Biko Cupcakes with Mango Sorbet - Gluten-Free Filipino Dessert

Biko is a new dessert to me, and unless you are Filipino, it's probably new to you as well.  Biko is a coconut sticky rice cake.  When I say rice cake, please, please don't picture those flavorless Styrofoam-like "desserts" enjoyed by dieters all over America. Biko cupcakes are like eating a bowl of brown sugar-topped coconut-flavored oatmeal in cupcake form. Enjoy them warm out of the oven for breakfast or top them with mango sorbet and latik (read my post about latik if that word means nothing to you) as a sweet end to a home-cooked meal. 

Mango Cupcakes - I Learned The Secret

These moist mango cupcakes topped with decadent, drippy dulce de leche are the mango cupcakes that I've been wanting to create, but until now, hadn't. Don't you want to lick the dulce de leche right off the side of the mango cupcake wrappers? Confession: I loved that the mango cupcakes were messy because every time I handed someone a mango cupcake, I got to sneak a little taste of it off of my fingers.

The Secret to Mango Cupcakes

My last mango cupcakes didn't taste mango-ey at all and the mango cupcakes before those tasted like corn muffins. I turned to you, my incredibly creative readers, for suggestions on how to give the cupcakes more mango flavor. You had some fantastic ideas (go read the comments on my last mango attempt if you haven't). While I'd love to try all of them, the one that stuck out for me was using mango extract (one of my friends on Facebook suggested it and SilverMoon Dragon and Sommer had similar suggestions of using mango essence and mango flavoring oil).

I found natural mango extract on Amazon and as soon as I opened the bottle, I knew that I had found the mango prize! It smelled like mango - not fake, candy mango, but like the fresh mango that I eat over the sink because it's so juicy. Just like vanilla extract is necessary for a heavenly vanilla cake experience, it seems that mango extract is needed for a noticeable mango flavor.

Mango Cupcake Recipe

Yield: 12 cupcakes

• 2 C flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 3/4 C butter, room temperature
• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 C plain yogurt
• 2 t mango extract
  
• 1 C mango juice (Check the label on your juice. It's hard to find 100% mango juice. If you can, that is best. But, if not, a mango juice blend would also work.)
• Dulce de leche, to taste (see my post on how to make dulce de leche)
  

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs, yogurt, and mango extract until blended.
4. Alternately fold in flour mixture and mango juice, beginning and ending with the flour.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
   
6. Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the cupcake clean.
7. Top with dulce de leche and either:
1. Eat fast, using your tongue to keep up with anything that drips down the side.
2. Save them to turn into Cupcakes Wellington.
   

Mango Rum Cupcakes - Four Baking Lessons and One Life Lesson

I didn't like these mango rum cupcakes. But, don't stop reading here. This is a post of many lessons.

Baking Lesson 1: Even if you don't love a cupcake, others may love it!

Like I said, I didn't like these mango rum cupcakes at all - even the look of them bothered me (they look a bit like pee in the snow, don't they?). But, when I gave them to a visiting taster, I was told that they were fantastic! "They get better with every bite. Love the chunks of mango! Wow!"

One thing that bothered me about the cupcakes was that even with mango in the frosting and chunks of mango in the cake batter, the cupcakes did not taste mango-y. Which brings me to lesson two...

Baking Lesson 2: Mango flavor disappears when you bake with it.

I should have learned this lesson the last time I made mango cupcakes and they ended up tasting like corn muffins. But, I thought I would try again. The chunks of mango in the batter definitely helped, but I still was not satisfied. If anyone has a really mango-y cake recipe, please share. Groom 3.0 would love a mango cupcake for the wedding.

Baking Lesson 3: Pieces of wet fruit cause the wrapper to separate from the cake.

While the chunks of fruit helped with the mango flavor, the wet fruit caused the wrapper to separate from the cake - not attractive.

Baking Lesson 4: Things may appear different in the morning. (This could also be a life lesson.)

I don't have a before picture, so you are going to have to imagine a thick white meringue frosting on top of these cupcakes. When I returned to my cupcakes the next morning, all but a tiny layer of meringue had been absorbed into the cake. I think the culprit was the wet mangoes that I mixed into the meringue; they caused the meringue to deflate and dissolve.

Cupcakes changing overnight is nothing new in my house - see my Christmas cupcakes where my candy canes melted.

