Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cupcakes with Hershey's Chocolate Frosting

Happy Happy Sweet 2nd Birthday to Bake-Along.

Time flies and it had been 2 years unknowingly. Getting to know the wonderful hosts, Lena, Joyce and Zoe and the other bakers whom had baked along with us. I must say from this, I had learnt many more cakes that everyone had shared. 

Thank you to all and our Bake Along hosts for all these wonderful recipes, attempts and most of all, company:))

So here we have along with the Bake-Along 2nd Year Anniversary, a "Perfectly Hershey's Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes with Hershey's Chocolate Frosting.
I realised I had some cocoa powder in my office desk and "it" caught my attention with its this recipe from Hershey's Cocoa box.

Basically this is just a mix in everything recipe. I made a messed as I had poured 1 cup of oil instead of half cup.. So no choice, I had to prepare another portion to balance it. BUT, I messed up by putting half flour.. Anyway, somehow or rather I did made it right.. But getting a very watery consistence batter was what I had gotten and I was quite skeptical about it.

So these were how my "cupcakes' looked like and though they looked abit "ugly", they tasted fantastic!!!

It had a steamed cake texture, soft and moist, very unusual from the cupcakes that we would usually baked.

And after some "makeover", they looked much prettier. These chocolate frosting were also made with Hershey's Cocoa...And I must say... they were great!!!! They were simply heavenly chocolate!!!!

These moist chocolate cupcakes had all thumbs up from everyone!

So... lets not wait no more!!!!

Try them and you will know what I mean...hehehehe...

Recipe as adapted from the Hershey's Cocoa Box :-p

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cupcakes

(measurements in brackets are in my own modifications)

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar (256g)

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour (224g)

3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa (96g)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk (236ml)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (114ml canola oil)

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup boiling water (236ml)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C).

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a lagre bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla essence and beat on medium speed for about 2 mins. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into cupcake cases about 2/3 full.

3. Bake for about 22-25 mins or until a wooden pick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins before frosting.

Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting

(for about 30 cupcakes frosting)

Ingredients:

1 stick butter (113g)

2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa (I use abt 50g for half frosting portion)

3 cups powder sugar (384g)

1/3 cup milk (79ml)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Add in powdered sugar and milk, beating at medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk if needed. Stir in vanilla essence.

So come along and join us with our Bake Along Hosts: Lena, Joyce and Zoe and the other bakers in this cupcake theme. :-D

Tres Leches Cake - Bake Along #43

Wait for me again....!!! Almost late but good enough just before the deadline... I had bought a new oven on Saturday and I was very thrilled as I had wanted to try baking this cake with it. But one of the oven "leg" had came come and I need to get the whole oven changed...:((

I have never known of this cake until I saw the bake theme for Bake-Along #43 by Joyce, Lena and Zoe.

Tres Leches Cake - A classic Latin American sweet is a light white cake soused with rum-flavoured milk and cream concoction and topped with dramastic swirls of meringue frosting served in squares.

 I had seen the rest of the bakes by the other members and seeing the light, soft, moist and milky texture made me want to attempt this bake.

 It was quite a great choice for a dessert as it was really sweet, even though I had cut down the sugar level. It had a similar cake texture like those baked cheesecake. Hmmm but I wouldn't fancy them too much due to the overly sweetness of its whole cake and milkness:-p 

Frosted with white chocolate topping made them heavenly sweet.

I was actually rushing for time to go for our Sunday Movie Treat  of Ironman 3. Hubby was rushing me and I was in a panicky stage... My cake wasn't cooled well for 10 mins. I quickly put in the cake into a bigger container and poured the soak onto the cake. I gotten a little worried as I saw Joyce, Lena and Zoe's cake had soaked up the milk mixture whereas mine was "floating"... 

Not enough time... my whole plattoon was waiting for me... I quickly poured in the milk mixture and refrigerate the cake, grabbing my recipe along as I dashed out of my house. I realised I hadn't poked the holes at the side of the cake:-p So I am not totally sure if the milk mixture had been totally absorbed by the cake... What a sotong I am...

Nevertheless, this cake still tasted very well though I personally will preferred them plain as what it was. What about you.

Recipe as adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

Ingredients:

200g cake flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

113g unsalted butter

143g firmly packed light brown sugar(i use 100g)

180ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 large egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

50g sugar

Method:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.

2. Beat the butter and brown sugar at a mediym-high speed until light, about 2 minutes. In a small bowl, combine milk and vanilla essence. At a low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter in 3 additions, alternating it with the milk mixture in 2 additions.

3. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat at mediym high speed until soft peaks begin to form. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat at high speed until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Scrape the batter into the greased pan and smooth it into an even layer.

4. Bake the cake for 30~45mins until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in pan on a wire rack for 10mins.

