It has been almost 2 weeks since i left UOB. I guess it's a trend to get something for yr colleagues on yr last working day. Well, at least it was in my company. to show my sincerity, i decided to bake something for my colleagues. I had a hard time deciding what to bake for them. I wanted to bake macarons for them but i did not have the courage because macarons are the #numberonehighfailure desert to bake. I tried once last week and it failed TERRIBLY. After much contemplation, i decided to bake cupcakes ; Oreo cupcakes and Bailey Cupcakes. Having tried quite a couple of recipes, i decided to stick to my favouritechocolate cake recipe and make some slight changes from there. I can't emphasise enough how much i like this chcolate cake recipe. It has never failed me and they taste incredibly rich, soft, moist and delicious. I have baked Chocolate Cupcake with peanut butter filling , chocolatey layered cake, chocolate mousse and blueberry layered cake with this chocolate cake recipe.  My last several cupcake attempts ended up with very soft frosting. This time round, i decided to use vegetable shortening instead of butter and it turned out awesome. My frosting were able to stay its shape perfectly. I kept them in room temperature until the next day and they still tasted moist and rich. Enjoy.

Oreo Cupcakes

CAKE
Ingredients: ( Makes 6 medium cupcakes)
45 grams all purpose flour
10 grams good quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder ( As this is a really low cake, I added slightly more baking powder )
Pinch of salt
55 grams good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 grams unsalted butter, can be cold or at room temperature
90 grams caster sugar
2 eggs

- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
- Measure the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Use a wire whisk and whisk the dry ingredients together until they are all well-mixed and evenly distributed.
- Measure the dark chocolate and unsalted butter in a large heatproof bowl and melt them over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, you can microwave them under medium high heat at 15-25s interval. Stirring during each interval.
- Remove the heatproof bowl from the pot/microwave. Add in the caster sugar and whisk gently – not all of the sugar will dissolve. Mixture’ll be a little grainy Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes to cool down slightly (the eggs will scramble if added to a hot mixture).
- Crack in one egg into the chocolate mixture. Whisk the mixture (yes, same wire whisk!) for 30 seconds until it is fully incorporated. Whisk in the second egg, and then whisk in the vanilla extract.
- Sift a third of flour mixture into the chocolate batter and folding gently using a large metal spoon or rubber spatula. until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated
- Place 1 oreo biscuit onto each lined muffin tin and transfer the cake batter into the lined muffin tin.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until the top bounces back when touched lightly and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Oreo Frosting:

Ingredients:
- Veg shortening 100g
- 5-6 Crushed oreo biscuits. Personal preference.
- sifted Icing sugar  100g ( You may want to reduce the sugar to probably about 60-70g because oreo biscuits are sweet too)
- 1-1.5 tbsp of sugar

- Beat veg shortening in electric mixer for about 2-3 mins on medium speed.
- Add the crushed oreo biscuits
- Add icing sugar and continue beating until all ingredients are well combined
- Gradually add water to achieve desire consistency.