Carrot Halwa Chocolates and Laddoos - my fusion Indian sweets

So it snowed here, like two days ago....non-stop and all night and my lil’Appu kept staring out the patio door saying ‘my shoe’. I was confused, I went over to him  trying to stop him from opening the patio door and he kept saying softly, ‘Appu shoe…snow...so cold’ and then I saw, his tiny lil’blue Crocs all getting slowly covered in the snow on our patio deck. I scooped up my little bundle, gave him a tight hug and kiss and told him we’ll get his shoes out in the morning and he happily obliged. They are so forgiving and for some reason I just felt a huge flashwave of love towards my lil’innocent bundle who thought his shoes would get too cold in the snow. Just felt like sharing the moment here :-)

Anyways, Thanksgiving and Christmas preps are going around in full swing all around me. Before I loose track let me share the Gajar Halwa Chocolates and some Carrot Halwa Coconut Laddoos that I made for Diwali this year. 

I already shared the Carrot Halwa or Gajar Ka Halwa recipe and since I had planned on making fusion sweets, I planned to use my gajar halwa as fillings inside chocolates and I used White chocolate and Milk Chocolate flavored Candy Melts for the same.
(Candy Melts almost behave like tempered chocolates and retain their shape and form even at room temp. If you do not have Candy Melts, use tempered and good quality chocolate)

I used my silicone heart and flower shaped ice-cube trays. I started with the White chocolates in the heart shaped tray and everything worked fine with the filling and shaping, however while un-molding some of my chocolates cracked up as the outer layer was too thin :-( 

my first batch

I was almost tempted to drop the whole plan and you can also see that the finish of the chocolates weren't too neat. But after few hours I was feeling more clam and I thought I'd give it one more try and went ahead and made few of the flower shaped chocolates with Milk Chocolate and they worked out fine. Thank goodness! 

I only made around 10 White chocolate Gajar Halwa Hearts and 8 Chocolate Gajar Halwa Flowers (not counting the broken pieces) 

For the remaining Gajar Halwa I just went ahead and scooped it out into mini bite sized balls using my melon baller and coated them in some dried coconut and placed them in mini liner cups for a fancy look and got a total of 14 Carrot halwa Coconut Laddoos ;-) 

And this was what it all finally looked like….Ta-Daaah!! ;-D  
(Here I haven't shown all the sweets I made, just the amount that would fit on the pate)

In my opinion White Chocolate paired really well with the Gajar Halwa, with its milky creaminess yet retaining the pronounced taste of the sweet carrot pudding. But I’m biased and prefer milk chocolate to white choc anyday, so I kinda liked that more.  

As I was simply experimenting here, I do not have a perfect count on how many chocolates this might yield or how many laddoos etc.  So my humble opinion is to just go with your instincts and the amount of gajar halwa you have  ;-)

Carrot Halwa Hearts

You’ll need

Wilton candy Melts (Vanilla Flavor) – ½ cup 

Carrot Halwa – ½ cup or as needed

Heart shaped Silicone mold

Directions

1. Melt the candy melts in microwave or using a double boiler making sure the vessel does not touch the water until creamy and smooth.

2. Use a teaspoon or pointed pastry brush to coat some chocolate all around the inside cavity of your molds. Make sure the centre is empty and free for the filling. Use a dough scraper or backside of a knife to scrape out any excess chocolate from the top of the molds and refrigerate for 5 minutes.
3. Fill the inside with gajar halwa (carrot pudding) leaving some space for the chocolate layer that will form the bottom of your chocolate and again refrigerate for 5 mins to firm up.
4. Make sure the candy melts are still melted and smooth, else microwave again. Add chocolate over the top of the carrot halwa and make sure it fills the entire top portion in the shape of your mold. Before the chocolate hardens, scrape out any excess chocolate making a smooth base. If too much chocolate comes off disclosing the carrot halwa , again apply some chocolate and scrape away any excess gently. Again refrigerate for 5 mins.

