dessert Archives - Page 17 of 57

Caramel Cupcakes Aka Golden Cupcakes for Mother’s Day

10|05|2017

Glittering, glowing and shiny things are a favourite around these parts. Yeah, if I had an option I would serve my roast chicken with gold dust and maybe some sprinkles. Hahaha! So much for my edible fantasies. On a serious note, what can be more precious than your Mum? So it is only fitting that I create golden cupcakes to celebrate her. These are nothing but caramel cupcakes with a delicious caramel frosting that are then decorated with golden sanding sugar and cachous. I am a big fan of wedding desserts with a golden theme but Mother’s Day is no small occasion either.

Caramel Cupcakes
Makes 10-12 cupcakes

120 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup milk
1/4 caramel sauce (home made or store bought) (For home-made use this recipe minus the salt)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c (160 degrees c for fan forced ovens). Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer or a hand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Add a third of the flour to the butter mixture and beat on low just until incorporated; add half of the milk and beat just until blended. Add another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and the rest of the flour mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Add the caramel sauce and fold to combine.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are springy to the touch. Cool on a wire rack completely before frosting them.

Once cooled, pipe buttercream onto the cupcakes. Decorate with gold dust and cachous.

Caramel Frosting

250 g unsalted butter
2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup caramel sauce
1 tbsp milk (optional, depending on consistency)

Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a bowl until pale. Gradually add icing sugar mixture and caramel sauce, beating constantly until combined. If the buttercream is too thick, add 1-2 tbsp of milk to make it fluffier.

Matcha Lime Tartlets

6|05|2017

I have a bag of dessert tricks that come handy when I need a true dessert without having to spend a few hours in the kitchen. I do like mug cakes and crumbles and grilled fruit but I’m talking about desserts that would have heaps of flavour, look pretty and yet come together in minutes. My greatest go-to of all times for these treats is ganache. Dark, milk or white chocolate, there are various ways of playing around with them. Ganache is nothing but a mixture of cream and chocolate. By infusing the cream with different flavours, one can create a multitude of sweet treats. I’ve infused Matcha (green tea) with white chocolate in this case. Since white chocolate is really sweet, I’ve balanced the sweetness with a bit of lime juice. That it! Quick and easy.

If you don’t have access to matcha, skip it and you’ll still have delicious lime white chocolate tartlets. The tart cases are store bought in this case. If you are up to making your own from scratch, go ahead by all means. I almost always have the pre-baked ones at home that I fill up with sweet or savoury fillings for my children’s lunchboxes. For all those who are new to making dessert, these are great to serve up on Mother’s Day. No sweat and absolutely delicious.
Happy weekend to all of you!

Matcha Lime Tartlets
Makes 6 small tartlets

90 ml heavy cream
180 g white chocolate (roughly chopped)
20 g unsalted butter
1 tsp powdered culinary matcha
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
6 pre-baked pastry cases (store bought)

Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over low heat until it just comes to a a boil (do not boil). Remove from heat and add the chopped white chocolate. Leave aside for 5-10 minutes until chocolate melts. Stir with a spoon to make a smooth mix. Add the matcha and lime juice and mix to blend.

Spoon the ganache uniformly into 6 tart cases. Refrigerate until set (about an hour). Serve with grated white chocolate or a dusting of matcha or edible flowers.

Honey and Poppy Seed cake

1|05|2017

Layers of Honey and Poppy seed cake with Rosewater Swiss Meringue Frosting, sprinkled with finely chopped pistachios and dried edible rose petals.

Mother’s day is around the corner and my excitement goes up by several notches at the thought of all the pink and floral creations that I will find an excuse to make. If only I could have them delivered to my own Mummy who lives in an entirely different continent. My children come up with all kinds of cute surprises with the help of their of school. Daddy of course plays a big role in all the hush hush exchanges that go on between them in that week and a customary ‘breakfast in bed’. You know, I am not at all a breakfast in bed kinda person. Yikes! I need to brush my teeth and sit down to a proper breakfast which I’ve already communicated to them in so many ways.Hopefully someone will get the message:-)

Coming to this cake, I had intended to post the recipe during Valentine’s Day but later on felt that it might be more suited to a Mother’s Day kind of occasion. Something light, aromatic, delicate and very delicious. The rosewater-pistachio-honey combination are a bomb together. Poppy seeds add an extra bit of crunch. If you are not comfortable with piping, feel free to spread the frosting between the layers.

In other news, my Collection with VIDA is up and ready. If you remember I had mentioned to you that I would be designing fashion products for this company using my own art. They are based in USA and have an amazing team of experts bringing these designs to life. I can’t even explain my excitement to you when I received my shipment. Being able to wear my work in the form of a scarf is something I had never imagined. You can check them out here. https://www.shopvida.com/collections/sonali-ghosh. It is quite basic at the moment and I will be updating more food-related designs as I go. They ship globally too which is really a great thing.

