I am not a fan of fondant cakes. Hence, this two tier birthday cake is frosted with only butter cream. However, it is not recommended to leave the cake out for a long period of time as the butter cream is unable to withstand the higher room temperature.  The flavor of the cake is similar to the lemon olive cupcakes. They are layered with lemon curd and fresh cream frosting all around the cake. Aren't the flowers pretty? All the flower decorations are patiently made by Ivan.

No no, I did not convert this little space into another cafe hop blog. There are so many great and fantastic blog cafe hoppers. I can never be as fantastic as them. Recently, a friend asked me what do i do with the photos of food that i took all the time. I dont know. In fact, they just sit quietly in my memory card. So, i decided to blog about them and share my food hunt experiences since i love to eat. Going around to the different cafes, restaurants and hawkers to eat is not just solely about food, I gain inspiration and ideas along the way for my future dream.  Anyway, back to these mini new york cheesecakes that i baked specially for my brother in law. I really love new york cheese cakes because they are so rich in cream and cheese. These cheesecakes are fabulous. . It's not too sweet. Just the right amount of tanginess. Totally loving them. I think i can finish everything by myself since i am an ultimate cheese lover. Made them in cupcakes because it is much easier to distribute and the baking time-span is lesser too.

Recipe (serves 11 mini cheesecakes)
375g Cream Cheese
75g Caster Sugar
37.5g Sour Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Egg
1/2 Egg Yolk
15g Flour
100g Digestive Biscuit
1tbsp Melted Butter
4-5 tbsp Jam (optional), for topping

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius.
2. Crush digestive biscuits and mix melted butter with the crushed digestive biscuits. Scoop about 1tbsp of crushed digestive biscuits into each cupcake liner and compress them.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
4. Add lemon juice, vanilla essence, flour and mix until combined.
5. Add eggs and beat until light.
6. Add sour cream and mix well. Spoon the cheesecake batter into the muffin liners.
7. Bake them in water bath (Place the muffin pans with the cheesecake batter in a tray of water in the oven) in the oven for about 20 mins.
8. Once time is up, switch off the oven and leave the oven door ajar for 30 mins, with the cheesecakes still inside the oven. Bring the cupcakes out after 30 mins.
9. Pop the Jam into the microwave for about 30s. Pour the Jam mixture onto the cheesecake and refrigerate these cheesecakes for approximately 4 hours or preferably overnight. Enjoy!

Recipe: (Original recipe adapted from "Cupcakes with Attitude by Benjamin Wong"  Makes 6 medium cupcakes)
Ingredients: 

Teh Si - 50 ml
Brown sugar - 50g
Butter- 62.5g
1 egg
Cake flour- 75g
Baking Powder- 3/4 tsp.
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. Line muffin tray with cupcake liners.
2. Mix cake flour and baking powder. Sift them.
3. Cream butter in an electric mixer for a few minutes . Gradually add brown sugar and continue to beat until well combined.
4. Add eggs and beat until mixture is well plended, light and fluffy.
5. Add cinnamon and nutmug here if you are using, Mix well.
6. Fold in the flour. Stop immediately once all the flour has been incorporated into the mixture.
7. Add Teh Si into the mixture. Mix well.
8. Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Remove these puff cakes from tray and place on wire rack to cool. Enjoy!





Look at how moist these puff cakes are. :>

Red velvet cupcake is one of my favourite cupcake of all time. Loving the cream cheese frosting. So far, the best red velvet cupcake i've tasted is the one from 12 cupcakes. I've baked red velvet so many times, yet i still cant get it right. Tricky one indeed. This time round is pretty different from my previous attempt: Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese filling. The texture of the cake for the previous attempt is more like a sponge cake, this time round's was slightly more compact than the previous time. Got my recipe from baking addiction this time. Oh well, both are not what i am looking for. But the frosting this time round is able to stand more firmly than the previous time. I substituted part of butter in the frosting recipe with shortening. Still very sweet  though. i am always unable to get te cream cheese frosting right.  For some reasons, my frosting is always not white. It is somehow slightly yellow (and idk why. Is it because of the butter?). If you have any tips or good recipes for red velvet cupcakes, i'll be more than happy if you will share with me. Thank you! :>

