should be soft enough to be mixed easily. Add sugar and mix with a spoon or spatula. With a hand held electric mixer, blend the sugar and butter for a minute or two till you get a nice creamy mixture. Add eggs and vanilla essence [ Notice how well I've succeeded in highlighting the eggs and not focus on the "creamed" sugar and butter, because, well, it did not cream well]  Blend to get a creamy mixture. To this add milk and flour mixture [the dry ingredients which you had mixed earlier] little by little and blend gently as you add. Towards the end, mix well with a large spoon or spatula, scraping the sides.

Preheat the oven to 170C [340F].

Grease the sides and bottom of an 8" or 9" baking tin with oil, butter or ghee. I also lined the base with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the tin. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or till a fork inserted in the centre comes out clean. [ I baked for 35 minutes so the cake browned a little more, but the taste was great. Infact I like it that way. I'm not justifying]. Allow to cool and invert on to a cakeboard / plate.

So now that you have a simple basic vanilla cake, you can experiment with flavours, fillings, icings, toppings and what not. Happy Baking!

Easy Eggless Banana Cake

Usually when I buy bananas, I end up buying a dozen of them. They come home with me and sit stubbornly in the fruit basket, as if gesturing to stay away for a few days till they ripen. And ripen they do, all together, making me wonder if they take a silent pledge of equal fruition. Almost always a couple of these bananas, specially the ones that stay at the bottom of the pile, end up getting ignored, and they seem to vehemently make this clear by quietly changing colour.

That, ofcourse, is not an excuse to bake this cake. Infact, I made this cake just as the bananas ripened, because I was waiting to lay my hands yet again on my new OTG after the delicious outcome of my earlier experiment - Eggless mini mango muffins. Just like the mango muffins, this is an eggless cake that comes out soft and light.

So here's the recipe. It's easy to make with ingredients probably available in your house right now.

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized ripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup yogurt (curd)
1/4 cup oil
1 pinch salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup maida or all purpose flour

Method:
Roughly chop bananas and blend with sugar and yogurt for about 20 seconds to get a smooth paste (there shouldn't be any banana chunks).
Transfer this paste to a large bowl. Add oil, mix gently till you fold it in and then mix thoroughly. Add salt and baking soda and mix. To this add maida little by little mixing as you add. Mix thoroughly, scraping the sides, and get rid of all lumps to get a nice and smooth paste. [You can use an electric hand mixer]. Make sure there are no lumps and that all ingredients are mixed really well.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

Line a baking tin with parchment paper or grease it well with oil. [ Use a 7" round tin. I used 8" and the cake became thinner than I'd have liked].
Pour the cake batter into the baking tin. Bake for 35 minutes (+ or - 5 minutes depending on the oven), till a fork inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool. Invert the cake (gently peel off the parchment paper if you have used it).

My husband's serving suggestion - have this hot with ice-cream. Sounds yum!

Eggless Mini Mango Muffins

[Video update on 30/4/2015 :


 ]

Mango is such a divine fruit.  Mangoes are pulpy, juicy, sweet, luscious. Their bright orange-yellow colour plays with your eyes and their succulence makes them totally irresistible.

Here's an easy, eggless recipe with easily-available ingredients to make mini muffins out of these delicious mangoes. I prefer mini muffins to muffins because they are smaller, good for a quick bite and can be very appealing. If you don't have a mini muffin tray, you can use a regular muffin/ cupcake tray (baking time will increase by about 10 minutes), but I would urge you to get yourself the mini muffin tray. A few online stores seem to sell them. Mini muffins look very cute and you can serve them at a party or take them to your friend's house or to your child's play date and they will be immediately liked. You can even slip one into your child's tiffin box.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups Maida or all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

¾ cup sugar

3 to 4 cardamom pods

½ cup melted butter OR ghee

½ cup thick yogurt/ curd

2 large or medium mangoes (for 1 cup thick

mango pulp)

Note :
- I used 2 regular sized mangoes for the pulp/ puree. For best results use ripe and sweet mangoes.
- All ingredients, specially the mango, should be at room temperature.

Method:
In a bowl, combine maida and baking soda and keep aside.
Discard the skin and blend cardamom with sugar for about 10 seconds. Take this powdered sugar into a large bowl. Add ghee and mix well. Get rid of lumps. To this add curd and mix thoroughly. Get rid of lumps.

To make the puree, chop mangoes roughly and blend for 10 to 15 seconds or till you get a fine puree. Measure out one cup [You may need more mango depending on the size. ] Add puree to the above mixture and mix really well. Get rid of lumps. You don't want any lumps.

To this, add the maida+baking soda little by little and mix thoroughly [ I used my handheld whisk. You can use an electric hand mixer to get a smooth mix.]  Make sure you get rid of lumps. The batter should be smooth and lump-free.

