The White Ramekins

food & photography

Dark Chocolate & Rosé Wine Cupcakes With Mascarpone Frosting

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Dark Chocolate & Rosé Wine Cupcakes

Cupcakes are delight. A luscious and velvety frosting sitting on the top of a tiny moist cake makes a cupcake so special. Add some sprinkles, marzipan flowers or a mere simple edible glitter, and they look so fab. Almost adorable little creatures. They are meant for all the occasions. No fuss about cutting them sharply or serving them. You just need to take one, admire it first and then gobble it down fast. So simple, aren’t they.

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Add some booze to them, and you take them to a new high. Those cute thing, which were so kids friendly until now, get turned into something apt for an adult palate. So now you can believe me that they do have a life too. Or rather just believing me, why don’t you go figure that out yourself.Be fair and give them a chance at least, the way I did.

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I took some Still Rosé wine from Four Seasons and perked up my dark chocolate cupcakes. The wine which is a blend of Shiraz and Zinfandel grapes having a salmon pink color and the aromas of freshly crushed strawberries and hints of sweet spice, gave the cupcakes a whole new self. This deliciously fruity and off-dry wine very well replaced the delicate and ever praised vanilla. And was astound, that I didn’t miss the vanilla in there. This is a perfect treat for summer, light and crisp.

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Recipe Adapted from Rachel Ray (Yields 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
60 gm dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1/4 cup boiling water
100 gm butter, at room temperature
3/4 cups granulated sugar, powdered in food processor
2 large eggs
3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup rosé wine
200 gm mascarpone cheese, {I used homemade. recipe here}
1/4 cup low fat cream
1/2 cup icing sugar
chocolate shaving/curls, for garnish

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius and line a muffin tray with 12 paper liners.
  2. In a medium heat proof bowl, combine together cocoa powder and chocolate and boiling water. Whisk until chocolate is melted and well combined.
  3. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and pale. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
  4. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt into the egg mixture and mix until just combined.
  5. Alternating, add the chocolate mixture and wine in batches, mixing well between each addition, until the batter is smooth.
  6. Divide among the muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan.
  7. For the frosting, beat masacarpone, cream and sugar together until creamy.
  8. Remove the cooled cupcakes from the pan, pipe the icing onto the cupcakes and top with chocolate shavings or curls.

Tiramisu Verrines

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Zipping past through a very busy last week, between working late hours in office, friends visiting from US over the weekend and then rushing back home on Sunday afternoon, I somehow managed to take sometime for baking and feeding this constantly growing hunger of mine to write up this food journal. All I had to do was to timeline and prioritize the tasks. Tiramisu had been on my mind, ever since I made the luscious mascarpone at home. But I was waiting for some special moment, and what else it could be, while dear friends meeting up after almost two years. And the excitement was to meet their four months old lad. This was another reason to do this stuff well in advance, so that I could save on time to spend with the little one {did I mention that I love kids}.

I baked my ladyfingers and made Mascarpone two days in advance. And on Friday morning, before leaving for work, I whipped up the ingredients and layered them up in wide mouth water glasses and piled them up in refrigerator to set. I decided to make Tiramisu in verrines rather than a big round cake, all because the ladyfingers didn’t shape up like the ones you get from store {they were flatened a bit, as I didn’t have proper molds}. But trust me, they tasted nonetheless delicious. I was hesitating a bit in adding raw eggs to Mascarpone, so I used the store brought vanilla custard powder instead.

Lady Fingers/Savoiardi/Biscuit a la cuillere

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated
6 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp plain flour
80 gm superfine sugar

Instructions

  1. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with 3/4th of the sugar until firm peaks form.
  2. In separate bowl, beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until it resembles a pale yellow light mix.
  3. Mix the egg yolks to egg whites, very gently.
  4. Sift over the flour and cornstarch and fold in gently with a wooden spatula, without losing the airiness of the mix.
  5. Pour the mix in a piping bag with 2″ circular nozzle and pipe on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  6. Let stand for 2 minutes and bake for 15 minutes in a 180 degree C/350 degree F preheated oven.
  7. Remove them from the oven and let them cool a little before placing them on a cooling rack.

Tiramisu

Ingredients

200 gm mascarpone, at room temperature {homemade recipe here}
1 1/2 cup cold milk
4 tsp vanilla custard powder
80 gm powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup prepared strong dark coffee, at room temperature
3 tbsp whipped cream
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
10-15 ladyfingers {recipe above}

Instructions

  1. Mix the custard powder with milk and 1/3 of the sugar and simmer it for 2/3 minutes {follow package directions}, let cool and come to room temperature.
  2. In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone with remaining sugar, vanilla essence and  custard till it becomes light and airy, almost doubles up in volume.
  3. Fold in whipped cream gently.
  4. Take one ladyfinger, quickly dip it in coffee and cover the bottom of glass with it. Add more cookies to glass, if desired.
  5. Spoon the mascarpone mix into the glass, dust over cocoa powder.
  6. Repeat the layers of ladyfingers soaked in coffee, mascarpone.
  7. Cover the glasses with cling wrap and let them sit in refrigerator for atleast 5 hours {preferably overnight}.
  8. Dust with more cocoa powder while serving.

Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse Tartlets

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Since the day I have started writing this food journal, I am getting more and more attracted to the idea of pausing to snap  photos of the food before my mates and I get a chance to eat it. Collecting props, making small Do-It-Yourself apparatus at home etc. are the things which have taken over my mind partially, if not completely. Those wonderful food blogs and other resources all over the internet inspire me a lot and give me a reason to wander through a sea of endless opportunities; Opportunities to narrate a unique story, Opportunities to express a personal reaction to a recipe visually, and last but not the least, opportunities to get rewarded of all the fun and happiness.

This time I stumbled upon this luscious and creamy chocolate mascarpone mousse filled in a rustic almond pastry. My version of these mini mousse tarts has the goodness of both the recipes which I adapted through GourmandeInTheKitchen and PassionateAboutBaking. Thank you Sylvie and Deeba for writing such wonderful and inspiring blogs. Instead of making a quark cheese mousse or a chocolate ganache, I chose to make a mascarpone mousse filling {mascarpone, which I made the other day}. The sweet and luscious mascarpone gives a body to this chocolate mousse.

Ingredients

For the crust:
125 gm whole almond {with skin on}
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp melted unsalted butter or ghee
60 gm digestive biscuits

For the Filling:

100 gm dark chocolate
100 gm mascarpone
1 tbsp honey
100 ml low fat cream
cocoa powder for sifting

Instructions

  1. For the crust, grease 4/5 small tart molds and keep aside.
  2. In food processor, pulse together the digestive biscuits and almonds, till they resemble fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Add salt and baking soda and pulse again briefly.
  4. Add honey and butter/ghee to make a dough.
  5. Divide the mixture among the tart molds. Press firmly against the walls and base of molds to make an even layer of pastry.
  6. Chill the molds in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  7. Preheat the oven at 180/350 degrees Celsius/Fahrenheit and bake the pastries for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are golden. Keep aside to let them cool completely.
  8. For the mousse filling, Melt the chocolate in microwave or double boiler and let it cool.
  9. Beat the mascarpone and honey, till it gets creamy.
  10. Mix in the melted chocolate, after it gets cooled completely.
  11. In a separate bowl, beat the cream lightly and then fold into mascarpone and chocolate mix.
  12. Fill the tartlet shells with the mousse filling. Dust over some cocoa powder, garnish with slivered almonds and chill in refrigerator.