Nutella Swirl Cupcakes

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes are not new. I baked them long time ago in 2007 when I just started baking. At that time there weren't many baking blogs to follow. Precious Moments was one of them. This is a really easy recipe suitable for beginners and even children.

I grabbed the 1-for-1 Nutella promotion from NTUC fairprice during CNY, 2x1kg bottles at only $9.80! Now I have a task of 'clearing' it. Actually not much a problem as I can eat bread with Nutella everyday! Can spread more generously!

Edith reposted the recipe in her new blog and after looking at it, I was so anxious to try it again after so many years. The swirls were done by my niece. The cupcakes were finished up by them very quickly. A good recipe if you need to bake something quick.

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes

Ingredients

140g butter, softened
100g white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
200g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella

Method

1. Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes.
2. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated.
3. Add vanilla.
4. Sift together plain flour, salt and baking powder and fold in until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
5. Fill each muffin liner with batter to 80% full.
6. Top each cupcake with 1 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.
7. Bake at 180 deg C for 15-20 minutes.

Recipe from: Rumbling Tummy

Pandan Chiffon Cake & Pandan Sponge Cupcakes

Few weeks ago, mum chopped off her old pandan plant and we were left with a big bunch of pandan leaves. So I took some from her and made some pandan cakes.

Use about 15-20 pandan leaves (the more the better), wash and cut into small pieces for easier blending.

I use electric blender, blend the pandan leaves with about 300ml water. Although we do not need so much pandan juice, we need to add water to get the blender to work, if not the pandan leaves will get stuck without moving for my blender.

After done, filter and squeeze the mixture through a sieve to get the clear pandan juice. Discard the remains. Leave the pandan juice in the fridge overnight or few days even better. I forget to take a photo, but you will get a distinct 2 layers of juices, the top is a clear layer while the bottom is a denser green layer of pandan juice which we will use for the cakes. It's called the homemade pandan extract.

First and always, my favourite chiffon cake.

I use a recipe that is very popular on FB originated from Caryn Man Yoke Peng. There is some similarity between this and the Okashi's recipe, both yield very soft chiffon cakes!

Pandan Chiffon Cake (20cm chiffon tin)

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks
30g sugar
50g oil
70g homemade pandan extract
83g cake flour

5 egg whites
70g sugar

Method:

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by homemade pandan extract. Mix well.
3. Add sifted cake flour. Mix until just combined. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy. Add in sugar gradually and continue whisking until stiff peak form.
5. Gently fold in the egg white into the egg yolk batter (in step 3) in 3 batches.
6. Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon tin. Give the tin a few slight knocks on the tabletop to remove air bubbles. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 35 minutes. (If your oven is hot, try 160 deg C for 40 min or 150 deg C for 45 min)
7. Remove from oven and invert the tin immediately onto a cooling rack.
8. Unmould the cake only when it is completely cool.

See how I'm 'torturing' my chiffon cake. Hehe! It's super soft

Pandan sponge cupcakes made 100% extracted from pandan leaves and all natural colouring.

This cake uses beating the whole egg method which I actually don't like to make. Cos I always find it hard to fold in the flour nicely. However, this time I did it without much problems, maybe more experience now. The result is also moist and fluffy. A good alternative if I feel lazy to do egg separation method.

Pandan Sponge Cupcakes (about 10 cups)

Ingredients:

2 large cold eggs
50g sugar
pinch of salt
65g cake flour
25g homemade pandan extract
15g oil

Method:

1. Whisk eggs, sugar and salt at high speed until white and fluffy, about 15 minutes.
2. Fold in sifted cake flour gently until the mixture is smooth and no traces of flour.
3. Mix homemade pandan extract and oil well. Scoop some batter from step 2 into the pandan mixture. Mix well. Then pour the mixture back to the batter. Fold in gently till smooth and well combined.
4. Scoop the batter into paper cups until almost full.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 20 minutes. (adjust time according to the size of the baking cups)

Recipe adapted from: Butter . Flour & Me

Happy Birthday Kids - Baked Donuts and Fondant Hello Kitty Cupcakes

My nieces birthday all fall in the month of September. So I made something for the goodie bags for their birthday party in school.

These are mini baked donuts with different toppings.

I packed them in these cute cookie bags. So girlish, I hope the boys didn't mind. :P

I did something more challenging for my elder niece after a few practices with fondant.

These few fondant hello kitty topping took me like 2 hours to complete.

Then I bake the cupcakes on the actual day of the party. And put the toppings on. It was very fun to play with fondant actually!

I'm taking a holiday break to Hong Kong this week. Hope to share some photos when I am back. Meanwhile, drop by my facebook as I update there more often. Cheers! :)

MSW Durian Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

How many of you are durian lover? I love durian. And I love Mao Shan Wang durian! I saved some MSW durian during the durian season and made them into the famous Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes.

The Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes were so tall when just out of the oven. But they shrank so much within seconds after out of the oven.

I went a bit over and piped in so much durian, haha! But this made in soooo good! I hardly compliment myself. :)

Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes are so popular that I can find so many different recipes online. But you may not know, one of the earliest Hokkaido cupcakes recipe was posted by 周老师 who called it 史上最软的蛋糕, which means the softest cake in history. And I found that this is really the best Hokkaido cupcake! Just look at the amount of flour, so little. That's why the cake just melts in your mouth!

Durian Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

Ingredients (15 square cups)

5 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
40g vegetable oil
40g milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder (I omitted)

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I omitted)
105g sugar

Durian Filling: (can adjust ratio to your own liking)
100g durian
100g non-dairy whipping cream

Custard Filling:
120g dairy whipping cream
25g instant custard powder
75g cold milk

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks and salt well.
2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by milk and vanilla extract.
3. Sift cake flour and baking powder into egg yolk mixture. Mix until just combined. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in sugar gradually in 3 batches and continue whisking until stiff peak form.
5. Gently fold in the egg white into the egg yolk batter (in step 3) in 3 batches.
6. Fill the batter into paper cups until 90% full.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 175 deg C for 15 minutes. Leave the cakes to cool.

Durian Filling:
1. Remove the flesh from the durian.
2. Whisk whipping cream to stiff peak. Add in durian flesh and whisk until well combined.
3. Put the filling into a piping bag. Pipe filling into the cooled cupcakes.
4. Sift icing sugar on top of the cakes, chill and serve.

Custard Filling:
1. Whisk whipping cream to stiff peak.
2. Mix instant custard powder and cold milk well, and quickly add into the whipped cream. Whisk until just combined.
3. Put the filling into a piping bag. Pipe filling into the cooled cupcakes.
4. Sift icing sugar on top of the cakes, chill and serve.

Recipe from: 周老师

Fondant Fun: Minions, King pigs and National Day

See. I finally start playing with fondant after so much procrastination. A waste-money expensive hobby. Haha! I haven't got the right tools as I only have a few cutters and a few types of colourings. So far, I have made with fondant 3 times. I'm going to record down them in my blog although they look really weird and many flaws as I am still very unskilled and clumsy with my hands and fingers. Don't laugh at my work. :)

Fondant #1: The very hot minions now. I thought they look really weird at first. But the more I see, the more I like. Haha!

Fondant #2: The King Pigs 3D style. Not easy to do 3D fondant. Plus I am not good at doing art and creativity stuffs.

Fondant #3: A set of National Day Cupcakes. Can't do the stars as I don't have such a small star cutter.

The reason I said it is waste-money because I don't know what to do with the fondants I created. So waste to throw away my work. Keep also no use. Maybe next time I give or sell away cheap. Haha!

Happy National Day to all Singaporeans! 

Peace and Prosperity for Singapore!

Almond and Cranberry Cupcakes 杏仁蔓越莓杯子蛋糕

I'm a very picky eater. There are a lot of food that I don't like to eat. But as I grow older, I start to try eating more variety of food, especially fruits and vegetables that are beneficial to health. Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, brinjals, which I used to hate eating, now become my favourite dishes on the table.

Cranberries has never never ever been included in the list of food I eat. Few months ago, one of my twin nieces suffered from urinary tract infection. I heard that in the past when antibiotics was not available, doctors advised parents to give babies cranberry juice to treat urinary tract infection. Besides that, cranberries has a good amount of vitamins, antioxidants and anti-cancer properties. So, I decide to buy a pack of dried cranberries to try. At first bite, I thought they taste like haw flakes (山楂饼).

I have seen cranberries been used to bake cakes, cookies, breads and scones. Flipping through 孟老师的100道小蛋糕, I decide on this cranberry cake recipe (蔓越莓蛋糕). I change the name of this cake to Almond and Cranberry Cupcakes (杏仁蔓越莓杯子蛋糕) because almond is added too and it is the almond that makes the cake to smell so nice. It is a perfect treat for teatime!

I'm just trying to be smart to include a step-by-step photo description. The place where I prepare baking is at the other end of the kitchen, furthest away from window, which makes it hard to take good and bright photos. So forgive me for the quality of the photos. :)

Almond and Cranberry Cupcakes 杏仁蔓越莓杯子蛋糕

Ingredients (makes 11 mini cupcakes)

(A)
30g sliced almonds
60g dried cranberries (I use about 45g)

(B)
80g unsalted butter
60g icing sugar, sifted (I use 50g, still a little sweet)
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp milk
50g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
10g milk powder

Method

1. Preheat oven at 150 deg C. Bake the sliced almonds for about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool down. Blend the baked sliced almonds and dried cranberries with a food processor. (If you don't have a food processor, you can chop them finely with a knife.)

