Divine Chocolate Cupcake

Ingredients
2 cups cake flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup water

Method:
1. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into large bowl and set aside.
2. Mix buttermilk and water in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add in a vanilla essence.
4. Fold in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately until blended.
5. Put batter in paper cups and bake in a preheated oven 170C for 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
6. Cool completely before frosting.

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

A friend recently asked me to bake for her Halloween Party and her son's birthday too. She wanted a mix of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. In making chocolate cupcakes, I do not have a problem at all as the recipe I usually use is reliable but when it comes to Vanilla cupcakes.........sigh sometimes ok and most of the time K O. Have been searching for a reliable recipe for ages until I found one from glorioustreats.blogspot.com. Thank you Gloria.





Here's the recipe

Ingredients:-
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk

Method:-
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Beat eggs for 10-20 seconds and add sugar. Continue to beat till well incorporated.
4. Add vanilla essence and oil and continute to beat.
5. Add flour and buttermilk alternately.
6. Fill liners 2/3 full. (But I only fill my liners 1/2 full)
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on the size of your liner.

Cool completely before frosting them with buttercream icing.

Indeed, we all had a good time at the Halloween Party and the kids was a bit reluctant to leave when its time to say bye-bye. Trick or Treat!!

Chocolate Cupcake

It was a day off from school for the kids last Thursday. My initial plan was to take them to Disneyland but weather forecast doesnt look good showing sign of scattered thunderstorm and it was raining the morning bit. Felt sorry for the kids as later part it turn out to be such a beautiful day and it would have been lovely to spend the day outdoor. Since there was a changed in plan, I called one of their friends to invite her over but sad she has got lessons to attend. Sigh........what next?? Kids were getting restless and bored and to make it worst, I decided to cook Malay Dish for lunch that day.......hahahahaha once in a while they have to follow my taste bud as well. Of course, when I mentioned its going to be Asam Pedas Ikan (Fish in Spicy Sour Soup) they gave me that boring look...but I'm determined this time, they have to eat whats on the table... (do I sound like a step mother...hahahaha) At the end was so happy to see them enjoying the dish and they said "hmmm will have this dish again". Yes, mission accomplished...lols!!

To keep my princesses entertained, I agreed to make cupcakes for them as a treat that day for tea time and thus we got invitation to have dinner at a friend's later. It would be nice to bring something too. There we go....baking time again and all of us had fun baking together and messing up the kitchen.

Here's the recipe:-

150 gm butter
300 gm castor sugar
3 eggs
350 gm plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
340 gm cooking chocolate or chocolate chips
350 ml water
2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Sieve flour, bicarbonate soda and salt together into a bowl and set aside.
2. Using double boil method, melt butter and cooking chocolate until chocolate completely melted. (you can also put in the microwave).
3. Pour the melted mixture and add sugar. Beat until well blended.
4. Add egg one at a time.
5. Add the vanilla essence.
6. Take 1/3 of the sieved flour and fold into mixture. Repeat until finish.
7. Add 1/3 of the water into flour mixture and mix until smooth. Repeat until finish.
8. Pour mixture into cup cakes mould and bake in a preheated oven 170C for 20 minutes or until cake tester inserted comes out clean.
9. Let cool and spread with Chocolate Butter Cream Icing.




Chocolate Butter Cream Icing

Ingredients

200 gm butter
3 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 tablespoon milk

Method:

1. Cream butter till smooth.
2. Add icing sugar and beat well.
3. Add vanilla essence, milk and mix.
4. Add cocoa powder and beat until well blended.
5. Put in a piping bag and pipe it onto the cake or spread it with spatula and add sprinkles.

I used Valrhona Cocoa Powder this time and it does give that smooth chocolaty taste....luv it!!

Happy Baking!!

Red Velvet Cuppies

I always see red velvet cupcakes sold in stores but never really feel like trying them. Its always the usual pick of vanilla or chocolate cupcakes....how boring yeah. Its a friend's request that trigger me to try and make this cuppies and at the same time wondering...what is the real taste of this red velvet as the name sounds very luxurious to me.

I actually tried baking them using the recipe that my friend forwarded but the result was a disaster and the trash bin was happy to gulp them all. Sigh........... Not wanting to give up, I tried again using a recipe I found from someone's blog. It taste not too bad but the ingredients list was just too long and it wasn't simple to make, too many steps. Still not very happy about this and since I was down town yesterday, I decided to buy the red velvet cupcakes from a reputable store here to taste theirs and to compare with my produce. You cant go wrong isn't it buying from a famous bakery to find out how the real taste should be.

Finally today, after my 3rd attempt, I was very pleased with the outcome. My little testers at home said to me that it tasted better than the ones I bought yesterday........Kids are innocent alright so I am sure their comments are true...hahahahahaha

Got this recipe from Wilton

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons Red (no-taste) Icing Color
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin pan with baking cups. In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, icing color and vanilla extract; mix well until icing color is well incorporated (scraping down sides of bowl when necessary). Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter mixture; add water and mix well. In small bowl, combine white vinegar and baking soda; gently stir into cupcake mixture. Spoon into baking cups. Bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan on cooling rack for 5-8 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely

For the Cream Cheese Topping, here's what I used:-

Cream Cheese Topping

250 gram Philadelphia cream cheese
100 gram unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions:

Beat cream cheese and butter till light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
Add the icing sugar and beat well. Spread on your cake.