“A reason to bring
Out the color in you,
Laugh, eat and enjoy
And drink a few,
Family, friends
Not a moment dull,
From the corner you’re hit
With a water pistol,
‘Let me get you!’
Revenge is on your mind,
But little sweet treats
You happen to find,
Games are history
When food is not,
A bite of gujia
Or a thandai shot!
Holi is here
If an excuse is what you need,
Otherwise just down a few
Behind the scenes!
Thandai is a spiced cold milk drink, usually alcoholic, drunk during Holi, the Indian festival of colors. Being far away from home, and with the festival less than a week away (March 27), I felt I needed to draw some inspiration from it. I thus captured those wonderful flavors, keeping the 'kick' intact (of course!), and bundled it all into one moist little mudcake! Truly delish and quite potent! *hic*
Warning: may cause a hangover.
Ingredients (makes 12 mini cakes)
For the mudcake
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
110 gm white chocolate (approx 24 Lindt squares)
3/4 cup milk
1 ½ tbsp Thandai spice mix (use a ready mix or from the recipe below)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
5 tbsp Malibu
For the icing
½ cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon Malibu
1 teaspoon brown sugar
For the Thandai mix
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
5-6 almonds
2 green cardamoms
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
5-6 black peppercorns
Grind all the ingredients for the Thandai mix to a powder and keep aside.
Whip the cream and sugar till it’s stiff enough to be piped and refrigerate.
Heat the butter, chocolate, milk, thandai powder and sugar in a metal pot over simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, mix well and cool to room temperature. Make sure there are no lumps of chocolate or butter. Once cool, whisk in the egg and vanilla extract. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add the wet mixture to the flour, constantly folding to ensure no lumps are formed. Once the batter is smooth, stir in the Malibu. Do not over mix.
Pour in a cake dish or mini cheesecake pan and bake at 320 F (160 C) for 30-35 minutes, till the top is firm and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.
Mix Malibu with the chilled whipped cream, apply on the mini mudcakes and enjoy!
