Cupcake Week Day 3: Mango & Dulce de Leche Cupcakes

For today's tribute to cupcake week the Devnaa team decided that we really wanted to create a recipe using mangoes. Widely referred to as the national fruit of India, mangoes are cultivated there in masses - however our favourite variety - the Kesar Mango - is only available ripe for a very short period of time between May and July every year. Kesar mangoes have an incredibly intense, rich mango flavour and are so lovely and sweet. The colour is a vibrant orange, hence the name 'Kesar' referring to saffron. You can however buy tinned Kesar Mango Pulp throughout the year from most Indian grocery stores.

The cupcakes we created today were our first attempt at using mango in anything baked and as we read from a lot of bloggers who have tried this before, mango pulp just doesn't provide a strong hit of flavour when baked or even folded into icing. This can be remedied by using mango extract which is available on the internet and in some health food stores but this tends to be the flavour of West Indian mangoes and so we opted out, thinking lets see how we go. The result was a lovely soft cupcake, a beautiful bright yellow in colour with a light fragrance of mango. The addition of the dulce de leche lends a nice caramelly flavour which helps to lift the mango slightly.

Mango & Dulce de Leche Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients for Dulce de Leche:
400g tin Sweetened Condensed Milk
Pinch of Salt

Method:

• Start this recipe with the dulce de leche as it takes a while and then even longer to cool - pre heat your oven to gas mark 7/220C/425F and set your kettle to boil
• Pour the condensed milk into a 25cm (approximately) baking dish and sprinkle on the salt
• Set this baking dish into a larger one and fill the larger dish with hot water until it reaches half way up the sides of the smaller dish
• Cover with foil and carefully place in the oven
• Allow to bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, checking every 30 minutes or so and replenishing the water if necessary
• When ready the condensed milk should look nice and golden and caramelly
• Remove from the oven and carefully take the smaller dish out of the larger one
• Allow to come to room temperature giving it a good stir every now and again to help it along and stop a skin from forming on top
• Once you have finished with the dulce de leche in this recipe you can store it in the fridge, just warm it slightly whenever you want to use it

Ingredients for Mango Sponge:
120g Butter
150g Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
185g Self Raising Flour
150ml Mango Pulp

Method:

• Pre heat oven to gas mark 4/180C/350F and line cupcake tin with cases
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and then beat in the vanilla extract (and mango extract if using)
• Scrape down the sides of your bowl and beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Slowly beat in a third of the flour followed by half of the mango pulp, followed by another third of the flour and then the rest of the mango pulp ending with the last of the flour
• Beat well to create a thick, smooth batter
• Divide between the cupcake cases and bake for around 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
• Cool on a wire rack

Ingredients for Mango Whipped Cream
200ml Whipping Cream
50g Caster Sugar
100ml Mango Pulp

Method:

• Whip the cream until it is thick and holding it's shape well
• Fold in the sugar and mango pulp carefully - the mango pulp will make the cream slightly loose again
• Refrigerate until required

Assembly:

• Poke a hole into each cupcake, going about two thirds down but not too wide
• Fill a piping bag with dulce de leche and pipe into each hole until it oozes out
• Top each cupcake with a swirl of the mango whipped cream
• Drizzle with more dulce de leche and even some mango pulp if you like (we sprinkled some edible gold glitter on ours)
• Best served immediately otherwise keep refrigerated until dessert!

Gingerbread and Coconut Cupcakes for Cupcake Week 2011 (Egg Free Recipe)

Ginger and coconut may be more widely regarded as West Indian flavours but they are just as prominent in India proper, especially in the South of the country where coconuts grow in abundance and are used in almost every local dish with ginger playing a strong complimentary flavour. Tea brewed from coconut water and whole ginger is one of the most invigorating, refreshing drinks one can have and is a specialty in South Indian states like Kerala, which is coincidentally on India's West coast!

