Two Way Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes and being in the news

What’s more pretty than Strawberry and what’s more tastier than a Strawberry.  I love strawberries, the delicate balance between tartness and sweetness, the bright red and the fresh green.  And the fact that they are so versatile makes them almost out of the world. So many things you can do with them, from eating it just like them to standard eating them with whipped cream or with rum spiked chocolate ganache, strawberry pies and tarts, strawberry shortbread and yes yes my favourite Strawberry cupcakes

 

Don’t they look pretty ? I mean look at that pink, guaranteed to take away anyone’s heart

We spent this strawberry season making these over and over again, made them with eggs, without eggs, champagne infused and plain. Made them for the house, made them for friends and made them for orders  and yet I couldn’t post it sooner, but hey there still are a few strawberries in the market for you to try this yummy cupcakes.

so here is the recipe both the eggless version and one with the eggs

Recipe – Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes with strawberry frosting

Source – Self

What I used

For the muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup castor sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 yoghurt for the eggless version and 2 eggs otherwise
• 1 cup chopped strawberries
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup melted and cooled butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup champagne (optional but highly recommended )

For the frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1.5 – 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/4 cup strawberry puree
• 1 tsp vanilla

Just look at that crumb, soft moist and springy and this is the eggless one as I remember correctly

How I made them

• Preheat the oven at 180C and line a 12 hole muffin tray with liners or use the stand alone muffin cups like the green ones in picture. I swear they are super awesome
• Mix flour, baking powder, castor sugar and both the chocolate chips in a bowl and keep aside
• In a separate bowl mix together the wet ingredients i.e milk, eggs (or yoghurt) and butter. Give it a slight whisk
• Now mix the dry and the wet ingredients together till just mixed. Don’t over mix it
• Fold in the strawberries and the champagne if  you are using
• Pour in the prepared mould and bake for about 15-20 minutes till a tooth pick comes out clean
• Leave it for cooling completely  and while its cooling, go ahead and eat one. If you are anything like me and my son you will have only a couple left for frosting
• To make the frosting, using a handmixer beat butter till light and fluffy.
• Add sugar in three batches and beat till well incorporated
• Add the vanilla and the strawberry puree and beat for another minute, if you feel its too thin add some more icing sugar gradually till you reach the desired consistency
• Using a star nozzle pipe the frosting on the cupcakes and decorate with sprinklers

Now that the you have had the cupcakes, I think I can gloat a bit too, I mean if I won’t share my happiness with you readers, who will I share it with? The good news is that Sin-A-Mon has been getting a fair amount of media attention off late, both the humble blog and the business , I have made a page to share all my media mentions. Stop over and look, leave a comment if you like and have a bite of these cupcakes with me to celebrate …

And here is the biggest one, the latest one… Yesterday’s Times Life national edition carried a story on India’s Saucy foodies and I was featured along with my favourite foodie Kalyan of the Finely chopped fame, Maria Goretti, Kajal Tejsinghani 

You can read the article here and the link to the second page here

My phone didn’t stop ringing all day, with tweets, FB messages, SMS and calls and we were out for a day trip to N’s village with friends and it was a happy day yesterday, like Kalyan says couldn’t stop beaming throughout the day but I think the best part of the day was when mom called after seeing the picture and I could hear a chirp in her voice after a long long time as she hadn’t been well, it almost felt that this article has half cured her Its funny how these small things create magic sometimes but then I guess mum’s will be mum’s

And on that happy note, see you till next time. I have tons of things to post and this time I promise I won’t just go away