Meanwhile, make the Tres Leches Soak:

180ml light cream

One 12-ounce evaporated milk

One 14-ounce condensed milk

45ml dark rum

1 tsp vanilla essence

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. After the cake has cooled down for 10 mins, using a toothpick, pokes holes all over the cake at 1-inch intervals, going all the way down to the bottom. Slowly pour all the soak over the top of the cake, covering it completely. It will seem like a lot of liquid; the cake should be "floating". Refrigerate the cake for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

As for the frosting, you may wish to use as desired:)

Do join along with our hosts; Joyce, Lena and Zoe and other members whom had joined us as well :))

(Sorry Hosts, I cant link up to you as I posting this using my phone:-p  Pardon me...:)

Deep Chocolate Pound Cake - Bake Along #42

.A chocolate cake is always a favourite for the girls. Topped with lots of chocolate chips on it plus a deep chocolate color. How would this pound cake fare with my 3 little testers???

Well, I guess it is 1 out of 3 testers, Nat, liked this deep chocolate pound cake. Perhaps it is not too sweet as Nic had commented. Mimi just took a small little bite and shoke her head... 

How like that????

 For me, I had halved the recipe and made abt 2"×7" size pound cake. Besides that, I had also cut down quite a fair bit of sugar. As I had read from Joyce & Lena that the honey taste was too overwhelming, I had went slow with just a merely 1 tbsp of honey.

This pound cake had a very thick amd dense texture, no wonder the other 2 girls do not like them. As for hubby and myself, though the pound cake wasn't sweet, we thought it tasted quite alright and we should be a little healthier by eating a lesser sugar cake...hehehe...:))

Recipe as adapted from Bon Appetit Desserts

Ingredients:

(With slight modifications)

280gm top flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4tsp baking soda

1/2 cup yogurt/sour cream(125g)

1/2 cup whole milk(120ml)

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder(32g)

1tbsp honey

2-3 tbsp boiling water

1/2cup sugar(65g)

113 gm unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips(75g)

Method:

1. Position rack in the center of oven, preheat to 350F/175C. Lined a 9"x5"x3" loaf pan.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. 

3. Whisk yogurt and milk in another small bowl. 

4. Sift cocoa powder in another bowl and whisk in honey and boiling water until smooth. Cool completely.

5. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg at a time, occasionally scraping down sides of the bowl. Add cooled mixture, stir until smooth, occasionally scraping down bowl. Beat in flour mixture alternately with yogurt/sour cream mixture in 2 additions each until just blended. 

6. Stir in chocolate chips.Transfer batter to prepared pans, smooth top and bake until tester inserted comes out clean, about 1 hour.

Do join Joyce, Lena & Zoe in this Bake Along and other bakers who had try this challenge as well:)) Have fun:))

Cold-Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I hope I didn't missed this Bake-Along again.. Ever since I lost my handphone, I seemed to have lost track of my own blog:-p.. kekekeke... Anyway, I happened browsed through everyone's blog and realised it's the Bake-Along #38-Cold-Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake. Looking at some of the bakes done by the girls, this pound cake seemed to be a "Must-Try" Bake...

And indeed it was... It had given a very great fragrance while baking. I hadn't had any cake flour, so I had replaced it with self-raising flour and omitted the baking powder. The pound cake rose nicely, even though it was not baked in a pre-heated oven.

Cutting down on the sugar amount, adding a little more lemon zest, this pound cake was awesome. It has a very smooth, soft velvet crumbly texture as Lauren Chattman had mentioned in her book.

The only boo-boo I made was I had overlooked on the temperature. I thought it was on a 375F so I baked it in a 190C, instead of a 325F & 160C...
Nevertheless, the pound cake came out well with its excellent texture as it should be..

Ooooh, and surprising, my girls liked this pound cake too... It was very unlikely that they will like due to the lemon zest & ginger, but Nic & Mimi told me that the cake was yummy:)
So what else can we asked for now....??? Start your bake now:-D

Ingredients as stated by the Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman

(Using only 1/3 of the stated ingredients, yeilds a 15×5×5cm loaf)

3 cups cake flour (125g self raising flour)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder (omitted)

1 tsp salt (1/3 tsp)

1 cup(2 sticks) butter (75g)

8 ounces cream cheese, softened (75g)

2 1/2 cup sugar (75g)

6 eggs, room temp. (2 eggs)

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (1/2 tbsp)

1 1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger (1/2 tbsp)

1 tbsp grated lemon zest (1/2 tbsp)

 

Method:
1.Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position. Grease a 12 cup Bundt pan and dust with flour. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
2.Combine the butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 mins, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
3.With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, ginger and lemon zest.
4.Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Then mix of 30 secs on medium speed.
5.Place the cake in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 325°F and bake, without opening the oven door, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 65 to 80 mins.
6.Cool the cake in the pan for 15 mins, then invert it onto a rack. Cool completely before slicing and serving.
7.Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

You may wish to join us in the Bake-Along with our 3 fantastic Hosts: Joyce, Lena & Zoe and also let's take a look at the other bakers' pieces:-D

Bake-Along #28 - Coconut Checkerboard Brownies

Time to bake again with our 3 host from Bake-Along, Joyce, Lena & Zoe.