5. Once the chocolate hardens, gently press it out of the mold onto a serving plate and continue to refrigerate. 

Carrot Halwa Flowers

You’ll need

Wilton candy Melts (Light Cocoa or Dark Cocoa) – ½ cup 

Carrot Halwa – ½ cup or as needed

Flower shaped Silicone mold

Directions

Repeat the same steps as done above for the White Chocolate Carrot Halwa Hearts, but using Wilton’s Light Cocoa or Dark Cocoa flavors for a Chocolaty flavor.

Carrot Halwa Coconut Laddoos

You'll Need

Carrot Halwa 

Dried Coconut flakes - as needed 

Mini cupcake liners or decorative liners 

Ghee- to grease palms

Directions:

1. Grease your palm with some ghee. Use a melon baller / small icecream scoop /teaspoon to scoop out Gajar Halwa and roll them into balls.

2. Drop them into a bowl filled with coconut flakes and roll them over until the flakes are coated all over the Gajar Halwa.

3. Shake off any excess coconut flakes and place them onto mini cupcake liners before serving.

They looked really attractive and no one guessed the chocolates had gajar halwa inside them or that it was homemade unless I told them and everyone enjoyed it. Some of my friends really loved the Carrot Halwa Laddoos more and loved the way it was made.  It’s a fun and different way to serve our traditional Indian sweets don’t you think?

Try making some for your next friend’s gathering and surprise your guests. Even kids can help in making these, it’s so easy and ofcourse they might help in eating them all too…so watch out!! ;-)

-Manju

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes and a Food Blogger Bake Sale

Last Saturday we had the 4^th Annual  Food Blogger Bake Sale. Food bloggers and non-bloggers alike participated in the charity event, the proceedings of which will benefit the No Kid Hungry program, an organization dedicated to ending child hunger in America. It was a country wide bakesale and several states across America held the Bake Sale in their respective cities on Saturday May4th,2013.

Ever since I heard of the event I knew I wanted to participate. This year the bake sale was co-ordinated by Lisa who blog’s at Delightfully Midwestern and she sent us out emails regarding the event. We had to bake and package the goodies and bring it over to the venue, where it would then be priced and arranged for the bake sale.

I had instantly decided that I would make Cupcakes and Cookies and decided on my most favorite cake flavor Chocolate-Banana for the cupcakes with both vanilla and chocolate buttercream frosting and favorite Chocolate-chip Cookies.

Let’s begin with these cupcakes shall we? This is the exact same cake recipe I used for the Baby Crib Cake and also for Manav’s First b’daycake and you have no idea how people have raved about the unique flavor and texture of this cake. 
Moist and crumbly, dark and chocolaty with a hint of banana flavor,  its perfect. It’s the easiest cake recipe ever and requires no fancy equipment’s - just the ingredients, two bowls and a whisk - that’s it!

I always use Chocolate buttercream as a pair for this cake but it goes really well with Vanilla buttercream as well.  Again this buttercream recipe is a keeper you guys!

I used Wilton 1M tip to pipe the buttercream in a rose pattern and a swirly pattern and jazzed up the Vanilla frosting with sprinkles and sugar crystals and kept the Chocolate buttercream frosting plain and simple. (Recipe shared at the end)

Now let me share a few tid-bits about my prep work for the bake sale apart from baking the goodies.

We were asked to label the goodies and were encouraged to put on our blog’s name on them , so I hand-made these lables on MS Word using the yellow-white polka dot background (which is my blog’s current background) , printed them out and hand-cut each one of them. 
These took me more time and effort than baking the goodies and Manish helped a lot with the technicalities. Thank’s hubby!  What do you think? :-) 

I packaged the cupcakes individually by placing them in plain transparent 9 oz party cups , covered them with transparent bags (treat bags) and tied them with ribbon along with my labels.  And my Chocolate-chip Cookies…two big cookies in a bag! My dad also helped me in packaging these :-)

Lisa was there at the venue along with few volunteers. That’s me posing with a weird smile and writing pricing stickers to put on the goodies. We didn't stay there for long as Lisa had enough volunteers to help her with the bake sale. 

