Double Chocolate cupcake recipe trial I

This is my first time using this recipe and I seriously loved it.. Yummy! Soft, moist and rich of chocolate flavour. I am so gonna use it for my future bakes. But still, gonna try more recipes to compare the differences.. 

closeup view

Double chocolate cupcakes (adapted from sweetapolita)

100 g/3 1/2 oz dark bittersweet chocolate, chopped

175 g/1 1/2 sticks butter, cubed

225 g/1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (caster) sugar

4 eggs

100 g/3/4 cup self-rising flour

2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

a pinch of salt

1) Melt butter and chocolate chips. Stir in sugar til dissolved and leave to cool for 10mins

2) Sift flour, coco powder & salt

3) Beat egg into chocolate mixture for 10seconds

4) Add in flour and mix well

5) Bake at 180 deg for 20mins

KPI met - Home Made Mushroom Soup

Alright, hubby requested or sort of hinted in a way, asking me when will he be able to have this type of soup at home. And when he asked, he was sipping away to a bowl of Cream of Mushroom Soup at NYNY.. 

So, as usual, being the dutiful wife (eh hum, clearing my throat), definitely, no disappointment and I immediately went back to my archive on my KIV list. There it goes, Home Made Mushroom Soup from Cuisine Paradise.

I tried Brown Swiss Mushroom as per the recipe for the 1st attempt, feedback was not mushroom-y enough but still considered 'Pass' from the fact that it is made from scratch. Today, I substitute it with Portobello Mushroom as I simply love it. It is definitely yummy and the taste of mushroom is there. I love it. 

And from the children's point of view, this is more yummy as my older gal asked for 2nd helping and kept on commenting that it is NICE! Inside, I am so happy. Hubby also said it is better but would prefer a more creamier version. So I will have to tweak a little..

Cream of Mushroom Soup (adapted from Cuisine Paradise)

200g Portobello Mushroom, cleaned and cut into quarters (original recipe use brown Swiss)

Chopped garlic

20g Butter

2Tbsp Olive Oil

1Cup Chix Stock

1/8Cup Water

Dash of Black Pepper

50ml Thicken Cream

1) Sautéed garlic with olive oil til fragrant

2) Add in butter and mushroom, simmer til mushroom soften

3) Add in Chix stock, and water, simmer for 15min

4) Taste and add in black pepper

5) Cool, grind/purée with food processor

6) Heat up til start to simmer and stir in thicken cream. Serve warm.

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

Decided to make a chiffon cake for tomorrow's prayers for my grandfather's death anniversary. Wrapped rice dumplings for the 2nd time and also a Earl Grey Chiffon Cake instead of Pandan Chiffon Cake. At least it is a healthier choice than Pandan cos of the coconut milk used. Just hoped the ancestors enjoyed them tml.

Used the Earl Grey Chiffon Cake recipe from DeQueen, cos I tried her Earl Grey Hokkaido Cake and it was so yummy. So I decided to use my Dilmah's for 1 too..

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake (Adapted from DeQueen)

3 Egg yolks

75g Cake Flour

15g Sugar

1/2tsp Baking Powder

40ml Olive Oil

60ml Hot Water (mix with 2 tea bags and 1 cut tea bag with leaves poured in, cooled)

3 Egg whites

60g Sugar

1/4tsp Cream of Tartar

1) Mix all cake batter ingredients with a whisk

2) Mix egg whites til foamy, add in cream of tartar

3) Add in sugar, beat whites til stiff peak

4) Fold in 1/3 of whites gently to cake batter, fold in remaining whites to cake batter

5) Bake cake in oven for 40mins at 170deg



For a little girl named Von

Happy 6th Birthday, Von!

Anyway, my seondary school friend intro one of his friend to ask me with baking some cupcakes for his little girl's birthday. We settled for mixture of Princess Icing since I have no confidence with fondant yet, and additional 30 Lollipop Cookies with - Von is 6!



Cut-out Lollipop Cookie (adapted from HappyHomeBaking)

100g Butter, softened

80g Caster Sugar (a bit sweet so I will reduce to 60g next round)

1 yolk

180g Cake Flour

20g CornFlour

1) Mix butter and sugar together

2) Add in yolk and mix well

3) Add in flour and fold in to soft dough. Chill for 30mins before shaping

4) Bake for 15-20mins at 180deg

**It is quite easy to handle and not sticky at all**

I am using the same recipe as per I used the other day and sort of reduce a little sugar for the chocolate cupcakes as it is way too sweet for my first round. It goes really well with the buttercream and definetely a keeper for future bakes.