Preheat the oven to 170˚C or 340˚F.

Line a mini muffin tray with paper liners. If you don't have a mini muffin tray you can use a regular muffin tray. The baking time will vary.
Using two spoons get the batter into each liner till it's 3/4th full.
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, till the muffins are done and a fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.
[If you are using a regular muffin tray, bake for about 22 minutes.]

Allow to cool. You can frost these muffins and make cute cupcakes out of them. [If you are using a regular muffin tray and you realise only later that the inside in still a little sticky, then refrigerate the muffins and they should be good after an hour].

Enjoy these cute treats with your family or friends!

Super Easy 5 Minute Eggless Microwave Oreo Biscuit Cake

[Video update on 22/02/2016

 ]

Hungry for a cake, but lazy to make an elaborate one? Here's a quick and easy recipe for a semi-homemade cake, so to speak.

Ingredients :
1 large packet and 1 small packet of oreo biscuits (19 pairs. 38 biscuits in total)
1 cup milk (240 ml)

¾ tsp baking powder OR ¾ tsp Eno

3 tbsp sugar


Method:
Crush the biscuits roughly.  [Do not remove the cream]. Transfer to a blender. Add the other ingredients and blend into a smooth paste.
Grease a microwave safe dish liberally with butter, oil or ghee. [You can also line the base with parchment paper/ butter paper to get a clean top while inverting. Please use good quality parchment paper. I first greased the bottom and sides and placed the parchment paper like so:









]

Transfer the cake batter into the dish. Microwave for 5 minutes [in regular microwave mode]. You will see some moist spots on the top and sides. That's fine.
Do not touch the cake for atleast another 15 minutes, you want to let it cook with the heat trapped inside.

[If you wish to invert the cake, let it cool for 30 minutes. Check this post for more tips. If you have used parchment paper to line the base, you can invert it in lesser time. ]

You can top the cake with sugar powder. Just take some powdered sugar in a strainer and splash it all over the cake.

Perfect for a last minute (oops last 5 minute) snack! Happy New Year!

Update : Made this with Oreo orange creme biscuits.  Loved the subtle orange flavour. This time, I used baking powder instead of eno. And the lines on top - that's Nutella!

Thanks to the internet for letting me know you can make cakes with biscuits! I experimented with my favourite Oreo cookies and now I have a quick cake recipe.

A couple more eggless microwave cake recipes -
Eggless Microwave Chocolate Cake
Eggless Microwave Coffee Cake

(H)ap(p)y 2nd B'day Apy Cooking! Celebrating with Doll Cake

I always loved writing. Two years back I took a step forward and brought together my two favourite hobbies - experimenting in the kitchen and writing, which gave birth to my blog - Apy Cooking. Till then, I was a happy cook, usually satisfied with my experiments (more with the process than the result).

And then I became thirsty. I wanted to do more. There was this urge to emulate various food bloggers. I wanted to make bread, cakes, decorate them, I wanted to fuse food of different cultures. I started getting hunger pangs for bigger challenges. I wanted to make 3D cakes, I included non veg dishes in my cooking, I made fondant at home.  Results mattered more than the process and Apy Cooking became a passion than a mere food blog.

And then it was time to leave, to bid adieu to my kitchen in sunny Sunnyvale. Bags were being packed, boxes were getting wrapped, and in the middle of all this, my heart was longing to make something very special for my dear food blog. A doll cake. Seriously?? Just a week left to pack up and relocate to India and I wanted to make a doll cake?? Yes, I did. So I unwrapped the homemade marshmallow fondant, whipped up two small microwave chocolate cakes, drenched them with yummilicous Nutella, spread rolled fondant, dressed up the doll and took pictures like my tail was on fire. I was amazed at how fast I could actually make something and take pictures, much to the surprise of my husband who always claimed I spent more time taking pictures of the food than in actually cooking it. I was so tired at the end of it that all I wanted to do was plunge into the hazelnut frosted cake and take a big, fulfilling bite.

So here's how I made the doll cake. I looked up on the internet, ofcourse, for some ideas. I bought a small doll from Michael's (you can get a bigger doll for a bigger cake). I then made half recipe of microwave chocolate cake and poured the batter into two microwave-safe bowls, one larger than the other. I microwaved the cakes [ smaller bowl - 2 minutes, larger bowl - 3 1/2 minutes ], allowed to cool completely and inverted them. I then frosted with Nutella and placed the smaller cake on the larger one and frosted all over.

I then took a small portion of marshmallow fondant (you can use store-bought fondant), dusted powdered sugar (u can use crisco) on the mat (fondant sticks easily to countertops, add more crisco if not using a mat, or stick parchment paper on the countertop), coloured the fondant and rolled it. I then covered the cake with the coloured fondant and removed the extra bits.

