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Vanilla Bean Cupcakes With Marzipan Flowers

June 22, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

Those are the best of the moments which I spend with my family. And it has doubled up the fun when I have taken off from work completely. I am almost re-living my summer vacations of school days. Though that one month long vacation has squeezed into one week, but experiencing the similar feelings back again has actually compensated for the shorter duration.

This is the time when most of schools in north India are closed due to summer vacations and kids get most of their pampering from parents. Or rather, when parents have to cater to their kids’s tantrums, demands more frequently, all day long.

I remember those days, when we used to complete our summer assignment from school during the first week of vacation itself, so that we could save the next three weeks for full time fun and enjoyment. There used to be two main rituals which we did almost every year; visiting our sweet grand mother followed by a short out station trip to mountains in north. Because of lack of time, that out station trip had to be snipped off and visit to grand mother’s place has been converted to my parents visiting me along with my whole big family, including the sweet grand mother of course. With time things have taken a new form completely {oops…sorry for this cliche}.

Time is flying so high, that I didn’t realize that it’s almost about to end.  Almost each day, I baked/cooked one new recipe, when everyone else except kids was having a nap after lunch and surprised them with these goodies with afternoon tea when they woke up. There was so much to do but I managed to take some shots for posting here later.

I started with these wonderful and colorful vanilla bean cupcakes {some more recipes would follow soon}.  I baked these especially for my niece, who dots on cakes and cookies. Her face got brightened up when she saw me cutting these marzipan flowers. She would come by and sneak out a flower or leaf out of my sight a couple of times. And I enjoyed pretending to ignore her. It was so much fun I must say.

Ingredients

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

100 gm butter, softened
100 gm sugar, powdered
1/2 vanilla bean
2 eggs
125 gm plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
4 tbsp milk

Whipped Cream Frosting

1 tsp unflavored gelatin
4 tsp warm water
1 cup low fat cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Liquid food color of choice

Marzipan

100 gm pealed and blanched almonds
50 gm powdered sugar
Liquid food color of choice

Instructions

  1. For cupcakes, beat butter, sugar and vanilla bean scrape together until pale and fluffy.
  2. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by flour, baking powdered and milk.
  3. Divide the batter into 8 paper cups and bake in a 180 degree Celsius preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
  4. Let cupcakes cool completely.
  5. For marzipan, grind the almonds in food processor, until very soft and they start to release their oil. They’ll pinch together once hold with fingers.
  6. Add sugar and pulse in food processor briefly. Take out and knead with hand until pliable.
  7. Add liquid food color one drop at a time. Roll out between the two sheets of cling wraps and cut flowers of different shapes. Let stand for some time.
  8. For the frosting, sprinkle gelatin over water and let it dissolve for 5 minutes.
  9. Whip cream, sugar, and vanilla until slightly thickened. While beating at slow speed, gradually add gelatin to whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff.
  10. Add color and mix well.
  11. Apply frosting over cupcakes with spatula and stick flowers and leaves and let them dry for few minutes in refrigerator.

Filed Under: cake Tagged With: cupcakes, marzipan, Vanilla Bean, whipped cream frosting

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta With Mango Coulis

May 6, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

I just get thrilled about having a dessert which has got some fruits in it. Fruits give a whole new life to a dessert, by their mere freshness. And if it has to be the King of all the fruits, it just leaves you wanting more of it. Yes I am talking about Mangoes, the gorgeous golden and super sweet flesh of mangoes added to a dessert.

Summer is upon us now in it’s full swing. You could see them everywhere, with carts loaded with them and hawkers selling them by the roadside. And I had been looking out for a dessert recipe which calls for Mangoes, because I didn’t want to miss out on this special seasonal fruit, which lasts here for around four months only.

And then I came across this wonderful Panna Cotta recipe by David Lebovitz.  God…why I hadn’t stumbled upon this earlier??? Panna Cotta is basically set cream, which gets it’s body from gelatin. And I tell you that the texture of it is so luscious and smooth that resisting something like this is almost next to impossible.

David’s recipe calls for double cream. But I took the liberty on adapting it minimally by cutting down the calories by substituting half of the double cream by low fat cream and the rest half by hung yogurt {to lessen the whey}. And the result was still so creamy. I have saved the original recipe for some future special moment.

I paired my Panna Cotta with Mango coulis, which I had frozen in the serving glasses for two hours, so that the weight of Panna Cotta doesn’t make it sag into the fruit puree below it. This is the kind of dessert which you can prepare for a dinner party well in advance, stock them up in refrigerator, and I am sure your life becomes all sorted out.

Recipe adapted minimally from David Lebovitz

Ingredients

Panna Cotta:

250 ml low fat cream {i used 25 % fat}
250 ml hung curd {hung for 24 hours in refrigerator}
50 gm cane sugar
1 vanilla bean pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp gelatin powder
3 tbsp cold water

Mango Coulis:
flesh of 3 ripened mangoes
sugar adjusted to the sweetness of mangoes
1/2 cup water

Instructions

  1. For the coulis, Blend the mangoes and water in a liquidizer. You may skip the sugar, if mangoes are enough sweet.
  2. Divide the fruit among for glasses/ramekins equally and freeze them up for 2 hours.
  3. Mix cream, yogurt and sugar well in a saucepan.
  4. Scrape the seeds from vanilla bean and add to the cream mixture.
  5. Heat the cream mixture till the sugar gets dissolved, taking care not to boil the cream.
  6. In a separate bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over cold water and let it stand it for 5-10 minutes.
  7. Pour the warm cream mixture over gelatin and mix. Let it cool for some time.
  8. Pour the Panna Cotta mixture over the frozen fruits and let them stand in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  9. When serving, top them up with fresh mango cubes/nuts/mint leaves and enjoy them chilled.

Filed Under: Creams Tagged With: coulis, cream, dessert, mango coulis, Mangoes, Panna Cotta, Vanilla Bean, vegetarian, yogurt

Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

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