Chocolate Fondant Cupcakes & Lychee Rose Cupcakes

I know I have abandoned my blog for ages already but I have been really busy with work, assessments and going out with colleagues/friends. Haven't had the time to sit down and update my blog.I used to go back to Ipoh every weekends but I got tired of it. I only bake when I am in Ipoh so that means I don't bake as often as I used to. I have started baking in KL as well but it's normally very quick and not so pretty to blog about. I will re-make them again and update my blog with recipes.

I met a bunch of amazing people at work and made really good friends. Training ends next month, which means we will part our ways again to our respective banks. Sad but reality is such. I hope we remain the awesome bunch who parties non stop whether it's a weekday or weekend.

FSTEP has been a memorable one because of  em' girls. We are all proud Maybankers.:) Missing one is Miss Komathe.

Lucky Roshan

They have definitely been an amaziiiiiiing bunch of colleagues cum friends! <3  Missing out is Miss Tanusha & Komathe. 

A lot has been going. Emotionally, I must admit but it will stop soon enough, well in a month exactly, I don't want it to end but sometimes reality is the painful truth of life. I like the idea of crushes & love but I know I am not ready for a commitment yet. It scares me when people ask such questions and make me feel like I have no responsibility or whatever. Then again, maybe one day, they should walk in my shoes and see life as I see it.

Ok enough of emoness.. Back to my recipes..

Chocolate Fondant cupcakes - Hummingbird Bakery recipe (adapted)

Cupcakes:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
200g plain flour
40g dutch processed cocoa powder, sifted
a pinch of salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
240ml whole milk ( I used 1/2 cup cream + 1/2 cup whole milk)
100g chocolate ganache

Filling & frosting (chocolate ganache) :
450g dark chocolate, small pieces
450g whipping cream
100g unsalted butter , cubed

1. To make ganache: Place chocolate and butter in a bowl. In a saucepan, simmer cream over low medium heat until it begins to bubble at the sides. Pour over chocolate and butter. Allow to sit for a minute or two before mixing it with a whisk. Whisk until chocolate and butter are fully melted and incorporated with the cream. Cling wrap the ganache, make sure the plastic is touching the surface of the chocolate ganache. Allow to cool at room temperature before making putting it in the fridge. Make at least 4 hours before.
2. To make cupcakes: Preheat over to 180 C.Line a 24 hole mini cupcake pan with cupcake liner.
3. Cream butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing them well after each addition.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients until combined.Don't overmix the batter.
5. Fold in the milk gently and finally the chocolate ganache.
6. Fill the paper liners until 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
8. Remove from pan immediately and allow to cool completely.
9. Core cupcakes with a knife or apple corer and fill with ganache & place the cake piece back on and frost cupcakes with ganache. 
10. If ganache starts melting, place the frosted cupcakes back in the fridge for 15minutes or until ganache firms up.

Lychee Rose Cupcakes - My copyright recipe

Cupcakes:
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
100g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
1 tablespoon milk/cream
10 whole pieces of canned lychee

Rose Butter icing:
150g unsalted butter
200g sifted icing sugar
1-2 drops rose essence/extract

1. To make cupcakes: Preheat over to 180 C.Line a 24 hole mini cupcake pan with cupcake liner.
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla extract until very pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing them well after each addition.
3. Fold in the dry ingredients until combined.Don't overmix the batter.
4. Fold in the milk gently.
5. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until medium peaks, fold in gently until incorporated.
6. Divide the batter equally into the prepared pan ( 2/3 full) and place half a lychee in the middle and bake for 15-20 minutes until a cake tested inserted comes out clean.
7. Remove from pan immediately and allow to cool completely
8. To make rose flavoured icing: Whip butter until very light and fluffy. Add icing sugar and continue whisking. Add rose flavouring and continue to whisk until combined. Frost cupcakes.

Red Velvet cupcakes

When my cousin celebrated her sweet 16 last Saturday, it brought myself back to 2005 when I celebrated my sweet 16. A nostalgic feeling. A lot of fond memories. I wish I could turn back time to the days when I used to frequent the library to have 'group studying'. Begged mum to follow me to Jusco to meet someone. Insist I was taken to tuition to meet someone secretly at the nearby snooker centre.  7 1/2 years later, the memories are still fresh in my mind. So near, yet so far. Sometimes I wish I could stop time & never had to grow up.

