The Cupcake journey

Gone are the days when cupcakes were those little plain looking miniature cakes in paper cups, where we would chew up the paper hoping to devour the last piece of cake. Today, these cupcakes have undergone quite the makeover and Chennai seems to be fast becoming a hub for cupcakes.. You never know, one day you might land in Chennai and instead of asking for "idlies" go looking for "cupcakes" :-)

Anyways, jokes apart.. The 1st cupcake, a cute little cake with pretty icing that i had in the recent years was at our Wednesday meets at Subway, during the F4 days [Face to Face Facebook friends] when Sujaya Rao brought a box of yummy looking treats. They disappeared within minutes of arriving at Subway, and were quite delicious, simple vanilla flavoured with colour icing... Soon after, another friend Preethika began making cupcakes, but alas, i am yet to taste her treats [girl, are you reading? doubt it... bah] and then came the fun part of life that opened doors to the wonderful world of Cupcakes that Chennai had to offer. Am talking about the Chennai Food Guide and the infamous thread that was started innocently by Doc Waz on cupcakes. 

 Sujaya's cupcakes... Sorry about the photograph quality, taken on Blackberry

The comment section was filled with updates from people who made Cupcakes across the city. The one that stood out was from Adonia, a small store off Harrington Road that i had been to. Why dint i see the cupcakes? well, Maaria added the cafe much after my visit and this was the 1st i was hearing of these delights. I kept telling myself that i should try them, but days just kept flying by. 

During a restaurant review, The Harried cook brought a box of three kinds of Cupcakes- Vanilla, Red velvet and  Lemon, and they were yummilicious. I fell in love with the Red velvet...   Incidently, she has just completed the 2nd workshop in Basics of Baking [ you can check out this post by Chennai Foodie on her 2nd workshop..

 As months passed by, i also got the opportunity to taste the cupcake on display at the French Loaf Cake Buffet. These were tiny chocolate cupcakes with bright colour icing, looked good, but lacked flavour of any kind.,.. big let down... 

 

Cupcakes at French Loaf

One day last week, mom & i were out on errands when a spur of the moment decision led to us heading to Adonia.. Alas, the cupcakes were all sold out.. I got home, left a message for Maaria saying "came to your store, but there were no cupcakes..." and within a few minutes, we had exchanged a couple of messages and i had placed an order for a Dozen cupcakes [assorted, including red velvet]

The dozen cupcakes from Adonia

Two boxes of 6 delightful looking cupcakes landed home Monday afternoon... Within minutes my family had gorged down a few of them, and i had to literally sneak away a few that i wanted to take for a friend. 

Red velvet... Lindt.... Chocolate.. Vanilla. were few of the flavours in the cupcakes... 

   

There were a few with Chocolate icing, some with white and blue, one that resembled a sunflower with bright yellow icing dolloped with chocolate, and the 2 that had white icing with sprinkles of red.. The most adorable ones were the chocolate cupcakes with 2 tiny butterflies on them, just seeing them sitting in the box made my day [Maaria, almost like telepathy- Butterflies are my favourite :-)] Its Thursday, and there are 2 cupcakes left in the box, actually 1 and a half cupcakes... ;)

So,next time you get a cupcake craving, you know where to head...

The Harried Cook - 9884008905

Cafe Adoniya- Maaria Kulsum -9840285950
F-1, 15th Avenue, Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai
Chetpet
Chennai- 31

Eggless Chocolate Cake in Microwave

I had posted this on my other blog the day i made the cake and now reposting it here!!

What you need:
1cup maida
3/4 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa pdr
1/2 tin milkmaid
1cup milk
Few drops of vanilla essence
1 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar
75gms Butter

How to make the cake:
Step1- In a large bowl, Mix the maida,Cocoa powder, baking powder and the baking soda.. Then use a sieve and dust it off onto a plate or another bowl. keep this aside..

Step 2- In another mixing bowl, take 75gm butter, to this add the powdered sugar and mix well till it gets fluffy( you could use a blender for this purpose or the spoon is good enough)
To this add the mentioned quantity of milk n vanilla essence
And then add in the milkmaid.. mix all nicely till it becomes smooth and creamy..

Step 3- Take the bowl (from Step 2), and to this mix in the maida mixture, and beat well till the whole things blends nicely..

Step 4: Pour the cake mixture into a microwave proof bowl and bake for 5mins.
Once time is up, let it sit and cool for about 3minutes before you touch or test it out..

Ta da... your cake is ready...

I tried making double the quantity at home.. all that i did was double the materials used and cook it for 10mins instead of 5... tastes yummmy.. nice n soft.. :)
If you wish, you could add icing to this with Icing sugar, butter and instant coffee mix... :)

Tip to chk if cake has baked well:
Run a sharp knife straight thru the cake to see if it is cooked.. if the knife comes out clean, its done...