Late night supper - Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream & Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream



Chocolate Cupcakes

Feeling kinda moody and was thinking about my order for Friday, so decided to try out the chocolate cupcakes and also to cheer me up. Found this recipe and it uses olive oil, it is much healthier so I decided to see if it is nice. 

Turns out very rich in chocolate Flavour and not too dry. Shall use that for Friday.

Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes ( adapted from Glorious Treat)

2 Cups Sugar

13/4 Cup Plain Flour

3/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa

11/2tsp Baking Powder

11/2 Baking Soda

1tsp Salt

2 Eggs

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

2tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Boiling Water

1) Mix all dry ingredients together

2) Add Eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix well for 1 min

3) Add in boiling water. **will be thin batter**

4) Preheat oven at 160deg, fill cupcakes 2/3 full and bake for 18-20mins

My 1st Attempt on Rice Dumpling - Bak Chang



1st Attempt

2nd Attempt



2nd Attempt

1st Attempt



Photo courtesy from DeQueen

Been a few years since I have been mumbling to learn how to make a Bak Chang from scratch, wrap them nicely too. And I have been wanting to get my hands on some recipes or even my grandmother's. Unfortunately, my grandmother have been producing kinda different results from what it used to taste. Maybe it is due to her, afraid to eat too saltier etc, resulting in worried about adding too much seasoning. And also an encouragement from my dear fren, she managed to coax me into trying the most difficult feat - Doing them!

I browse a bit, look at other people recipes and find tt it is either too much work, weird ingredients or I simply don't like the combi, I decided to come up with my own.

Bak Chang 

Rice - 1kg of glutinous rice (Soaked 2 hours and drained)

51/2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

5Tbsp Lt Soy Sauce

5Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

3Tbsp Sesame Oil

2Tbsp Fried Onion Oil 

2Tbsp 5-spice Powder

11/2Cup Dried Shrimps

5Tbsp Water

5Tbsp Pepper

Meat - 1kg of meat, cut into small cubes (can increase to 1.5kg if you prefer more meat than rice)

3Tbsp Sesame Oil

5Tbsp Oyster Sauce

5Tbsp Lt Soy Sauce

5Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

2Tbsp Shaoxing Wine

1Tbsp Corainder Powder

2Tbsp Pepper

1Tbsp Cornflour

**Boil 4 Salted eggs, remove yolk and cut into 4s

1) Soaked 20 Medium sized Chinese mushroom and cut into halves

2) Marinate both rice and meat for at least 2-3 hours or day before

3) Soaked and boil dumplings leaves day before

4) Wipe dry dumpling leaves dry before wrapping

5) Wrap all dumplings and boil in a pot, with water covering the dumplings for 1hour

Care Bear Cupcakes

Baked this batch of cuppies for a Fren's fren, using the Magnolia Bakery recipe. The pink buttercream makes the cupcakes looks lovely and sweet. Commented a bit dry, so will need to work on it. Perhaps need to search for another more moist recipe?

My Piping Lessons - SMB with Cupcakes

Decided to make cupcakes with buttercream for my relatives who are coming over tomorrow and also take the chance to practise the piping. I have bookmarked this Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes very long but never go and make it happen.

Am rather glad that I baked them today cos I, myself who dont enjoyed the bakes also have 1. LOL!! And with a creative idea from a friend in MFWL, I popped 3 different surprise in the cupcakes. I used Andes Chocolate Mint, Cadbury Cookies n Cream Milk Bar and KitKat.

With KitKat

With Andes Mint

I loved the Andes Chocolate Mint the most cos I also topped with the Peppermint Buttercream. The rest I topped with Vanilla Buttercream and did a little bit of deco to differentiate them. Now I am contemplating to make some more chocolate flavours tomorrow if I have the time.

And yes, I did 1 with Princess Icing cos my gal walked passed Polar Cakes this morning and requested to have 1 of the icing image cake and there, I promised to make for her at home. So here it is.

