Oreo Cupcakes

 

You will need the following equipments to try this recipe:

• Wilton Tip No 4B or a Star nozzle. ( Any nozzle tip of your choice would do the trick )
• Large Piping bag.
• A muffin tray & 12 cupcake liners 

Recipe (This will yield around 12 Oreo Cupcakes):

Ingredients for the Cup Cake Batter:

• 85g of self-raising flour
• 25g of Horlicks malt powder  
• 15g of cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• 125g caster sugar
• 135g unsalted butter (softened to room temperature) 
• 2 Large eggs ( here in the UK a Large egg is considered to be 63g in weight, as this might vary across countries make sure that the eggs are 125g of weight )
• 1 & 1/2 Tbsp of Whole milk
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 packets of Oreo cookies
• pinch of salt ( can skip this part if you have used salted butter )

Ingredients for Frosting:

•  200g of unsalted butter (softened to room temperature)
•  400g of icing sugar (sifted)
•  2 Tbsp whole milk
•  1/2 tsp vanilla extract
•  1/2 packet of Oreos Cookie Crumbs (Blitz the cookies in a food processor for 1 or 2 minutes to form the crumbs)  

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

1. In a bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
2. In a separate bowl whisk or sift together Flour,Baking soda,Malt powder,Cocoa & Salt. Idea is to get all the dry ingredients  mix together well.
3. Add the flour mixture prepared in step 2 with milk alternatively in about three batches to the butter and sugar mixture prepared in step 1. Make sure to mix in everything well between each addition. Your main batter is now ready.
4. Before filling up the batter into the muffin cups place a whole Oreo Cookie in the bottom of each cupcake liner (Now this will be the base of the cupcake leaving as a crunchy element to the cupcake) 
5. Evenly fill the batter into the muffin cups that has a cookie as the base.When filling the batter to muffin cup it is easier to use an ice cream scoop (a scoop with a ball diameter 4cm) or 2/3 of the way up. 
6. Bake for about 18 - 22 minutes or a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. (Always check a few minutes before the stated baking time. Do not over bake or the cupcakes will be dry.)
7. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 
8. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with the Cookie cream icing.  If you want to pipe the frosting, I like to use a large Wilton 4B star decorating tip. Once done frosting you can garnish it with another whole Oreo cookie on top. Cupcakes are best eaten the same day they are made, but they can be covered and stored for a few days.

Frosting (Cookie Cream):

1. In an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter until it's nice,pale and fluffy and add the vanilla extract.
2. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the icing sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the milk and Oreo cookie crumbs and beat on a high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). 

Warning : Not for the faint Hearted :D  Hope you all enjoy my Oreo Blast Cupcake.

Rainbow Meringue Kisses

You will need the following equipments to try this recipe:

• Wilton Tip No 4B or a Star nozzle.
• Large Piping bag.
• Baking Trays / Cookie Tray for baking.
• Tray Liners.
• Small Paint Brush (The kind you use for water colour paintings with a long handle)

Recipe (This will yield around 50 meringue kisses):

• Egg Whites of four large eggs.
• Sugar ( Twice the weight of the four egg whites ) [ Better use Superfine Sugar as it dissolves much easier.Please bare in mind this is not icing sugar. If you can't find superfine sugar you can blitz your regular sugar in a food processor for few seconds and you can get that finely ground sugar we want. ]
• Vanilla Extract 1 tsp
• Some food colourings (Colours used here are: Magenta, Orange, Teal, Purple, Yellow and Green. Please avoid using liquid food colourings as it is bit messy and doesn't give the vibrant colour we are after here)

Method:

Pre heat the oven for 100 degrees Celsius (212 F).

