Really Dense Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes with a wonderful Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

My mil's birthday was yesterday and we needed  an eggless recipe - the first eggless recipe I have tried and I think everyone seemed happy to eat these lovely cupcakes and they were approved by my son too! My family has always been very supportive of my baking and have eaten whatever I have put in front of them - when I first started out my cakes were very amateurish and kiddie looking and I didn't think they tasted great but were always met with rave reviews from my hubby and his parents. Back in time, I didn't know you could get whipped cream in India and didn't know fine sugar and butter would make a lovely cloud like, ethereal and fluffy white mousse like mass with which I could decorate my cakes and cupcake with but I have definitely come and long way from there  :)!

So there really easy chocolate cupcakes have one key to their softness - stir in the same direction - do not change directions. This should make about 11-12 cupcakes. Bake for about 18 minutes but check after 15 - since one of my cupcakes got slightly burned from the corner.

1.5 cup flour
1/3 cup good cocoa powder - like Hersheys
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup fine sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk + 2 tsp lemon juice)

Sieve the dry ingredients. I used a hand mixer to mix the sugar and oil. Then added the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Then to this I added the dry ingredients and mixed it together with a spoon. I found that I needed to add a couple of teaspoons of milk to this to make the consistency right. The vinegar was added in the end and mixed and immediately poured into the cupcake liners. But I had switched off the oven b'coz od some incessant bells and the cupcakes still rose inspite of discovering it after a whole 5 mins of the cupcakes being inside - maybe coz the oven was already hot - I don't know but my guess is that the recipe was good?

Vanilla Buttercream frosting:

1/2 a vanilla bean
3:1 sugar and butter ratio - depending on how much frosting you want to make i.e. 3 cups sugar and 1 cup butter
2 tablespoons whipping cream

Whip together with electric mixer to form a cloudy mass. I frosted the cupcakes by piping the frosting on and then added some chocolate chips on top to give a nice contrast on the top.

The pictures were taken in the evening so aren't very bright but should be on soon.

And the carrot cupcakes got over before I could take any pictures... so am going to bake a batch soon to have them on here!

Do you want cupcakes, cookies, biscotti especially made for you???

I have had friends, family and all tell me that they are liking what they are getting and so I think I want to try my hand at giving more people what they want... so I decided to customize cupcake, cookies, bar cookies and tarts for people who just want healthier desserts for their family or dinner parties.

I will be putting together a formal menu with pictures and prices soon. But I can be contacted at: rbhatnag@gmail.com for any inquiries.

Healthy Carrot Cupcakes - yes, you heard it right!

I have been back for a couple of weeks and am a couple of pounds lighter!

Hanoi - was full of cooking adventures - like making Indian Aloo Paranthas without a chakla and belan (Indian Potato Flatbread without a rolling pin) and the likes - it didn't leave much time for posts. All I was doing was cooking and playing with the baby. So a little bit of running behind your tot and being too tired to eat can do wonders for you :)!

Well, so I have been on a slightly health food trail trying to keep that weight down now that I am back - oats and fruit in the morning, salad, soup and sandwich in the afternoon - you're getting the drift.

Now, I was craving cake and carrot cake seemed like the healthiest option at the mo. A little bit of googling around - toying between eggs and buttermilk, looking for something soft and moist enough not needing the cream cheese icing and I hit jackpot.

The recipe I have is for 6 cupcakes. I went through sooo many sites that I can't remember which one it is from... now all that I am waiting for is that the camera battery should charge soon so I can get pictures before the cakes vanish!

Recipe:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar packed
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
3/4 cup carrots - grated very finely
1 egg
a little bit of salt
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 180C. Just put all the dry ingredients in the bowl. Beat the oil and sugar together. Add the egg and beat. Add the essence and mix. Now add the flour bit by bit and mix. In the end I just added the grated carrots and mixed it with a spoon - till just mixed.

Spooned the mixture into my cupcake tin till the cupcake holders were 3/4 cooked and baked them for 18 minutes.

These babies turned out to be super soft and almost melted in the mouth. My son ate them warm... waiting for the hub to be home and tell me what he thinks. They could do with a little drizzle of icing sugar mixed with water if you want to do a glaze but if you want to keep it healthy stay away from all the glazes and cream cheeses in the world. Also, I don't think anyone could tell they were made with whole wheat flour but I am still testing...

Will be back with pics soon.

Hanoi, Vietnam : Places to eat at... when you're feeling homesick!

I know the time gap between my posts seems to be getting longer and longer and they aren't any pictures but things can be a bit crazy sometime.

This article is especially for the expats or tourists visiting Hanoi, Vietnam and are craving food other than Vietnamese.

