Volcanoes

This was made last minute for hb's aunt's birthday celebration quite some time ago.



Volcanoes : these moist chocolate cupcakes with creamy cheesecake centres are sure to be a hit with both children and adult.

How very true.

I tell ya, it was really good. The adults and kids love it tons!

Of course, i didn't send these cuppies the way they look here. I got them all dressed up in pink buttercream frosting together with some colorful sprinkles and wordings. At that time, i had enough of 'all-dressed-up' cupcakes photos since i just baked the teacher's day batch not too long ago. So i decided not to take anymore pics with the decoration.

But now, after a month of not seeing any colourful pics of desserts on this blog, i kinda miss looking at them. In fact, i yearn to see some colours again! Too bad about my decision then.. hehe.

Anyway, this cuppies are so delicious and very easy to make too! They'll be on my often-bakes list for sure. Writing this entry makes me wanna eat them right now.. *drool* :P

The original recipe calls for quite a bit of cocoa powder which i simply refused to follow. It was a bit too much in my opinion. I cut down almost 2 tbsp from it and the cuppies still turned out fantastic.

That left me wondering.. what 'if' i actually follow the recipe to a t. Will the cupcakes taste much much better?

Recipe :

Ingredients :

Cream cheese filling

115g cream cheese
55g castor sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 large, lightly beaten egg

Fudgy chocolate cupcake batter

100g cake flour
5 1/4 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
100g butter, softened

20g castor sugar
70g light brown sugar
2/3 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 eggs, lightly beaten
140ml milk

Method :

1. Prepare cream cheese filling. In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth and creamy. Gradually add egg, beating until smooth. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 182. Line cupcake tin with cupcake cups.

3. Stir together cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until well blended.

4. Cream butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar until smooth and fluffy. Gradually add in vanilla essence and eggs.

5. Add flour mixture and milk in 3 separate additions, starting and ending with flour mixture.

6. Divide batter. Create a cavity in the centre of each cupcake with the back of a spoon. Fill cavities with cream cheese filling.

7. Bake for 25-30 mins. Leave to cook in tin for 10 mins.

8. Remove cupcakes and leave to cool completely on wire rack before serving.

Makes 12 cuppies.

Financiers

OOooo.. i love these lovelies.

They are absolutely delicious!



They're made from egg whites, melted butter and almond meal. Again, looks can be very deceiving here. Heh.

I love its texture, soft and moist yet light. The almond meal is almost not there, you can't quite taste the graininess but the nutty almond taste is definitely there.

I like this better than Friands if you were to ask me. So if i've got extra egg whites next time, Financiers is the word :P

Because i did 2-3 types of cakes within a 2 days' span, i gave some to the boys' very nice paediatrician when we went to the East side to send the mixer for service.

Quite a girlie gift box aye? No other boxes!

In it, i packed 2 Financiers and a slice of Chocolate Truffle cake which i made specially for the husband before we left to KL. The husband has been requesting for it for months! Heh.

Cakes for the doctor :)

Hope the doc loves them as much as i do...

Recipe :

1/2 cup slice almond
6oz unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 large egg whites (room temp)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/3 cup icing sugar
1 cup plain flour
3/4 ground almond

1. Toast the almond slices till brown
2. Brown butter in a saucepan with vanilla. Cook over medium heat till butter is foamy and light brown. Cool to lukewarm
3. Beat egg whites and tartar till soft peaks. Then slowly add the icing sugar and whip till firm and glossy peaks
4. Fold in the flour into the egg white in 3 stages
5. Fold in the ground almond into egg white in 3 stages, follow by the cooled browned butter mixture in 3 stages
6. Divide batter. Take note that batter will not rise that much. Only slightly. Sprinkle the top with toasted almonds and bake for 12-15 mins in 150 degree oven

Bon appetite! :D

Washing sponge?

When i saw this photo on the PC, guess what was the first thing did i do?