Been ages since i last used the oven. Up till now, i am still baking with my broken oven. The front piece of glass came off so I have to get someone to fix it back. I was thinking of using 3M tape to stick it back but ... HMMM. I have been wanting to try making chocolate ganache for forever but too lazy to buy heavy cream since i have to travel ALL THE WAY TO PHOON HUAT just to get heavy cream. I have tried to make chocolate ganache for a few times but they were pretty fail. My very first time: COMPLETE FAILURE. Although this time isn't perfect yet but at least there were improvements. The trick is to use heavy cream. NOT thickened cream. I used thickened cream for my first attempt and that explained why it was so liquified. To make ganache, you should get cream of at least 38% fat content.  But supermarkets hardly sell heavy cream. I have never seen heavy cream sold in supermarkets, even the higher end ones. So do not  just simply substitute thickened cream for heavy cream. Abandon that misconception. They are DIFFERENT. To double confirm, check the fat content, you'll never go wrong with that. Made this with my favourite chocolate cake recipe. So far, i have been using that chocolate recipe for my chocolate cupcakes. Just make some slight changes here and there.



Recipe: 

Cupcake: [ Makes about 12 small cupcakes or 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

- Bake for about 15 mins ( for small size cupcakes).

- Let it cool before you top with the chocolate Ganache.

Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients: ( I'll update this when i get home) 

Heavy cream

Chocolate

2 tbsp of honey ( optional. For glossy appearance)

 

Chocolate is our all time favourite but at times when we are going for something lighter and refreshing, do consider strawberry cupcake! I baked this together with Green Tea Cupcakes for Wanping's 19th! I love this cupcake. Its moist, light and fluffy. The strawberry frosting tasted like icecream.

Recipe ( Adapted from Cupcakes with attitude- makes 12-13 cupcakes) 

cupcake
Cake flour- 165g
Baking powder 1 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Strawberries 100g
Full cream milk 4 tbsp
vanilla extract 1 tsp
Butter 125g
sugar 180 g
Egg 1 large
Egg White  ( from 2 large eggs)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt tgt
3. Process strawberries in a blender to get 100g of puree
combine milk, vanilla extract and strawberry puree in a small bowl and set aside
4. Cream Butter in an electric mixer for a few mins and gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined
5. Add egg and \egg whites
6. Add half the mixture prepared in 2, followed by strawberry mixture in 4. COntinue beating and add the remaining flour mixture and continue to bat until batter is well mixed.
7. spoon batter into cupcake and bake for 20-25 mins.
8. Remove cupcakes from tray and place them o a cooling rack to cool.
9. Pipe strawberry buttercream on top of cupcakes and top with slices of strawberries.

 

Frosting:

Strawberries- 50g
Butter-62.5 g
Shorterning 62.5g
Salt a pinch
VANILLA EXTRACT 1/4 tsp
ICING SUGAR 200G

1. Process strawberries in blender to get 4 tbsp of strawberries puree and set aside.
2. Beat butter/Vegetable shortening for 2-3 mins and set aside.
3. Add icing sugar and mix until ingredients are well combined.
4. Gradually add pureed strawberry 1 tbsp at a time and stop until you achieved the desired consistency.

Last week was insane- when midterms, presentations and assignments was all due at one go. Work really drained my energy away. I was desperately in need of sleep for the past week. After mid terms ended, my first to-do-checklist was to bake something for wp for her birthday that was long overdue. Flipping through my books, i decided to settle with some Green Tea Cupcakes ( since my new green tea powder is going to expire in a mth) and strawberry cupcakes. The frosting was made of mascarpone cheese which was pretty interesting yea. Mascarpone cheese was often used to make tiramisu but frosting? This is my first time coming across such stuff. I am sure to bake this again, but with some slight changes to the recipe the next time. I want my frosting to stand stiff on the cake and not so "fluidish". Thinking of adding some heavy cream to the frosting. Oh well, i am not so sure too but i shall update this again when i re-make. Nevertheless, my friends finished all of them in no time.!!


Recipe- ( adapted from Cupcakes with attitude- makes 11-12cupcakes)

Cupcake

Self Raising flour - 175g
Green Tea powder- 2tsp
Salt- a pinch
Caster Sugar- 125g
Vegetable Oil- 125ml
Eggs- 2 large
Vanilla Extract- 1 tsp
Full cream milk- 4 tbsp

Frosting: 

Mascarpone cheese 125g
Icing Sugar 50g

Steps: 

1. Preheat Oven to 180 degree Celsius. Line Muffin tray with cupcake liners.
2. Sift flour, Green tea powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
3. Beat Sugar, oil and eggs in an electric mixer until smooth. Add Vanilla extract.
4. Gradually add flour mixture prepared in step 2, alternating with milk. Do not overbeat-stop immediately once everything has been well combined.
5. Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Bake for about 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of cakes and comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven and let cupcakes st in muffin for 5 mins.
7. Beat mascarpone cheese and half the sugar in an electric mixer until soft and creamy. taste and add more sugar as desired.
7. Slather a thick layer of mascarpone frosting on top of cupcakes and dust over green tea powder.

