If you are a fan of peanut butter, you will go nuts for these peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate mousse frosting on top. This is an eggless recipe.

Peanut butter mousse filled chocolate cupcakes (eggless)

When I started TPC, my customized cake business, one of the first orders I got was from this girl Ankita. Ankita found me through instagram and the first time we met was on her birthday when she ordered her birthday cake from me. I was new to Chandigarh, had no friends, and pretty much my life revolved around just my parents and relatives and baking cakes. When I shared this with her, post her birthday she made it a point to invite me to an event she was hosting. From there our friendship started, and I am so glad it did.

I am no longer taking cake orders now, concentrating on my photography and the blog. As I was in town for Ankita’s birthday she asked me to make a cake for her. She mentioned she likes chocolate, peanut butter, nutella, dark chocolate and roasted almonds. I knew I had to make a cake that somehow got all those flavors together and still didn’t feel like a mishmash.

Peanut butter mousse filled chocolate cupcakes (eggless)
Peanut butter mousse filled chocolate cupcakes (eggless) Peanut butter mousse filled chocolate cupcakes (eggless)

I ended up baking my vegan chocolate cake but this time added half butter because I like the taste and richness that butter lends to a cake. Filled one cake layer with peanut butter mousse that I adapted from here, another with a thin layer of nutella and a chocolate mousse filling, topped with dark chocolate ganache. For the decoration I made dark chocolate and roasted almond shards and filled the top of the cake with the dark chocolate shards. The cake was sinful, and an absolute success. I had shared pictures from my phone on my IG stories, but couldn’t take any for the blog.

Since I had some peanut butter mousse left and this is a recipe to be shared, I decided to make cupcakes which I could photograph for the blog post. And here I am today sharing it with you.

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A simple and easy recipe for kadhai/kadai chicken – a north Indian chicken dish cooked in a wok in a tomato gravy with freshly ground spices.

Kadhai chicken

I already have a recipe for kadhai chicken, a popular restaurant dish, on the blog. In fact it was one of the first few recipes to be posted; back when I had no clue about cooking and was still learning my way in the kitchen. There is also horrible photo that went along with that post.

Kadhai chicken is a popular north indian chicken dish, which is cooked in a wok/kadhai and probably thats why the name. The use of freshly ground whole spices, cooked with onions and tomatoes and chicken on the bone yields this lip smacking dish every chicken lover in India loves. I do prefer butter chicken, but since this is a quicker and easier dish to make, I have fallen in love with kadhai chicken now. In restaurants this dish generally has the addition of bell peppers too.

This recipe that I am sharing is slightly different from the recipe that I shared years back and there is a reason to it. This recipe was a request from one of my readers.

Kadhai chicken

Gavin messaged me a while back with a request to recreate a dish that his wife and he get from their local farmers market, called “Maryam’s Lamb Karahi. He gave me the ingredient list on the side of the box and asked me if I could recreate it with chicken.

Using my old recipe as a base, as well as the list of ingredients on the side of “Maryam’s lamb karahi” box I set to work on a recipe for Gavin. This was a few months back in the summer. Once satisfied I sent the recipe to Gavin, for his input. Since he was leaving for vacation he was only able to put it to test last month and sent me his feedback after trying it.

In Gavin’s words:

In September I cooked your Kadhai Chicken and it was fantastic.  I tried it with Lamb as well.  I would not change a thing.  This recipe is so simple it is brilliant.  I love the marinade (I could not stop tasting it while I was making it).  The grated onion was a great technique and the slower medium cook allows it all time to come together.  A huge difference was the proportion of tomato purée …… yours was just perfect amount compared to the dish we (used to) get at the market and it allows all the flavours to come through so much better.  I have made this 4 times already and this is now my base recipe for any protein I want to try with it.  Needless to say your Kadhai Chicken is far superior to the dish at the local market.

Gavin calls this dish Shumaila’s Kadhai Chicken and even though I told him that I will be narcissistic enough to title it as such in the blog post, I didn’t. Having said that, I hope you do get to try my kadhai chicken recipe and in case you do please tag me on my social media handles or comment here with your feedback.

Happy cooking!

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Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I have always wanted to make an upside down cake. Its been one of those things on my baking check list that I have been waiting to cross off for some time now and finally did.

So what makes an upside down cake special? For me, it was always its presentation and the fact that it is served upside down (and hence called Upside Down Cake). After eating it, I have realized its special not only because of the way it is baked and served. The combination of melted butter and brown sugar that caramelizes with the fruit which embeds itself in a fluffy moist cake while being baked is what makes this cake a treat.

An upside down cake can be made with any fruit, and I have seen some lovely variations floating all over the internet. Since this was my first time trying it, I had to go with the classic American version- the pineapple upside down cake.

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