2. Soften the butter at room temperature. Add in icing sugar and whisk until well-mixed.

3. Add in egg yolks and milk, whisk until well-mixed.

4. Add in sifted flour, baking powder and milk powder. Mix well with a spatula.

5. Add in chopped almonds and cranberries in step 1. Mix well.

6. Fill the batter into cupcake cases until 80% filled.

7. Bake at preheated oven at 180 deg C for 20-25 minutes (I bake for 15 minutes for mini cupcakes).

Recipe from: 孟老师的100道小蛋糕

Note: Written above is the original recipe from the book. Any adaptation is written in brackets ().

Easy Honey Cupcakes

Do you know that honey is the the only food in the world that does not spoil?

I remember I read it somewhere and it is quite amazing to know that it can be kept for thousands of years! As for the science behind it, you might want to find out for yourself and let me know, hehe! I think it's a good project for children to do some little research about their favourite food. :)


Anyway, back to baking. :) One day, last week, I was feeling hungry and couldn't find anything good to fill my stomach at home. So, I decided to make this Honey Cupcakes from 孟老师的100道小蛋糕. It looks pretty easy. The only problem is I have a phobia for making sponge cakes that requires me to beat up eggs and sugar first, then fold in flour and oil/butter. I remembered deflating it when I first started baking and since then, I hardly make any sponge cakes, if you have noticed.


Still, I call this an easy recipe, cos I only take 30 minutes to make these cupcakes (including weighing and washing). Fastest record for me! Wasn't very sure if I had beaten the batter to the right stage. But at least, I did not deflate the mixture this time and the cupcakes remains soft and spongy. Not too bad! :)

Easy Honey Cupcakes (From 孟老师的100道小蛋糕)

Ingredients
20g oil
30g honey
2 eggs
20g sugar
50g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

Method
1. Place oil and honey in a bowl and heat up the mixture by placing the bowl in hot water. Mix well using a spoon and set aside.
2. Beat eggs and sugar using a mixer. Gradually increase the speed to high and beat till mixture turns creamy white and when the whisk is lifted up, the trail does not disappear immediately. Reduce to slow speed and beat for another 1 minute.
3. Sift in cake flour and baking powder and add in honey and oil mixture in step 1. Mix gently until smooth.
4. Fill into cupcake cases until 8/10 full, rest in room temperature for about 5 minutes.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg C for 15-20 minutes. (Bake at a higher shelf or use a lower heat for the bottom heat cos the honey can cause the base to burn easily.)

Devil's Cupcakes and A Surprise Reward!

The Devil's Cupcakes


Did these cupcakes quite some time ago as my mother requested me to bake something for her friends. I was scratching head and trying to recall something good enough to let people try. I looked through my archive and saw this Devil's Food Cake. Suddenly remembered that I had tried scooping some out to bake as cupcakes the last time and they tasted very very soft and delicious.


So using the same recipe, I made them into Devil's Cupcakes, topped with chocolate chips ;). When she was back, I received the best feedback ever. I could see she was pretty happy and proud to hear people saying that the cupcakes were good. Sigh... I have probably never done anything great to make her feel proud of me. Very sad.


The Surprise Reward!

It was merely a week since I joined and added the widget from the Foodie BlogRoll. To be honest, I knew this website since a long time ago, but I didn't join it because I find that it slowed down the loading of the websites. But the new widget looks pretty cool and I decided to join in to add some colours to my blog. Weird reason right? Haha! I never knew that because of this simple addition, the readership of my blog increases and I am very surprised to be one of the featured blogs in FFF. FFF means Finest Foodies Friday, which is a weekly Friday post in The Left Over Queen featuring favourites from The Foodie Blogroll. Read here.

It's totally unexpected. I have set up this blog just to record my baking experiences. I have baked some good ones and also numerous unsuccessful attempts. My bakes are not really that outstanding... the photos are very ordinarily taken... my English is poor and I don't write well (I sometimes need to check the dictionary to make sure that I have used a word correctly, blah)... and there are better baking blogs out there who have not had the chance to receive the attention yet.

I would say it's some kind of reward for my persistence in baking and blogging. I'm kind of feeling down lately. It does give me a boost and brighten me up a bit.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I'm curious to try out this Cookies and Cream Cupcakes recipe from Crazy About Cupcakes. Firstly, it only uses egg whites, and not whole eggs, which is different from other cupcakes recipes that I have seen. You see, I have plenty of egg whites left after making the ice creams. :)

Secondly, it uses a different kind of mixing method. Instead the usual way of creaming the butter and sugar first, then adding the eggs and milk, then the flours and crushed cookies.
The method goes like this:
1. Cream the butter, milk and vanilla until fluffy (but I can't reach the fluffy stage).
2. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture.
3. Add in the sugar.
4. Add in the egg whites.
5. Add in the crushed cookies.


