Caramel Cupcakes

August 25, 2013 ~ Huma ~ 10 Comments

I am back.

After 15 days of break. Thanks friends for being concerned about me. I was really overwhelmed when I received mails asking if everything was ok with me. Thank you for caring.

This break has was the much needed one. I had too much going on since last six month at personal as well as professional front. It had started taking a toll at my health. But now we are sorted & back with much energy & load of recipes.

Well how do you like the little changes in the header.Would love your feedback. I mostly like light & pastel colors. But K insisted I should atleast put some color to my blog. We had atleast 15 designs going on & off. His suggestion its too plain. Add some brightness. My opinion not to bright. If it hurts my eyes how will the readers take it. Well ~~this time ,~~ no every time he wins his way with me. But lets settle on that I am just giving it a shot. If I am not comfortable , its in my hands to change.

Loads of talking done. Such an introvert & silent person talking too much. I think I have caught a bug from Rafee after doing her last post.

Now to todays post for this beautiful Caramel Cuppies. Please bear with the photographs. It is taken at night on my kitchen platform with only two left & that also waiting to be eaten.

I used cake mix to prepare the cupcakes And filled it with delicious caramel sauce.

Topped with fresh cream & some caramel sauce.

These cake mixes come in handy when you have shortage of things at home. Many recipes can be whipped up in little time.

Ingredients

For Cupcakes (12 cupcakes)

250 gm cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup water

Caramel Sauce: Makes about a cup. (will update step by step pic soon)

1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 tsp water

3 tbsp butter

60 gm cream.

Stiffly whipped cream about 2 cups for icing.

Method for cupcakes:

Prepare the cup cake mould with liners
Mix in the wet ingredients: eggs + oil + water
Add in the cake mix & beat till well combined.
Pour the batter till half the liners.
Bake at 180 degrees till 10 minutes till done.
Completely cool on wire rack.

Method for Caramel Sauce

In a heavy bottom pan bring sugar & water to heat till it changes it color to light brown.
Add in butter.
Once the butter melts,remove from flame & add in cream. Stir continously
The mixture will be foamy at this point.
Again put in on flame & cook for a minute.
Cool & ready to use.
Can be kept for upto 2 week in an airtight container.

Assembling the cuppies.

Once the cupcakes have cooled down. Make a hollow in the center with a knife.
Fill this hollow with caramel sauce
Decorate with whipped cream with the drizzle of caramel sauce.
Chill before serving

Butter Chicken – Guest Post for The Big Sweet Tooth

August 10, 2013March 16, 2016 ~ Huma ~ 9 Comments

Hi Foodies
We are still in a festive mood as celebration of Eid has just started. And a guest post for a very very special friend made an addition of extra spice to this celebration. I don’t know at what point we became good friends but I can say for sure, her comments on my space started this friendship.She is a very friendly and warm person & yes by now many of you who are regular followers of my space may have guessed. Yes it is Rafeeda from sweettoothraf.

Thanks Rafeeda for inviting me for the guest post for this festive season. I enjoyed every bit (with you being upset with me that part also) doing this post for you.

For the entire post, please hop over to Rafeeda blog @ The Big Sweet Tooth

EID MUBARAK & Eid Ka Dastarkhwan

August 8, 2013 ~ Huma ~ 9 Comments

The word ‘Eid is an Arabic name meaning festivity, celebration, happiness.

EID-AL-FITR is celebrated at the completion of Ramadan. On this day we thank Allah for giving us the will, strength & endurance to observe fast and obey His commandment during the entire holy month of Ramadan.

Eid brings rejoice & happiness. The rejoicing is not, however, at the departure of the month of Ramadan; it is the happiness which man feels after successfully completing an important task. In all it is the time to spend with family & your loved ones.

EID MUBARAK TO ALL OF YOU who have been with me through this entire month.

Eid is never complete without Sheer Khurma…..

Each house has different version. This is mine

Chicken korma with Naan &

Bombay Biryani

with touch of Curd raita. And coconut ladoos . keeping the family tradition of two sweets to make the complete meal.

Enjoy!!!

Recipe for Sheer Khurma

Server 4 -5 people.
Ingredients
I
1 ltr milk
10 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp vermicelli
3 pods green cardamom crushed
few pinches of saffron

II
5 -6 dry dates (Khurme / Chuare) slice n juliene
3 tbsp almonds, pistachio, cashew (Mix of dry fruits)
1/2 tsp almond powder
1/4 tsp dry coconut powder

III
For tempering
2 -3 tbsp pure ghee
1 green cardamom
1 clove

Method

Boil the milk with crushed cardamom on a medium flame around 10 min.
In a separate pan heat ghee. When hot, add in green cardamom & clove.
When it crackles add in the sliced chuare & cook till it slightly changes its color.
Add in dry fruits and the vermicilli. Roast it stirring continuously for a about a min.
Now add in dry coconut powder. Stir quickly , remove from flame &carefully add it to the boiling milk. ( Take care it will splatter as tempering is added to boiling milk)
Cook for few min & add the almond powder.
Lastly add in the sugar & saffron. Adjust the sweet levels.
Remove & serve hot.