This time, a Coconut Checkerboard Brownies had been choosen. I do quite like brownies very much as they were rather a "chewy" texture. But for this bake, it was rather a challenge for me as it was a "checkerboard". hehehehe.....

In fact, I had make quite a mess on this bake attempt... I don't quite really understand the steps as I find it quite confusing... Probably it was just me...

And also, coconut flakes wasn't sold widely in SG and I had managed to found them from Bake King shop. Not sure how much coconut flakes was needed, I bought just 1 pack of 100g, only realizing that I needed more for a full recipe. Thus I had halved my ingredients, and that's when the "MESS" arrived!!!!

I do not have a food processor, so I had used my hand-held blender to blend the coconut flakes to fine flakes, trying very hard though, LOL, and OK, I did managed to blend them into smaller flakes... :-p

I had prepared the coconut batter, and they were supposed to "harden" after refrigeration, but mine didn't... Thinking very hard of what had I done wrong or what had I missed... I was pondering if I should continued to prepare the chcocolate batter if this coconut batter was done wrongly... After giving some thoughts, I decided to gave it a shot. It probably wasn't what I should be expecting. As you can see, my coconut batter was in a "watery" state... Cross my toes & let's see what happening during the baking process....

Still pondering what had went wrong with my coconut batter through the waiting period.... Finally, I had realized that I had added a whole egg instead of half egg, as I had halved the portion for this bake... Feeling a bit disappointed with this little mistake I made, ended up "spoiled" the image of this lovely brownie...

The difference between the original brownie baked & my own version... Hahaha...

Texture wise....

It wasn't too bad after all, though the coconut batter was too runny... But I did find it abit too sweet for me even though I had cut down the sugar amount.

Not a frequent brownie that I would bake and I personally will preferred an original brownie:)

Topped it up with ice-cream, eat it up while it is still warm, makes it all up... After all, it was still a great yummy treat for the day.

Some of us loved it, some of us disliked it... Have fun trying out this recipe:)

This time, I will not be posting up my modification due to the messy bake, recipe as adapted from "Bon Appetit Desserts" will be shown below. :-D

Coconut Checkerboard Brownies

(as adapted from "Bon Appetit Desserts, by Barbara Fairchild)

Coconut Batter: 7-ounce sweetened flaked coconut

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Real or Coco Lopez)

2 ounces Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes, room temperature

1 extra-large egg

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1/8 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

pinch of salt

Method : Measure 1/3 cup flaked cocount; cover and set aside. Place remaining coconut and sugar in processor, finely chop. Add cream of coconut and cream cheese to processor and blend well. Add egg, almond extract, lemon juice, and salt and blend well, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of bowl. Transfer to bowl. Cover and refrigerate until very firm, about 3 hours.

Chocolate Batter: 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

3-1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 extra-large eggs

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar

3/4 cup sifted unbleached all purpose flour (sifted, then measured)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Batter : Butter a 9x9x2-inch metal baking pan. Melt butter with chocolate in heavy small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Pour into medium bowl. Cool to lukewarm. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in small bowl; sift over chocolate mixture. Mix until blended and smooth. Spread 1-1/4 cups chocolate batter in prepared pan (cover and refrigerate remaining batter). Cover pan tightly with aluminium foil. Refrigerate batter until very firm, about 3 hours.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325F. Alternate 1 tablespoon remaining chocolate batter and 1 tablespoon coconut batter over chocolate layer, filling pan completely. Sprinkle reserved 1/3 cup flaked coconut over coconut mounds; press gently to adhere. Cover pan tightly with foil.
Bake 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake until tester inserted in center of 1 chocolate mound comes out almost clean, about 40 minutes. Cool brownies completely in pan on rack.

Cut into squares.

Here do hopped along with us to find out what the Bake-Along Hosts, Joyce, Lena, Zoe & the rest of the fellower baker friends had did for their brownies too:)

Bake-Along #27 - Fruit Scones

I had baked this scones tonight and pre-post this. Browsing through a few scones recipes, I decided to opt for this recipe as it was the easiest one, plus no refrigeration was needed. We do not realy fancy those fanciful scones, just purely plain scones or the ones with chocolate chips do just fine for us:-p

Joining along for the Bake Along #27, let's find out the recipe for this chosen recipe:-D

I had replaced the fruit with chocolate chips instead, as if I used raisins or cranberries, none will eat them.. This is the 3rd time I had made scones, and this recipe wasn't not too bad but it would be have better if I made the scones thicker. And also if I had watched the heat of the oven... hehehe.. Otherwise texture of the scones will be soft & crumbly, which will make it very delicious.

