Ice-Cream Cone Cupcakes

It was already about 9pm last night but Mimi had asked me to make thse ice-cream cone cupcakes we saw recently. So we made them and the girls waited patiently for them till about 1130pm.

 In the end, Mimi didn't finished it, probably it was too rich for her as she had only eaten the Hershey's Chocolate Frosting. Nat on the other hand, happily finished up hers. For me, I preferred the butter cake inside the cone...

 Nevertheless, these made a pretty little treats for all the children. I'm sure all of them would fanxy one of them. You may wish to use any cake recipe and decorate as desired. 

♡♡ Have lotsa of fun with them and your kids♡♡

Maple and Banana Cupcakes

For a change, let's have some Maple and Banana Cupcakes.

Recently, I bought the new Mini Cakes recipe book by Joanna Farrow from MPH. I bought it at a great deal like probably like S$6.00. I love her recipes so far as it was a "just-nice" proportion for the mini cakes. These minis were so adorable and they were bite-sizes.. yummy..^^

In fact, this is my 1st attempt trying her recipes. :-p

How would these cupcakes taste like??

Well, they were simply soft and fluffy..

I love them with much, plus with the Maple Frosting, they were absolutely fantastic.

Recipe as adapted from Mini Cakes by Joanna Farrow

Ingredients:

(Makes 12 minis)

1 small banana

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp milk

60g lightly salted butter, softened

70g caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

100g self raising flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 12-section mini muffin tin with 3cm mini paper cases.

2. In a small mixing bowl, mash the banana to a puree with a fork. Stir in the maple syrup and milk. Set aside.

3. Put the butter and sugar in a separate bowl and beat together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg, a little at a time, adding a teaspoon of flour if the mixture starts to separate.

4. Sift half the flour in the butter mixture, the add half the banana. Gently fold the ingredients together until only just mixed. Sift in the remaining flour, add the remaining banana mixture and fold in.

5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until risen and just firm to the touch. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Maple Frosting

150g lightly salted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla essence

6 tbsp icing sugar

 7 tbsp maple syrup

8 pecan or walnuts, roughly chopped to decorate

Put the butter, vanilla essence, icing sugar and maple syrup in a bowl and beat with an electric beater until smooth and creamy.

Green Apple Cupcakes ○ So soft & crumbly ○

Another great bake from "Easy Bake! By 梁家榕"

I had been wanting to try this recipe for a while but I hadn't had any green apples in my fridge till today...:-p

As usual, a no-fuss recipe, yeilds about 3 standard size ramekins.

Instead of using plain flour with baking powder, I had replaced it with self-raising flour. 

I might reduced the sugar in future as I think it is a little sweet for me. 

A soft and crumbly Green Apple Cupcake is waiting for you.

I had sprinkled some cinnamon powder on top and it gave the cupcakes a very great fragrance...

Inside the cupcakes were filled with rum-soak diced apples.

And if could see the soft texture of these Green Apple Cupcakes.

Vivian, this is another recipe that you might like too:-) 

Recipe as adapted from Easy Bake! By 梁家榕

Ingredients:

(A)

1/2 Green Apple, diced

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp rum

Diced the green apples into cubes, add in the sugar and the rum. Using low heat, simmer the apples until soft. Set aside for later use.

(B)

1/2 Green Apple

Cut the apples into slices. Set aside for the topping of the cupcakes.

(C)

75g butter, softened

60g sugar (I used 50g)

1 egg

100g plain flour

(I used self-raising and omitted baking powder)

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp vanilla essence ( I used 1/2 tsp)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp milk

some  cinnamon powder (optional)

Cream butter & sugar until white & creamy. Add in the egg and beat until well combined.

Add in the sieved flour, mix until well blended. Add in the vanilla essence, lemon juice & milk. Mix well.

Coat the ramekins with butter & dust with some icing sugar. Knock out the ecvess sugar.

Scoop 1/3 of the batter into each ramekins. Filled them with the diced apples and topped the remaining batter to about 80% filled. Dust with some cinnamon powder on top.

Bake in a preheated oven of 180C for abt 35-40 mins.

Remove from oven to cool. Remove from ramekins and best to serve warm.

Happy Birthday Curly Fries... Let's have a Toystory Cake♡

Happy Birthday Curly Fries...

Time had really passed by that quickly... I remembered she was just borned and it seems just like yesterday that she was still a little baby... 3 years had passed, and she is a little grown up gal.. A little gal with lots of imaginations, being very independent of her own...

