Enjoy these winters with your own home-made cupcakes! These cupcakes are not only delicious, but also fun and easy to make. They use no refined sugar, preservatives, artificial colours or chemicals. Use your creativity and decorate your cupcakes your own way using the two frosting recipes.
Ingredients:
100 gm (1 cup) wholewheat flour
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 cup grated carrots
50 gm (½ cup) milk at room temperature
25 gm (2 tbsp) curd at room temperature
35 gm (¼ cup) melted ghee
75 gm (½ cup) powdered jaggery
Crushed walnuts / dried berries / choco chip (Optional)
For Chocolate Frosting:
150 gm choco chip (OR chocolate block, chopped into very small pieces)
50 gm cream
Little desiccated coconut
2 thin red carrots
For White Frosting:
100 gm cream cheese
50 gm butter
2 cups sifted icing sugar
2 spoon Icing sugar (for dusting)
Pinch of salt (only if using unsalted butter)
Few choco chips (optional)
2 thin red carrots
Equipment:
3 medium bowls for mixing
Measuring cups and spoons
Whisk
Electric beater (optional)
Spatula
2 big spoons
Knife
Peeler
Piping bag (OR small rectangle plastic bag or Ziplock plastic bag, with a cut at the end to function as piping bag)
Cling wrap film
For baking using an OTG:
Cupcake tray OR paper coffee cups OR katori (bowls) OR silicone cupcake liners
Cupcake liners OR baking paper (not required if using silicone cupcake liners)
For baking using a Pressure Cooker:
Small steel katoris (bowls)
Cupcake liners OR baking paper
½ cup salt
A small stand on which katoris can be kept
Serving: 6 medium cupcakes
Nutrition Value (per serving):
Energy: 170 kcal
Protein: 2 gm
Carbs: 24 gm
Fats: 7 gm
Fibre: 3 gm
Method:
Preparation:
If you are using an OTG to bake, pre-head the oven for 10 minutes at 170 degree Celsius.
Take a bowl and add the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir with a whisk to mix all of them together.
Add the grated carrots in this mixture and toss with hands to coat the carrots evenly with the flour mixture.
In another bowl add the wet ingredients – milk, curd, melted ghee and powdered jaggery. Mix thoroughly with a whisk.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and incorporate well with a spatula with the cut and fold technique. At this stage, you may also add crushed walnuts, dried berries or choco chip.
Baking (using OTG):
Make sure your OTG is pre-heated (as indicated above).
Pour a spoonful of the cupcake mixture in your chosen equipment (cupcake try OR silicone cupcake liner OR paper coffee cups OR katories) to make 6 muffins.
Bake them for 16-20 minutes at 170 degree Celsius.
To check whether the cupcakes are baked properly, insert a knife (or toothpick). If it does not come out clean, bake for a few more minutes.
Baking (using pressure cooker):
Put salt on the base of the cooker, so that it is covered with a thin layer of salt. This will ensure even heating.
Pour a spoonful of the cupcake mixture in each katori.
Put a stand on the base, on which you can keep your katori.
Remove the whistle from the lid of the cooker.
Bake the cupcakes for 25-30 minutes in the cooker.
To check whether the cupcakes are baked properly, insert a knife (or toothpick). If it does not come out clean, bake for a few more minutes.
Making the Chocolate Frosting:
Add choco chips or crushed chocolate pieces in a bowl.
Heat the cream in a pan and add the hot cream to the chocolate.
Cover and keep aside for some minutes.
Stir and mix well until all chocolate has melted.
Cover the bowl with a plastic cling wrap and keep aside.
Making the White Frosting:
In a bowl add softened butter and cream cheese and mix well with an electric beater or a whisk.
Add sifted icing sugar little by little and keep whisking until nice and fluffy.
Assembly :
Decorate the winter Christmas cupcakes as shown.
For Christmas tree decoration, you can use desiccated coconut on the base of the cupcake for a snowy effect, a carrot stick to form the trunk of the tree, and white or brown frosting for the tree.
For snowman decoration, you can use desiccated coconut on the base of the cupcake for a snowy effect, carrot peels to make the muffler and hat of the snowman, carrot tip to make the nose, and choco chips for the eyes.
Use our your creativity and imagination and try other designs!
Know Your Ingredients:
Carrot
Carrots are a rich resource of various vitamins and minerals. Being rich in beta-carotene, carrots are an important source of vitamin A. Due to the presence of antioxidants, carrots are good for heart health and help fight harmful free radicals in the body, which may reduce the likelihood of getting cancer. They are also rich in potassium, and therefore help maintain blood pressure.
Whole wheat Flour
Compared to refined flour, whole wheat grain flour is not stripped of valuable nutrients and has many health benefits. It is fibrous and a complex carbohydrate that slowly converts to glucose in our body and keeps us full for a longer time. Fibre also helps lower cholesterol as well as move waste through the digestive tract. Whole wheat flour is also rich in vitamins B-1, B-3, and B-5, along with riboflavin and folate. It also has more iron, calcium, protein, and other nutrients than refined flour.
This recipe has been contributed by Ranjana Yadav, Founder of The CakeDress Studio.