Today in the Devnaa kitchen we thought we'd try and pair these two great flavours together in a cupcake for everybody to enjoy during cupcake week. The light, ginger sponge is delicately spiced and the addition of yoghurt means that this recipe requires no eggs, perfect for any vegetarians out there! The coconut icing is creamy and lightly flavoured - in fact although it tastes great on it's own, paired with the ginger sponge you do lose the coconut a bit so feel free to add a little more if you wish or do as we've done and add some coconut to decorate.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Icing
(makes 12 small cupcakes, for big ones just double the recipe)

Ingredients for the sponge:
55g Butter
100g Golden Syrup
130ml Plain Yoghurt
200g Plain Flour
1/4 tsp (heaped) Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp Ground Ginger
3/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
A pinch of Ground Cloves
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tblsp Finely Chopped Stem Ginger (from syrup)

Method:

• Pre heat oven to gas mark 4/180C/350F and line a cupcake tin with cases
• Place the butter and golden syrup together in a saucepan over a medium heat
• Stir constantly until it comes to the boil and then transfer the mixture straight to a mixing bowl and leave aside to cool for 5 minutes
• In the meantime, sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt into a separate bowl and mix together to combine
• Stir the yoghurt into the butter mixture
• Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just until you have a smooth batter
• Fold in the stem ginger
• Divide the batter equally between the 12 cupcake cases and bake in the centre of your oven for 15 - 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean (leave for 25 - 30 minutes if making double quantity)
• Cool on a wire rack before icing.

Ingredients for icing:
60g Butter
115g Cream Cheese
130g Icing Sugar
4 tblsp Powdered Coconut

Method:

• Beat the butter until creamy
• Add the cream cheese and beat well until combined and smooth
• Sift together the icing sugar and coconut powder and gradually beat into the butter mixture until all of the ingredients have combined and you have a smooth, creamy, coconutty icing
• Swirl or spoon atop your cupcakes.

You can then decorate your cupcakes with more coconut - fresh or dried if desired, here we've used dried coconut and some heart shaped gingerbread cookies. Enjoy! :)

Pistachio, Almond & Rose Cupcakes for Cupcake Week

Hello all!

It's been a while I know but national cupcake week has inspired me to kick start my blogging once again and hopefully, fingers crossed I am going to stick with it this time!

To start me off - I'm going to create a fabulous new cupcake for each day this week to help celebrate cupcake week. In true Devnaa fashion the aim is to create a selection of Indian inspired flavours that look as good as they taste and then share the recipe and some pictures here with you at the end of the day.

Today's recipe is a new take on our classic Pistachio & Rose cupcake. We've pumped up the flavour by adding an almond cream filling for an extra dimension of scrumptiousness! The Devnaa crew seem to like it - I left one aside and came back 5 minutes later to find it had vanished! Give it a go and let us know what you think. Happy Baking :)

Pistachio, Almond & Rose Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients for the sponge base:
100g Shelled Pistachio Nuts
200g Butter
200g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
200g Self Raising Flour
125ml Milk

Method:

• Start by pre heating your oven to gas mark 4/350F/180C and line your cupcake tin
• Place the pistachio nuts in a frying pan and dry roast over a medium heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes, then switch off the heat and leave the nuts aside to cool
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fuffy
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition and scraping the edges of your bowl as required
• Add half of the sifted flour and gently fold it in until fully incorporated
• Add one third of the milk and fold this in too
• Add the remaining flour and fold in completely
• Add the remaining milk as required, a little at a time until your batter becomes smooth and is of dropping consistency
• Quickly grind up the pistachio nuts and fold them into the mixture
• Divide the cupcake batter equally between the cupcake cases
• Bake in the centre of your oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden, springy and the skewer test comes out clean
• Cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients for almond cream:
100ml Whipping Cream
2 tblsp Caster Sugar
2 tblsp Almond Powder (lightly roast some almonds and grind down into a powder)
1/4 tsp Almond Extract

Method:

• Whip the cream together with the sugar until it reaches a soft peak consistency
• Fold in the almond powder and extract

Ingredients for rose buttercream:
175g Butter
300g Icing sugar (sifted)
1 tblsp Rose Extract (the better the quality, the better the flavour!)
Food colouring if desired

Method:

• Beat the butter until soft and creamy
• beat in the rose extract
• Slowly beat in the icing sugar making sure it combines well

Assembly:

• Using your thumb, poke a hole into the top of each cupcake, pressing until about hal way down (if you prefer you can cut a small disc out instead of pushing it down but this way is easier and less wasteful)
• Place the almond cream into a piping bag and fill the craters in the cupcakes until just oozing over the top
• Fill a piping bag with the rose buttercream and swirl on top as you wish (if you don't have a piping bag you can use spoons just as well to fill and swirl!)
• Voila!

(Excuse the poor quality of the images, Jay and his SLR aren't here!!! Lol!)