Besides oreo cupcakes, I baked bailey cupcakes for my colleagues on my last day of work. I found them a little too sweet for my liking. Nevertheless, they were all gone within mins! But again, cupcakes are meant to be sweet right? HAHA. I baked them the day before and the cakes were still pretty moist the next day. If you dont really fancy sweet stuff, I recommend that you reduce the sugar level of the cake. Dont forget that the bailey frosting is sweet too. Sweet cake + sweet frosting= MEGASUGARKILL.


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 ( I cut to 75g and it's still too sweet for my liking)
2 eggs
Bailey Irish cream ( Up to own preference.  I cant rmb how much i added but i added them in tablespoons and tasted them accordingly to achieve desired taste.)

- 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 bailey irsh cream.
- 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
- 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.

Baileys frosting:

Ingredients:
- Veg shortening 60g
- Butter 40g
- sifted Icing sugar  100g
- Baileys Irish Cream ( prolly about 3-6 tbsps? it depends on your own preference)

- Beat veg shortening in electric mixer for about 2-3 mins on medium speed.
- Add in Bailey Irish Cream
- Add icing sugar and continue beating until all ingredients are well combined
- Gradually add water to achieve desire consistency. (optional)

 Ops. The frosting is almost the same height as the cake. HAHAHA.

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.

Whats for breakfast on Wednesday? Instead of our usual peanut jam and nutella sandwiches, my family had steamed banana cakes for breakfast. In fact, 1 steamed banana cake has lower calories than 1 serving of our usual peanut jam sandwich. I love steam cakes from four leaves, breadtalk and not forgetting the colourful ones sold at pasar Malam, top with some orange sugar and coconut flakes. I was tryng to make the cake rise into 4 corners at the top (like huat kueh) but I failed. My mum brought some really sweet bananas back from my grandma's kampong. I was contemplating between banana steamed cakes and banana muffins. I was pretty lazy that day so I went with the simpler recipe. It is amazing such an easy recipe can yield such a delicious and moist banana cake. I'll make this again! I slightly edited the recipe to suit my family. I like my banana cake to have chunks of banana in it so i added more bananas than what the original recipe called for and i did leave some chunks of bananas in my mashed banana mixture. Since i added more bananas, i reduced my sugar intake from 100g to 70g. Sweetness was just nice . All you need are a couple of ingredients which you most likely already have on hand. You can always pop them in the fridge and steam them the next morning. That was what I did! Enjoy these hot n fluffy banana cakes.

!

Hot, fluffy and chunky banana cakes ^^

Ingredients: (7-8muffins) [  Original recipe adapted from here ]

2 Eggs
70sugar
3  ripe bananas, mashed with some chunks (300g)
150g Self-raising Flour
1/8 tsp Baking Soda
75g oil (any flavorless oil)

Steps:

1. Sift together self-raising flour and baking soda, set aside.


2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together Eggs and sugar till ribbon stage.


3. Mix in mashed bananas, beat till combine.


4. Gently fold in flour mixture and Oil, taking care not to deflate the eggs and sugar mixture.


5. Pour Batter into muffin pan, lined with muffin cups.


6. Steam over high heat for 15mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean.

I baked my favourite Red Velvet Cupcake again- using a different recipe. I love Red Velvet Cupcake but i can't seem to get it right. My first few attempts ended up with a slightly dry texture and a hard top.Fortunately, the red velvet cupcake this time round is soft moist and fluffy. The chocolate ganache is baked right into the mix.  I really love this cake. It tastes good even without the cream cheese frosting.  Ever since my Chocolate Cupcake with Peanut Butter Filling , i've been hooked onto making filling cupcakes. Needless to say, i filled these red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese filling and top them with cream cheese frosting. If you aren't a cream cheese lover, you probably want to forgo the cream cheese filling. That is because this cupcake is a really rich and heavy. Some may love it, some may find it too overwhelming. Again, it depends on individual preference. I have a problem with my cream cheese frosting. I have never succeeded making a good frosting that is able to hold it's shape. Oh well, this time's is better than the previous times but it certainly can be improved! I used a cherry red food colouring. The colour is too mild and it looked more brown rather than red. Get a deeper red food colouring.