We wish her to have a happy & healthy life ahead of this year, and may she be smarter, more obedient, become more gentle...and what have we..., love us... XOXO

Mimi had requested for a Toystory Theme for her cake. And for me, I had long gave up my fondant cake as I reckon I wasn't a great expert in that... So this is what I made for her..

A normal cream cake, 5 different layers of sponge cake, topped with whipped cream, strawberries and Mimi's Toystory cake toppers. I hadn't had much ideas in decorating the cake as well.. So just a little simple one... I thought it wasn't made that beautifully, but I was glad Mimi was very thrilled about it, and she loved the cake...

Besides the cake, I made some chocolate cuppies, the "Aliens" from Toystory...

How do they look like? Do they looked like what they are supposed to be???
Initially, Mimi didn't want to eat it, but in the end she tried it, all because of the green gummies and chocolate chips on the cuppies:-p. As for Nat, she liked the "Aliens" cuppies very much.

There, our very own little party for Mimi's birthday...

Just the 5 of us, Daddy, Mummy, Nic, Nat & Mimi...

We had even bought the Toystory balloons for her, the paper plates, cups, napkins & hats.

Her little cheeky face...

And the great smile from her is what we wanted...:)
She was so happy with her little party...

And of course her favourite strawberries...:))

Happy 3rd Birthday my littlest Princess...

May all your wishes come true.

Love us... XOXO

Feeling lemony... Lemon Cupcakes

Are you feeling lemony like me too? In fact, I am enjoying trying out my new recipes from my new books. And I realised that I do have a lot of books bought from the last Popular Fair in JB & the recent 8 books that I had gotten as well. And adding "The Cake Book" by Tish Boyle was one of them as well... Yipee!!!!@♥♥♥

This recipe is from "Easy Bake 女生都

喜欢的可爱甜点by梁家榕。

I love her recipes so far!!! As her recipes are in a fairly reasonable amount and a "just nice" portion. Most importantly, her recipes had been failed-proof and the bakes wrte delicious... 

These lemon cupcakes had a very soft texture. For those of you who like them more sourish, you might wanna add more lemon juice and lemon zest for a stronger lemon taste.

I love these lemon cupcakes. 

♡They were awesome♡.

Ingredients:

100g butter

80g sugar

2 eggs

100g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp lemon juice (i used 1 tbsp)

1 lemon zest (i used green lemon)

Lemon syrup

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp sugar

Boil the lemon juice & sugar in a small pan, using low fire until sugar had melted.

Method:

1. Cream butter & sugar until soft & creamy. Add in the egg one at a time, beat well until well combined.

2. Add in the sieved flour+baking powder, mix until well blended.

3. Add in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix well.

4. Bake in a preheated oven of 180C for about 30-45mins or untill golden brown.

5. Brush the lemon syrup on the cupcakes.

Happy New Year!! With an ultimate Oreo Cupcake on a new begining of 2013!!!

Hello my dear friends! It had been quite awhile since my last post in December 2012. I hope everyone had an wonderful & enjoyable Christmas Season.

Well, in fact last December hadn't been a best month for me despite being a Christmas season. I had lost my handphone, a barely 7 month old iphone 4s of 32GB.... Gosh was I so upset with it as I had been relying on my phone for all my photography pictures of my bakes and my girls. Worse of all, all my contacts and personal details were all gone... The phone was in the end being tracked in Johor Bahru near KSL shopping area. There goes my iphone... Thanks to hubby who had gotten me another new phone, a Samsung S3, which I am rather alien to it. Photography wise wasn't that fantastic as compared to iPhone. But I am hanging there, still exploring on my new device...:D

It is now a new begining of year 2013. It will be a busy year ahead once again. Now with Mimi going to school as well... Looking forward to all my new challenges AGAIN in 2013.

Here, my family and I will like to wish everyone to have a wonderful and fruitful year ahead in 2013.

May all your new year resolutions and wishes will come true in every single way...:-D

HAPPY HAPPY 2013!!!

As this is a new begining of the year, I'd like to start mine by baking an ultimate Oreo Cupcakes.

These Oreo Cupcakes were not too bad, soft and moist. For those of you whom really liked Oreo, you might wanna consider adding a little bit more of the Oreo crumbs:)

And I have here, my new toy....hehehe...

My new cupcake stand that I have bought from Ikea for a mere S$16.90. Sweet isn't it???

