Fudgy Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Frosting | The Novice HousewifeA conversation with one of my friends who is an excellent baker herself led to the discovery of this rich, fudgy chocolate cupcake recipe that I am sharing today. She swears by Martha Stewart’s ultimate chocolate cake recipe and told me to try it out as well. With Martha Stewarts ultimate chocolate frosting recipe on top.

Since I wanted to give the cake to a few people, I thought it would be best to make cupcakes out of the recipe, since they are always more easy to share.

Most cake recipes can be successfully converted to cupcakes without changing anything except their baking times (and of course the pan you using to bake). Cupcakes generally take lesser time to bake than cakes. According to the recipe instructions the cakes take 35 minutes to bake, but my cupcakes were done in 20 minutes, and might even take 18 minutes for you, so check for doneness around that time. They will be done when a tester comes out clean.

This recipe yielded 32 cupcakes for me, but depending on how you fill your cupcake pans you could get more or less. The frosting was enough to frost 32 cupcakes, with some frosting still leftover.

Fudgy Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Frosting | The Novice Housewife

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English Madeleines: Mini Sponge Cakes bathed in jam and rolled in desiccated coconut | The Novice Housewife

When I posted the picture for these english madeleines on instagram I mentioned that my house smelled of my childhood. And it surely did. In fact when I was washing the cupcake pan, it still smelled of the memories from my younger days, even though the madeleines had been removed and set aside a while back.

My mother used to make them when I was a kid. My brother and I loved them – bite after bite of buttery goodness. Although the original recipe calls for baking the batter in Dariole Moulds, my mom used to make them shaped like a regular cupcake- since she did not own a dariole mould. And then bathed them in jam and desiccated coconut. So I made them the same way in cupcake pans- not because I do not own dariole moulds (I actually don’t) but because that’s they way I remember english madeleines to be.

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Eggless coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting | The Novice HousewifeSo I am aware that I am kind of cheating by sharing this recipe for eggless coconut cupcakes under Garam Masala Tuesdays.  “Kind of” because I have a reason why I am sharing the recipe today so it is not entirely cheating. But cheating nonetheless because we all know that cupcakes are anything but Indian.

Yes, you might have Indian spices inspired cupcakes- but cupcakes in general are not Indian and they can not be categorized as Indian.

Which actually led me to think- are there any traditional Indian desserts that are baked? I had a hard time coming up with any that is baked and maybe I am overlooking something obvious, but would the Indian readers of this blog let me know of traditional Indian baked goods if they think of any. The ones that I can think of are either fried or cooked. The closest I can think of a baked dessert is shahi tukda, where you fry bread (which has obviously been baked before) and serve it with flavored thickened milk. Other than that I draw a blank. What about you?

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