Meringue Mixture:

1. Beat the egg whites till it forms soft peaks (Make sure the whisk and the bowl you are using to beat the egg whites are dry and not greasy. Wiping the bowl and the whisk with a bit of vinegar could help to make them non-greasy).
2. Add the sugar table spoon at a time to the egg white mixture while continuously beating the mixture (Don't add all the sugar at once  as it will cause the egg whites to loose all the air we have Incorporated by the beating process).
3. After incorporating all the sugar beat the mixture for another 5 minutes and add the Vanilla extract to the mixture.
4. At this point mixture will have a smooth silky texture with stiff peaks.
5. Check the mixture to feel any sugar grains (You can easily do this by rubbing a tiny bit of the mixture between your finger tips), if you can still feel any sugar grains keep beating the mixture for another two to three minutes.
6. Fill the piping bag with the mixture (Please see below for how to create the rainbow effect within the piping bag) and twist it from the top so you can squeeze it without having to worry about the mixture coming out from top.
7. Prepare the baking trays with tray liners and start piping your meringue kisses leaving at least one inch gap between each meringue, once this is done bake them in the preheated oven for about 35 - 40 minutes, when they are ready they should come out of the baking sheet easily without sticking and should be chewy in the middle.

Quick Tip 1: When piping your meringue kisses in step 7, you can get a perfect meringue kiss by holding the piping bag vertically and about 1 inch above the baking tray. When the desired size of the meringue has reached quickly pull away the piping bag which will form the perfect meringue kiss.

Quick Tip 2: You can use little blobs of the meringue mixture to stick the tray liners to the baking trays. This will make sure the tray liners still in place specially if you are using a fan assisted oven)

Creating the Rainbow Effect:

• Place the nozzle tip into the piping bag and lay it on a table.
• Then carefully paint about 1cm thick line of food colouring starting from the tip of the piping bag about three quarter the way up. 
• Repeat the process for all the colours you are using.    

Sri Lankan Konda Kavum (Oil Cakes)

You will need the following equipment to try this recipe:

Please note: The shape of the Pan is really important and you can't do it in a flat bottom pan.

Recipe (This will yield around 15 oil cakes):

• Rice Flour 200 grams (Sifted twice)
• Wheat Flour 100 grams
• Sugar 100 grams (White \ Brown)
• Kithul Treacle 200 ml (Boiled and let cool down before using)
• Vanilla Extract 1tsp
• Fennel Seeds 1/2 tsp (Roasted)
• Water  100 ml
• Oil 50ml for frying (Since this is a Traditional Sri Lankan Sweet If possible try to use Coconut Oil If not any flavorless oil like Sunflower oil will do) 

Method:

1. Mix rice flour, wheat flour, and sugar in a bowl.
2. Make a well in the middle and pour in the Kithul Treacle.
3. Mix it thoroughly and add water little by little until you get a smooth batter (adjust the water as needed but make sure you don't make the batter too thin) .
4. Add the roasted fennel seeds and vanilla extract to the batter to give it the authentic aroma of the Traditional Sri Lankan Oil Cakes.
5. Leave aside the batter for 5 hours (If you are in a hurry atleast 1 hour to prove) for better results.
6. fill the pan with oil ( up to 1 or 1 1/2 inches high and heat it before adding the batter.
7. When the oil is hot pour in around 1 tbsp of the batter to the center of the pan and add bit more batter to the center to help form the konde :).
8. Let the mixture sit  for about 10 - 15 seconds but make sure to keep bathing the mixture with oil using a slotted spoon and then grab a bamboo skewer to the other hand and insert it at the center of the Kavum to let the raw batter in the middle to rise up, you need to help this process  by keep bathing the center of the Kavum with the hot oil using the slotted spoon using the other hand (This process could be little bit difficult to master at the beginning and surely would need some practice runs to master it properly. But if you are not bothered with the Konde just make Pethi Kavum using the same batter. Process will be the same except you don't need to add extra batter to the center as mentioned in step 7)
9. Take the kavum out of the pan when it is golden brown, and leave it on a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.
10. A little bit of Patience can go a long way :) Good Luck!