Besides the cupcakes stand, I had also found myself a new cupcake box.

This SNAPWARE Cupcake and Cookie Keeper set is indeed very useful. It stores the cupcakes well, and stays in position. It is very convenient for "transportation", and also excellent for party use.

If you can see in the pictures below, this keeper set could fit in about 12 regular-sized cupcakes, and it has an inner removable base, fitting nicely for each cupcake. The plastic container is made of very good quality, and with the easy snap locks on the side, and a handle on top of the keeper set.

Ready to go!!!

Here are the clearer pictures of the SNAPWARE Cupcake and Cookie Keeper set.

Here is the Oreo Cupcakes Recipe as adapted from YumYum Magazine

(Recipe with slight modifications)

Ingredients:

120g butter

130g sugar

3 eggs

200g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

60ml milk

100g Oreo biscuits, crushed

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar until white and creamy. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

2. Add in the flour, milk and mix well. Add in the Oreo crumbs and mix well.

3. Pour the batter into the paper cups about 80% full and bake in a preheated oven of 180C for about 25-30 mins or until golden brown.

Oreo Buttercream12 Oreo biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs

50g icing sugar

200g butter

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the Oreo Crumbs and mix well. Pipe as desired.

Have fun with Oreo Cupcakes!!!

My Not-So-Red-Velvet Cupcakes

Two and half weeks more to Christmas Day, and I was thinking what gifts I should prepare... I thought I should try baking a Red Velvet Cupcakes with Frosted Cream Cheese as a gift, instead of stressing myself of what gifts I should get.

Browsing through a few recipes for these Red Velvet Cupcakes, I decided to use this recipe that I had came acroos from Baking Wonderland. This recipe did not use cocoa powder, and only red coloring. Modifying the recipe a little here and there gave me these cupcakes today...

But these cupcakes ain't that velvet as they should be... It was probably due to too much cocoa powder I had added in... However, the cupcakes texture were excellent, soft & moist:-)
As for the cream frosting, I thought they were a little too sweet for me, but they overall complimented well with the cupcakes as I had reduced the sugar amount.

Here if you may see, the Red Velvet Cupcakes looked more like Chocolate Cupcakes instead:-p

Never fear!!!! I will make another attempt soooooon..., hehehehe....:))

Meantime, do enjoy these little cuppies 1st.....!!!

Here is the actual recipe as adapted from Wai Soh Man from Baking Wonderland

(with slight modifications)

Ingredients:

165g flour (150g flour + 1.5 tbsps cocoa powder)

150g sugar (125g)

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 egg

150g corn oil (canola oil)

118g milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp lemon zest

dash of red coloring

Cheese topping

100g cream cheese

15g soft butter

50g icing sugar

Method:

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda & salt. Sieve & set aside.

2. Combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Fold in the flour mixture from step 1. Mix well till smooth & velvety.

3. Scoop batter into paper cups, 75% filled, and bake for about 25-30 mins in a preheated oven of 170C.

To prepare cheese topping, combine ingredients and mix well till smmoth. Place mixture into a piping bag and pipe as desired.

Have fun with these cuppies while I will attempt another cuppies soon:)

Durian Cupcake 榴莲杯纸蛋糕

Again, my friend Eileen had given me another recipe to try. This time she say these durian cupcakes were delicious and I must try them. It was really so tempting... Durian.... Nat loves durian as well, so she was up for this recipe, and so did hubby. We had went to the market to buy some durian, but thinking the durian are made for baking, I did not buy those top quality ones. Perhaps the quality of the durian will somehow affect the taste of the durian cupcakes. I had previously baked a Durian Cake last year, this will be my 2nd attempt. This recipe came from Wokking Mum, and I made some modifications to the ingredients.

The durian cupcakes had given a very nice fragrant while they are in the midst of baking. Cupcakes rosed very well, had a nice browning top. I had added more of the durian as I will prefer a heavy taste. Texture of the cupcakes were excellent, soft & fluffy, except that I find them abit dry and too dense at the bottom, probably I hadn't mashed the durian properly:-p I will think to add some milk to soften the texture in my next attempt. Let's see how it goes.

