Quick Mud Chocolate Cupcakes

I flew out  to Brisbane after work yesterday to see my family over the weekend, so on Thursday night I decided to whip up a few cupcakes to bring with me. They were also the perfect opportunity to use my ladybird toppers that I had been saving for a special occasion. My dad is known to love a good cupcake with his morning tea, so I was hoping he'd like these...

When I first read this recipe from Women's Weekly  I thought it was very strange that the chocolate was melted with water. Surely that should be a cardinal sin of baking?! But it worked, and it was a very quick and easy recipe. The below recipe makes 12 cupcakes which you can top with your favourite chocolate icing.

Cupcakes
Ingredients
60g dark cooking chocolate
2/3 c. water
90g softened unsalted butter
1 c. firmly packed soft brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 c. self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 c. almond meal

Method
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.
2. Put water and broken up chocolate and microwave on low heat in a medium bowl, stirring intermittently until melted and as smooth as you can. It will not combine perfectly - but don't worry.
2. Cream butter and sugar, then mix in eggs.
3. Stir in sifted flour, cocoa powder, almond meal and warm chocolate mixture.
4. Divide mixture between 12 cupcake liners and bake for 25 mins.
5. Stand cakes for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.

Here an adapted recipe for the ganache I used. I like a semi-sweet ganache, so I mixed dark and milk chocolate.

Chocolate Ganache Icing
Ingredients
1/2 c. cream
90g milk chocolate
110g dark chocolate

Method
1. In a small saucepan, bring cream to boil then remove from heat.
2. Add broken up chocolate and stir until smooth.
3. Allow mixture to cool (refrigerate for 30 mins if necessary), then whisk until a good texture for icing your cake/cupcakes.

The cupcakes went down a treat :) The cake itself was rich and moist, and quite light. Combined with the ganache, the flavour reminded me a lot of the Sara Lee chocolate cake! Mum used to buy the Sara Lee cake sometimes when we were young, and in those days the cake was a bit smaller and she would divide it with precision among the 8 of us to avoid family arguments over dessert.. The slices were about a quarter the size of a cupcake and we would savour every delicious last crumb! :)

Love,
Ladybird x

Chaval Kheer (Creamy Rice Pudding)

Kheer comes from the Sanskrit word 'Ksira' meaning condensed milk. It is thought to be the world's oldest form of rice pudding. In fact, it is thought that the British came up with their version of rice pudding during their conquest of the subcontinent! At any rate, I adore making this dessert. Although it does take a bit of time to condense the milk by hand, I find there's something very therapeutic about all that stirring :)

Every region of India has their own take on kheer and so there are countless varieties of this heavenly Indian dessert. The basic ingredients are whole milk and sugar, then there is usually a grain. If it isn't rice, it might be whole wheat or vermicelli. Flavouring ingredients can include spices such as cardamom and saffron and it is often adorned with sultanas, nuts and sometimes even a little edible silver - who would have thought it would be possible to eat bling!

For me though, I have always thought that kheer is a very personal experience. Recipes and preferences really do differ from household to household. So, I'd like to share my recipe with you. It's very simple, but hard to resist...

Ingredients

2L fresh whole milk
Slightly less than 1/2 cup aborio rice
5 green cardamom pods
1/4 cup sultanas
3/4 - 1 cup white sugar, depending on your preferred level of sweetness.
2 tbsp pistachios, shelled and unsalted

Method

1. Wash and drain the rice in a sieve. Set aside.
2. Tap the cardamom pods open slightly.
3. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan and add the cardamom pods. Stirring constantly, bring the milk to the boil over moderately high heat.

4. Reduce the heat, add the rice and stirring attentively, gently boil for 25 to 30 mins.
5. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for another 10 to 15 mins stirring constantly with a smooth, sweeping action.
6. Remove from heat and remove and discard cardamom pods. Stir in sugar, followed by sultanas. The sultanas will plump up as they absorb the milk.
7. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate for several hours.
8. Top with shaved or chopped pistachios and serve.

Tips

• Kheer can be served cold or warm, the choice is yours!
• Kheer should be of a just drinkable consistency. If it is to thick, you can always add more milk later to thin it.
• If you're thinking.. "Arborio rice is not very Indian" - you're absolutely right, it's not! But it makes for a very creamy result ;)
• I find that organic milk makes excellent kheer, but do buy the homogenised stuff.
• Don't worry about the skin that forms on the top while you are reducing the milk, you can skim it off once the kheer cools.
  

Namaste, dear readers!



Ladybird x

Pomegranate Ice-cream

Hi everyone :)

Hope your new year is off to a great start! I have been having a great time getting back to cooking since returning from holidays.. although I am still nursing my strange summertime cold/flu symptoms. Ice cream probably isn't the best thing for it, but what the heck! I saw this recipe on a cooking channel while sitting in a hotel room in Delhi and I promised myself I'd make it upon my return to Sydney.

Although I do love using my new ice-cream maker machine, the great thing about this recipe is that I don't have to get it out! This is a 'no-churn' recipe from Nigella Lawson, and I think it's a great way to use the beautiful pomegranates that are available at the moment. Plus, did you know that pomegranates contain more antioxidants than green tea or red wine?!

Ingredients
2 pomegranates

1 lime

150g powdered/icing sugar

2 cups double/thickened cream

Method

1. Half the pomegranates and reserve and few seeds for decoration. Squeeze pomegranate halves over a sieve in a bowl.

2. Squeeze lime into same bowl.

3. Put icing sugar in medium to large size bowl, and gradually whisk in juice.

4. Add cream and whisk until 'billowy' or 'floppy' as I would describe. So the cream should hold its shape loosely - it should not have reached the 'peaky' stage.

5. Pour into freezeable container and freeze overnight.

So, the result? Soft, creamy and delicately flavoured ice-cream. I am so impressed with this no-churn method of Nigella's, I will definitely be trying some of her other no-churn recipes.

Take care for now!

Love,

Ladybird x