Cheeky me asked boy1 to guess what this is and he gave me an answer which i have expected to hear.

A washing sponge!

The one that auntie (my helper) uses to wash the dishes.

Heh..

A good try i must say but it's not.

It's my bread!

Finally....


A very successful loaf of bread using the bread machine.

All along, i was always telling others how lousy my $300 bread machine is. We bought it nearly 6 years ago when the first bread machine was sold in the departmental store. The bread the machine makes always turns out dense and too wet. The recipe i used comes with the bread machine. I've never thought of trying other recipes merely because i thought the recipes that came with it should be the best for the machine. How stooopeeed of me! Lol.



Last month when i received my monthly newsletter from Kenwood which was having bread making class using bread machine, i signed up for it almost immediately. The main intention was to check out the bread made using the bread machine and also to obtain the recipe if it's nice. And boy, it was NICE!

Better than the ones in the bakery! Maybe because i ate them fresh from the oven.. er, bread machine i mean.

Conclusion : It's not my bread machine that is lousy. It's the owner!!! :P

Sharing my yummilicious white bread loaf recipe using the bread machine, from Kenwood Bread making class ->

(Because i want you to have freshly baked bread in the morning too. The smell when it's baking away while you are sleeping is like a dream and a very good wake up call! :P)

300ml water
50g butter
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
225g bread flour
225g plain flour
2 tbsp milk powder
1 1/2 tsp yeast

1. Pour ingredients into the bread pan according to sequence.
2. Select programme. Press start. (i use basic and sometimes dark crust)
3. Do not open the lid when the dough is rising.
4. When the bread is done, it should be taken out from the bread pan immediately to prevent shrinking and sweating of bread.

Last but not least, hope you'll enjoy the bread as much as i do! :)

Strawberry marshmallow cake

When the craze started for this cake, it was months ago but i only got the chance to do it recently. I'm always late in keeping myself up with the latest trend! :P



This cake doesn't use flour nor cream cheese. It uses marshmallow instead! Clever huh.. whoever the creator is.

Basically, you do not need any baking skills to do this cake. It's just boil, melt, pour and set :)



It is made up of 3 layers. The bottom being the crushed digestive with butter, the second layer is the marshmallow and last but not least, strawberry jelly.

Nice colour combination yeah? *wink*

Because this was my first attempt, i didn't know that i had to cut the strawberries quite thinly so that the jelly could cover it. In the end, i used up the whole box of the jelly mixture when the recipe calls for only half the box and yet the strawberries still can be seen protruding from the jelly. Paiseh ah! :P



This is how it looks like inside. More strawberries slices inside but that is optional.

Hb didn't even wanna try eating this cake after seeing it. He's not a fan of jelly b.u.t the kids were crazy over it especially the jelly part. One man's poison is indeed another boy's meat aye? Heh.

And myself, i'm pretty neutral. Don't hate it nor love it. It's pretty alright :)

Recipe (adapted from Hugbear)
Strawberry Marshmallow Cake

Base
180-200 gm digestive biscuits
60-80 gm melted butter

Crushed digestive biscuits and mix well with melted butter. Press into a 8” tin. Refrigerate.

Marshmallow filling:

150 gm of marshmallow
300 ml of UHT milk
200 ml of whipping / heavy cream
2 tsp of gelatine powder

Put all the ingredients into a pot. Boil over small fire until gelatine is dissolved.

Jello topping:

1/2 pkt of raspberry Jello (i used the whole box)
200 ml of water
2 tsp of gelatine powder

Boil all ingredients until dissolved.

Assembling the cake:

Pour marshmallow filling into the prepared baking tin with biscuit base. Put in freezer until slightly harden but not totally frozen. Take it out and arrange sliced fresh strawberries. Put it back to freezer to harden a little. When slightly harden take it out and pour the slightly cool or cool Jello on it. Put in fridge to chill. Cut into small pieces to serve.