Farewell Orange Creamcicle Cupcakes

The title is kinda confusing I guess. I'm not bidding farewell to orange creamcicle cupcakes. I'm using these cupcakes to bid farewell to my sister. That's kinda depressing cuz shes practically the sunshine in my life . So that makes the orange cupcakes kinda symbolical (Orange=sun . Gettit? Non?)

Anywhoo , I've never really had orange creamcicle(or have had but posses no memory of it) but we discovered this creamy orange drink in Ruby Tuesdays once and it was honestly Dream in a Tall glass. Since then we've had the same orange drink (under iota of varying names) all over town . It's so nice and tangy yet creamy and comforting that It deserves a cupcake!

Now i know cupcakes are an Absolute rage on the internet. My favorite cupcake place has to be the CupCake Project. Her creativity in terms of flavour combinations is magnificent. Really inspires me to get my innovation garb on. Post hours of creamcicle recipe research later all I could find was OJ, Jello and Cake mix combos (cake mix is a no-no-nonono-nono-no)
I said to myself- screw that! I am a Prodigious enough baker to make my own recipe (of course I tooka lot of advice form various sources. But hey, not all secrets are told to the world)
I just realize I did share that secret to the world through a public blog . Sometimes I wonder if all that accidentally hitting head on random surfaces actually damages brain tissue. OoohSQUIRREL!

Result: I made a recipe < insert I'm king of the world dance moves>

Lately my kitchen has been filling up with amazeballs bakery utensils. I had my @)th birthday( and I demanded baking products form everybody) ,accidentally tripped into a lot of kitchen stores(I assure you there was nothing accidental about that), et al.
Thus collecting a bunch of loaf tins(breadmaking  I'm coming soon) and  A TWELVE CUPCAKE CUPCAKE TIN! If you hit your head on random surfaces too : I used the cupcake tin for today's cupcakes.

Sippin some juice . Got thirsty

I just realized how much rambling has been done above. Without further ado *teleporting to recipe arena*

Orange Creamcicle Cupcakes

Makes 18-20 cupcakes depending on your generosity( I was a little too generous and made only 17)

Preheat oven to 180 C

Line the love of your life with pretty cupcake liners

Ingredients

2 cups flour ( remove 2 tbsp from that)

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup( 150 gm) butter

3 eggs

1/2 (1/4 +1/4)cup orange juice( I used packaged but i can bet fresh is better)

1/4th cup yogurt

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking soda

5(3+2) tbsp orange Tang 

Lets talk about Tang: For those of you who don't know, tang is an orange flavour drink mix.I've used it heavily in this recipe cuz i was too lazy to go buy real oranges and use their zest and i was out of orange oil and the shops nearby didn't have orange essence. HENCE tang.

Method

• Beat the bejeesus out of butter and sugar
• Beat in one egg at a time 
• Add vanilla
• Pour in 1/4 cup of Orange juice  and the yogurt . B-b-beat
• Sift in Flour , baking soda and 3 tablespoon tang. fold it in.
• Add in the remaining OJ. Mix it Lightly
• Fill up da cuppycake tray
• Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the top springs back on touch( I'm trying to look for alternates to the toothpick test . Apparently it compromises with the integrity of the cupcakes)

Sprinkle the reaming tang on the fresh hot cakelets . Ice . or eat

Tangy Yogurt Orange Icing

I just ball parked this entire thing but it turned out to be pretty damn awesome . I'm sure marshmallow frosting , buttercream or creamcheese frosting would rock creamcicle cupcakes' world too

DISCLAIMER: Only 6 cupcakes had to be iced so this ices only 6. Double treble or quadruple it to suit your needs. Also it's slightly runny. Doesn't reach stiff peaks

Thou Shalt Need

2 Tbsp Butter

4 Tbsp  Hung curd/ Greek Yogurt

1/2 cup Sugar

3 tsp Tang

What to Do

• Put it all in a bowl and whip it up
• Put a teaspoon each on top of a cupcake and swirl it away 

Now go give them tastebuds some citrus lovin

Strawberry Cakes Forever- Caramel Cake with Strawberry and Whipped Cream Frosting

Let me take you down

'Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hung about

Strawberry Fields forever

It was my Dad's birthday.
This caramel cake is my aunts old recipe. I had it once and was an instant fan .The lingering aftertaste of caramel is so beautiful and unexpected that I HAD to make it . Its a great cake in itself but a birthday cake deserves something more, so STRAWBERRIES! And that song played in my mind the entire time I was baking * yes my mind works in weird ways , hold back your judgement*