It was time to dress the doll. I do wish I had more time to make the dress a lot prettier. But the large carboard boxes were calling for attention, so I wrapped the poor doll in average "clothes" (thank God dolls don't speak), placed some beads made of fondant and piped buttercream stars on the dress. I did want to avoid using buttercream and wanted to make it all fondant. But just to be safe, I had a small jar of store-bought buttercream icing (thank you, Wilton). I'm glad I had it because Nutella, being brown in colour peeps through the clothes when you try to join two fondant bits. I got away with the beads on her waist, but for the neckline and the little rose on her shoulder (ahem, I'm not exactly a fashion designer), I used buttercream for binding.

I was so happy and thrilled at the end to see the little doll in her pretty dress. Reminded me of the time I had seen a barbie doll cake for a cousin's 5th b'day party. Though not as beautifully decked up as the Barbie doll cake, my little doll stood proud as we celebrated.

 Happy B'day Apy Cooking!! Not sure when the next post will be since we arrived only yesterday and have a lot of settling down to do, but until then dear readers, Happy Cooking!!

Valentine Brownies

This morning my son had a Valentine's Day party in school and he wanted me to make a cake for his friends. Using a heart-shaped pan, I baked these brownies and sprinkled powdered sugar on top.

The heart shapes are cut-outs of parchment paper on which I sprinkled powdered sugar. My son was very excited about the cake and helped me place the hearts on the cake. Here's to another kitchen adventure with my son!!

Links : Cake-ish Chocolate Brownies
            Hearts on top

Homemade Marshmallow Fondant

A couple of years ago, I had no idea what fondant tasted like. But I was very interested to work with it after watching several Food Network Challenge episodes. The first and only fondant I used was Wilton's store-bought fondant which we were asked to use at a class. Fondant is like play dough - pliable but edible. Fondant makes a cake look neat and lovely. Here's a picture of a cake I decorated with store-bought fondant (the bow is gum-paste) -

Now months later, I decided to try my hand at making fondant at home. I browsed the internet and found that marshmallow fondant was easy to make. All you need are the following ingredients-

8oz (4 cups) mini marshmallows
1 lb (a little more than 4 cups) powdered sugar
2 tbsp water

Yes that's all!! You need some crisco to grease your hands, but I didn't have any. So I thought of dusting my hands with powdered sugar, which I forgot to do. This is a very important step otherwise you will end up with a super duper mess. If that happens, just rub your hands with powdered sugar and you are good to go.

Method : (I referred this)
In a large microwave safe bowl, pour in the mini marshmallows and water. Microwave 1 minute on high. Remove and mix thoroughly, pressing the marshmallows, till you get a smooth paste. [If required, microwave for a few more seconds]. Pour powdered sugar. Mix, mix, mix.

Dust your palms with powdered sugar. Transfer the mixture to a clean cutting board and knead for a few minutes. Add a little more powdered sugar if required. Knead, knead, knead till you get smooth and pliable fondant.

If you'd like to colour your fondant, then dip a tooth pick in the colour, pull it across the required amount of fondant and knead again. You will see the colour in streaks. Knead well. Roll using a fondant roller or chapati roller.  Using cookie cutters or fondant cutters, cut into desired shapes.

Cover fondant with a plastic wrap and store in an airtight container. Whenever you want to use it, just microwave for a few seconds, knead well and roll. Cut into desired shapes and adorn these on your cakes or cupcakes!!

Hearts for Your Valentine / How to Sprinkle "Love" on Your Cakes

Valentine's day is just around the corner and you would like to make a pretty heart-shaped cake for your sweetheart. But you don't have a heart-shaped pan. No worries, just sprinkle some powdered sugar, sugar sprinkles or cocoa powder on your cake and there, love is all around!!

This is how you sprinkle "love":
If you are decorating a cake with icing, make sure the icing has set properly.
Take a parchment paper and cut out a heart-shaped design on it.

[Parchment paper  should be used because it sticks easily to the icing and can be peeled off easily too. If the cake does not have icing then you may have to grease the parchment cut-outs with a little oil or butter so that they stick easily to the cake].

Place either the heart design or the outline on the cake. In a small strainer, pour a little powdered sugar / coloured sugar crystles / cocoa powder (contrasting the colour of the cake / icing). Sprinkle on the cake.
[I circle the back of a spoon or fork in the strainer so that it doesn't fall all over. If you are using thicker sugar sprinkles that don't pass through a sieve, sprinkle them directly. Also, if you are sprinkling powdered sugar then do so just before you serve. If you refrigerate it, the powdered sugar will melt and disappear!!]

Remove the design and ta-da!!

