Cupcakes for Spring

Friday night - Late at work. Wrap up work. Thank the lord! Check weekend forecast. Sigh..yet another rainy, cloudy, gloomy weekend.
Saturday morning. In bed. Sun peeps through window. What do you do? Jump out, open all the windows, dance(..sorta..) in your PJs!
Sometimes I love it when these weather forecasts are proven wrong. Easter weekend had a similar story. This weekend was another pleasant surprise.
After days of grey, today anything bright and colourful had such a calming affect on me. Spring is here. Let us celebrate.

Did I tell you I have bought dozens of new silicone moulds? Today was the perfect day to do justice to them. The cupcakes themselves are pretty basic. I refrigerated the batter for an hour while I went out for some grocery shopping - hence the domes.




Cupcakes for Spring
Here is the recipe (from the joyofbaking.com)

INGREDIENTS

1. 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2. 2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
3. 3 large eggs
4. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5. Zest of 1 large lemon (optional)
6. 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
7. 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
8. 1/4 teaspoon salt
9. 1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Brush your muffin tin with butter or line them with cupcake liners. I used silicone moulds.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.
5. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Checkout my latest post : Win a $100 giveaway and a chance to win a Kitchen Aid standmixer!

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Shahi Tukra - Emperor's morsel

As you can tell, I am still keeping my promise. Another Indian dish. The dish is called "Shahi Tukra" or Emperor's Morsel. The very name speaks of royalty, decadence and richness. It is all of these, only easier than it sounds!

This is a type of bread pudding that has its origins in the Mughlai cuisine. Mughlai cuisine is a South Asian cuisine, influenced by the imperial kitchens of the Mughal Empire. The cuisine is strongly influenced by Persian, and Turkic cuisines of Central Asia.
Shahi Tukra is a rich dessert made with bread, ghee, saffron, sugar, rabri(a cardamom flavored reduction of whole milk), almonds and an optional gold or silver leaf for added opulence!

Another not-so-royal name that it is known with is "Double ka meetha". Double here referring to bread - just an Indian name of bread - Double Roti, while "meetha" meaning sweet.

With a name so rich and opulent sounding, there is no way I am going to try to make it healthy. It must be eaten with all the fat, cream, sugar and white bread that you can eat! So here is the recipe





INGREDIENTS
For the Rabri
• 3 cups whole milk
• 3 Cardamom pods, crushed

For the sugar syrup
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Water

• 4 slices Bread
• 3 tbsp Ghee
• 4-5 Pistachios, blanched and chopped
• 4-5 Almonds, toasted and sliced
• 4-5 raisins(optional)
• Few strands of saffron

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut each slice of bread into 4 pieces . A day or two old bread works best for this recipe. If using fresh bread, keep it in a very low oven for about 10 minutes until the bread dries up a bit. This is in order to avoid the bread from soaking up too much ghee.
2. To make the sugar syrup, mix sugar and water and set the mixture to boil. Now, simmer the solution for about 10 minutes.
3. Take a pan and set the milk to boil. Simmer it until it reduces to 1/4th quantity. Keep stirring occasionally so that it does not stick to the pan. Now, add the crushed cardamom, pistachios and few strands of saffron to the thickened milk. This is our rabri.
4. Add in the ghee to a non-stick pan and lightly fry the bread until golden brown on both sides.
5. Dip the fried bread in the sugar syrup for about a minute.
6. Arrange the slices on the serving dish
7. Now, spread the rabri onto the bread and sprinkle some almonds, and saffron strands over it.

Oh, and before I forget - thanks to the last month's DMBLGIT judges for judging one of our pictures amongst the winners. The "Life After Coffee" picture was awarded the 3rd place in the March 2010 edition of DMBLGIT. Here is a link to the post with all the winners.


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Birchermüesli

Nothing can be as quintessential a swiss breakfast as a bowl of hearty Birchermüesli or simply Muesli. And those not all too familiar with the 'guttural CH' or the "gargled R" sounds of German, here is a bit of pronunciation course. Bir-kher-Mew-slee. And trust me, if you are not German, or Swiss German, you will NOT be able to pronounce it the way people here do. I was once told by a Swiss friend, that I should gargle and practice if I want to perfect it. Needless to say, I gave up right there!
For all you followers of the Quick Quaker Oats(or whatever it's called), this is my humble request to you. Just try this one out for once. It is almost as easy as getting stuff straight out of a box - just that you may need to open too many boxes :). And you need to pre-plan a bit.
This recipe was originally created by the physician Bircher-Benner, but has been now adapted to suit different tastes and lifestyles.



The kind that I made is just one variation. The traditional one uses apples - you could use whatever fruits you like or are in season. Also the choice of nuts is upto you. The important thing is to soak the oats the night before - or at least a couple of hours before serving. So here is how I made it.
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup yoghurt
- Some chopped and/or flaked almonds
- handful of raisins
- 1 cup blackberries
Soak the oats in juice and yoghurt and refrigerate it overnight.
Before serving, add in a few blackberries per serving in a bowl and crush them. Mix it with the oats-yoghurt mixture until you get the colour you like. Now add in the nuts, raisins, and more blackberries if you like.
There you have a healthy, nutritious and easy breakfast.

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