chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting sets
February 7, 2010 at 4:09 am | In Birthdays, Cheese, Cupcakes, Orders | Leave a Comment
lemon curd cupcakes
January 31, 2010 at 8:15 pm | In Birthdays, Cheese, Cupcakes, Fruit | 6 Comments
i think i have temporarily ceased the search for a one-bowl-vanilla-cupcake recipe. this is fuss-free and just the way i like it – dump everything in one bowl and mix! it is sufficiently moist and dense, without drying out. my friends were pleasantly surprised by the lemon curd centre, and i thought it was nicely paired with the cream cheese frosting.
vanilla cupcakes; makes about 12
150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence1. preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. line a cupcake tin with paper liners. put all the cake ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat with a hand-held electric whisk for 1-2 minutes until light and creamy. divide the mixture evenly among the cake cases.
2. bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes till risen and firm to the touch. test with a skewer if required. transfer to a wire rack to cool.
i would think that this recipe lends itself well to fillings/mix-ins. for these, i added about a teaspoon of lemon curd as a filling prior to baking. i guess you could experiment with diced fruit or chocolate chunks/chips as well.
peanut-butter-custard-banana tart
January 31, 2010 at 3:04 am | In Birthdays, Fruit, Peanut Butter, Tarts and Pies | 2 Commentswe celebrated the birthday of one of my favourite boys tonight. as a matter of formality, i asked what he wanted and he mentioned “that peanut butter dessert we had in KL two years back.” i tried my best to recall what comprised the tart we had at this nice little cafe at bangsar village. i knew there was peanut butter, bananas and some semblance of a custard. (there’s a picture on the website; i know my rendition of it is way off)
initially i wanted to modify dorie greenspan’s banana cream pie recipe, but i always find myself a little turned off by her long instructions. i appreciate her detail but sometimes i’d rather follow a recipe that has minimal steps (there you go, the lazy streak in me). that resulted in me pulling out the tried-and-tested donna hay’s sweet shortcrust pastry and creme patissiere recipes. the peanut butter frosting was a mixture of butter, peanut butter and icing sugar – no exact amounts; a sheer matter of estimation.
the boys, being boys, gave raving reviews. my only gripe was that i should’ve used del monte bananas instead of malaysian bananas, but i can’t complain since i asked my dad to buy them.
cake backlog
January 25, 2010 at 8:22 pm | In Birthdays, Cakes, Cheese, Chocolate, Fondant, Fruit, Orders, Weddings/Engagements | 1 Comment
chocolate cake, ferrero rocher filling with nutella buttercream for a good friend’s birthday. this was overkill, seriously. everyone was on a sugar high.
cheesecake with chocolate ganache for an acquaintance’s solemnisation.
strawberry cheesecake – i really had reservations with the wordings on this cake… but my friend insisted. -_-
chocolate cake, sliced bananas and nutella ganache.
chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.
daddy’s mango cheesecake.
brownie for the boy – i know the bears look spastic, i’m still struggling with fondant figurines.
cupcake backlog
January 25, 2010 at 8:14 pm | In Birthdays, Cheese, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Orders, Peanut Butter, Royal Icing | Leave a Comment
chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache.
chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache & buttercream.
nutella cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.
order “leftovers” for the boy. :p
chocolate cupcakes with royal icing – for a friend’s cousin’s solemnisation.
chocolate cupcakes with royal icing – for a dear JC friend’s engagement.
tiffany-box cake
January 4, 2010 at 3:21 pm | In Birthdays, Cakes, Chocolate | 6 Commentsthe dearest cousin requested something “tiffany” for her birthday this year so i busied myself with a bit of research prior to making the cake. it was my first time working with white icing so this was a real challenge; from measuring and cutting individual pieces to “stitching” them seamlessly together. this labour of love took me about 4 hours to complete!
her birthday gift was nicely nestled in that paper bag behind the cake… now THAT was a surprise.
layers of chocolate cake sandwiched with chocolate ganache.
i had fun doing this, but it will be some time before i attempt such cakes again. i feel more comfortable around cupcakes!