Ingredients:

(I have used half of the recipe, using 200g durian flesh, margarine, 2 eggs, self-raising flour)

250g Mashed Durian Flesh (original was using 170g)

250g Butter

150g Castor Sugar (original was using 180g)

5 Eggs

240g Flour, sifted (Plain/All purpose)

2 teaspoon Baking Powder, sifted

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar til light fluffy.
2. Add one egg at a time and continue beating.
3. Add in durian gradually and beat for 2 1/2 minutes.
4. Add in flour and baking powder.
5. Mix well.
6. Pour batter into a greased and lined 25cm X 25cam baking tray. ( I baked in 6' rectangle tin and muffin cups)
7. Bake at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes or till cake is done (check using toothpick).

Oh dear!!! I found little chicks on my egg tray!!!!

Check your egg tray too!!! Have you found any little chicks hatched just like mine???

I had saw these little egg cakes baked in Baking Wonderland. I was pretty amazed by them as they were so adorable. I decided to try baking them myself. Keeping the egg shells for a couple of weeks, I finally tried this recipe on Monday after I got back home from work. Mimi was so cute, she went to the egg tray and told me, "Mummy, the chicks come out already"

Here is how I baked my "eggs". Cracking the top corner of the shell. Washed them thoroughly, and make sure the inner white "lining" of the shell were being removed. Before using them, it is best to boiled them over boiling water for about 5 mins to kill any bacteria.

Here we have, after baking... The tedious part was peeling off the egg shells... which I detest... hehehe...

My niece was here over the week, so she got a chance to try all the bakery that I had attempted these past few days. Nat on the other hand was very keen on the "egg cake". She loved them so much, and had 4 of them. She told Mimi not to eat the balance 4 eggs as she would like to keep them for her breakfast tomorrow, and she did:-D

Ain't these little chickys so adorable.... Do try them, they are really quite fun & interesting. And the kids will be so thrilled as well. Even my hubby had said the "egg" look so cute after putting on the "eyes" & "beak", and its "hair... hahahaha

Here is the recipe as adapted from YeeWennie Yap from Baking Wonderland.

Recipe yields about 12-15 eggs, depending on the size of the egg shells

Ingredients:

2 eggs(room temperature)

39g sugar

35g plain flour(sifted 3x)

18g canola oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Beat the eggs & sugar until white and fluffy, using high speed.

2. Add in vanilla essence and continue beating for another 2 mins.

3. Fold in the sifted flour, mix well.

4. Add in the oil and mix until well-blended.

5. Pour the batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter into the egg shells about 3/4 full. Gently knock on the egg 2-3 times.

6. Bake in a preheated oven of 180C for about 20mins or until "egg" is baked.

7. Remove from oven, set aside to cool. Once cool, gently peeled off the shells.

8. Decorate the "chicks". I used chocolate emulco for the eyes and strawberry paste for the beak.

Catch these little chicks before they run away.....

Chocolate & Coffee Cupcakes

Recently Nat had a change of taste bud... Suddenly she just like coffee flavor. Amongst my 3 gals, she is the one who has an exotic taste, like enjoying durian, coffee, enjoying even red wine & beer... Hmmm, that's pretty unusual for a little girl though...

Nevertheless, she had been quite supportive of the bakes that I had tried, and she will always be the one whom is willing to try, unlike Mimi, who used to "test" my cakes, simply just tell me these days that those cakes are not her favourite.. :-p

These Chocolate & Coffee Cupcakes were quite tempting.. Being chocolate & coffee..

But I guess I didn't fare quite well on these cupcakes.

Firstly, I felt that my chocolate flavour wasn't too much

Secondly, the coffee smell was there but not too satisfying to me

Thirdy, my cupcakes came out abit hard

... ...

But the consolation was, the coffee cream was yummy!!!!

I used my own combination of the whipped cream + instant coffee mix, and topped with chopped peanuts!
hahahahahaha.....

If I hadn't mentioned those cons, these cupcakes would look extremely fantastic isn't it???

Recipe as adapted from Kevin Chai:

Ingredients:

250g butter

180g sugar

4 eggs

200g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

150g melted chocolate

2 tbsp canola oil

30ml kahlua

Method:

1. Beat butter & sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

2. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder & soda.

3. Stir melted chocolate with canola oil, then pour into flour mixture with kahlua, mix well.

4. Spoon the mixture into the cases. Bake for 20mins in a preheated oven of 175C. Remove cupcakes & cool on a rack.

Coffee Cream:

200g butter

150g icing sugar

1 tsp instant coffee powder

100g melted chocolate

Prepare the cream by beating butter, icing sugar and coffee powder until light & smooth. Stir in melted chocolate and pipe on top of each cupcake. Decorate with chocolate.