Life Lesson 1

Again and again, baking teaches me to roll with the punches (or the dough). Things don't always work as planned; but I will experiment, experiment, experiment because when we stop trying new things, we stop really living.

Think you'd like these cupcakes? Here's the recipe:

Yield: 24 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 1/4 C dark rum
• 1/2 C pureed mango
  
• 3 C all-purpose flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 C sour cream
• 2 mangoes, chopped into chunks
  

1. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy.
   
2. Add eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla and beat until well-blended.
   
3. Gradually add rum and mango puree. Beat well.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Add to batter alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition.
6. Mix in mango chunks.
7. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
8. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes.

Mango Meringue Frosting

• 2 egg whites
• ½ C sugar
• 2 T pureed mango + extra mango as desired
  

1. Combine the egg whites and sugar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Set mixing bowl on top of a pot of boiling water.
3. Whisk until sugar has reached 110 F on a candy thermometer.
4. Remove mixing bowl from the pot and place on mixer.
5. Whisk for 10 minutes on medium speed using the whisk attachment.
6. Whisk on high speed for another five minutes (you should see stiff glossy peaks).
7. Whisk in mango until just integrated.
8. Spoon onto cupcakes.
   
9. If desired, add more mango on top of the meringue. (As noted above, all of this wet mango will make the meringue deflate and get absorbed into the cupcake.)
   

Polenta Cupcakes Morphed Into Corn Muffins - A Story with a Moral

Polenta cupcakes seemed like a good idea. My Taste & Create partner this month, My Kitchen Treasures, had a recipe for a date, ricotta, and polenta cake that sounded like it would be a winner in cupcake form. I decided that I would give it a try using mangoes instead of dates.

First, I made some polenta.

And there - right there in the very first step - is where I went wrong.

You see, when the recipe called for polenta, it was referring to uncooked polenta (essentially corn meal), not the cooked, fluffy stuff that I posted about last week - oops!

Fact: Almost all cupcake recipes take about 20 minutes to bake.
Fact: My polenta cupcakes were still raw on the inside at 45 minutes in the oven. Cooked polenta = too much moisture.

But Then, The Miracle Happened

After one hour in the oven, I had basically given up on my poor polenta cupcakes and was about to throw them all in the trash when Jonathan tried one and noted that it tasted like a corn muffin. I had a bite and had to agree. They were sweeter than a typical corn muffin and moist rather than crumbly, but if I thought of them as corn muffins, not cupcakes, they were rather tasty. Rather than trashing them or frosting them, I left them naked, called them corn muffins, and served them with the main course to our dinner guests.

The Verdict: Our guests loved them! They even went back for seconds.

When I told our friends the story and asked whether the recipe was good enough to post on the blog, they said, "Definitely."

The Moral of the Story

Don't give up just because something doesn't go the way you had planned; you might just discover something new and exciting!

The "Corn Muffin" Recipe


As I said above, this recipe is a modification of the date, ricotta, and polenta cake from My Kitchen Treasures. I encourage you to check out the recipe in its original form and give that a try as well.

Makes about 15 muffins

For The Muffins

• 2 C flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 2/3 C cooked polenta
• 1 C sugar
• 1 1/4 C ricotta cheese
• 1/2 C butter, room temperature
• 3/4 C water
• 1 C finely chopped mango

For The Filling

• 1 C ricotta cheese
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 T powdered sugar

1. Combine flour, baking powder, polenta, sugar, cheese, butter and the water in large bowl, and beat on low speed with a electric mixer until combined.
2. Fold in mango.
3. Fill cupcake liners half full with batter.
4. In a small bowl, mix all filling ingredients.
5. Spread a thin layer of filling over each filled muffin.
6. Top off each muffin with remaining batter until they are all 3/4 full.
7. Bake at 375 F for about one hour.
   

About the Plates

The plates you see in these photos were a gift from Marx Foods. They are disposable palm leaf plates.

According to the info on Marx's website:

These environmentally friendly small hexagonal palm plates are made from a natural, renewable, and biodegradable raw material. Naturally discarded sheaths of the leaves of the Adaka palm tree, which in the course of its biological life cycle, dry, fall and regenerate, are collected. No trees are cut down. The palm sheaths are then cleaned in fresh spring water and molded into bowls.

Palm leaf plates are leak proof and able to withstand hot and cold temperatures without getting soggy or flimsy. They are smaller than our full sized Hexagonal Palm Leaf Plates and thus perfect for salads and side dishes.