106.6g sifted cake flour
133g sugar
2/3 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Batter Ingredients

 1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/3 cup sunflower seed oil
1/2 TBSP red food coloring
1/3 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 tsp distilled white vinegar

Chocolate Ganache

28.75g  bittersweet chocolate baking bar
20.8g heavy cream

Cream Cheese Frosting (makes 4 cups)
2oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract •
2 cups sifted confectioners powdered sugar •
1/2 TBSP heavy whipping cream, very cold

Make Cream Cheese Frosting:

1.  Meanwhile, make cream cheese frosting. Using a stand mixer or electric handheld mixer, combine softened cream cheese and butter. Beat until well blended and smooth.


2. Add vanilla extract. Beat well.


3. Using flat beater attachment, add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well in between to really incorporate the sugar. This process will ensure a smooth texture.


4. Add 1 TBSP very cold heavy whipping cream. Using whisk attachment, whisk thoroughly for fluffiness.


5. Using a spatula, scrape frosting into a pastry bag (fits perfectly into a 16" pastry bag). Chill in refrigerator until cupcakes have cooled completely before frosting. Chilling the frosting also helps it gain more structure when piping since we softened the cream cheese and butter earlier.

Assembly:

Using a small knife to cut out a cone in the cupcake. The trick is to insert the knife about 3/4 into the cupcake – not straight down, but at an angle towards the centre of the cupcake. Hold the knife in place and turn the cupcake, so that you will cut out a cone.

Cut off 3/4 off the cone, keeping the small round disks and snacking on the extra cones. Scoop about a teaspoon (depending on your preferred amount of filling) the cream cheese filling into the middle of the cupcakes. Replace the chocolate cake disks and press it down gently.

Use a decorating tip that's appropriate for your cupcake size. Start from the outside and pipe full swirls going into the middle, releasing pressure right before finishing off the peak. For a nice crust on the frosting, allow cupcakes and frosting to sit at room temperature uncovered for 30 minutes

Sprinkle with some Shaved chocolate or cocoa powder.

These are my Scottish Almond Shortbread. (Apart from the calories,) Shortbread is definitely one of my favourite snack. I love the buttery and a slight pinch of milky taste of this almond shortbread. Next time, I'll up the almond so it'll be more crunchy! If you prefer a strong almond flavour,you may want to add more ground almond. I was so excited to see my Almond Scottish Shortbread that I did not refrigerate the dough until firm before sending them into the oven. Refrigerating the dough until firm enables you to cut them into interesting shapes with a cookie cutter. I merely baked them in an 8inch square tin and cut them into little cubes for easy distribution and to fit my containers!!



Ingredients:

A:
125g butter
125g butter cup canola gold butter
85g icing sugar

B:
190g plain flour
75g corn flour
60g ground almond
1/2 tbsp milk powder

C:
Chopped Toasted whole almond. ( I used sliced almond)

Steps:
- Preheat oven to 170 degree C
- Mix A until well blended
- Add in B until well blended
- Toss in C until well incorporated.
- Line yr 8 inch square tin w parchment paper and lightly grease it.
- Pour yr batter into the tin and use a knife to slice the batter into yr desired shapes that you intend to divide later. - Pop them into the preheated oven and bake them for 25-30 mins/ until slightly golden brown.
- Run your knife along the lines you have sliced previously.
- Leave it to cool for about 15-30 mins before removing them from the tin. (if not, they will fall apart! )

Alternatively, click here for my plain traditional shortbread recipe!

Specially baked these for my friend. Happy birthday, Clarence!! ^^ i love cupcakes/muffins that have fillings inside. It's like a little surprise. However, I was a little hesitant about baking these filling cupcakes because I find it challenging to fill the cupcakes. I looked up the Internet and they are practically so many ways to fill the cupcakes. While I was browsing recipes by other bloggers, I stumbled upon Foodismylife's recipe n decided to give it a go. So... this is my 1st cupcake with filling!! Oh well, it is not that hard to fill these fillings after all. I shall bake more cupcakes with fillings from now on!! One of the best thing about this cupcake is that it uses my favourite "everyday's chocolate cake" batter. Nothing can go wrong with this cake as the "base". This is my third recipe with "everyday chocolate cake". Check out my 1st n 2nd recipe w everyday chocolate cake.

For the Cake:



Look at how soft and moist the cake is. It's chocolatey and rich!!

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 – Note [2].

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.

