C for Cupcakes!

As far as my memory goes back, I have seen my mother baking cakes. I used to love watching her whip up cake batter and I used to love helping her with the mixing. I remember sitting and gazing with wonder at the ease with which she made those cakes – vanilla, orange, chocolate. And then I had the utter happiness of eating those divine cakes. I developed a love for cakes since that tender age and have never fallen out of love.

Under her tutelage, I learnt how to bake cakes on my own; the measurements, the techniques, the little tips and tricks of baking a cake and then icing it. Eventually, once I had my own kitchen, I ventured onto making cupcakes, adding my own twist here and there.

Travel Connection?

Cupcakes are global! Enough said. That is the connection. In every country I have been to, every hotel breakfast buffet has had cupcakes of some kind or another. Even buffet restaurants here in India almost always have cupcakes in their dessert option. Without further ado, here’s my recipe for chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing.

Ingredients:

Flour – 1.5 cups (~200gms.)

Baking powder – 1.5 tsp.

Cocoa powder – ¾ cup

Butter – 75gms. (at room temp.)

Sugar – 1.5 cups (~180gms.)

Eggs – 4

For the icing:

Butter – 25gms. (at room temp.)

Powdered sugar – 1/3 cup

Warm water – as required

Method:

1. Sieve together the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. This helps to create a homogenous mixture and to avoid lumps. Do the sieving at least three times.
2. In a mixer, mix the sugar and butter together until they are properly blended.
3. Add the eggs and blend thoroughly. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl.
4. Next, add the dry ingredients’ mix 3-4 tbps. at a time and mix by hand until you get a nice smooth dough.

Tip: Always be sure to mix in the same direction be it clockwise or anticlockwise. The whole mixing can be done in a mixer or a food processor, but I find mixing by hand is the best atleast partially as indicated above.

• Preheat the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, grease your cupcake tray, place cupcake liners (if available) and ladle the batter into them. The cupcake molds should be filled upto ¾ height only to allow space for rising.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until a tester (usually a fork) comes out clean.
• Cool the cupcakes and then its icing time!
• For the icing, mix together butter and powdered sugar, adding a little warm water to ensure correct consistency.
• Spoon the icing onto the cupcakes and then use a butter knife dipped in warm water to smooth them out over the surface of the cakes.
• Optional: If you have piping bags, use them to pipe your buttercream icing onto your cupcakes.

Delicious cupcakes are now ready to gorge on! Try this recipe out and let me know how it turns out for you. I’m sure you will love them.

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This post was written for Blogchatter A2Z challenge; Day 3 – Letter “C”.