Even though these are disposable plates, each durable piece is unique with an attractive wood pattern finish that fits into both rustic and elegant events.

I was very impressed with the quality of the plates. They were super thick! Also, aside from the fact that they are environmentally friendly, they are gorgeous - perhaps even too gorgeous to throw out. The good news is that we didn't have to throw them out!

Even though the palm plates were billed as disposable, there is no reason that you have to trash them after one use. We used them for the muffins and for some greasy pizza and we were still able to rinse them off, let them dry, and use them again. I think we should be able to get many more uses out of them before having to pitch them. We did, however, give up one of our plates because a friend wanted to feed it to her compost worms and see how they liked it. I haven't heard the report on how that went yet.

The plates are available for sale on the Marx Foods website.

Mango Lemonade: A Toast to Coconut & Lime

Rachel of Coconut & Lime is celebrating her four year blogoversary! I not only love her blog, but I've gotten to know her a little bit through email, twitter, and the co-baking project we did together. She seems like a super nice person who I'll hopefully get to meet one day.

To celebrate her blogoversy, she requested that people make either a recipe from her blog or a recipe with her signature ingredients (coconut and lime). I knew I wanted to participate, but I've been swamped so I didn't think I would have time to make anything elaborate. I thought I was in luck when I saw that she had a recipe for mango lemonade - easy! Also, I just happened to have a bunch of leftover mangoes from the mango cupcakes that I coincidentally made for my own blogoversary.

As it turns out, it wasn't as easy as I thought. I misread her recipe. It called for a ginger simple syrup and I just added some ginger. OOPS! The lemonade was insanely sour! Jonathan and I added a ton of sugar to it to try to make it better, but still the sourness was overpowering!

The recipe still sounds great if followed correctly, and I suggest you check it out over at Coconut & Lime - but be sure to read carefully!

I raise my sour glass to give an un-sour toast to Rachel for a blog well done!

Note: Scoopalicious and I will be posting the entries in the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup soon. We're almost done with it!

Bhapa Sandesh Indian Cupcakes: Happy Blogoversary to Me

One year ago today, I posted the first cupcake on this blog. It was an Indian-inspired chai cupcake. By total coincidence, one year later, I am posting another Indian cupcake.

I wanted to make Indian cupcakes to go with my Taste & Create naan recipe('cause you know, you need a starch to go with a starch). The problem was that I couldn't find any good Indian cake recipes. I didn't want to simply bake an Indian-influenced cupcake like the chai cupcakes - I wanted to use an actual Indian cake recipe.

How Did I End Up Making Bhapa Sandesh?

To come up with an Indian cupcake recipe, I emailed my friend Nupur of One Hot Stove. I asked her what she would recommend. I expected maybe a suggestion or two. Nupur went above and beyond to make sure that I had the information that I needed.

First, she explained why I couldn't find many Indian cake recipes online: "Well, cakes in India are a Western import really. Typically, Indian kitchens don't even have an oven so desserts are made on the stove-top rather than oven-baked." She then went on to give me a slew of ideas for a variety of cakeish Indian desserts. Thanks so much, Nupur!!

The recipe that stuck out for me was bhapa sandesh from Bong Mom's Cookbook. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Sandeepa of Bong Mom's Cookbook made the recipe for her one year blog anniversary! She said on her blog, and I repeat to you, "All joyous occasions in India are celebrated with something sweet and so here is 'Bhapa Sandesh' or Steamed Sandesh for all of you on the Blog turning One."

What is Sandesh?

I had to turn to Wikipedia to answer the question, "What is sandesh?" Sandesh is "a sweet that is made in West Bengal state of India and in Bangladesh... It is created with coconut and sugar. Some recipes of Sandesh call for the use of chhana (curdled milk) or paneer instead of coconut. Some people in the region of Dhaka call it pranahara (literally, heart 'stealer') which is a softer kind of sandesh, made with mawa and the essence of curd."

The bhapa sandesh that I made did not have coconut, nor did it use chhana or paneer. Instead, it used ricotta cheese. It did have mawa (dried milk powder), but I'm not sure if that made it a heart stealer variety or not.

Did the Bhapa Sandesh Indian Cupcakes Steal My Heart

The bhapa sandesh Indian cupcakes didn't quite steal my heart. I liked them, but they were by no means my favorite cupcakes. I found them to be a bit too rich. They seemed like an Indian version of a ricotta cheesecake.