 These chocolate chips scones do go very well with the jam, or even perhaps with butter or cream cheese.

 Having half of the portion of the recipe, it yields about 10 small little mini scones.

 Here is Mimi, having her fair share of her food tasting the moment she sees these scones... hahaha....

Ingredients:

200g self raising flour

50g caster sugar

50g margarine (I used butter)

1/4 tsp of salt

100g raisins (I used chocolate chips or simply palin scones)

1 medium egg

5 tablespoon of milk

Method:

 Step 1. Preheat oven at 220C.

Step 2. Sift the flour into a large bowl, mix well with the sugar. Cut the butter into small little cubes. Using fingertips to rub the butter with the flour mixture into crumbles.

 Step 3. Add the chocolate chips, mix well.

 Step 4. Beat the egg, and take out a spoonful out for brushing the scones later. Beat the egg and mix well with the milk. Pour it into the flour mixture.

 Step 5. Mix well and knead it into a dough.

 Step 6. Roll it out flat, about 1.5-2cm thick. Using a round cuuter to cut out the shape for the scones.

 Step 7. Place the shaped dough on the tray and brush them with egg wash. Bake in the oven for about 10 mins or until they are golden brown.

Note: Do try to bake at the recommended heat and timing as indicated.

Do click on the following links to find out what the Bake-Along hosts had done for their bakes, and the wonderful bakes from other bakers too:))

Bake Along # 26 - Pear & Maple Crumble

Time had passed by so quickly... Weekends are gone, and back to office tomorrow... *yawn*...

I was hoping I could make it in time to submit my bake in the Bake Along #26. I had came across Lena's post about her Pear & Maple Crumble, and I saw that the link closed in 1 day's time... I was like, should I try baking this today... And I did...

Using whatever I had in my fridge, I managed to make these crumble... just in time before the submission of Bake Along #26 ends...

I had bought the Bon Appetit book from online, and I had gotten it for a very good price. Kinokuniya was like selling it for about S$60+, and I tried to get them from Amazon, which will cost me S$50+... But I got this book from Fishpond at S$30+ plus a S$10 coupon off. It was such a good deal...

I had bought some pears, can't remember what pears they are called, but from China, rather sweet pears. So I reckon these pears will do fine for these crumble. Also I do not have the crystallized giner, I had replaced them with ginger powder. And of course, using almonds...

These pear & maple crumble were very easy to make... No fuss nor mess..:-D

And they were awesome and delicious... The crumbles alone were a good one, I love crumbles very much...

 Hubby and the gals did not really fancy these... not their favourite... I do quite like it very much. While taking the pictures of the crumbles, I had taken a few teaspoons of the crumbles... Yummy as it should be...mmmmm.....

I had used Lena's portion of ingredients as I was rushing for time... By the time I had gotten back home, it was already 5pm. Quickly prepared the ingredients and set them off to the oven. The portion was enought for my 4 ramekins as shown below.

The pear in maple syrup and then, cover with the crumbles, ready to be baked.

Topped with the fresh blueberries, they do go very well indeed... The sweetness of the pear, plus a bit sourish of the blueberries, blends very well... 

 I was glad that this crumble turns out very well. A very surprisingly delicious tea-time snack or dessert. Most of all, it was very easy to prepare:-D

 I had taken the ingredients from Lena as I do not have much time to go through the book, plus my book is in the office... hahaha... pardon me...

I have make some slight modifications to suit my own taste, other then that, you may wish to follow what Lena had used for her ingredients.

Recipe from Bon Appetit

Topping:
83gm plain flour
1/3 cup pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped (I used almond nuts)
30gm castor sugar
38gm cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Combine flour, nuts and sugar together and rub the butter in till moist clumps form. Chill them for about an hour.

Filling:
2 small pears, peeled, quartered, cored and cut into cubes
2 tbsp raisins (I omitted as I do not fancy raisins:-p)
1/2 tbsp plain flour
1/4 cup of maple syrup
3 finely chopped crystallized ginger (I used 1 tsp ginger powder)

Method:
1.Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350F/170C. Place pears, maple syrup. flour and ginger in large bowl, toss to coat. Let stand 15 minutes, tossing occasionally.
2.Divide the  pear mixture to 2 separate oven proof bowls, sprinkle topping over. Bake crumble until topping is crisp , about 30 minutes. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving.

 While waiting for the crumble to be baked, I have helped the gals make some animal masks. Nat has a school assignment, to make an animal mask. So end up the other 2 gals wanna make one as well. Mimi was so enthusiatic about making her mask, ended up she got bored and restless, she took something else to play...

Do click on the links below to find out what have the Bake-ALong Hosts had did and also the other bakers, on their wonderful works too:-D