The Original Text

The recipe involves making a caramel and believe me when I say this , Caramel can be a nightmare! I have spent months and years trying to deal with sugar decorations and caramel and there's just too much precision involved for a broke teenager without a candy thermometer*This was 2 months ago . I now have a candy thermometer! wheee joy dance time  :D*. I could make a caramel sauce with butter cream and deliciousness , but never melt sugar in itself . That was until I saw my aunt do it with such ease and precision . Gave me hope in life and Ta-Daa . I can DO it ! and so can you *pom pom dance*

So the caramel is poured into the batter after cooling ( do cool it unless you want sweet butter soup . On second thoughts sweet butter soup does sound quite delicious.Mouth watering-drooool )

I mascerated some strawberries, cooked it with sugar and put it atop whipped cream icing.

The Strawberries complemented the caramel flavor amazingly! IT was a match made in culinary utopia. ATTENTION All strawberry and chocolate enthusiasts out there! This is the future of romantic desserts or otherwise. I can already picture hotels in 2024 offering Champagne and caramel strawberry packages *wink*.

My only problem was the whipped cream . Why? Here's the thing . I'm a firm believer in pure unprocessed products , so non dairy whipping cream is Just Not My Thing. Sadly the cream that we do get is only 20 % butterfat that is not right for whipping at all. Its doesn't go beyond soft peaks and weeps out a lot of water * boohoo* Then Sophia the explorer got to doing what she does best! exploring the internet- and found the magic ingredient! Drumroll Please -GELATIN! Not oodles and poodles enough to make mousse, But just a teaspoon dissolved in water to stabilize. And it oh so worked magic .

 Everyone at the Party RAVED abut this one . My poor Black-forest cake got little love :( . That's still a work in progress

Now lets get to the strawberry fields

Beat the butter

Pour some sugar

Beat

MMM caramel

Just Siftin

Caramel Cake

Preheat oven to 180 C

Grease and line a 9" cake dish( this makes a big cake. if you don't have a 9 inch use Two 8's)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar( divide in half)

1 cup( 200gm) butter

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup water(boiling)
1/4 cup milk

Method

• Take half cup sugar and melt it on low flame. Stirring with wooden spoon first and later just swirl. When it reaches a nice caramelly color pour in boiling water and stir. This will result in some fireworks but they die down. Once mixed remove from flame and let it cool
• Powder the remaining sugar. Beat with butter till light and creamy
• Pour in the cooled caramel( it doesnt have to be ice cold , just ensure its not boiling enough to give you scars)

At this point the butter will melt , cuz thats what butter does. If its too liquid you can place your bowl on top of another bowl filled with ice and cold water. As long as its relatively solid you're good to go

• Beat in 1 egg at a time . Add vanilla
• Sift in flour soda and powder and fold in batter
• Fold in the milk (The milk wasn't in the original recipe as this is more of a fruit cake- you can notice presence of nuts in original draft. But as i want a fluffy regular kind i added milk. Its still a thick batter but it works- Cake magic , go figure)
• Pour in tray , level it and bake for 50 -60 minutes  when toothpick inserted comes out clean 

P.s- this is a good teatime cake as it is . You can add nuts to it if you really really wanna

Macerated Strawberries

Ingredients

• 3 cups chopped Strawberries
• Sugar to taste

Method

• Muddle up the sugar and Berries. Let it sit for a while
• Put on heat , mash the berries for about 5 minutes

Stable Whipped Cream

Ingredients

• 200 ml Heavy cream ( I only get the 20 % butter fat one :|  so I have to make lemonade)
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 Tablespoon gelatin

Method

• Lightly mix the cream and sugar and refrigerate along with the whisk for an hour
• Soak the gelatin in 2 tablespoon water
• Whip cream to soft peaks
• Add vanilla and soaked gelatin
• Whip for hard peaks.

Now layer cream and strawberries and go wild .

This is honestly the top 3 cakes I've ever made flavour wise. Here's to caramelyy strawberriyy times 

Quickie! :Mango Sandwich

Here's a new feature I wanna start:
A Quickie- essentially no yaking, no reminiscing, only Superfast food !

I take that back. Less yaking.
Its SUMMERTIME! Read: Mango season. YAAAAYIEEE :D *epic joy dance*
Sadly the beginning mangoes are not so sweet so I'm the only one in the house loving these poor rejects.

