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Eggless Rangoli Spice Cupcakes

Eggless Rangoli Spice Cupcakes

Eggless Rangoli Spice Cupcakes

Autumn weather is one of my favorite weathers, as the temperature cools down, the leaves are turning color, and your body demands for some warmth from the rich spices that you are so thankful to nature for.. Be it ginger, clove, all spice, nutmeg, cinnamon. all of them giving a cozy warm feeling and a sweet fragrance in the air. Autumn spice cake, at Savory Grain, that I recently had was one of the best spice cakes I had, along with delicious vegetarian food that they serve, mostly made from vegetables sourced locally. Having tasted something so delicious, I had to try to make this on my own. So I found this recipe at Cooking classy, but had to use my past experience, trying to replace eggs, it called for. I ventured with all ingredients that I had read about, and decided to give it a chance and the result was very pleasing as well as delicious. The true test if the ingredients were correct, was to check if  the cake does not leave domes at the top. What a satisfying feeling  to see the cupcakes stay flat on top, like they should be!

The eggless rangoli spice cupcakes were made for  Diwali celebratory event for a Hindi Kavita group that we have just started and it happened to be also my birthday! I wanted to create a dessert that matched the fall weather, bring in the color and design of Diwali,  as well as make the birthday girl happy with some warm cupcakes with some fruit and spices. I am a big cupcake fan, as the best cake was what my mother use to make in  a gas oven, and one that did not need any frosting , for it to be delicious. Personally I do not appreciate butter/ cream frosting. So came up with this sprinkled sugar concept that can also have some dots, akin to how dots are made for Rangoli during Diwali. Rangoli is a fine sand mandala done with hand., which I am very fond of. So wanted to see how to represent Rangoli over a cupcake. The outcome  was deeply appreciated by guests as well as the birthday girl as this recipe got more attention over a nice cake from Whole Foods! Now that was  a true birthday gift for someone who likes to  explore while cooking!!

The flavor had a bit of banana and applesauce, as well as clovers, ginger and all spice and all together, the taste was delicious, as people wanted another! Buttermilk and brown sugar keeps the cake moist from within The hidden ingredient was avocado, whose taste could not be felt but could see it in the richness of the texture. This is a quick recipe, in the sense, because of the fruit and spices, one can skip the frosting too, and go easy on calories, and the eggless rangoli spice cupcake can be a great accompaniment along with tea/ coffee because of the masala spices in it!

Spice up the fall with eggless rangoli spice cupcakes, and happy baking to the bakers, who find baking a highly therapeutic act just as I do! I am happy baking as the weather for baking is here and plan to explore a few more cookies, as  fall turns to winter and holidays are just around the corner to enjoy these treats with family and friends!!

Eggless Rangoli Spice Cupcakes

Recipe makes 36 cupcakes

Time to cook : 35 min

Prep time : 15 min

Decoration: 10 min

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 5 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1  tsp allspice
  • 1.2 tsp ground cloves
  • 3 1/2 cups packed  light-brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup  vegetable oil/peanut oil
  • 1 1/2 cup (185g)sweetened applesauce
  • 1 banana chopped
  • 1 avocado sliced
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp white vinegar
  • 2 cup (240 ml) buttermilk
  •  1 1/2 cup water
  • 5 tbsp sugar
  • sugar sprinkles

Alternate Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 24 oz cream cheese, nearly at room temperature
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (4 oz), nearly at room temperature
  • 7 cups (440g) powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

For the cake

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves for 20 seconds, set aside.img_2227
  • Pour  brown sugar  in  to the bowl. into the bowl  Break up brown sugar with fingertips until no clumps remain.
  • Add oil and blend for 2 minutes.
  • Add applesauce and blend in.

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  • Add in 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined, then blend in buttermilk, then add remaining 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix until well combined.

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  • Set the oven to pre-heat at 375 degrees for convection baking, and 350 degrees for normal baking.
  • Puree the banana and avocado and add it to the mix and mix in for a minute.

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  • Add vanilla essence and vinegar and blend for 2 minutes.

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  • Line the muffin or cupcake tray with liners.
  • Fill in the cake mixture upto 3/4 of the mould.

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  • After 10 minutes  switch the tray from top tray to bottom and back to front.

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  • After ten minutes switch the trays back to original position and bake till the cake leaves edge and the toothpick shows the cake is well baked.

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  • Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 – 32 minutes.

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Decorating the cupcake

  • Allow to cool several minutes and then cover it.
  • When completely cooled, mix the sugar and water and brush the cupcakes  with this water via a brush or spoon and leave it to soak and dry for 20 minutes

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  • Use a cookie stencil of your choice and sprinkle colored sugar on the top.

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Eggless Rangoli Spice Cupcakes

Alternate Cream Cheese frosting:

  • In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until well blended (at this point I like to freeze the frosting in 5 minute increments, then mix again with stand mixer, then freeze another 5 and more as needed until it’s a stiffer yet creamy consistency). Spread the cream cheese frosting and sprinkle it with colored fro Recipe source: Cooking Classy

 

Tips

Using cake flour makes the cake more softer. One can also try with all purpose flour, but the texture may have slight variations than when made with cake flour. Using unbleached flour helps so does brown sugar. If you do not have brown sugar, use  white sugar, and in case it is not that moist, sprinkle some more sugar water, for it to moisten,

Using a proper cup for measuring will help you perfect the recipe. A proper measure for Liquid as well as Dry Measure Cup.

Instinct Factor

Instinct sometimes arises from a fleeting thing that you read somewhere and remembered! Something like this happened while making this cake as decided to throw in vinegar, avocado and banana into the recipe.

Ensure that the flour is well mixed in  and so are the ingredients.  You can replace 1 bananas with one more avocado, if you want to avoid excess sugar.

Feel Factor

Ever thought that adding avocado to the cake can do the magic ! Well I was happy to mix in this ingredient loaded with good potassium and healthy fat into the cupcake and see it add texture and moistness to the cake. It did not overpower the other flavors of the cake, and could taste the banana, cinnamon, brown sugar, all spice as well as cloves and vanilla! What a delectable dessert to have on a chilly fall evening and the crunch of sugar sprinkles on the top was a perfect balance to the spice in the cake. I prefer a cake like this than to those with frosting, so truly enjoyed the fall spice cake that all should try, wether at home or outside!! Kida and adult will surely demand more than once as it has the fruity sweetness in in too:P

 

 

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