A Tribute to Numb3rs - Part 4

It took me a long time to put the concept of this cupcake together; I first started thinking about it in November 2009, in April 2010 I finally knew what to do. During these six months little shreds of inspiration crossed my mind but I’ve never been able to “see” the cupcake as a whole.

Charlie Eppes - Sex on Toast? Chocolate Curls on a Cupcake!




After six seasons of Numb3rs we know so many things about Charles Edward Eppes that it is hard to describe him in only a few words. Now that the season finale has provided us with some closure, I’ve been able to take a step back and look at this character from a different point of view. The reason why it is so much easier to capture the essence of a recurring supporting character is in their very nature. They are flat characters – in order for them to be recognizable they all have their quirks (e.g. Miss Havisham in Dickens’ Great Expectations) and it is very easy to work with these obvious character clues. After six seasons, Charlie has become such a round character, that I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. I had to step back to get a clear picture: If we look at Charlie as if we hadn’t seen a single episode of Numb3rs, who would he be to us? The most obvious answer to this question is: Charlie is a curly-haired mathematician. This is basically all the character information I ended up using in this recipe.

How on earth can one turn “mathematician” into a cake flavour? The Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős famously said "A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." This quote reminded me of a jar of coffee-Amaretto cream I had bought a couple of months ago but hadn’t tried yet. I will use this cream as a filling for the cupcakes.

Now that we’ve taken care of the “mathematician” part, we only have to take care of the curly-haired part and we’re done. Adding curls to a cupcake is rather easy: chocolate curls! I did not have cute little store-bought chocolate curls (my supermarket only stocks rather big chocolate shavings), so I had to make them myself. Because the temperature of the chocolate (or my kitchen) wasn’t exactly right, my curls did not become as curly as I wanted them to be, but they look cute nevertheless. Maybe your supermarket stocks cute chocolate curls? Make sure that the curls are made of good chocolate – if the curls look pretty but taste awful, they probably ruin the whole cupcake.

The cupcake is based on a chocolate-coffee-dough (yes, more coffee) I usually bake in the form of a loaf cake. I only made half of the dough and filled 10 instead of the usual 12 liners in order to get rather big cupcakes. I let them cool down, cut off their tops and spread them with the coffee-Amaretto cream before putting their tops back on. I frosted the cupcakes with vegan cream cheese icing and decorated them generously with chocolate curls.

The coffee-Amaretto cream I used is basically coffee jelly (the kind of jelly used in peanut butter sandwiches, but made of coffee instead of grape juice). I bought it at KADEWE in Berlin, but I think it’s pretty easy to make. (Ingredients list: 55% espresso, sugar, 3% Amaretto. Gelling agent: modified corn starch, pectin, salt. ) If my jar is empty, I’ll try to make some myself. Any other caffeinated spread may be used as a substitute.

If anyone is interested in the detailed recipe, you can drop me a note and I’ll be happy to send it to you.

A Tribute to Numb3rs - Part 3

The new year begins with a new cupcake from my Numb3rs tribute collection.

Amita Ramanujan - no pun invented (yet)

The inspiration for this cupcake came out of an Indian recipe book, which described khulfi (ice cream made of evaporated milk, almonds, pistachios and cardamom) as a traditional Indian wedding dessert. With Charlie's and Amitas upcoming nuptials khulfi was a good starting point for my recipe. I used the same recipe as in Larry's cupcakes; analog to the khulfi recipe I just turned the normal soy milk into evaporated soy milk and added cardamom and pistachios.



wet ingredients

1/3 cup canola or sunflower oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy joghurt
1 cup soy milk (evaporated to 1/2 cup)
1 tsp. vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla extract

dry ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour (not the self-raising kind)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt


1 cup of finely ground white almonds
1 oz chopped pistachios

Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a muffin pan with white cupcake liners.
Pour the soy milk into a wide pan and let it boil until half of it evaporated. You need 1/2 cup of evaporated soy milk; it will create a nice creamy feel in the finished cupcake.
Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl, prepare the dry ingredients in another bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the ground almonds and the chopped pistachios and mix again. Fill the cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes.

decoration

Following the wedding dessert theme, I decided to use the traditional "something old (Larry's recipe), something new (new ingredients), something borrowed (the Indian recipe), something blue (the decoration)" as an inspiration for the decoration. The cupcake is dusted with icing sugar and adorned with a ribbon made of blue fondant. On second thought I would turn the ribbon into a Möbius strip, which does better justice to a wedding between two mathematicians. Especially because their engagement ring consists of a Möbius strip.
I wasn't too happy with my home made fondant either; as it breaks too easily, it is rather difficult to work with. This is why I don't bother to give you the recipe for vegan fondant. I need to find a vegan ready-made fondant or I will continue to use marzipan for the handmade decorations.