birthday cake
December 6, 2009 at 1:14 am | In Birthdays, Cakes, Cheese, Fruit | 4 Commentsmade this cake yesterday for the boy’s sister. i opted for a simple design because i wanted to make the pink stand out, and stand out it did! i think it’s a bit of an overkill… hope she’ll like it anyway. it’s a strawberry cake, sandwiched by a layer of fresh strawberries and cream cheese frosting.
double chocolate macadamia cookies
December 5, 2009 at 1:41 pm | In Birthdays, Chocolate, Cookies | Leave a Commenti’m not really a fan of double chocolate cookies, but these little dark beauties may have changed my mind. i adapted a recipe from woman’s weekly cupcakes and cookies and it turned out to be an absolute keeper.
today we sprang a surprise (fancy being “ambushed” after coming out of the toilet!) on one of the boy’s friends, ridhwan, who is flying off to laos for the sea games in a couple of days. he likes dark chocolate – “the darker and more bitter the better”, according to the boy.
125g butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
275g firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
150g plain flour
35g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
35g cocoa powder
250g chocolate chips
70g macadamia nuts, chopped1. preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius. grease a couple of baking trays.
2. beat butter, vanilla extract, sugar and egg in a bowl with electric beaters/mixer until smooth; do not overbeat. add in dry ingredients, then nuts and chocolate chips. mix with a wooden spoon until just incorporated.
3. roll dough into balls (mine was about a little smaller than 1 inch in diameter) and bake for about 12-15 minutes. stand cookies for 5 minutes on tray before transferring to wire rack to cool.
feel free to play around with the mix-ins – the recipe called for raisins but i substituted it with nuts. i used the macadamia nuts that my good friend bought for me all the way from perth, which i received yesterday. i also used a mixture of chocolate chips and chopped dark chocolate. fans of white/milk chocolate, you could use those!
happy birthday wan! kick box some ass in laos! 
i would send you off if i were around; but i’ll be there in spirit. all the best!
strawberry cupcakes with meringue frosting
December 3, 2009 at 2:38 pm | In Cupcakes, Fruit, Meringue | 2 Commentsnow that it’s the holidays (or so it seems), i’ve got a little bit more time to bake. tonight we’re celebrating a friend’s birthday and since she wanted something “strawberryish”, i decided to try a new cake recipe, martha stewart’s strawberry cupcakes.
the cupcake was sufficiently moist; my personal prerequisite for good cakes/cupcakes. i took a bit of time thinking of what frosting to pair it with – i didn’t want cream cheese (one of my friends doesn’t care much for cheese, a very weird thing i must say) and the thought of buttercream was too cloying. chocolate ganache probably wouldn’t go well with the strawberry… so i settled on a meringue frosting.
3 egg whites
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartarset a metal bowl over a sauce pan with an inch or two of boiling water in it and beat egg whites until foamy. add in cream of tartar and beat until fluffy. add sugar gradually until meringue reaches fairly stiff peaks. spread or swirl onto cooled cupcakes. place in oven (about 150 degrees celsius) for about 5 minutes until lightly browned.
the duo-toned frosting was achieved by “streaking” the insides of the piping bag with gel food colouring; i used a toothpick. since this frosting isn’t particularly sweet, i could afford to load up on it. after the whole act was put together, i realised that these looked more like christmas cupcakes than birthday ones!
fudgy peanut brownie tartlets
November 29, 2009 at 7:07 pm | In Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Tarts and Pies | 1 Comment
my mum had a batch of sweet shortcrust pastry lying around, so i decided to make these little babies. when i was in KL last weekend i managed to pick up a copy of a better homes and gardens special publication – “ultimate cookies”; over 200 recipes, and it only cost RM9.90!
first, have a batch of sweet shortcrust pastry ready. a tried and tested recipe is donna hay’s, which you can find here. then, proceed to prepare the filling:
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp peanut butter1. preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. grease 24 mini muffin cups. divide dough into balls and press evenly into bottoms and up the sides of the prepared muffin cups.
2. for filling, in a small saucepan, heat and stir chocolate, butter and peanut butter over low heat until just melted. remove from heat. stir in egg, sugar and vanilla until well combined. divide chocolate filling among muffin cups.
3. bake for 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is puffed. cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 10 minutes. carefully remove tartlets from the muffin cups and cool completely on the wire rack.
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