Anyway, back to my cousin's birthday party. I was asked to bake my cousin's birthday cake for the party. I decided to throw extras in like cupcakes and cake pops. It was an excuse to bake!hehe. 

I will be posting the red velvet cupcakes recipe as I thought it was the best red velvet cupcakes I've ever tasted. I made a red velvet cake last year but this is far the best red velvet recipe. It is light and fluffy with a hint of cocoa and vanilla frosted with a sweet cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes itself wasn't too sweet so the sweet cream cheese frosting complimented the cupcakes.

Birthday cake was a red ombre cake using a white cake recipe frosted with a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream

Red velvet cupcakes and cake pops - cupcakes were frosted with a simple vanilla cream cheese frosting and the cake pops were make using the same red velvet cupcakes recipe with cream cheese and coated in white chocolate.

Will post better pictures of the red velvet cupcakes when I bake them again next time!

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

Cupcakes:

125g unsalted butter

250g caster sugar

2 eggs

20g cocoa powder

1 small bottle (40ml) red food colouring

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon vinegar

1teaspoon baking soda

1. Make the cocoa paste, Add cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract and mix until it becomes a paste.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs,one at the time.
4. Add cocoa paste and mix until well combined.
5. Fold in the flour and salt into the batter alternating with buttermilk in two additions.
6. In a small bowl, work quickly with baking soda and vinegar mixed together and pour the mixture into the cake batter. Fold until batter is mixed properly.
7. Pipe batter into cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 10 - 15 minutes in a preheated oven of 170 C.
8. Remove from cupcake pan immediately after taking the cupcakes out of the oven.
9. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting:

250g cream cheese, softened

600g icing sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Beat cream cheese until fluffy,smooth and free from lumps.
2. Add icing sugar and continue to beat for another 5 minutes.
3. Add vanilla extract.
4. Pipe on cupcakes.

2005

8 years later - 2013

Chocolate cupcakes with nutella cloud frosting

It was my dad's birthday past Tuesday and as a family affair. Unfortunately it was not a celebration we expected it be.my mousse cake turned out so bad I wanted to throw it away although everyone who ate it said it was delicious.luckily I had cupcakes to back up the disaster.but I am still not satisfied so I told dad I will make him another cake and I will stick to 'normal' cakes.

 So what went wrong to my caramel rum raisins mousse cake? :

 1. My gelatin didn't dissolve properly even after mixing it with hot liquid.jinx! So both layers of mousse didn't set!
 2. My caramel glaze was very jelly like,not sure if that was meant to like that but it happen.not much of a glaze.
 3. My small was shallow.no height at all.I thought it was alright but when I removed it from the ring,it was soo shallow.

 Anyway, the nutella cupcakes were a success minus the coffee maybe because I made a really thick coffee for it and therefore the cupcakes had a hint of bitterness to it. The cupcake batter wasn't enough to fill 24 mini cupcakes so I made another batch of cupcake batter but without coffee this time.I got about 40cupcakes altogether.as for the nutella frosting,I didn't have to double the amount up for two batches of cupcakes which was good.

I used the exact recipe I got from Rosie of Sweetapolita minus the coffee for one batch.I replaced it with boiled water.
Overall, I preferred the cupcakes without coffee.

The horrible birthday cake!:(

Happy Deepavali (Diwali)!!!

HAPPY DEEPAVALI (DIWALI) !!!

I finally got to celebrate deepavali after being away for 5 years. One thing wonderful about living in Malaysia, the country is multiracial and there are so many festivals to celebrate. While I was away in Sydney, you hardly feel the festive seasons like Eid, CNY & Deepavali. It's just another day in a foreign land. 

Just a quick update on my blog which I have been neglecting because I have been so lazy to blog.

I started a new job if I haven't mentioned it already here. I have join a Management Training Programme like sponsored by Maybank. I'm having an amazing time with amazing friends and people in FSTEP. 

Since I started my training, I only had the weekends to bake my cookies and cakes so last Saturday was a mad day for me. I baked 5 different types of cookies in one day, it took me 15 hours to complete everything because there was a power supply cut for 3 hours. It was a frustrating 3 hours of waiting.Still I manage to cut my fruits and nuts for my sugee christmas cake for next year! 

