#29 : Flakey Cupcakes

Warning to you all dieters : these cupcakes are meant to really make you FAT! (mind the amount of butter and sugar)

One thing I need to improve is to put the right amount of batter in each cup so that they won't be too full. I tried to put all the batter in 12 cups and realized that it was too much so I needed to trim the cupcakes once they were baked.


Ingredients:
- 175g butter
- 175g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 55g ground almonds
- 150g self-raising flour
- mini chocolate Cadbury flakes to decorate
- sprinkles

Buttercream topping:
- 225g butter, softened
- 1 tbsp cream or milk
- 350g icing sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the eggs, then fold in the almonds and flour.
3. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Spoon the buttercream using a piping bag with a large star nozzle over the cupcakes. Press a Cadbury flake into each cake and scatter a few sprinkles on top.

Buttercream:
- place the butter and cream in a bowl and beat together. Gradually sift the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

#28 : Chocolate Cream Muffins

Too bitter and chocolate-y. I am a big fan of dark chocolate with its bittersweet taste but I think these muffins were a bit too bitter. But my sister said they tasted great so I don't know.

Ingredients:
- 225g plain flour
- 55g cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 115g soft light brown sugar (I used brown sugar)
- 150 white chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chips)
- 2 eggs
- 250ml double cream
- 6 tbsp sunflower oil or 85g butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line 12-hole muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and white chocolate chips.
3. Place the egg in a bowl and beat lightly, then beat in cream and oil.
4. Pour the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients - stir gently until just combined - do not overmix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until well risen.
7. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

#27 : Bow Cupcakes

I got the recipe from Erika's book because it's easy and I got all the ingredients on hand. I wanted to try another recipe from the Planet Cake book but I didn't have the complete ingredients. Well it's the decoration that mattered to me for this one so I think whatever the recipe is, is good.
The thing with working with fondant is that you need the thickness consistency - therefore I know I am gonna need a pasta machine. I haven't bought one because it's too expensive! $149.95?? My hand mixer which I used all the time only cost 10% off it ($14.95). So I delayed the purchase.
Another problem came up with bold coloring like black. I think it was not black after all, it's more like dark gray. The more you put coloring paste to the fondant, the more sticky it gets. I used the trick that Veli told me the other day, which is to put the coloring paste using a toothpick. I didn't have any so I used the thing to check the baked cake (Oh well I don't know the name). I also didn't have a fondant smoother so they're not smooth! :( But I was quite happy with the result. They made my day :)

I didn't color enough fondant so I didn't have enough to make the bow. The result of not being careful in spooning the batter - leaving the burnt marks on the edges! :(

I used the left over fondant to make this. Oh how I hate the burnt marks on the edge!

Ingredients :
- 115g butter, softened
- 115g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 115g self-raising flour

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line muffin trays with cupcake/muffin papers.
2. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and beat them until smooth.
3. Spoon the batter to the muffin hole and bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the oven. (Be careful in spooning the batter. If it's messy, it's gonna leave burnt marks on the paper muffin and that's not going to be pretty. Also the batter you put had to be 2/3 of the muffin papers, so it's easier to decorate with fondants)
4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Note : cupcakes are easily dried out. To prevent from drying out, make some holes on the cupcakes, brush with some syrup generously then cover with fondant.

How to make syrup : mix 100g apricot jam with 100ml boiling water and whisk them - remove any lumps

#26 : Double Heart Cookies

Baking these cookies is one challenge to me. I've read about the problem with rolling out cookies, especially with ones that need to be chilled first. At first I thought that I did something wrong with the dough because it was too sticky. Once I took the dough out from the fridge, I really needed to stamp out the cookies real fast because it got sticky quite quickly. By far, this is the longest baking I have ever done. By the time I am writing this post, I still have some of the dough in the fridge.
The taste is quite good and the baking time in the oven is much less than what's in the recipe. I got the recipe from the recipe book from Erika.





