Jacob's Birthday Weekend

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Ever since I started my cake decorating classes I have been making cupcakes left and right It is my mission to drown my near and dear ones in sweet treats. My classes are mostly to blame as each week I'm required to bake a cake for the class. But a standard cake mix makes either two 8" cakes or 24 cupcakes. And since I need only one 8" cake, the rest of the batter is turned into cupcakes :).

Eight such left over cupcakes got turned into little forest animals for my nephew, Jacob, for his 4th birthday. He loves animals  and I figured this would be great for him. Almost every gift I have got Jacob has had something to do with animals, that's how much he loves them. I made these cupcakes once before for my other nephew Isaac. Back then, I had arranged the cupcakes on a plate on which i drew trees and grass.

A Panda, a Tiger, a Monkey & a Lion, just hanging out.

From Isaac's second B'day last July

 

 We were also planning to visit one of my childhood friends who had moved to Seattle and had recently given birth to a little baby girl. Diya and I decided to take some home made cupcakes for them. But earlier in the day, we had been browsing through Sur la Table and found the cutest little disposable mini cake molds, that you can bake in and give away. They were so cute that we decided to make mini cakes instead of cupcakes. We made two flavors, a marbled Nutella cake and a strawberry cake with real cooked strawberries and preserves. They were both yummy, but we both loved the Nutella cake the most! Here are a few pics.

Nutella Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Strawberry Cake with Pink Vanilla Rosettes

Little Cupcakes for Baby Scarlett

One of our friends had a sweet little baby last week and we went to see her this weekend. They named her Scarlett. Little baby Scarlett is the first Scarlett I know of in person. Welcome to our world Baby Scarlett! Anyway I thought of making some cupcakes for her parents to enjoy and this is what I came up with.

I decided to make lemon flavored cupcakes with a lemon glaze. For the piped flowers and leaves I used a standard buttercream icing. The results were cute, but I need to work on the lemon glaze so I get it more even next time, not too thick.

Cramalized Plantains - A Pazham Puri Fix

I'm from the southern most state in India, called Kerala and the one fruit it is famous for, is plantains! I always disliked bananas growing up, but plantains i liked. I think it was mainly because of my grandfather, who would slice a plantain after every meal and share it with his grandkids - all 18 of them. And there was always a fight at the end, but not for the plantain slices, but the skin! He sliced the plantain with the skin, but not all the way through. Once the plantain slices were taken out, the skin looked like a giant caterpillar!

One of the other pleasures I remember from vacations in Kerala, is Pazham Puri or Batter Fried Plantains! It is crispy on the outside and dark orange and mushy inside. really tasty. I had been craving these for a while, but haven't made them for 2 reasons, it is not easy to find ripe plantains in the US and i hate frying. But I found a way around both these problems!

All you need are ripe plantains and some brown sugar. For the ripe plantains, i bought the raw ones from the store, left it in a transparent plastic bag on the window sill. In about a week to ten days it had ripened. And instead of frying, I decided to crunch it up using caramel instead.

Caramalized Plantains

Ingredients:
2 - Ripe Plantains
1/2 cup - Brown sugar
Cooking Spray (Butter Flavored)

Method:
Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil, shiny side up. Spray it with some butter flavored cooking spray. If you don't have butter flavored, regular will do. Peel and slice the plantains diagonally into half centimeter thick slices. Place them uniformly in the greased baking sheet. Spread 1/8 tsp of brown sugar on each slice ad broil on high for 5-7 mins. Once it crosses 4 minutes, you should see the sugar melt and caramelize, so watch the plantains carefully. they can go from golden delicious to charred in just a minute. Once done, take it out and let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy!

It is best eaten within an hour of making. If you refrigerate it, the caramel will dissolve, but they'll still taste heavenly. I even creamed them with some evaporated milk and whipped cream and made an ice cream out of it. But I prefer it in its caramelized form.

The caramelized plantains are fat free (except for the little bit of cooking spray), but they do pack a lot of carbs, especially from the plantain itself, so enjoy them in moderation.