The bhapa sandesh Indian cupcakes did, however, steal the hearts of some of my other tasters. People seemed to enjoy the moistness and the mango flavor. In fact, my friend Ran just left this cupcake-related comment on my mango frosting recipe post: "These were some of my favorite Stef cupcakes in some time. Fantastic flavor and moisture levels. A perfect summer cupcake!"

The Bhapa Sandesh Indian Cupcake Recipe

As noted above, I got the recipe from Bong Mom's Cookbook. I am reprinting it with my notes and modifications below.

Makes about 12 cupcakes. You may get more or less depending on how tall you make them.

• 2 C whole milk ricotta cheese (If you've got a little time, make your own ricotta.)
• 1/2 C sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 C milk-mawa powder (You should be able to find mawa at any store that sells Indian groceries.)
• 10 drops tea masala extract (My tea masala extract was a gift from Nupur so it seemed fitting that I would use it in a recipe she recommended. If you don't have any on hand, you could easily use some of Chockylit's chai spice mix that I used in my first chai cupcake post.)
• Chai Spice Mix Recipe (if needed)
  2 t whole fennel, 2 t whole cloves, 1 T ground cardamom, 2 t ground cinnamon, 2 t ground ginger
  1. With a small food processor, grind up the whole fennel and cloves.
  2. Transfer to a small bowl and add remaining spices.
  3. Mix to combine.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix ricotta, sweetened condensed milk, and mawa in a bowl to a smooth consistency.
3. Add chai extract or chai spice mix.
4. Spray cupcake liners with non-stick cooking spray. I've never had to do this before, but it really helped in this recipe. When I didn't spray, the cupcakes completely stuck to the wrappers.
5. Fill an oven proof dish with 2-3 C water and place in the bottom rack of the oven.
6. Fill cupcake wrappers about 3/4 full. The cupcakes don't rise much, so just fill a little bit lower that you want them to end up.
7. Make sure the water has come to a boil and then put the cupcakes on the top rack of the oven.
8. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
9. Let them cool and then place in the fridge to chill.

The Mango Whipped Cream Frosting

I topped the cupcakes with my mango whipped cream frosting. Many of the cupcakes sunk in the middle during baking. No need to worry if this happens to you on this or any other cupcakes. You can always fill in the sinkhole with something yummy. In this case, I filled the hole with some extra mango pulp.

My Gratitude

I've loved my first year of blogging. I actually can't believe that it has only been a year. Thanks to everyone who has read and left such kind comments over the year. If you are just starting a blog, I encourage you to keep going with it. I hope you'll find it to be just as rewarding as I have.

Mango Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe: Light and Refreshing

I wanted a light and refreshing topping for my Indian cupcakes. Mango whipped cream frosting fit the bill. Mango whipped cream frosting would also be great on a pound cake or angel food cake or cheesecake or to dip crackers in or whatever you can dream up!

Buying Mangoes

Buy the correct kind of mango.

There was an Indian man in front of the mango section in my grocery store. He was spending a long time trying to decide which mango to purchase and clearly knew what he was doing. Not knowing much about mangoes, I asked him for help in picking a good one. He told me something that surprised me - none of the mangoes in that bin would work for me. I was looking at raw mangoes, which are unripe mangoes used for pickling. He directed me to the more common mangoes I would want to use for my whipped cream.

You probably won't find raw mangoes in your standard U.S. grocery store. However, I happened to be shopping at an international supermarket because I needed other Indian ingredients that they don't sell at most groceries. If you find yourself shopping somewhere with multiple mango varieties and you are not a mango maven, ask someone before buying the first mango you see.

Make sure the mango is ripe.

Before you use the mango, make sure it is ripe. Kate's Global Kitchen tell us how to tell if a mango is ripe: "Smell it. It should have a fragrance and the skin should give slightly when pressed. Some books say a mango is ripe when it has a pink blush to it, but that depends on the variety."

Mango Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe

• 1 C heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 C sugar
• 2/3 C mango (about one large mango)

1. Beat whipping cream on medium speed for about five minutes, until soft peaks form.
2. Add sugar.
3. Cut up your mango, being sure to remove all skin. Then, use a food processor or blender to turn your mango into a pulp.
4. Add the mango to the whipped cream.
5. Be sure to keep refrigerated.