In all my excitement I forgot to take any snaps of the other goodies and I'm still waiting for the pics that Lisa said she took. I will update it here once she shares them. In all we raised around $900 ...yaay!

I had a good time baking, decorating, packaging, labeling , pricing, photographing etc :-) and I do hope some of you who live in MN had stopped by and donated to the event by buying some of the goodies.  

The recipe  for Chocolate-Banana cake can be made into a 9x13 (quarter Sheet) cake or a 10” cake or  two 6” cakes or 24 regular sized cupcakes and I speak by experience on all the cake sizes as I’ve made them all with this cake recipe , of course baking time will vary for each. I only used half the amount to make chocolate buttercream as I didn't need the whole amount.

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Recipe source: Joy of Baking

You’ll need

Cake flour* - 1¾  cups (245 grams)

Granulated white sugar - 1¾ cups (350 grams)

Unsweetened Cocoa powder - ¾ cup (75 grams)

Baking powder – 1½  tsp

Baking soda - 1½ tsp

Salt – a pinch or ¼ tsp

Large Eggs - 2

Mashed ripe Bananas (2 medium bananas) - 1 cup

Warm Water - 1 cup (240 ml)

Milk - ½ cup (120 ml)

Canola oil (or any flavorless oil) - ½ cup (120 ml)

Pure Vanilla extract - 1½  tsp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Place cupcake liners in the cupcake pan and set aside.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. You will notice that the batter is quite thin.

5. Using an icecream scoop or small ladle, fill the cupcake liners about  ¾ full.

6. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway (at around 9 or 10 minutes) through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

7. Let cool in the pans 3-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. ( If left within the pan for too long the cupcake will continue to cook with the heat of the pan and may become less moist)

*{ 1 cup Cake Flour = ¾ th cup APF + 2 tblsp cornstarch } 

  

Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

(Both recipes  yields 2-3 cups of frosting)

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Recipe source : Savory Sweet Life
You’ll need

Unsalted Butter , at room temp – 1 cup (that’s  2sticks or ½ pound)

Powdered sugar or Confectioners’ sugar (sifted) – 3 or 4 cups

Pure Vanilla Extract – 1 tblsp

Milk or heavy cream – 4 tblsp or as needed

Salt – a pinch (optional)

Directions

1.Beat butter until smooth and creamy using a paddle attachment on medium speed if using KitchenAid mixer or using electric hand blender.

2. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar , little at a time on low speed, until it mixes well with the butter.

3. Increase the speed to medium and add Vanilla extract, salt (if using) and 4 tblsp of milk/heavy cream. Combine well for few minutes until smooth and creamy. 

(If you want a thicker frosting add remaining 1 cup sugar. If you want a thinner consistency add more milk 1 tblsp at a time )

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Recipe source : Savory Sweet Life
You’ll need

Unsalted Butter , at room temp – 1 cup (that’s  2sticks or ½ pound)

Powdered sugar or Confectioners’ sugar (sifted) – 3 ½  cups

Cocoa powder (sifted) – ½ cup

Pure Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

Milk or heavy cream – 4 tblsp or as needed

Salt – a pinch (optional)

Directions

1.Beat butter until smooth and creamy using a paddle attachment on medium speed if using KitchenAid mixer or using electric hand blender.

2. Sift 3 cups of powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and slowly add in to the butter, mixing on low speed until everything mixes well.

3. Increase the speed to medium and add Vanilla extract, salt (if using) and 4 tblsp of milk/heavy cream. Combine well for few minutes until smooth and creamy.

(If you want a thicker frosting add remaining  ½  cup sugar. If you want a thinner consistency add more milk 1 tblsp at a time )

Mother's Day is this Sunday, May 12th, so make this cake as your special treat to your mom and trust me you both are gonna love it. Happy Mother's Day in advance to all the wonderful mommy's out there...you are the best!

Another cool thing I wanted to share was my blogger friend Jehanne's  Mother's Day newsletter. She was so kind enough to share my Mini Bundt Apple pie in the apple love section. I absolutely loved the newsletter and I bet you will too.  Check it out here and give her some comment love will you :-)

-Manju