Food seems to bring about a great festivity to the people in Hanoi. Everywhere you look you see families eating breakfast, lunch or dinner together chattering away while sitting on their colorful plastic stools oblivious to the tourists or other people around them. To eat the true Vietnamese food you can stop at any of the million places on the road where families are eating noodles or rice out of their bowls (different variety of noodles are also sold in stalls on the road). Accompaniments to this can be a variety of fish, pork, beef, veggies. A staple of the Vietnamese cuisine also is the Pho bo (beef noodle soup) served with lots of fresh red chillies and lime and Congee again served with meat and an assortment of sauces - traditionally made with beef but you can get yours with chicken too. Breakfast every morning at the hotel seems more like lunch with either congee, miso soup or Pho ga (Chicken noodle soup) and is so filling that there is hardly any place for a full blown lunch. The more exotic and contemporary Vietnamese dishes - snails, clams, pork intestines with blood and all (yes, you did read it right),spring rolls filled with a variety of vegetables / pork / chicken or tofu cooked and then served with a matured duck egg sauce can be found at all the good fine dining places here. A common site here is that everywhere you go you can see women with balancing baskets of food on her shoulder slung over a bamboo pole. This can be as exotic as rice cakes or boiled sweet potato but after a while an average person staying here for more than 10 days does start to get a bit homesick.

I am not a fan of experimenting with my meat and stick to chicken and vegetables. Also, with a small baby around me my excitement to experiment is a bit diminished... so I am always looking for places which serve basic sandwiches and fries and bottled water and have an air-con so that I can feed my baby in a cool place.

The options for expats and tourists who are home-sick are quite a bit. You find a number of restaurants around Hoan Kiem Lake that cater to the palette of tourists and Vietnamese alike. The Little Hanoi (Every thing from Vietnamese food to Tandoori chicken baguettes can be got here and the food is really tasty. This is just at the entrance of the old quarter and you can watch the hustle bustle of the old quarter from the confines of a nice air-conditioned sit down place which makes you feel right in the middle of it but still gives you yours pace) ), Thai Express (over looking the lake for good thai fast food), KFC (for your burger and fries craving), Opera House Cafe (great place to lounge and enjoy that evening beer or Vietnamese cold coffee with condensed milk). There is a coffee shop at the Hotel Zephyr that looked very chic and modern and have been meaning to try it out but haven't had the chance to step in. The good old Indian food craving can be satisfied with a visit to Tandoor (at the old quarter) or Asia House (Indian and Indian Chinese near Hai Ba Trung ). And there is always the good old Highland's Cafe, Hanoi's answer to Starbucks that has multiple branches all over the city and is always full of families and people sipping on their cuppa, chatting or expats / tourists surfing the net (you can get everything from breakfast to a decent meal here with an assortment of cold and hot coffees and tea to accompany it).


Since I am currently living in a service apartment I have been cooking a lot and L's Place at Hai Ba Trung (near the Cuban Embassy) is a great place to stock up especially is you are looking for food for kids (all ages). They have kiddie food (<1 year and up), cereals, chocolates, veggies, fruits, even chicken (which seems hard to get around here) , toys and household items. A one stop shop for anything you need for the house.

There is much to discover in Hanoi and I have just started discovering every page of this rich, culturally enriched book but it can be a bit challenging with a baby. Museum and shopping updates are going to be to be up soon - so do watch this space if you are planning a trip to Hanoi or just want to read more about this gorgeous place.




   

Cooking with 3 pots and 1 pan... my mis-adventures...

There are things (and people) that we take for granted in life and only when we are forced to give them up do we realize the comforts that we have surrounded ourselves with.

Usually, I am up at 6am ready for my yoga and by 7am when I am back my help serves me a warm glass of coffee milk which I manage to gulp down and skim through the paper before my son wakes up and demands I attend to him. I often crib about how I don't get alone time or miss a session 'coz I was awake the night before trying to get my son to sleep etc.

I am currently in Vietnam, yes Vietnam out of all the places, with no help and my 20 month old and me having a go at it all alone! I have been under the weather then passed off the bug to him.. but am still managing with no help for cooking and looking after him. We seem to be more relaxed and since I am less hyper it transfers to him and he is calmer too... I actually thought I won't survive without help but it's been a week and I am coping fine!

Yes, I do miss doing nothing and sipping on a cup of chai knowing everything will sort itself out and there will be food for the baby to eat but I am more at peace now. The other adventure that I am on is trying to get meals ready in time or before time and actually cooking with only 3 pots and 1 pan (a non-stick) that I couldn't have survived without - so I bought one the day after I landed. In Gurgaon, I have 6 pressure cookers to choose from when I am cooking and currently I have a mini 1.5ltr which I am using for everything!!!! I am terribly lucky to have packed it off with my husband in advance otherwise we would be waiting for hours to get food ready on the electric stove we have in the apartment. The only regret I have is the baking I have to abstain from since there is no over here.

Over the next few days, I am going to document surviving on how I manage to cook with my limited utensils. My son is not keen on experimenting with Vietnamese cuisine so I am also trying to cook Indian food here and the limited items on my list currently are - rava dosa, upma, subudane ka porridge, khichdi, a variety of dals with chawal, bhindi and various chicken curries. My hubby and son are not a fan of veggies but I think they are missing their paranthas and roti.

Am going to keep trying to blog from here about the markets, cuisines and things to do with children.

Over and out for now - time to head into the kitchen to get the evening snack ready.