Just as I was wondering about the result, the cupcakes came out soft and spongy. The surface did not turn brown. I was thinking could it be underbaked, but since the skewer came out clean, I shouldn't leave it to overbake. My only complaint is that it was overly sweet for me.


Cookies and Cream Cupcakes (Here's the original recipe from Crazy About Cupcakes)

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 cup chocolate sandwich cookies (about 10), lightly crushed

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in the sugar. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites. Beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in the crushed cookies.
5. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

Orange Almond Cupcakes

22 November 2007

This recipe is taken from one of Alex Goh's book. The original recipe fills the mixture into greased cupcake moulds and it looks like that.


And this is how my cake looks like.


Erm... very far from the book right? I don't know why my cupcakes and muffins always rise until like a volcano that is going to explode and the top will always crack. Look at how flat and nice top the original one has.

I tried 2 versions of this recipe. After mixing A and B and adding orange juice and zest, I divided the batter into 2 portions. One half I added the butter as in the recipe, the other half I added vegetable oil. I just want to know if it will affect the taste as I thought it will be healthier to replace butter with vegetable oil. Result is quite obvious lah. The one with the butter definitely taste better, but I think the oil version just lose out by 0.5 points. Both are great!

Recipe for Orange Almond Cupcakes (I make 10 small ones with half the recipe)

Ingredients
(A)
4 eggs
2 eggs yolks
175g sugar
(B)
190g plain flour
50g ground almonds
1½ tsp baking powder
(C)
40g orange juice
1 orange zest, grated
200g butter, melted
(Garnish)
Flaked almonds

Method
1. Whip (A) until sugar dissolves and it turns thick. (Note: overwhipping (A) will cause the cake to collapse).
2. Fold in (B) and mix until well blended.
3. Stir in (C) and mix until well incorporated.
4. Spoon it into cupcake cases and sprinkle some flaked almonds on top.
5. Bake at 190C for 20 minutes. Remove and cool.

Banana & Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

28 September 2007

I don't really like banana cakes or anything food that is related to bananas, like banana milk, etc. I prefer eating fresh bananas actually. This banana cupcake recipe that I have tried doesn't have the strong banana taste, perhaps it's because I omit the banana essence. It's just a basic cupcake recipe with mashed banana added. I added extra chocolate chips to my own liking.


This recipe has been reduced because of my small family size and we don't like to eat too much sweet foods. :)

Ingredients (5 small cupcakes)
50g unsalted butter, softened
50g caster sugar
50g eggs (1 small egg)
50g self-raising flour
30g banana, mashed (2 small ones)
1/4 tsp banana essence (I omit this)
extra chocolate chips to your own liking

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Place paper baking cases in muffin tins.
2. Combine butter, sugar, eggs and flour in a mixer. Beat until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add in mashed bananas, banana essence and chocolate chips and mix until combined. Spoon the batter into the cases. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. Remove the tins from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.

Mini cupcakes 小蛋糕

13 June 2007

Hehe. I feel like this is one of my best bakes so far. Cos the little cakes comes out nice and tastes good too. This recipe is from a chinese baking book I bought at the book fair.

Ingredients (yielded 6 big and 24 small cakes using 2 eggs)
120g eggs
100g sugar
40g milk
100g corn oil
120g cake flour
2.5g baking powder

Method
1. Beat egg and sugar till white and fluffy.
2. Add in milk slowly and mix well.
3. Add in oil slowly and mix well. Be careful not to deflate the mixture.
4. Add in sifted cake flour and baking powder. Mix well.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cups.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven (2nd lower rack) at 180C for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

The first bake - Vanilla cupcakes

6 May 2007

Here's my 1st bake to test the "new" oven.

This vanilla cupcake is supposed to be the basic recipe for cupcakes, from a book that I have read. So I use this recipe as it looks quite simple to start up with. I only use 1/4 of the portion to test this recipe, i.e. 1 egg.

Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Place 18 paper baking cases in muffin tins.
2. Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Spoon the mixture into the cases. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. Remove the tins from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.
5. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

This is before baking.


This is after baking.



I am quite surprised at the result. It looks quite nice for someone who has never baked before. (although I had helped my mother to bake cny cookies many many years ago). This time I did it alone when nobody was at home. The taste is quite nice also. But a bit too sweet and buttery for me.

I'm quite excited. Looking for more recipes to try out again.