On Sunday, I baked one caramel cake which was a flop because I didn't bake it long enough as I was forced turn off the oven and attend an open house. Then I made macarons which was a flop as well. I almost broke down and wanted to give up. Batches of macaron batter were thrown out. I made my macarons twice and both were a flop, can you imagine? sigh... I never gave up and continued with my mini pear cupcakes. That,at least, turned out well. Made the buttercream for it, tried to savage a few of my macarons and fill them with raspberry buttercream then kept the remaining buttercream in the fridge for piping the next day. 

On Monday, I got the courage to make my caramel cake again and this time I baked it longer. Final results were out of this world. I reassured myself Sunday was a jinxed day for me! I had to make myself happy lah!

No recipes in this post because I didn't get to take individual pictures of my cookies & cakes. 

Clockwise : coconut candy, caramel rainbow cake & mini pear cupcakes with  swiss buttercream dusted with cinnamon-vanilla powdered sugar, sugee (semolina) cornflakes cookies, pineapple jam tarts, cashewnut cookies, vanilla-orange semperit cookies, coffee-chocolate cookies coated in nestum.

Mini Passionfruit Cakes

Leaving my current workplace for another job was the hardest decision ever but it was a pretty quick one, I must say! It never really hit me that my life was gonna change,for the better I hope, until last Friday. Initially, I cursed my mornings because I had to face certain people at work and deal with their immature way of handling things but things got better and I begin to learn how to ignore ‘them’. And along the way, I met and got close to a few amazing people. I am certainly gonna miss them but in life, you have to choose what’s more important in life in the initial stages of your career and build it. Now, I should stop the drama and focus what's more interesting for my blog, my mini cupcakes!

I made passionfruit cupcakes with vanilla buttercream & chocolate caramel macarons for my friends and mentor(s) as a Thank you token for their guidance and patience. I had a tub of passionfruit pulp sitting in the freezer for ages and found a wonderful recipe in Donna Hay’s latest magazine, her Spring issue. Everything she makes turns out beautifully! It’s almost foolproof! I wanted to beautify the cupcakes so I made frosting for the cupcakes but found it a little too sweet as a combination, so I would actually cut down on the sugar in the cupcakes if I am frosting the cupcakes the next time. The cupcakes itself  was very sweet when eaten alone. Maybe that's why, in the recipe, Donna only sprinkles icing sugar on top and have extra passionfruit pulp to go with the cupcakes to perhaps cut the sweetness of the cupcakes.

.

Anyway here’s the mini passionfruit cakes recipe I adapted from her magazine:

Passionfruit cupcakes:

200g unsalted butter, slightly softened

¼ cup (60ml) passionfruit pulp

165g caster sugar (reduce if you are frosting your cupcakes)

Rind of a lemon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 free range eggs

1 ¼ (185g) self raising flour, sifted

¼ cup (60ml) diluted yogurt/ buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 160 C and line mini muffin pans with paper liners.
2. Beat butter until light and creamy for 5 minutes. 
3. Mix passion fruit pulp and sugar.
4. Add passionfruit sugar into butter and continue to beat for another 5 minutes.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
6. Add vanilla extract & lemon rind. 
7. Fold in sifted flour until well combined. 
8. Fold in yogurt/buttermilk until well combined.
9. Scoop batter and fill a piping bag fitted with a medium size plain nozzle. Or you can just scoop the batter into the muffin pan lined with paper cups.
10. Fill paper liners with batter 2/3 full.
11. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.
12. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla/passionfruit buttercream:

250g unsalted butter

200g icing sugar

Enough passionfruit juice to make a thick sugar paste

Lemon yellow colouring,optional

1. Make passionfruit paste by adding passionfruit juice with seeds slowly into icing sugar until you have a thick paste.
2. Cream butter & colouring(if using) until creamy and fluffy. Add passionfruit sugar paste and continue to cream until combined and creamy.
3. If it's too soft, place in the fridge for 15 minutes until firm and pliable.
4. Scoop icing and place in a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe as you like. You can decorate further with a passionfruit seed in the middle like the picture below. Place in fridge until 5-10 minutes before serving depending on the weather.

Mini vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

I had two very interesting recipes to make this weekend but somehow I ended up making two different cupcakes this weekend. Probably baked them when I come back from Sydney in three weeks. Anyway, I baked these cupcakes for an orphanage. Dad wanted to give the girls something different so I volunteered myself to bake these mini cupcakes since I wanted to use the egg trays I painted. I opened my chiller and found three blocks of butter and half a block of cream cheese. Dad wanted something quick and easy. So I thought why not my fool proof butter cake with some cream cheese frosting and funfetti as decoration. It turned out perfect! fluffy moist butter mini cupcakes with pink cream cheese frosting and funfetti! I have posted the butter cake recipe before but I made some 'lazy' omission this time around.

Cupcakes

250g unsalted butter

250g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

6 egg yolks

4 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

50ml milk

1. Preheat oven at 180 C
2. Beat butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time and mix well after each addition.
3. Add vanilla extract.
4. Fold in flour in three batches and by alternating it with milk.
5. Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks but not dry.
6. Fold in the whites with the cake batter.
7. Using a cloth piping bag or heavy duty white piping bag and a plain nozzle, pipe the cake batter in the cupcake tray lined with cupcake liners. It should be around 3/4 cup full.
8. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
9. Once baked remove from cupcake tray and allow to cool completely.

Cream cheese frosting

227g cream cheese, room temperature

100g icing sugar,sifted

150g butter, slightly softened and cubed

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pink food colouring gel - Absolutely optional

Colourful funfetti, for decoration, absolutely optional as well

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth and free of lumps.
2. Add sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract and continue to beat until combined.
3. Add cubed butter one at a time; making sure frosting is well combined after each addition of butter.
4. If you want to add colouring, fold in the desired amount food colouring according to your preference of the shade of colour you want your frosting to be.
5. Fill piping bag with a plain nozzle and pipe.
6. Sprinkle some funfetti on your frosting and you are ready to serve.
7. If your frosting starts to melt, place in the fridge for about 10 minutes and give it a good mix before piping.

Blueberry Cream Cheese cupcakes

My boyfriend is over for the weekend since it's a long weekend this weekend, but unfortunately I have an interview tomorrow. So he's heading back to K.L with us. Every time he comes to Ipoh for the weekend, it's a baking spree for me! Because I know I have an extra mouth to feed!! 

Did I tell you he is a huge fan of blueberries?! And therefore, this weekend I was meant to make it an all berry weekend with blueberries and raspberries in my desserts (more berry recipes coming up! =)). Because I love raspberries and he on the other hand, loves blueberries. Although the prices of berries in Malaysia is exorbitant, a luxury in baking and desserts don't kill you! =P 

I had a different recipe in mind to make but my boyfriend preferred cupcakes to a blueberry pudding cake so I make these instead! No regrets but!! This is one amazing cupcake recipe with cream cheese frosting! If you love blueberry cheesecakes, you will definitely love this one! =)

Almost picture perfect to me!

I followed the recipe for the cupcakes from Pastry Affair (thank you Kristin Rosenau for the wonderful cupcakes recipe!)

I got  about 25 -2 1/2 oz cupcakes. The cupcakes didn't rise that high for me.

For the cream cheese frosting I made my own cream cheese frosting because I found the sugar content of the frosting given with the cupcakes a little too sweet to my liking.So here's my recipe:

230g cream cheese, slightly softened

100g icing sugar, sifted

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

60g unsalted butter, room temperature

1. Beat cream cheese for 3-5minutes until fluffy and smooth.
2. Add icing sugar and vanilla extract and continue to beat for 4-5 minutes.
3. Gradually add butter and beat until smooth.
4. Fill the cream cheese frosting in a piping bag and frost cupcakes.

Sniff sniff!!sucha greedy dog! 

Spoils the fat dog by feeding her a whole cupcake! sigh..

Vanilla butter (with little surprises in the middle!) cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

Dad complaints I don't eat enough fruits. But honestly I love my fruits in my desserts. Give me anything sweet with fruits any day I would eat it instead of something with chocolate. Call me weird but I'm just being me!lol.

Anyway, I always get myself a packed of raspberries from KLCC each time I am in KL. Why KLCC? Because priceless of raspberry in Isetan Foodhall is cheaper compared to other supermarkets and the berries look fresh. I walked into Ben's Grocer in Solaris the other and to my dismay, I found a packet of raspberries covered in mold! Ewww. The raspberries are either moldy or too pricey in most supermarkets. 

Wanted to make something different with my expensive purchase but with time constraint (because I have an interview tomorrow,fingers crossed I get the job & raspberry can only keep for a maximum of 3 days), I made a little cupcakes with my raspberries and also blueberries. Next time, I will have a recipe (and enough mouths to feed) in mind before buying my raspberries.hehe.