You can decorate  a large cake with little hearts all over. You can even decorate your plates or cake-boards with designs of your choice. Go ahead, impress your Valentine!

My Baby Turns Three!! Celebrating with Train Cake

Happy B'day Vineet!!

My li'l baby is now three years old!! This year I made a train cake for him which we took to his school. I followed this video to make the train. For the cake I used this recipe - baked the batter in a 9" loaf pan (for about 60 minutes). I made two batches for two loaf pans.

I did not take step by step pictures because the entire process was time consuming and I had a lot of buttercream all over my hands!! I used Wilton's store-bought icing to ice and decorate the cakes. All the steps are clearly given in the video. I more or less followed the video, making a few changes here and there.

I finished decorating the cake at 3am what with the crumb coating and all. My son was up till about 10 pm, wondering when I would finish making the cake, after which he went off to sleep. I had just finished making the loaves when he slept so he had no idea what was happening next. Until the next day when he woke up and saw the train cake. The look on his face was priceless!! :)

Merry Christmas!! Reposting Santa Claus Cake

Hey all,

I was very excited to note that a lot of people visit my 'Santa Claus Cake'  post through search engines. So I decided to repost this cake.

It is not as difficult as it looks. You can find more details here, where I've explained how I traced the designs and what tips I used to decorate. Go ahead, try it, you are so going to love it!

For the 2-layer cake you can check the following posts -
Yellow Cake
Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake
Basket Weave Cake

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! Happy Baking!!

Spider Web Mini Muffins / Cupcakes for Halloween

I had big plans for this Halloween. I wanted to make something huge - probably as big as a large pumpkin. But I ended up making these cute li'l spiderweb muffins for my son's Halloween parade in school. No complaints. Except that I wish I could spend some more time and make them a little neater. I also wanted to add an edible spider and a couple more tasty accessories. But I was terribly short on time and decorated 24 mini muffins in less than 15 minutes! (dear hubby helped too). Anyway, that's just about how much time it takes to make these cute spiderwebs.

To make these spiderweb muffins, first of all, you need some delicious muffins. I used homemade banana muffins but you can use any store-bought ones too. Since it's for Halloween I chose liners with pumpkin designs.
To make the spider webs, you need two ingredients - white chocolate and semi-sweet (or milk) chocolates.
I used 3/4 cup white chocolate chips and  5oz semi sweet baking chocolate squares. You could use semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips too.

Microwave semi-sweet chocolate squares (or chips) for 1 minute. Stir well. Microwave for another 30 to 50 seconds. Mix well. Allow to cool.
Separately microwave white chocolate chips for 1 minute. Mix really well. Microwave for additional 15 seconds. Mix well. Allow to cool. Transfer into a piping bag or a ziploc. Snip off a tiny piece of the edge using a pair of scissors.

Now take a mini muffin and spread the melted semi-sweet chocolate around it. Take the piping bag filled with melted white chocolate and draw concentric circles on top. Using a toothpick, immediately pull lines along the diameters. There, you got your spiderweb! Thank you internet.

Do not touch the muffins (as tempting as it may be) for a few minutes till the chocolate hardens.

Note -
Before you decorate the muffins, make sure they have cooled down.
The melted chocolates (especially white chocolate) tend to harden even at room temperature, so work fast. If you feel it's hardening as you work, microwave for a few seconds and mix well. You can place the piping bag in the microwave.

Accessorize with toy spiders.

Mini Banana Muffins

I find mini muffins cute. Very very cute. Specially when they are held by tiny little hands. Like my son's. He absolutely loves mini muffins. I first baked these when his friends came over for a playdate. I baked these again today. Thought I'd share them with you. I found the recipe in Sweet Oven Lovin' and made a couple of minor changes. Both times these have turned out pretty good. 

I made these today specially for my son's Halloween parade at school. These are the shots taken before decorating. If the decoration comes out good, these will probably feature in my next post too.

Ingredients :

2 medium or large ripe bananas

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour or maida

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method :

Peel and mash bananas.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line mini muffin pan with liners. If you don't have liners, grease them well.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, with a hand held electric mixer, beat sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time and beat. Add vanilla and beat further.  To this add the mashed bananas and beat well.

Add flour mixture little by little and beat at low speed. [Don't add all at once as the flour will fly all over]. Do not over mix. You can even mix with a fork or large spoon. A few lumps are ok.

Pour the batter into the muffin liners, till each liner is almost full. The muffins will expand so leave some room. [ I used two spoons to fill the liners. One to scoop out the batter from the bowl and the other to scoop out the batter from the spoon and scoop it into the liners].

Bake for 11 to 12 minutes or till fork inserted in the muffin comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely. Tastes better after you refrigerate for sometime.
Makes 24 to 28 mini muffins.