Cooking up love

Impress your partner this Valentine's Day and make your day perfect with the most romantic recipes
Pears Poached in Orange Sauce Served with Custard

Ingredients For the Custard:
Milk 3 cups
Vanilla flavoured custard powder3 heaped tbsps
Sugar (Add more if desired) 3 tbsps

Method

• Mix the custard powder in ¼ cup of cold milk to form a lump-less paste.
• Boil the remaining milk with the sugar.
• Add the custard paste to the boiling milk slowly, stirring constantly to remove any lumps.
• Cook for a couple of minutes on the lowest heat till the custard begins to coat the back of a spoon.
• Take off the heat and set in individual jelly moulds.
• Set in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

For the Poached Pears:
Pear (should be ripe but firm) peeled, cored and cut into thin wedges 1
Orange juice 1/2 cup
Brown sugar 4tsp
Stick of cinnamon 1 inch
Orange cut into 5-6 slices (with the peels) 1
Water 1/4 cup
A few sprigs of mint and few sticks of cinnamon for garnishing

Method

• In a heavy bottomed pan, combine all the above except the orange slices and simmer for about 20 mins or till the syrup is thick. Add the orange slices and take off the heat.
• Cool and serve with the custard.
• To serve, unmold the custard onto a serving plate, place 1-2 slices of the orange and 4-5 wedges of the cooked pears. Spoon a little syrup on the custard and fruit, garnish and serve.

Heart Centred Cupcakes
Ingredients
All purpose flour (Maida) 2.5 cups
Baking powder 1.5 tsp
Salt ½ tsp
Castor Sugar 1.5 cup
Eggs 2
Unsalted butter ½ cup
Milk ½ cup
Vanilla essence 2 tsps
Pink / red food colour 1 tsp

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius and line a 7X7 square pan with butter paper and set aside.
• Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and set aside.
• Beat the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy (2 minutes) and add the eggs and vanilla, beating very well.
• In 3 parts, add the flour and milk and gently mix till the batter has no lumps.
• Take 1 cup of the batter into another bowl, add the pink food colour and mix with a spoon. Spread the batter into the prepared cake tin, level with a spatula and bake for 10 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Cool for 5-6 minutes and remove from the cake pan. Using a cookie cutter, cut out heart shapes and set aside.
• Line a cupcake pan with paper liners, fill each cavity till ½ full. Place the cut out heart into the wet batter and top with 2 tablespoons of batter to cover it. Repeat with all the cupcake liners.
• Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 22-25 minutes or till done. Cool for 15 minutes and frost as needed or dust with powdered sugar before serving.