Little surprises in a cupcake that looks like a plain butter cupcake with vanilla buttercream!

Cupcakes: (makes 25 medium size cupcakes)

250g unsalted butter

230g caster sugar + 2 tablespoons

5 'kampung' eggs/small eggs (4 large eggs), separated

250g cake flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoon fresh milk

25 raspberries and blueberries, each

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add yolks one at a time. Mix well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and continue to mix.
4. Turn mixer to low speed and add flour & baking powder into the mixture,mixing until just combined.
5. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks, gradually add one tablespoon of sugar at a time until you get a nice semi marshmallowy mixture. 
6. Fold in milk into the cake batter,then add fold egg whites in three additions.
7. Fill cupcake liners to 1/2 full and insert a raspberry and blueberry in the middle of the cupcake.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
9. Remove and cool completely.

Vanilla buttercream:

250g unsalted butter,diced at semi room temperature

250g icing sugar,sifted

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat butter and sugar until very light and fluffy (5minutes). Then add vanilla extract and continue to mix for another 3 minutes.

To assemble, place buttercream in a piping bag with a preferred nozzle and Pipe rosettes on your cupcakes and serve immediately.

If you prefer your cupcakes less sweet or feel your cupcakes are overcooked/dry and want it more moist, try pouring a tablespoon of lemon syrup on top cupcakes as soon as you take the cupcakes out of the oven.I tried one cupcake with/without the lemon syrup and preferred the one with the lemon syrup but it's totally optional.

Recipe of lemon syrup follows.

Juice of 2 lemons,strained
5-6 tablespoons caster sugar

Mix the lemon juice and sugar,let aside.

In very humid temperature, I normally leave my butter out for 5 minutes and then cut them into cubes and beat the butter using the paddle attachment. I never leave my butter out for too long cause the buttercream with turn runny quickly.I rather beat butter cubes while it is cold because by the time you have buttercream ready,it is the perfect consistency for frosting the cupcakes.

As soon as they saw a cupcake in my hand, they jumped excitedly to grab my cupcake. My greedy babies.

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes with Custard filling

 I think I have fallen all over again!! This is one amazing, well almost prefect cake! I loved everything about this cake! Simple to make, cheap to make and the combination of the custard filling and cotton soft cake is perfect!! But.....It lacked flavouring! It had quite a strong eggy smell to it if you ate it alone. So I would probably add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the cake.  The recipe only gave me 10 cupcakes which is quite sufficient because I have a very small extended family (with cousins' living next door), so 10 cupcakes was enough to feed all of it with no extras for the next day.  I also increased the amount of sugar in both cake and custard filling because I personally prefer my cakes 'sweet' (although most chiffon cakes are not meant to be 'sweet sweet',if you get what I mean). I felt the amount of sugar in the recipe was little.

Filled with custard filling inside.

Adapted from Nasilemaklover

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

(A)

3 large egg yolks

35g caster sugar (original amount-20g)

35g corn oil

60g fresh milk

70g cake flour

(B)

3 large egg whites

35g caster sugar (original amount-25g)

Custard Filling:

60g dairy whipping cream,chilled

30g caster sugar (original amount-10g)

2 teaspoon custard powder

Icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven at 170 C.
2. Beat yolk and sugar until very pale. (This may take a while. I used my stand mixer and the quantity was quite little for the bowl so it took me about 10 minutes to get to that consistency.)
3. Add corn oil & milk,mix until combined.
4. Add cake flour and mix at the lowest speed until combined.
5. In another bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually and continue to beat until soft-medium peak.
6. Take 1/4 of the meringue and mix into the batter to loosen up the mixture.Add the cake batter into the remaining meringue mixture and fold until well combined with a spatula. Divide batter equally (making sure the cupcake liners are fill max 3/4 full) into cupcake liners. ( I got 10 cupcakes from the batter)
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. 
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
9. Prepare filling while baking cupcakes. Place all custard filling ingredients in a bowl and whip until stiff. Place a clingwrap tightly (plastic touching the surface of the custard filling) over the custard filling and chill.
10. Once cupcakes are cool completely, pipe filling into cupcakes. ( Pierce through the cupcakes with the nozzle and pipe.)
11. Chill before serving.