Please check the links for different varieties of Kormas , Pulao & Biryani

#Chicken Korma, the easy way
#Chicken Korma 1
# Murg Qaliya

# Naan
# Parantha
#Do Patri Roti

# Sindhi Biryani
# Chicken Pulao

Cornflake Cookies – Ramadan..An Event to Share Chapter 11

August 6, 2013 ~ Huma ~ 9 Comments

Its time to bid farewell to Ramadan with the last guest post of this series,Ramadan An Event to Share. We had kick started this event with the first guest from my beautiful mom and now we are ending it with a very special blogger.

An inspiration to all of us with loads of positive energy and the right person to end the series. She is a known name in the blogging world with many publications & cookbooks to her name. A very down to earth & a friendly person, whom I look upon with much respect.Today we have with us the lovely Jehanne from The Cooking Doctor. Thanks a lot dear Jehanne for being a part of this celebration.

Over to you dear friend…

I often talk about food and memories, the flashbacks of what was eaten years ago and replicated once again now. But I think I hardly share with you about our daily happenings. How the real life is. How it gets pretty mundane yet hectic at the same time. How important each moment is, especially with the young one as I try to catch every ounce of memories into the ‘bank’. Let’s talk in present tense, and how my daughter loves her whisk with cupcake knob and my stainless steel bowl, day in day out pretending to make cakes in her fancy kitchen. Or how she converts our dining table into her make-shift oven and gives running commentary of what should go next into her cake batter.

Most days, I let her imagination runs wild and let the empty pots speak back to her with overflowing milk or runny egg yolk, imaginary that is. But some days I would be generous and let her run the show, with real egg, really good unsalted butter and cups of flours for her to muck about. And create something magical to be baked in real oven.

Which she did. My role is just a spectator, with hands gently nudging on right direction. A wee bit more cornflakes, surely you love that in your cookies? Raisins or chopped cherries, or both? What’s cooking in my kitchen is usually inspired by what my daughter wants, so when Humi, the lovely friend behind Gheza-e -Shirin invites me to guest post at her space, my mind rivets to what my daughter was doing at that moment-and I am inspired.

Truth be told, I love cornflakes cookies. Eid in Malaysia, which is what I knew most of my life, is all about celebration at the end of Ramadan, and that means plenty of cakes and jars of cookies. As I deliberately took longish annual leave during the last leg of Ramadan, it feels so good to be home bonding with my daughter with no pressure of work, waiting eagerly for Eid, or what we call Hari Raya. I am so glad that this year, my daughter and I do our baking together, making enough jars of cookies to bring home for my parents.

These corn flake cookies were really meant to be cut cookies but as my daughter hijacked the dough off my hands and started making small balls, I followed her will and took out small petit four cases. Make them into truffle instead, with pretty zigzags of chocolates! Either way, these are delicious and festive.

In keeping with Humi’s guest posts for Ramadan, here is a sneak peek of what’s happening in our kitchen during the last few days of this holy month. Ramadhan and Eid are never the same without gatherings of family, lots of religious rites, the joy of pre-dawn meals, and late night baking all in the spirit of the festive season.

Thank you Humi for your invite, hope it’s not too early to wish you and family Eid Mubarak!

Cornflakes Truffle Cookies

110g unsalted butter

110 golden castor sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

220g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

3/4 cup cornflakes

1/2 cup chopped cherries

1/4 cup raisins

For rolling: 1/2 cup cornflakes

Garnishing: 100 g melted chocolate

Tip: I used compound chocolate for garnishing as it is easier to set, unlike couverture chocolate which tastes superior but quite difficult to handle, ie needs tempering etc. As the amount used is small, compound chocolate is chosen here.

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar until pale.

2. Add in the egg and vanilla, beat briefly.

3. Combine flour with baking powder, salt, cornflakes, cherries and raisins.

4. Combine into the batter.

5. Make small balls and roll onto the crushed cornflakes.

6. Arrange in petit four cases and bake for 15 to 18 minutes at 170C.

7. Pour the melted chocolate into a piping bag and using a small round nozzle, garnish zigzag motions on the cooled cookies.

8. Store in airtight container up to 2 weeks.