Ingredients:
- 1 sachet instant latte
- 1 1/2 tsp hot water
- 225g butter, softened
- 140g caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
- 250g plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Place the instant latte into a small bowl and stir in the hot water to make a paste.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and then beat in egg yolk. Divide the mixture in half.
3. Sift 140g of the flour and a pinch of salt into the mixture and stir until combined.
4. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
5. Beat the vanilla extract into the other dough, then sift together the remaining flour, the cocoa powder and salt into the mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap it in clingfilm. Chill for 30-60 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 190C. Line tray with baking paper.
7. Unwrap both flavors of the dough and roll out each between 2 sheets of baking paper.
8. Cut out cookies with heart-shaped cutter and place them on the baking sheets, spaced them apart.
9. Using a smaller heart-shaped cutter, cut out the centres of each larger heart and remove from the baking sheets.
10. Place a small chocolate flavored heart in the centre of each large coffee-flavored heart and vice versa.
11. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes (depending on the oven, mine took 5 minutes). Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

#25 : Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

It's another cupcake recipe that I tried and it turned out good (I think). I loved the taste of the cupcakes. My sis also loved it too. This recipe is definitely gonna be one of the best :D Well thanks to Erika for the recipe book. The best part of baking is seeing the batter being baked in the oven. There's a feeling of joy just by seeing them raising. The smell of the cupcakes baking in the oven is also GOOD. I had a great time baking the cupcakes while watching Kurt Cobain singing. It's just a perfect evening for me :D Another thing is finishing the decoration. Well decorating ain't easy. I thought that it should be the easiest and the most exciting part. Guess what, it's not. But it was still exciting though. Putting the whipped cream on top of the cupcakes took time longer that I thought. I guess next time I should just use piping bag, because I tried to use knife and I needed to use my sis' scraper to make it smooth. Now the chocolate curls : I have never made any chocolate curls before. So what I had in mind is maybe I could use the peeler to make chocolate curls from the chocolate block. But then my sister told me another way - which is to melt the chocolate blocks and then pour them on to a flat surface and let it cool. After it is cool, just scrap the chocolate. Sadly it didn't work either. I didn't know why - maybe it was the chocolate? Well then what I did was I used the peeler and it was a little hard - there were times when the chocolate block flew and it's gone (I didn't know where the hell it was until the next morning). There were also times when the chocolate curls just sprinkled on my eyes. What a mess. Then my sister suggested to use the grater. I tried that but it was too smooth. So I sticked to the peeler. Practice makes perfect. The chocolate curls that I created were getting better and better although it's not as good as what's in the picture from the recipe book.



Ingredients
- 50g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
- 60g butter
- 115g cherry jam (I substituted this with Fruit of The Forest Jam by Weight Watchers)
- 60g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 100g self-raising flour

Topping:
- 4tsp kirsch liquor
- 150ml double cream (I used thickened cream - I'm not sure if they're the same but it turned out okay)
- 12 glace cherries
- chocolate curls to decorate
I added:
- 1tsp vanilla essence
- 30g icing sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line muffin pans with paper cases.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter, stirring constantly until melted. Pour into a large bowl. then stir until smooth and leave to cool slightly.
3. Add the jam, sugar and eggs to the cooled chocolate and beat together.
4. Add the flour and stir together until combined.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.
7. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Sprinkle the kirsch over the tops of each and leave to soak for at least 15 minutes.
9. When ready to decorate, place the cream in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Spread the cream on top of the cupcakes with a knife to form the cream into peaks. Top each cupcake with a cherry and decorate with chocolate curls.

#24 : Flan Di Latte (Caramel Milk Pudding)

Making pudding is always the best way to use up and milk that's about to expire. I tried this recipe from Metacafe because the I had all the ingredients on hand except the caramel. Well I don't like caramel anyway so I omitted that. The pudding tasted so milky. I didn't like it. I poured some golden syrup before serving. I made half recipe because I only had 1/2 litre of milk. For recipe please watch the video below:



Easy Tasty Milk Pudding -

#23 : Banana Bread

Yummy Banana Bread