Raspberry Cup Cakes for a Tea Party

In the age and place I live, people are strange. They do not drink tea. Even if they do, it is the weird stuff, the echinacea tea, the dandelion tea, "please-don't-drink-me" tea but very rarely ever the simmering on the stove-frothy-milky-sweet-dhaba-style Indian tea.

I like the last kind. I patiently wait for the milk and water to simmer and froth, to put a teaspoonful of Lipton Red Label, to soak an Earl Grey tea bag in it, to sweeten it with sugar or Truvia when feeling guilty and then dunking my Marie Biscuit in that hot tea before I take a sip.

I do that every afternoon disregarding cries from my neglected kids who haven't seen their Mother all day. But I just need my tea exactly so, I need my inner strength to face home after a long day and so I brew my tea. The kids get a Marie Biscuit each, they are allowed to dunk their biscuits in my steaming cup. Their baby hands falter and often a sliver of Marie sinks into my tea, it's lumpy form settling at the bottom of my cup. Some days I don't mind. On rough days I do, I want to sip my tea in peace without a lump of Marie in the dredges.

But I never have a tea party. I don't call people and invite them to one. Not that anyone would come if I asked. Unless I said I would fry some pakodis and promised a dinner after wards. I have great friends that way. People don't have time to sit down and talk over only tea, they would rather grab a coffee and go and call to chat.

People have changed. They don't call out for "duto half cha"(two half tea) to justify their sitting and smoking all day on the rickety bench by Montuda's canteen. They don't acknowledge your hard work. No one thinks twice about passing your Mom's recipe as their own.They don't give you credit if it was actually you who inspired them. Being polite is no longer the norm.

So I drink my tea all by myself. I like it that way better. Even with the sunken Marie.

These Raspberry Cup Cakes are from Madhuram's Vegan Strawberry Cup Cakes. It was HC's raspberry cup cakes which had actually pushed me towards baking some. But I wanted an eggless version, and I wanted raspberry. Madhuram's strawberry cup cakes came to the rescue. They have vinegar. Can you believe...VINEGAR ? I was so awed by vinegar in the cake thing that I simply had to do it. And it is amazing, those cakes actually rise and are so moist inside without the buttery richness.

Since I used raspberry and not strawberry the measures were a little off for me. I added almost 3/4 th cup of milk and 2 tbsp of oil extra because my batter had become very thick. But those cakes were awesome. While serving I slathered some raspberry jelly on top and made a butter cream frosting like Happy Cook does. Only mine weren't as pretty as hers. Thanks Madhuram and Happy Cook.

I don't have any measurements so the recipe I have here is exactly like the original . But I did have to make some adjustments and I will add that as a Note.

Cup Hanger from Mother's Day

And yes I did have them with my tea, only I had my tea in under 6 minutes and that cup that you see in the first pic does not have tea. It is so pretty, a friend got me a pair from Italy and I don't drink from it. I just stare at it while I drink from my regular cup, that one I got from the job fair, the job fair which never resulted in a job...ok whatever.

Does this make this post good enough for a Tea Party at Anita's ? If yes, over there it goes.


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Original Recipe

Raspberry Cup Cakes

Preheat Oven to 350F

In a saucepan put about 20 raspberries, sprinkle with 2tbsp sugar, a little lime juice and let it sit for 30 mins. Then make a raspberry filling like this, only I didn't make mine very thick. Or else just puree the raspberrys.


In a mixing bowl combine together
1 & 3/4 cup flour,
1 tsp baking soda and
1 cup sugar.

In another bowl, mix
1/2 cup oil,
1 tbsp white vinegar/apple cider vinegar and
1 tsp vanilla extract

Add the raspberry filling that you made to above and mix. It won't mix well but try.

Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir together but do not over stir.
Note: At this point my batter was very thick. So I added almost 3/4 cup of Milk and 1-2 tbsp of oil. I did this gradually starting with little milk so that I did not add excess milk.

Grease 12 muffin cups or cup cake liners. Pour the batter in them

Bake for about 22-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. When cool, slather the cupcakes with raspberry preserve, butter cream and top each with a whole raspberry.

If you are a sucker for Numbers-Thank You..if Not-Thank You

Thanks for the 1.5 million hits.

You guys mean a lot to me. Without you this would never have been possible.

