Beetroot Velvet Cup cake

Being a mother, feeding my son veggies is always my top priority, My lill one loves cup cakes & that too if its chocolate. I made some Beetroot velvet cup cakes for him yesterday & he loved it. I also iced some of these with Cream cheese frosting & they tasted out of this world! My lil one doesn't like icing & he loves to eat them just plain. My hubby & myself couldn't stop licking the icing. I topped these cup cakes with Strawberry to make it look beautiful. The Strawberries & this cream cheese frosting is like match made in heaven. I would have eaten more than 5 Strawberries dipping in the frosting in a minute (lol). This Cream cheese frosting is different compared to the regular cream cheese frosting & a must try.

There is so much craze these days for colored cakes & the Red Velvet cake is the most wanted ones. When it comes to coloring the cakes or icing I feel not so good. But these colored cakes are consumed once in a while, hence its fine if you are having occasionally. We all know that anything artificial is not good for our body. The velvet cake is not about the color but its about the texture of the cake, You can make velvet cakes even without any color. The magic for making cakes velvety, is the  combination of baking soda & sour ingredient, In this recipe its sour cream. There are recipes that use vinegar as well, but I love the flavor of sour cream & hence use it.

Makes: 15 cup cakes
Bake time: 25 mins
Making time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups cake flour
• 1.2 cup sugar  (powdered)
• 1 stick Butter (115 gms/8 Tbspn)
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tspn Vanilla extract
• 1 medium size beetroot grated
• 1/2 Tspn Baking powder
• 3/4 tspn Baking Soda
• 4 tbspn Sour cream
• 1 cup water.
• 3Tbspn Coco Powder

Method:

1. In a sauce pan add 1 cup of water, grated beetroot & cook this on medium flame for about 5 to 8 minutes. Until the water is drained off.
2. Once the Beetroot mixture is cooled, put it in the blender & puree it. Now sieve this mixture to remove any lumps & set aside
3. Cream the butter & sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs & sour cream one at a time & beat it with a electric mixture until its light & fluffy,
5. Sieve the dry ingredients & set aside
6. Now add in dry ingredients, Beetroot Puree & water little by little, while continue beating the mixture with the electric beater.
7. Once all the dry ingredients, Beet puree & water is added, mix the mixture for another 2 minutes until everything is well mixed.
8. Line the cup cake liner & pour the batter upto 3/4th. Bake this in a pre heated oven for about 25 to 30mins in a 350 F oven.

Cream cheese mixture:
This cream cheese mixture is out of the world. This is so tempting that this frosting can be had with fruits too. It was super yum with fresh Strawberries. The frosting is not very thick like other frostings. Its very light & soft.

Ingredients:

• 200gms Cream cheese (Philadelphia)
• 1 cup whipped cream or topping. (I used cool whip)
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tspn Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Whip the cream cheese, Vanilla extract & icing sugar until light & fluffy.
2. Now fold in the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture
3. The frosting is ready.

Note:

• Since Beetroot has a very strong raw smell, I decided to boil it before I pureed it. if you like them raw, then you can make a raw puree.
• If you want your cup cakes to look red color, then reduce the amount of cocoa powder.
• This icing is a soft icing, if you want it more stiff you may add in stiff whipping cream . I used the ready to use cool whip, which was very light & soft.

Barn Animal Cup cakes

My lill Zion's Bday is coming up & I have been so busy since morning yesterday preparing for his cake. As part of invitation , I also made cupcakes to give it to his friends today. His Bday theme is "Team Umizoomi Barn Party" Team Umi Zoomi is his fav cartoon show & in his school they are teaching them about farm animals this semester. So thought it will be a great idea to also combine farm animals. I feel this is a great way to familiarise him with all farm animals.

Last evening Zion went along with the maid & invited all his friends in the condo. His friends were very excited to see the farm animal cup cakes. Zion loves fondant & he was very excited to see the animal fondant toppers. I gave him a little bird & he directly puts it in his mouth & started munching. LOL I couldn't stop laughing looking at the way he was hogging it. He kept coming back to me asking for more & he ended up having a cow fondant topper too:) Well these are home made Marshmallow fondant & its completely safe for kids to eat. I am not sure why most people think that fondant is not good for kids. Its nothing but sugar paste. Well if you are talking about colour then "yes" we all know that colour is not good. But think again there are so many stuff in the market that has colour in them & we blindly eat them. So everything in moderation will not harm. what say? This is how I made it.

The cups cakes were my Vanilla cup cakes with Strawberry Butter cream Icing. For the recipe Click here

Fondant Recipe

• 1 Packet Marshmallows (250 gms)
• 2 Tbsp water
• 500 gms Icing sugar

Directions:

1. Place the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl add in 2 Tbspn of water & heat it for 2 minutes. Stop after 1 minute saute with a spoon & again heat it for another minute.
2. Now add in icing sugar & colour if required & knead to make it a soft dough.
3. Cover this & set aside for about 2 hours. Now it is ready to use.
4. Make sure you place the fondant topper on top of the Butter cream.
5. I used a basic round tip to pipe the sheep hair & also round swirl on top of the cup cake.

