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.