I also baked a Chocolate Hokkaido Chiffon, using back the previous recipe and topped it with balance Peppermint Buttercream and did a simple deco with Andes Choc Mint. I think I really have not much flare with cake deco. I really s*ucks at them le. I seriously need to go for classes!! Now I am so worried about my boy's upcoming birthday in November.



Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted from Bossacafez) *i halve the recipe
Makes 24 bite-sized Cupcakes
1/2 +  1/4cups self-rising flour
1/2 + 1/8cup plain flour *I used Cake Flour
110g butter, softened at room temp
3/4 cups sugar (i substituted half of it with vanilla sugar)
2 large eggs, room temp
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Cream butter til smooth and creamy
2) Add sugar, then egg 1 by 1.
3) Sift flour and add in 3 addition, alternating with milk and vanilla essence in 2 additions
4) Mix well, dont over-mix
5) Fill cupcake 3/4 full and bake at 170deg for 20-25mins
*I bake at 190deg for 20mins, maybe my oven is 'colder'*

Swiss Meringue Buttercream (adapted from Dequeen) *i halve the recipe
Can pipe 24 bite-sized Cupcakes
2 Whites
70g Sugar
135g Butter

1) Boil a pot of water, double-boil egg whites with sugar without touching the boiling water
2) Continue to whisk, about 3-5mins, until the mixture is no more grainy
3) Remove and whisk to stiff peaks
4) Add in butter bit by bit
5) When buttercream is thick and fluffy, you may add in essence or colourings

**I added 1 tsp vanilla essence + 1 drop of pink colouring to buttercream for vanilla flavour
**I added 1 tsp peppermint essence + 1 drop of green colouring to buttercream for peppermint flavour

Snacks for little children

Did I mention that my kids loved egg tarts a lot? They will usually eat at least 2 each on top of whatever dim sum that we ordered. So this Children's Day, I decided to make the super mini egg tarts with the moulds that I have gotten a friend from msia to buy for me.

They are about 'pop in the mouth' size for adult so maybe about 2-3 mouthful for little children. And I believe 1 egg tart each is enough to make the teacher busy.. And I have also prepared a few bigger size ones, about those mini egg tarts you see from some Dim Sum place, for the teachers. I hope they will like it.


the 'naked' tarts

after sauna



the side view after i bite

I replaced the plain flour with cake flour cos I have ran out of plain flour at home. Initially didn't want to make them cos I am worried of the end products. But after some persuasion from a dear friend, I decided to take the plunge with my fingers crossed. And Thank God, it is really yummy.

Egg Tart Pastry (adapted from DeQueen) **Makes 20 super mini & 16 mini**

125g Butter

230g Plain Flour (replaced with Cake Flour)

60g Icing Sugar (reduced to 55g)

1 egg yolk

1/2 egg white

1) Rub butter into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs

2) Add icing sugar

3) add in egg yolks and white, mix to a pliable dough

4) Refrigerate for 20mins before using

Egg Tart Custard (reference to prev post) **i halve the recipe**

65g Milk

1 Egg

1/2 Egg White

30g Sugar

33g Hot Water

1tsp Vanilla

Pinch of salt

1) Stir sugar into hot water til dissolve

2) Mix in milk, vanilla, eggs, salt and mix well

3) Strain the mixture and leave aside

Assembly the tarts and custard:

1) Weigh 15g dough for super mini tart mould, 20g for mini tart mould

2) Roll out and press into tart mould

3) Pour egg custard 3/4 full, bake at 200deg for 20-25min or until custard bubble up

Children's Day

Children's Day is approaching and time to rack my head again. Only relief is that I have already tot of what to make for the little children to bring home way before. Collected the egg shells and wanna make them little chicken sponge cakes.
I added strawberry essence and a tint of pink to make light pinkish chickens. Using the sponge mix recipe as I felt th previous round with chiffon was way too soft.. But after trying the sponge mix today, I kinda like the chiffon better. LOL..

in da sauna

Little Chicken Sponge Cake (reference to prev post) 

250g Sponge mix

4 eggs

1tsp Strawberry essence

3Tbsp Milk

1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Beat sponge mix and egg til light and fluffy (ribbon stage)

Fold in essence, milk and oil gently

Pour batter into piping bag and pipe into egg shells about 2/3 full

Bake at 180deg for 30-35min

Cool before peeling off egg shells