This place in Old Delhi sells fruit sandwiches, I've heard so much and its been on my go to list since 2 years now . Hopefully these holidays is can tick it off the list
Until then I'll make it as home :)

WHAT YOU NEED

• Bread slices
• Mango (or any other fruit you want . or a mix)
• Paneer (any soft /hard cheese would do . this is just a basic structure)
• Chaat Masala *CAN'T BE DONE WITHOUT*

WHAT TO DO

• Chop up the fruit. Stuff on bread
• Crumble the cheese(paneer). Shower on Fruit(mango)
• Generously douse the fruit cheese and bread with magic flavorful powder(Chaat masala)
• Other bread on top

*CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP*

Happy Snacking HUMAAANS 

Chewy MMmmy Chocolate Chip Cookies - The taste of Success

Do you remember that friend's episode where Monica spends a lifetime trying to replicate Phoebe's grandmother's cookie recipe. And batch no 26 makes Chandler barf .Hehe. I should really stop watching Friends so much , but its so warm and loving that a marathon is necessary every 2-3 months!
Anywhoo , it turns out that the recipe was the Nestle toll house chocolate chip one so guess who put it on their Bakingbucketlist * I really do have a bakingbucketlist now. It has some very interesting things on it ! *

So on a glorious Tuesday morning, this excited little girl beat and mixed and stirred and baked. This is how it went

Me: I made cookies!
Friend: What Kind?
Me: The failure kind  :(

They fell flat , spread out  and had an over airy texture. Tasted nice and buttery but you would not buy a shitty looking cookie now would you?I Renamed then crapbakes- The same flat-spreading thing had happened to my sister's chocolate chip cookies once. She said they were like traybakes, I said more like crapbakes . Ever since then it's been our running joke.

The determined thing that I am I looked around and read Quintals of tips and tricks to nail cookies. Here's what I came up with.

A Messy Cook's Tips for Success Cookies

• Mix using a wooden spoon. An electric beater over-beats the batter making it too airy. This spoils the texture
• Melted butter gives a chewy texture. So find a recipe with melted butter if that's what you want. My mum didn't appreciate the chewyness , so cold butter for her.
• Use only Egg Yolks . Whites make it cakey -Unless you need macaroon or meringues , cuz they only use whites
• A little Cornflour helps . I don't know how but it just does
• A combination of brown sugar and white sugar's to be used. 
• Refrigerate the dough atleast for an  hour
• Roll the cookies vertically tall and not flattened
• Refrigerate for 15 minutes before cooking
• Make it with love and happiness. All food tastes better that way :)

I learnt most of this and made another batch using this recipe( 2/3rd of it actually)  and the cookies were EPICAWESOME! So I went ahead and named them success. 

Also I wasn't kidding about the Love part. Call me a hippie but 10 minutes into the recipe when the cookies were nicely round and not spreading out like pancakes, I sang I love you to them for the next 5 minutes- I kid you not.

The recipe then?

Chewy MMmmy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 170C

Line a baking tray with butterpaper and grease it

Ingredients

100gm(1/2cup) Melted Butter

1/4 cup White sugar

1/2 cup Brown sugar

( Feel kinda racist discriminating between the Caucasian and Indian sugars)

2 tbsp Honey

2 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 Egg Yolk ( reserve the white. If the batter is too thick then add a tablespoon but not all )

1 & 1/3 cup Flour

1 tbsp Cornflour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup - chocolate chips/ nuts/ MnMs/ Butterscotch chips/ what else can be put in a cookie?

Method

• Mix the butter and vanilla
• Powder the sugars and stir in using a wooden spoon
• Add honey, mix .Add egg yolk, mix - DO NOT OVER BEAT 
• Sift together Flour, Cornflour and soda. Mix in batter
• Stir in the 1 cup of culinary creativity
• Refrigerate the dough for atleast an hour
• Use a teaspoon to measure batter and make oval towers with your palm
• Line these on the tray . Cookies should be spaced out * high times yaow* with about an inch between them
• Refrigerate this for 10-15 minutes
• Bake for 10-12 minutes -*Whisper * I love you. I love you ,. I love you . I love you so much . I love you . I  love you . I love you

Let it cool .

I just lied . Don't let it cool . Eat a big bite, burn your tongue . But thou shalt have no regrets whatsoever