Tropical Cupcakes

Sig wins! It is her event after all, but yes, she guessed it right. I did bake a cake. Correction. I baked several mini cakes.

We did a lot of shopping on S's birthday. Apart from things for him and things for me, we bought things for the kitchen and the blog specifically. We got some nice ceramic stuff at throwaway prices and I bought a few just to photograph my food in. We also found muffin pans that fit my microwave. I don't have the luxury of a cooking range in this house and so we bought a microwave-grill-convection-combination oven and I never found muffin pans that fit. So when I found those at the I.N.A. market along with the Appey Kayli (special pan to make Appeys), I went ahead and just bought them.




I modified the Golden Glow Cake recipe to come up with this recipe. I thought of all the tropical flavours that I could pair Litchi with. I decided to use coconut and pineapple as I thought these would go well with the litchi flavour.




I used:

1 cup Flour
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup Demerara Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Oil
1 egg
1/4 cup Cocount Milk
1/2 tsp Pineapple Essence
1/4 cup Litchi Juice

Sift all the dry ingredients for the cake together into a food processor jar with the dough blade. Pour in all the liquid ingredients and run the processor for 2 minutes.

Prepare muffin pans by first smearing a little butter all over the cups and then dusting them with flour.

Divide the batter equally between the pans and bake for 15 minutes at 350 F. The cakes are done when a knife or skewer inserted into them comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the tins and cool completely.

Pour a little Litchi Sauce over these cupcakes when you are ready to serve them. They taste divine. I just replaced milk with a combination of coconut milk and litchi juice, the sugar with demerara sugar, the butter with oil and the vanilla essence with pineapple essence. What I was left with was a very 'tropical' cake batter.

We've enjoyed these fresh out of the oven and also after they went cold. I didn't think I could just replace ingredients to suit my preference (or that of Sig's!!). But guess what? I actually could. And the end result was simply divine.

Hopefully, this will be the last dessert I make for some time. Given that we're just two people, and ones who don't need dessert, I will stick to normal healthy food for the next few weeks.

So, this is another entry to the A Fruit A Month (AFAM) event hosted by Sig of Live to Eat.

Litchi Sauce and a Guessing Game

The season's been over a long time now. But Sig chose this fruit over all others after the season was over. At least here in India. And when there are so many fresh fruits available in the markets (and on the roadside), I really didn't feel like picking up a can of litchi. The markets are lined with melons, peaches, pears of all varieties and apples, so I stock up on those and bring them with me in my "fruit box".




This is one of the reasons I love summer. Let me rephrase that. This is one of the sights I love during summer. This picture was taken when S and I were on a weekend trip to Mussoorie. These litchies were huge and the seed inside was almost non existent. What more can one ask for?

Season or no season, we always Litchi Crush at home. This way, we can savour the flavour of the fruit long after the season has ended. So, I thought I could use that. Sig did allow it, so why not? But apart from using it as a mixer for vodka, or just making juice, I'd never done anything with the crush.





When I was researching for the AFAM Orange event, I came across lots of recipes that called for orange sauce. So I decided to make a Litchi sauce. I must admit I don't even remember where I came across this recipe. I didn't bookmark it because what I wanted to make for the event didn't require orange sauce.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Water
2 tsp Cornflour
2 tablespoons Icing sugar
2 tbsp Litchi Crush

Mix the corn flour with a little cold water. Add this mixture to the water and sugar. Allow this to boil for 5 minutes. Add the crush and blend.

Depending on the consistency you want, spreading or pouring, you can alter the water and cornflour ratio.

I am fairly certain that I can pour my sauce over pancakes and give myself a little treat instead of using the usual maple syrup. But do come back tomorrow to see what I really did with this Litchi Sauce. I haven't made pancakes yet, so I haven't yet tried that. Keep guessing. I'll be back.

Needless to say, this is my first entry to the A Fruit A Month (AFAM) event hosted by Sig of Live to Eat. Considering the fact that we just finished birthday week with loads of sweetmeats, I was fairly certain that a certain someone would either leave or make me leave. But he had a little surprise waiting on the table when he got home. And he asked for seconds before I could ask how it was. So, there... I had my answer.

Peach Litchi Mango Fizz

I am leaving for home tonight. Home, today, refers to my parents' home in Madras. Funny how I never thought of that place as home because I hadn't spent too much time there. I moved out of Madras a few months after my parents moved to this place. But over the last 11 years, I've spent more than 10 away, but that house sure feels like home.

I had a failed food experiment yesterday that S and I suffered through at lunch time and I wanted to do something to make it up to him. He's traveling today and when he gets back, I'll be sitting at home with my parents and I wanted to make a little something for him.

Stuff that I found in the fridge went into this dessert. It turned out quite tasty. I do hope S finds it and likes it. And I hope you all will too.

Ingredients:

2 Peaches, chopped

1 Mango, chopped

2 scoops Litchi Ice Cream

1/2 cup Sprite

Place the fruit and ice cream in a blender or liquidizer and blend to a paste. Add the Sprite and whip it for half a minute. This is ready to eat. I loved it. If I'd added a little more Sprite, I could have had it as a cool drink.