Trust me, except for me, the hub and my Dad, no one I know and influence in real life visits this blog.

My Dad has a slow connection and accounts for maybe 1% of the hits.

The hub has blogger blocked at work, he can do only so much on his blackberry -- 0.5 %

Me -- ok, ok 2%

The rest 96.5% is you guys who came, Visited, Liked, Subscribed and Searched.

Thank You from the bottom of my heart, even the one who searched for "arun sour daey a girl hot video" and landed here.

I hope you like what you get here, except for ummm..."hot video"...I will see if I can do anything for you next time. For now be happy with a "hot curry".

We will celebrate in 2 weeks time, stay tuned.

"Ganapati Bappa Moriya, Pudhaycha Varshi Laukar ya"

Samwich -- Sandwich

Easy, quick meals is my mantra these days.

In my late twenties I would have scoffed at "meal" and "mantra" being uttered in the same breath and dialed DeenDayal Dabba Delivery or Shanghai Indian Chinese for the quickest route to nirvana. If DeenDayal refused or my delicate digestive system protested I would say "Yenna Rascala" and throw potatoes, egg and rice in the pressure cooker. In under 20 minutes I would have a princely meal of alu seddho(mashed potatoes), dim seddho(boiled eggs), bhaat(rice) and ghee with a tender kancha lonka(green chili) to be bitten into.

As I even write the above line, I have a strong desire to do it again. The "alu seddho-bhaat" part I mean. Ok, ok even the "Yenna Rascala" part.

But growing up to be in the wrong side of thirties comes with it's own baggage. Blogging adds to it. So even though Indian cuisine has a plethora of quick-easy meals, Dal-Chawal cooked in the Pressure Cooker being a prime example, I don't do that.

I make sandwiches.

And I intend to write erudite sentences like "And what works better than a sandwich for a quick easy meal, may I ask ?"

So we have had sandwiches for dinner exactly 4 nights in the last 3 weeks. The sandwich toaster languishing in some dark corner of the closet has been fished out, dusted, wiped and given a warm hug.

"Why didn't I think of you in my dark, cranky, loony days ?", I croon to her, the sandwich toaster, in a hushed tone. Yeah I am weird and I have phases. Currently it is the sandwich's turn. Let it bask in unrequited love till Dal-Chawal pushes it over.

The idea of the first meatball sandwich with mushroom comes from the Pioneer Woman. Also the term "fry sauce" which I then saw in the price club's flyer last month

If you have the ground chicken do everything like my Chicken MeatBall post and instead of making spherical shapes make patties. Or if you have those chicken meatballs already, just use them. Drizzle a little olive oil and pan fry or bake them.

Now heat some olive oil in a fry pan. Add onion and saute till soft. Add some chopped mushroom, a little garlic, salt and lots of black pepper powder. Saute till the water from mushroom has dried up and it is cooked.

Take a slider or a whole wheat burger bread. Mix a little mayo with Maggi hot & sweet ketchup. This apparently is called Fry sauce. Only no one but me uses Maggi Hot & Sweet, actually they use some ketchup or hot sauce and cayenne. Slather this on the bread. For a Desi touch, use green corriander chutney instead but that doesn't go too well with the onion+mushroom combo.

Place the chicken/balls/patty strategically on it. I halve the chicken balls and place them on the bread.

Heap the onion+mushroom on it. Sprinkle some grated cheese. Pop in the oven and broil till cheese melts.

Put the other half of bread slathered with the same sauce on top. There is your sandwich with dark,musky secrets inside. Yum, yum.

.

The idea for the Tomato sandwich cones from One Hot Stove.

In a bowl put some chopped fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes need to be good, fresh ones, the one's from Patel Cash & Carry will not seal the deal. Add some chopped fresh basil. Sprinkle some salt and fresh ground black pepper. Drizzle a little Olive Oil. Let the tomatoes sit for 15 minutes.

Now take a slice of whole wheat bread. Slather it with a green corriander chutney. I used straight from a jar. It is beautiful. Heap the tomatoes on the bread. Sprinkle grated cheese. I used Taco Blend. Cover with another slice of whole wheat bread and pop in the sandwich toaster till it magically turns into a sandwich that shrieks spring even in Fall.

Tomorrow we will make Rogan Josh, maybe Not.