I could take step by pictures only for Pig & for the rest I couldnt as my maid was busy with some other work. I will defenitely try & do a video recipe soon on how to make these toppers.

 

 

Vanilla Cupcakes

Cup cakes are a biggest part of my life now. These easy little simple beautiful sweet is a treat any time. I make cup cakes more often when I have guests at home or just like that for tea time. You can never go wrong with the cup cakes compared to baking a cake. These can be done so fast & you can dress them up how ever you want. I made these small beauties a month ago when my Hubby's church priest had come home. Along with cup cakes, I also had made some samosas & Pakoras. The priest was so impressed looking at the cup cakes & was so happy to know that it was home made. A pretty looking cup cakes are always a centre of attraction. This is how I made these:

Makes 12 Medium size cup cakes
Baking time: 30 mins
Making time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Plain flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar (Powdered)
• 1.5 Tspn Baking powder
• 3 Tbspn Milk
• 1/4 Tspn salt
• 125 gms Butter
• 1 Tbspn Vanilla Essence
• 2 Eggs

Strawberry Flavour Butter cream:

• 150 gms Butter
• 3 Cups sifted Icing sugar
• 4 Tbsp Whipping cream
• 1 Tspn Strawberry Essence
• Pinch of salt
• Drop of pink gel colour or any colour

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with paper liners; set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In another mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated and scraping down sides of bowl, beat in vanilla essence
4. Add flour mixture and milk alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl to assure the batter is thoroughly mixed.
5. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling papers about 2/3 full.
6. Bake on the centre rack of the oven until tops spring back to touch, about 20 - 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. For the Butter cream frosting: Make sure butter is at room temperature & not very soft.
8. In the bowl cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes with an electric beater on medium speed.
9. Add 3 cups icing sugar one cup at a time. Once the icing sugar is well mixed add whipping cream and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If if you feel the frosting consistency is not right, then add in some more icing sugar. 
10. Now add in any colour of your choice & mix well with a spoon or with an electric beater for a minute.
11. Filling the piping bag with the frosting & make any pattern that you like. I used the big star tip for this simple design.

 

 

Note:

• This Butter cream is a very light fluffy & tastier than the traditional butter cream. The whipping cream in the frosting makes it even more creamy, light, fluffy & Delicious. You must try this to believe my words:)
• I added Strawberry flavour as I love it. You can replace this with any other flavour of your choice.
 

 

Pineapple cup cake video recipe

 

 

Had put my son to sleep thinking we will do a video recipe . Unfortunately my lill boy got up inbetween & he is there in this video:) This is my first video recipe & there is a lot of scope of improvement. Hopefully as days pass by, I will slowly master this skill. My Maid "Mary" is the videographer & a big thanks to her for doing a great job. The video is in 3 parts & I hope you will like it:)

 

Pineapple cup cakes are our fav at home. Since we are adding real fruit in this cake, the cake turns out to be very moist & tasty. Its a very simple recipe & any one can make this.  The cake tastes even better the next day as the juices in the pineapple makes the cake very moist & tastier.

 

Ingredients:
1 cup maida (All purpose flour)
2 eggs
120 gms butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tspn Pineapple essence

1 Tspn Vanilla Essence
1 cup canned small pineapple pieces (1/2 Tin)
1 tbspn baking powder
1/4 Tspn salt

Method:

Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy with an electric mixer or a spoon/ whisk. Pour in beaten eggs & mix until creamy.

Add in flour, salt, baking powder and beat until combined. Add pineapple pieces, pineapple essence, vanilla essence and mix well. Fill half the cup cake liners with this batter & bake in preheated 350'F oven for 20- 25 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Click the link below to watch the video recipe:
Part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tai2sTg8ZU&feature=youtu.be

Part2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A7QQK0Zaxs
 

Carrot Cup cakes

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
100 gms Butter

1/2 cup grated carrots

1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Cream the butter, Vanilla essence & sugar for 2 minutes. Add Eggs one at a time & best for another 1 minute. Now add in all the dry ingredinets along with carrots & mix well with a hand whisk or spoon. Add milk as required to get the correct consistancy of cake batter.

Spoon cupcake batter into paper liners until 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

 

Apple shaped Vanilla Cup Cakes

One of my friends in the condo ordered these for her Daughter Snowwhite Birthday party. I made around 35 cup cakes.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 200 gms Butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 large eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add Butter, milk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape side of bowl with a spatula. Add eggs to the mixture. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape bowl again. Beat on high speed for 1 minute 30 seconds until well mixed. Spoon cupcake batter into paper liners until 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes in pans then remove and place on wire racks to cool completely. Once cupcakes are completely cooled, frost with your favorite frosting recipe or decorate as you desire.

For the Forsting:

250 gms Salted Butter
500 gms icing sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Red Food Gel Color
Decoration: Colored sugar & chocolate fondant.

Method: Beat the above mixture in an electric beater until its smooth & fluffy for about 5 mins. Take a spatula & ice the cup cakes well. In a bowl pour in the red colred sugar. Dip the iced cup cakes into the sugar micture so its well coated. For the stem I used choc0late flavoured fondant.