The Miracle of Life
Recipes:
Dark Chocolate and Orange Cupcakes
Chocolate and Orange Frosting
I never thought much about miracles till the day I gave birth to my son. Even though it was amidst all the modern conveniences of advanced medical care, spotless hygiene and pain relieving injections (at the very end), the pain of child-birth is still the most painful thing imaginable. And after all that pain and fear, when you finally see your child, you are amazed at this miracle that you cradle in your arms. At the very heart of it, inspite of the tremendous advances in medical science, every baby is truly a miracle and a gift. Can anyone fully fathom the birth of a new life - a life with heart and soul and intelligence?
Dark Chocolate and Orange Cupcakes
Chocolate and Orange Frosting
I never thought much about miracles till the day I gave birth to my son. Even though it was amidst all the modern conveniences of advanced medical care, spotless hygiene and pain relieving injections (at the very end), the pain of child-birth is still the most painful thing imaginable. And after all that pain and fear, when you finally see your child, you are amazed at this miracle that you cradle in your arms. At the very heart of it, inspite of the tremendous advances in medical science, every baby is truly a miracle and a gift. Can anyone fully fathom the birth of a new life - a life with heart and soul and intelligence?
The birth of a child is one of the most intense experiences I know of . The intense pain and fear and the intense happiness and relief afterwards are incomparable to anything else.
Now on to the recipe. Dark chocolate and Orange are two of my favourite flavours. I was experimenting on a cake with these 2 intense flavours. And it was an astounding success! In fact it is one of the best tasting cakes I have ever baked. And boy, the flavours in this cake are truly intense. So I made this in tiny cupcake moulds - the one that is smaller than muffin moulds. This cake is defnitely for those who want to celebrate the intensely happy moments of life.
Ingredients:
Makes 24 small cupcakes
All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cup
Granulated Sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 3
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Orange rind - 3 Tbsp
Chopped dark chocolate bits - 1/2 cup
Method:
Makes 24 small cupcakes
All purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cup
Granulated Sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 3
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Orange rind - 3 Tbsp
Chopped dark chocolate bits - 1/2 cup
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degress C
Powder the sugar.
Separate the Eggs.
Sieve the flour with the baking powder.
The above 4 steps are my essential basic steps for baking any cake.
Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy. Put in the egg yolks and the vanilla essence. Then add a little of the flour and mix. Then a little of the orange juice and mix. Keep alternating orange juice and flour till they are all well mixed up.
Add the chopped dark chocolate and the orange rind into the batter and mix.
Finally beat the egg-whites till stiff and gently fold it into the cake batter with a spatula.
Put cupcake liners in the cupcake tin and pour the batter till only 3/4th full.
(I have to tell you this. The cake batter for this so fabulous that it is impossible to stop licking it)
Bake the cupcakes in a hot oven for 20-25 min till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Here they are just out of the oven
How to obtain Orange rind and remove its bitterness:
Powder the sugar.
Separate the Eggs.
Sieve the flour with the baking powder.
The above 4 steps are my essential basic steps for baking any cake.
Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy. Put in the egg yolks and the vanilla essence. Then add a little of the flour and mix. Then a little of the orange juice and mix. Keep alternating orange juice and flour till they are all well mixed up.
Add the chopped dark chocolate and the orange rind into the batter and mix.
Finally beat the egg-whites till stiff and gently fold it into the cake batter with a spatula.
Put cupcake liners in the cupcake tin and pour the batter till only 3/4th full.
(I have to tell you this. The cake batter for this so fabulous that it is impossible to stop licking it)
Bake the cupcakes in a hot oven for 20-25 min till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Here they are just out of the oven
How to obtain Orange rind and remove its bitterness:
The biggest challenge for me here was to get the orange rind. (Blest art thou that hath a microplane grater! Anyway I didn't have one). I've had literally bitter experiences earlier whenever I've tried to use orange rind in cooking. So this time to get the orange rind with as little of the bitter pith as possible, I used a vegetable peeler.
The peeled outer skin of the orange was still a little bitter. So I followed mom's tip - I put the peeled rind into a cup of water, brought it to a boil and threw the water out. I did this twice. And (wallah!) the orange-peel wasn't bitter any more. Then I sliced it finely.
I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate and orange frosting
CHOCOLATE AND ORANGE FROSTING
Ingredients
25% fat cream - 200 ml
White chocolate - 50 g
Dark chcocolate - 200g
Sugar - 1 tsp
Finely minced orange rind - 1 Tbsp
Beat the cream and the sugar till well combined.
Melt the chocolates over a double boiler and mix it with the cream. Add the finely minced orange rind.
The peeled outer skin of the orange was still a little bitter. So I followed mom's tip - I put the peeled rind into a cup of water, brought it to a boil and threw the water out. I did this twice. And (wallah!) the orange-peel wasn't bitter any more. Then I sliced it finely.
I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate and orange frosting
Ingredients
25% fat cream - 200 ml
White chocolate - 50 g
Dark chcocolate - 200g
Sugar - 1 tsp
Finely minced orange rind - 1 Tbsp
Beat the cream and the sugar till well combined.
Melt the chocolates over a double boiler and mix it with the cream. Add the finely minced orange rind.
Once the cakes have cooled and the frosting is cool enough to handle , just dip the top of cupcakes into it.
Decorate with sprinkles or silver balls. (only if you want to)
I'm so happy to tell you that Akila from Learning-to-cook has given my blog it's first award. Thanks a lot, Akila.
Hey, I just realised that the name of my dish starts with D and hence I can send it to Akila's kitchen for the event she is hosting :)
Wowww...that looks heavenly!! And let's rejoice the new addition to the family :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Priya :) It definitely tasted out of this world :)
ReplyDeleteI want some :P .. please..pretty please :P
ReplyDeleteLooks Yum! Wish I was At Bng to sample it :)
ReplyDeleteSure Aritra.. Drop by :)
ReplyDeleteLooks yummm!!!
ReplyDeleteAppu, I am really going to try this....
ReplyDeleteThanks All
ReplyDelete@Juny: Yes pls do... Just be careful that the orange rind is not bitter when you add it to the batter. That is the main thing here :)
Looks delish!!! Love the flavors...Great post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ambreen :)
ReplyDeletewow this looks amazing! I want to try to make it one of theses days.
ReplyDeleteHI
ReplyDeletethats why they say, its the new birth for the mother also. and the happiness when you see the baby :-)))
These cakes are killer cakes, I never dare to bake anything like it. lovely pics too.