Have a great week, all of you. I have quite a few Mother’s Day recipes coming up.

Honey And Poppy Seed Cake
Makes a 3 layered 6 inch round cake

260 g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup castor sugar
125 g clear honey
4 large eggs
12/3 cups self raising flour
31/2 tbsp corn flour
3 tbsp poppy seeds
Finely chopped pistachios, to decorate
edible rose petals (slightly crushed), to decorate

Rosewater Buttercream
4 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
300 g unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
1 tbsp rosewater

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees C for fan forced ovens). Grease the sides and bases of 3, 6 inch pans and line with baking paper.

Beat butter, sugar and honey with a hand mixer (or an electric mixer) until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl mix together the self-raising flour, corn flour and poppy seeds. Add the dry mixture to the honey mixture and fold in gently.

Divide the batter uniformly between the 3 cake pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until surface is firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of each layer comes out clean and dry. Remove from oven. Leave aside for 10 minutes to cool in the pans, then carefully remove, easing the sides with a palette knife. Turn cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the Rosewater Swiss Meringue Buttercream: Place the egg whites and sugar in a large bowl that is placed over a saucepan of simmering water (over low heat), and whisk continuously, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the bottom of the bowl is warm to touch

Remove the bowl from the heat and whip on high speed until meringue holds stiff peaks and looks glossy. The bowl should have completely cooled by now.
Add the butter, 2 tablespoon at a time, until thick and fluffy. If it begins to look curdled, continue to whip until it comes back together, before adding in remaining butter.
When the buttercream is smooth and has come together, add the rosewater and whip gently again to blend.

To assemble: On a cake plate or stand, spread a little buttercream in the centre and place one layer of the cake (so that the cake does not move about while frosting). Using a start nozzle tip and a piping bag, pipe frosting to cover the entire layer. Sprinkle with pistachios and dried rose petals. Place the second layer. Repeat till you reach the final layer. Decorate with fresh roses. Ensure that the roses are free of pesticides or as a precaution vover the stems with baking paper (so they don’t come in contact with the buttercream).

Sweet Breakfast Flatbread

24|04|2017

If you follow me on Instagram, you might be familiar with my love for colourful, fruity sweet breakfasts by now. Parfaits, bruschettas, flatbreads, crepes, overnight oats and so on. I love food that is unconventional and yet simple to make so I make them often. Not only are they a great way of eating a variety of fruit but they also don’t make you feel guilty afterwards. Guilt free indulgence as we call it! Though I post these often, I’ve never bothered to put up a recipe because these are mostly made out of a mish mash of things from my refrigerator and I hardly ever measure anything. Now since I find quite a few of my followers asking for these recipes, I’ll post them anyway with approximate amounts. If you get the idea, it’s not that difficult to adjust the portions to your liking. The great thing is that they can double up as a healthy dessert or even a snack.

I used my pizza dough recipe to make the flatbread. You could use any kind of bread or flatbread. If I’ve made naan for dinner the previous night, I sometimes reserve a portion to top with fruits the next morning. If you want to serve it for a get-together, swap the bread for puff pastry and it’s still delicious. A dairy product (example yogurt, ricotta cheese, cream cheese)or a non dairy substitute (like coconut cream, nut butters etc) form the base/filling for my fruits. Then I balance the flavours by creating a sweet salty combination by either using spices and a pinch of salt, or broiling the fruit with a touch of balsamic vinegar or poaching the fruit in a flavourful infusion, either citrus juices or spicy concoctions. Then add some fresh green herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, thyme or oregano. Basically, make it your own.

I’m also taking this opportunity to apologise for the delay in putting up the Q & A Part 2 as promised. I’ve had too many outdoor assignments lately and it totally wears me out. On top of that school holidays can make life challenging enough. I’ll post it as soon as I can.

Sweet Breakfast Flatbreads
Serves 4

Flatbread (you can use this recipe) or your own pizza dough recipe or store bought flatbreads
3/4 cup Ricotta Cheese
Balsamic Figs (figs, quartered and broiled in a 200 degree C oven with a dash of balsamic vinegar for 10 minutes)
Strawberries, grapes, to serve
Fresh basil, to serve
Edible flowers (optional)
1 tsp Dukkah spices (home made or store bought) (Dukkah is an Egyptian condiment made of nuts, spices and herbs)

Trim the sides of the flat bread so you have a neat rectangle to work with. Spread ricotta cheese. Top with balsamic figs, strawberries grapes, basil and edible flowers.

Sprinkle with Dukkah spices. Enjoy!