Mocha Frappe with Chocolate Ice Cream!

      Lately,whenever I chat up with a fellow blogger, it seems that they’re just worried about one thing….”Did a mouse eat up Zemanta?”. That may not be the precise worry,it has variations.  Hope this answers your question!…………

This is an official notice from wordpress:(Copy Pasted)

On January 2nd, 2014 we’re removing our third-party integration with Zemanta, which added some tools like a manual related content tool, and suggestions for tags and images. We’re working on improving our editor to incorporate some of this functionality natively within WordPress.com. Some features, like related posts, are already there and better than the Zemanta-created version, in our opinion and testing.

In the meantime, we encourage you to use our own Related Posts feature, and for images, check out our list of websites that provide free images, videos, books, and other content for your blogs.

                                                                                    _WordPress Happiness Engineer

What I say people is that don’t worry about Zemanta-Wordpress equation. Just Chill and Make the Mocha Frappe and insert a scoop of chocolate ice-cream! I mean when you have this,do you really(Ask your self again) REALLY need to bother yourself with boring stuff like the zemanta-wordpress relationship??? Chill guys! Chill with a few ice cubes!  🙂 🙂

What You Need (4 medium serves) 

4 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp coffee powder

1/4 cup boiling water

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup ice cubes

1 cup milk

Chocolate ice cream of your choice

How you Go about it

Combine cocoa,coffee,hot water and sugar.Stir well and remove any lumps
Place Ice cubes, 5 tbsp chocolate ice cream and coffee mixture into the blender. Blend till foam forms on top.
Lastly add 1 scoop chocolate ice cream in each of the serving glasses
Pour in the mocha frappe on top of each glass

Serve immediately! 

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Coffee-Walnut Crumb Cake!

             I am an Asian  teenager for whom South Africa is another planet and Nelson Mandela is the man I see sometimes on television,sometimes online, sometimes in newspapers. So before  I began writing this post, I was asking myself, “Do I have the right to say something about this man?”. Because  all my life I have been a carefree soul. And have never really delved deep into thought provoking matters.I’m a self professed basic, not a poet. Yet I am writing about a man who went ahead to change many lives by the mercy of Almighty God. A man who fought matters of race, of freedom, of  peace, of poverty and most important of all…of humanity.A man who thought, dreamed and did, rather than stay confined into his own  little selfish world like I do. From early childhood I remember hearing , “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Today I found out it was piece of wisdom delivered by Nelson Mandela,that had crept slowly into my  house and hugely shaped the person I’ve now become. Resentment is the last thing that will ever come to me, because the idea of it being a poison has deeply sunk into my roots. I’ve seen people ruin themselves through resentment, wallowing in it until it  swallows them completely. I realized that it is a gift that he has given me, and to all of those who dared to listen and to learn. For those who loved him should not cry, because he lived a life of substance unlike many. A man who was truly worthy of being called a man. A man who shall live after death in the minds and hearts of many.

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world”.
William Shakespeare 

 

Blog’s One Month Anniversary and Coffee-Walnut Crumb Cake

It’s my blog’s one month anniversary today. That is, if there something like a one month anniversary. Well,anyway I made some bittersweet coffee and walnut crumb cake for today. A bittersweet cake for a bittersweet day. It was soft, crumby and melt-in-the-mouth delicious. It has been a good one month of blogging. My perspective on food has already begun to change. I’ve began to look at it as a work of art rather than just a ‘thing’ to feed my growling tummy. The bloggers I’ve begun to get familiar with have been very kind and so have been the visitors. But all along I’ve never lost sight of why I made this blog. It was accidentally made, not intentionally.I blog for the love of food, rather than food for the love of blogging. Will never forget this, InshaAllah!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon flour, for coating the pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 Tablespoons (1 and 1/4 stick) unsalted butter, lightly softened at room temp
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, see how to
• 1 large egg, at room temperature*
• 1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease  a spring-form pan with butter. Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with 1 Tablespoon of flour and tap out the excess.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a large mixing bowl until combined. Cut in the butter in very small pieces. Whisk around with a whisk or mix with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside 1 cup of the flour mixture.
3. Mix the baking powder and baking soda into the remaining flour mixture. Add the room temperature buttermilk, coffee,egg, and vanilla – you may want to do this with a mixer. The batter is very, very thick. Vigorously mix everything together until the batter is smooth, fluffy, and resembles frosting – about 2 full minutes. Spoon the batter into the prepared spring-form pan, smoothing the top.
4. Add the brown sugar, chopped walnuts and cinnamon to the reserved flour mixture. Toss with a fork until well blended. Sprinkle the crumbs over the batter, pressingly lightly so they stick. Bake the cake until the center is firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean – 45-55 minutes. Mine took 55 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes( or 5 minutes in fridge), then remove the sides of the spring-form pan and allow cake to cool completely before serving (about 2 hours).

 

 

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Mocha Cupcakes

My love for cupcakes has just begun. I have a feeling that it is one of those eternal loves which poets constantly talk about.And I’m glad its a good kind of deep, nourishing love that tastes so sweet and smells so good.As Marie Williams Johnstone said and I quote “What Makes Life so Sweet? Cupcakes to eat and Someone to Love.” One more thing before we go ahead. I’ve noticed that there are quite a few people (like me) who do not like too much cream on their cupcakes. These cupcakes are God-sent for such people. The frosting on them tastes like coffee-ice cream. The chocolate chips make these cupcakes even more ice-creamish tasting 😀 

 

Before Frosting!

For 12 Cupcakes You Need

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Buttermilk (See How to make it)
• 1/4 cup brewed strong coffee cooled
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• A pinch of salt

For Frosting You Need

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp espresso powder

How to Go about Making Cupcakes

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Set cupcake paperliners into the mould.
• Mix espresso powder into the brewed coffee until it dissolves.
• Whisk well  flour,cocoa powder,baking soda,baking powder and salt.
• Add egg,butter,buttermilk,vanilla extract and sugar in one bowl and whisk well until fluffy and light.Slowly add the flour mixture and coffee mixture alternatively.Keep beating with your electric beater.
• Pour mixture into the paper liners. Set to bake.
• Let cupcakes cool before applying the frosting.

How to make Frosting

Frosting is the best thing about these,like I mentioned. It has to be made very carefully:

• Use double boiling method to heat an egg. Keep stirring it. It will thicken. Do not let it solidify.
• Add powdered sugar, Stir more.
• Remove the egg mixture from the double boiler.
• Add butter in a bowl.Add the egg mixture, vanilla extract and espresso powder. With an electrical beater, whisk well.
• Add cream to the mixture and whisk lightly once for 10 seconds.
• Our frosting is not very stable. Its not meant to be.( If you want to stabilize it, use gelatin)

Apply your frosting the way you like. Chocolate chips and choco balls are amazing over the espresso frosting of these mocha cakes 😀

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