Peanut Butter Filling

Ingredients:

20 grams cream cheese 45 grams creamy peanut butter
45 grams icing sugar, sifted
1/8 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 tablespoon milk Handful of chopped peanuts (optional)

Place the cream cheese, peanut butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl. Beat the mixture using an electric mixer until the sugar has dissolved and the frosting is light and fluffy. Add in a little bit of milk to thin the consistency (makes it easier to scoop). Stir in the chopped peanuts if using

Chocolate Ganache



Ingredients:
90 grams good quality dark chocolate
finely chopped 85 grams / ml heavy cream (3/8 cup)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 tablespoon salted butter
90 grams icing sugar, sifted

Steps:
Place the heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl (glass or ceramic). Microwave the cream on medium for 30 seconds until the cream is hot. Add in the chopped chocolate and stir – the chocolate will start to melt. Place the bowl back into the microwave and microwave for 10 seconds. Stir the mixture and if there’s any remaining un-melted chocolate, repeat the process (do not microwave for too long at one go unless you want to burn your ganache). Once all the chocolate has melted, add in the vanilla and butter and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Refrigerate the ganache for 5 to 10 minutes. Using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the chocolate ganache on medium speed, adding in the sifted icing sugar in 3 batches. Continue to beat, turning the speed up to high until the ganache becomes light in colour and creamy.

Note: My chocolate Ganache is too liquidfied. I did not beat the ganache until it becomes light in color and creamy. The more i beat, the more creamy it gets and harder to frost. But it did "harden" slightly after i leave them at room temperature for some time. What happened!!



Assembly: (learned from foodismylife)
Using a small knife to cut out a cone in the cupcake. The trick is to insert the knife about 3/4 into the cupcake – not straight down, but at an angle towards the centre of the cupcake. Hold the knife in place and turn the cupcake, so that you will cut out a cone.

Cut off 3/4 off the cone, keeping the small round disks and snacking on the extra cones.
Scoop about a teaspoon (depending on your preferred amount of filling) the peanut butter filling into the middle of the cupcakes. Replace the chocolate cake disks and press it down gently.

[Note*: Next time I cut a bigger hole and discard a portion of the pointed part of the cone and just replace the chocolate cake with the base of the cone so my filling wouldnt be "squashed". ]

Spread a thick layer of chocolate ganache over the top of the cupcakes and decorate as you like.

Storage: These cupcakes can be kept for up to a week – in an air-tight container in the fridge. Let the cupcakes sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving. The cupcakes will still be slightly chilled but the ganache has softened. Mine were finished in a day!!

Peanut butter lovers like me basically love anything with peanut butter. However, my family and friends just found it strange to put peanut butter and chocolate together. I guess it's up to individual preference!! Good day.

This is my first steamed cake and i m really satisfied with it. It is very moist and Chocolatey. I've got this recipe from Peng's Kitchen. However I cant get the chocolate ganach right despite trying  twice. Both times failed because it turned out too watery. Nevertheless, this chocolate cake was good enough. It was just the right amont of sweetness. Do give it a go because it's rly good. ^^



Ingredient

• 150g unsalted butter


• 170g fine sugar


• 200ml evaporated milk


• 2 eggs, lightly beaten


• 125g plain flour


• 70g cocoa powder (I used Valrhona Brand)


• 1/2 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter has melted. Remove from heat.


2. Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled mixture and stir till well mixed.


3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till smooth. (Batter should be runny).


4. Heat up the steamer. Lined and grease a 7" baking pan. Pour the batter into prepared pan and place into the steamer. Cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.


5. Steam over medium heat for 45 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, steam for a further 5 minutes.


6. Cool the cake in pan before turning out for frosting.

 

 

Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert that consists of three basic ingredients. Really easy to bake. A desert for any occasion. Be it Christmas or any ordinary day. Perfect for a snack in the late afternoon, accompanied by a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Of course, you could also bake them in squares or any other shapes you want. I drizzled some melted chocolate onto my shortbread and it's delicious. Alternatively, they are ideal for Apple Crumble's crust too!




Ingredients:
3/4 cup of unsalted butter.
1 ¾ cup of All Purpose Flour
¾ cup of Confectioner Sugar
½ tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

1)Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; line an baking tin with parchment paper coming up the sides of the pan, spray with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
2)Using an electric mixer, mix together the confectionary sugar and butter until very creamy.
3) Add the flour and salt and mix for 1 minute.
4) Press the dough into the parchment paper lined pan and press it all to make sure it’s even. Using a butter knife or a bench knife, cut the dough.
5) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly golden. As soon as you take them out of the oven, run your knife through all the cuts and let them cool completely.

*Remove from the pan and dip them in melted chocolate if you chose or sprinkle some granulated sugar while it is still hot.