Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake……

…………………………baker's man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it and roll it and mark it with "B"
And put it in the oven for Baby and me.

Finally bought myself a muffin tray with 250 of those cute paper cups. This is what became of all the batter that went into the tray, nice ne c’est pas?

Its called Devil’s Food Cupcakes. Am not sure of the authenticity of this, but I read some where that until the first half of the 19th century chocolate was not used as an ingredient in cakes!!
(Aren’t I glad was born in 1980)

Now, why is it called devil’s food cake? Perhaps the enormous quantities of cocoa & dark chocolate that go into making it. Also, baking soda used as one of the ingredients is supposed to cause reddening of the cocoa powder when baked (didn’t detect a faintest trace of this though).
Also, contrasts with the Angel cake which is light, white & fluffy – which translates to lots of egg & egg whites (blech).

Anyways, here’s the recipe for those who might want to try it out, makes about 9 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

Butter – ½ cup melted
· Cocoa – ¾ cup
· Dark chocolate - 50 gms chopped into bits (about 9-10 tbsp chopped)
· Eggs – 1
· Sugar - 3/4 cup (can use a bit of cinnamon flavored sugar as well)
· Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
· Flour - 3/4 cup
· Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
· Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
· Salt - 1/2 tsp (no need to use if using Amul butter, preferably use the new variety with reduced salt)
· Butter milk - 1/2 cup (mix equal amounts of water & yoghurt)

Method
Mix melted butter with sugar
Add the buttermilk – mix
Whisk in beaten egg with vanilla
Sift cocoa, flour, baking powder and soda
Add one spoon at a time to the liquid mixture
Line muffin tray with paper cups, spoon 1 tbsp of batter, add about 1 tsp of chopped up dark chocolate bits, follow up with another 1 tbsp of batter
Bake at 175 degrees celcius for about 20 mins
Enjoy!

Old is gold

A really really old post, am not going to get into why I didn't post it, so here goes.

Life and its uneventfulness

Its been a while since I visited the world of blogging, infact had to pop into Z’s blog to get the hyperlink to mine. God only knows what prompted me to get a name as complicated as aspoonf.. whatever..

And then came the topic..and nothing in particular came to mind. Now how uneventful could my life me that it was impossible to manage leave alone a couple of paragraphs, but a couple of lines.

Hence I have come to the conclusion that I’ll generally put together this and that, observations, happenings (not necessarily in life)..and for the lack of any other word this and that.

· I finally met a person who shares her birth-date with me. Well she isn’t born in the same year, but isn’t this one of those not so common coincidences. Amongst famous people I know of there are Matthew Perry (more famously known as Chandler Bing of F.R.I.E.N.D.S fame) & Bill Clinton.
· Went to this rather intriguing place called “Blue Frog”. Now now, I know the name may conjure up a thousand images, but the place is worth a visit, even if just once. The only negative is the seating area in the club consists of these “pods” which consist of a sunken seating area. Although the prices are fairly cha-ching-$$, and the menu fairly obscure, it’s the live music from around the world & country (I guess) that makes all the cha-chinging to the last penny/paisa. A month-wise calendar is put up for one’s convenience, check it out on http://bluefrog.co.in/cms/home.html
· Our Co. has started this system of car pooling. I have some rather enthu & polite co-passengers, who are very enthu about getting their car. So net net, I have stopped driving all together. The last time I filled a full tank of petrol was 12th February, and there’s still another quarter tank left to go.
· Chocohotopots – the deadliest of desserts I’ve ever made. All fans of Nigella Lawson would’ve definitely seen this. Mmmmmm..and those who have not & would love to dig into this baked to a crisp on top but sink into a gooey choccolatey calorific beneath, let me know, will share it with you.
· Well, what can I say; life is no longer uneventful after all. Have moved out of Bandra, into Santa Cruz. Its a bigger house and we pay less rent! And it also effectively ends my dormant status as far as the car pool is concerned :-(