Rose Water Cupcakes

It was a cloudy Sunday, i rather stayed at home to do something that i like. No doubt baking would be my favorite thing to do during the weekend. This round i made rose water cupcakes with rose water buttercream. The subtle aroma of roses was a plus for these cupcakes.

They are easy to made and the recipe can be found here. Generally, same approach of making vanilla cupcakes was applied to rose water cupcakes just by substituting vanilla extract with rose water. Since i don't have milk at home, so i used soy milk instead.

At the meantime, i replaced the vanilla extract in Vanilla Buttercream Icing to rose water as well and topped with strawberry flavored candy. I particularly enjoy this rose-scented cupcakes.

Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars

A quick share of my Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars that i made on last weekend. The lemon blueberry flavor tasted good.



Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com



Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries (i put 2 cups only)
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch


Methods:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

2) In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into prepared pan.

3) In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4) Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes (In future, i should lower my oven temperature 5 to 8 minutes as the top was slightly too brown). Cool completely before cutting.

Red Velvet Cupcake

I love the name of Red Velvet. It sound decadent. Many recipes use plenty of food coloring while the recipe that i used was from RecipeGirl.com which called for only 2 Tbsp red food coloring. The cupcakes were fluffy & moist and nice frosting with buttercream.

Ingredients :

3 cups all - purpose flour
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp red food coloring
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 175。C . Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter in medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla extract; beat intil combined. One at a time, add eggs; beat on medium speed after each.

Bet in food coloring on low.

4. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to egg mixture; beat on low medium after each just until combined. Stir together baking soda and vinegar. Add to batter; beat just until combined.

5. Fill cupcake liners two - thirds full. Bake 15 to 17 minutes, or until toothpick inserted centers comes out clean. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing:

1 cup krimwell
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk, at room temperature
454g icing sugar

In a large mixing bowl beat the krimwell,vanilla extract, milk and icing sugar until smooth.

Decorate red velvet cupcakes with ribbon rose and leaves. Great for festive occasion like valentine's day,wedding day and birthday.

Matcha Chocolate Cupcakes

A packet of matcha which i bought has been lying in my food cabinet for quite some time. What can i do with it ? Pancakes ? Cookies or Cakes ? After surfing through the internet, i got an idea to make chocolate cupcakes with matcha cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Cupcakes
(Adapted from Williams – Sonoma)

Ingredients: 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 Tsp baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt
3oz or 84 grams bittersweet chocolate,chopped
11 Tbs, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1Tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

2) In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Place the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl and set over but not touching simmering water in a saucepan. Stir frequently until melted and smooth, about 5 minutes. Remove the bowl from saucepan and let the chocolate mixture cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

3) Stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture until combined. Stir in the eggs on at a time, beating until combined after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Gently fold in the flour mixture just until no traces of flour remain; do not over mix.

4) Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 22 to 24 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Then transfer the cupcakes to the rack and let cool completely.

5) When the cupcakes are completely cool, ice with matcha cream cheese frosting and decorate with fresh strawberry.

Matcha Cream Cheese Frosting

350g cream cheese
60g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g icing sugar,sifted
2 ½ tsp matcha powder
Few drops of food colouring (optional)

1) In a large mixing bowl beat butter and cheese at medium speed until smooth.

2) Add half of the icing sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoon of matcha powder and beat until combined.

3) Gradually add remainder of the icing sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.

4) If you want to colour your frosting, always start with one drop of colouring and beat thoroughly. Add carefully, drop by drop, and beat after each addition until you get your desired colour.

The combination of flavours and colours were very well cooperated. Yum !

Apple Cake

One year ago, my friend made me an amazing apple cake and I absolutely fell in love with the stuff. It’s been years since I’ve had it but my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I had some apples in hand, so decided try to make the apple cake myself.

Here’s a recipe adapted from Kosher Camembert. I followed the steps in the site but extra adding a dash of cinnamon to enrich the flavour. The recipe was simple and turned out great ! Plus, it’s best serve warm with vanilla ice cream.


I’m very happy as the whole cake had finished just in a second. I’ll definitely make it again.

Wedding Cakes

In Jan 2010, I volunteered to do Wedding cupcakes, chocolate cake and chocolate truffles for my sister’s big day with little experience. It was really a big challenge to me. Most of all, I have to think about how to transport a cake in a 4 hours ride ? Will it melt if it is hot ?

After all the considerations, ideally decision was to bake the cake in advance and complete the final decorations on that day itself. However, the closer you get to the wedding the more things will tend to go wrong. For instance, the consistency of the icing for making roses couldn’t get right and the cake wasn’t turned out as desired. The stress that this caused was immense. After several trials, it was eventually finished.

One the wedding day, I woke up at 5am for final cakes decoration. Luckily, everything was under control and could be able served just in time.

Well, my nice gesture and effort were finally paid off as my parents and relatives were impressed with the results.