In any relation, a bit of distance is required for the relationship to survive and thrive. I believe in it a lot. So I have always maintained that distance between my kitchen and my friends.

I don’t ask anyone to drop in for lunch or dinner, for the fear that they might never come this way again. I value my friends too much to torture them with my cooking.

Hubby hasn’t learnt the lesson yet. Now and then, he would invite some of his friends to come home to spend a day with us. He has to find a new set of friends every time, cause its difficult to persuade whoever has come here before.

I am not a bad cook, I do cook some decent meals now and then. But I have a special knack of messing up when someone comes to visit us. If I want to impress someone, you can be really sure that a 100 things will go wrong that day. I am simply blessed that way.

Here is a set of cupcakes, made when some of hubby’s friends visited us sometime back. They came out great and would have been perfect if I hadn’t decorated them with buttercream frosting, which was extra sweet (another mess up!). I loved it, but most of them found it too sweet for their taste. It got finished anyway, so I am not complaining :)

Ingredients:

• Cake Flour                      :        2 3/4 cups
• Baking Powder              :        2 tsps
• Salt                                     :        1/2 tsp
• Butter                                :        225 gms (2 sticks), softened
• Sugar                                 :        1 3/4 cups
• Eggs                                   :         4
• Vanilla Essence             :        1 tsp
• Milk                                    :        1 1/2 cups, at room temp

Method: 

One Cup Cake Flour  = 3/4 cup All purpose flour  + 2 tbsp corn flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Grease a muffin pan or line with cupcake liners.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk to mix.
3. Beat the softened butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one by one, and add vanilla essence.
4. Add one third of the flour, followed by half of the milk. Beat using the electric mixer. Add the flour in two more rounds, followed by milk, until the flour is just incorporated.
5. Fill the muffin pans and bake for 15-20 minutes, or till the skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs.
6. Decorate with buttercream frosting once the cupcakes are cool. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Recipe adapted from Family Baking Book by America’s Test Kitchen.

Linked to :

• Blogging Marathon, under Holiday specials