A little off the subject...

Ok, so it's not exactly cupcakes, but I have to tell you about the Middle Eastern food festival I went to last night.

Emperors Palace in Johannesburg are running a Middle Eastern Food Festival from 23 to 27 June and invited top chefs from the Shangri-La Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

Traditional dishes and specialities from Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, the Emirates, Syria, Egypt, Abu Dhabi and Jordan were served by celebrity chef Chadi Terro, who was assisted by chefs Alaa Samran and Wael Hassan.

Though most of the ingredients used in Middle Eastern cuisine can be found locally, Terro and his team prepared some of the desserts in advance at the Shangri-La. My personal favourites were the halva and Turkish delight.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva)
"Halawa (or halva, ħelwa, halvah, halava, helva, halwa) from the Arabic root حلوى ḥalwā (sweet), refers to many types of sweet confection, across the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, the Balkans, and the Jewish World."

Most types of halva are relatively dense confections that are sweetened with sugar or honey. However, their textures are quite different. For example, semolina halva is gelatinous and translucent, while sesame halva is drier and more crumbly.

I'm definitely going to try this simpe sesame halva recipe this weekend.

1½ cups sugar
½ cup water
juice of ½ lemon (strained), or ¼ tsp. citric acid
flavourings—vanilla, coffee, chocolate, cardamom,...
1½ cups tahini — beaten to mix in any excess oil

Boil the sugar, water and lemon juice (or citric acid) with flavourings to a soft ball syrup (115 °C). Let the syrup cool, undisturbed, for a couple of minutes, while you warm the tahini to about 50 °C. Add the warmed tahini to the hot, flavoured sugar syrup, beating all the while.

Put the warm mixture into an oiled cake tin (either with a press-out base, or lined with baking paper) or plastic container. Once cool, seal to keep out any moisture and leave in the fridge for 36 hours (this allows the sugar crystals, which give halva its distinctive texture, time to grow). Cut while cold, with a sharp knife. Wrapped in cling-film, halva will keep for weeks, if you can resist temptation.

Happy baking!