Steamed Pandan Peanut Cupcakes

I have a busy weekend... I had been to SG Popular Book Fair at the Expo Hall on Saturday. But it didn't thrill me much as the cookbooks were as cheap as they were supposed to be... So yesterday, I headed down to JB and I decided to go to thier Popular Fair at Danga City Mall. I did not know where it was, but luckily the lady boss of the nail shop was kind enough to let me use her wifi to check the location. It was pretty easy to find the mall in the end. And of course I had grabbed at least 7 books which were so valued for money!!! Needless to say, my gals & my niece bought their loot as well...

Adding another steamed cupcake to the November Aspiring Baker's theme, this is a Steamed Cupcake I had gotten from Alex Goh's Steamed Cake.

These cupcakes had caught my attention as it was pandan flavor and they looked very pretty. But of course, Alex Goh put red bean filling whereas hubby suggested to use peanuts instead.

It was a little difficult to put the peanut fillings in the centre as "it" will "run" everywhere else in the cupcakes... So I had actually "dug" a hole in the centre and put in the peanut fillings, and fill them up with the remaining batter.

So, what do you think of them?

Recipe as adapted from Magic Steamed Cake by Alex Goh
(slight modifications)

Ingredients:

(A)

4 eggs

250g sugar

1/2 tsp salt

120ml canola oil

(B)

2 tsps pandan juice

few drops of green coloring

200g coconut milk

(I had used 2 tsp pandan paste instead of the pandan juice & green coloring)

(C)

400g flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

(I had omitted all and used self raising flour instead)

Method:

1. Whip A until sugar dissolves and slightly thicken. Add in B, mix until well blended.

2. Fold in sieved C, mix until well blended.

3. Pour the batter about 1/3 of the 7cm cupcake mould lined with paper cup. Steam for about 2-4mins.

4. Remove from heat and place the peanut fillings in the centre & press lightly.

5. Top with the remaining batter and steam for another 15-20mins over high heat.

Fillings can be omitted or changed to your preferred fillings like red bean paste, etc.

Have Fun:))

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #25 – Steaming Hot Cakes (November 2012) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders. 

Steamed Chocolate Cupcakes

Yes, Steam Cakes are indeed in trend this month in my home... And I am enjoying it very much. I had given alot of steamed cakes to my friend, and her hubby mentioned that I seemed to be enjoying doing so... So I told my friend, this month onwards my daughter will be starting her school vacations, plus my boss is not in SG, so taking all these time available to bake again...

I had bought this "Steamed Cakes" recipe book when I was in Penang last October, but I had never tried any of the recipes since I bought it till today.

From this book, I had selected the Steamed Chocolate Cupcakes as the ingredients were rather basic. Some of the other recipes required evaporated milk and condensed milk, which I wasn't too keen in them.

A full ingredients could actually fetch quite a number of cupcakes, depending on the size of your paper cups.

*Note: It is better to use those "paper" cupcake cases as compared to the other cupcake cases as the paper cups will "opened" up during steaming.

These steamed chocolate cupcakes were not too bad. I had modified some of the ingredients. Cutting down a huge amount of the icing sugar, using margarine instead of butter, and replacing the hot water with milk too. The cupcakes did turned out well, soft and moist, but a little not so sweet.. So perhaps I should increase a little more sugar...hehehehe...
The gals loved these cupcakes too. I was glad that they liked it. Mimi had 2 of them and she said it was yummy. My friend who tried the cupcakes said they were delicious as well.

Would you like to try one as well?

Recipe as adapted from the Steamed Cakes by Mdm Zubaidah Bte Chepa

Ingredients:

Yields about 16 medium size cups & 16 mini size cups

250g superfine flour (I use self raising flour)

1 tsp baking soda (omitted)

75g cocoa powder

350g icing sugar (I used 200g)

250g butter (I used margarine)

3 eggs

1 bowl of hot water (I used 250ml cold milk)

Method:

1. Beat butter & sugar until smooth.

2. Add in the egg one at a time, mix well at each addition.

3. Add in the flour+cocoa powder, alternating with the milk. Mix until well blended.

4. Pour batter into the paper cup cases and steam over high heat for about 10mins.

(If you are using my ingredients, you can fill the batter till full as the cupcakes will shrink a little after removing from heat)

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #25 – Steaming Hot Cakes (November 2012) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders