Bite On It!

I know that many people prefers to have fruity cakes than some plain ones as they like the extra fruity bites. Personally I like fruity cakes especially those contain fresh fruits. However, it is not easy for us to get suitable fresh fruits here to bake anytime we want. So, we have to make do with canned ones… most of the time.

Here is another of my favorite… peachy cake/cupcakes. I have been using this recipe for a long time. Before the cupcakes fad, I used it to bake full cakes. This recipe is also perfect for a 7″ or 8″ cake. The wonder is, the tangy taste from the peach helped to diffuse the sweetness from the sugar.

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Ingedients

• 180g Butter
• 120g Sugar
• 180g Plain white flour
• 1tsp Baking powder
• 1tsp Baking soda
• 3 Eggs
• 1tsp Vanilla essence (optional)

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Methods

1. Cream butter and sugar till white and creamy.
2. Add in eggs, one at a time till well mixed. Add vanilla essence.
3. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda and fold into the batter slowly.
4. Pipe batter into muffin tray lined with cases.
5. Bake at 160 degree Celsius till cooked or when inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Though I am a part time cupcake seller, I must confess I seldom bake any other stuff besides… well, cupcakes! My oven is solely for my cupcakes and sometimes my Ah Beng will use it to make some grill stuff and that’s about it.

After checking out a few new blogs, I decided that I need to be adventurous again and try new things with my oven. Then I spotted this really nice looking bread which is called broiche from Javapot’s blog. I must say it looked really tempting then so I quickly went to get some bread flour and sweet potatoes.

Since I was in Jusco, I bought the Japanese sweet potatoes thinking it might have more flavors as compared to our local grown ones.

This is my very first time baking anything using bread flour or bread as a matter of fact! Though I have helped my mom a couple of times in making steamed paus I’ve never ventured into bread making alone.

One thing about bread making is, the proofing period which can takes a while. Being so inexperience in this area, I can say that I have no ideas how long I should proof my dough! Well, at least the broiches turned out quite ok… when it is fresh out of the oven!

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Ingredients

• 125g mashed sweet potato
• 210g bread flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 36g sugar (add slowly)
• 107g butter, room temperature

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Method

1. Mix and knead all ingredients except sugar and butter. I’ll suggest using a gloves as the ingredients will sticks onto your fingers.
2. After 5 min, add sugar slowly. (I added mine too soon so that’s why it did not raise as much as it should)
3. Add butter after 15 min and knead until you get a soft pliable dough.
4. Let the dough rest in room temperature for 1 hour.
5. Divide the dough into size required (the dough should be light and airy under your fingers but still a little sticky so u glaze your palms with some butter before handling).
6. Cover/wrap and refrigerate dough over night.
7. Next day, shape chilled dough as desired and placed them into greased tins.
8. Cover/wrap shaped dough and rest in warm place for another 1.5 hours or at least double in bulk. (I was a little anxious and inexperience so did not let it proof enough)
9. Bake in a pre-heated oven @ 190 degrees for 30-35 min or until golden brown (including the base).
10. Cool in tin for 8 min before removing them and completely cool them on rack.

Before I started my own cupcake shoppe, I used to bake for our own consumption. Long before I attempted the steamed banana cupcakes, I used to do the baked version very often. Since my PiggyBeng has been complaining that we are eating too much fat (butter) as we have to chomp down all the excess cuppies from some of my orders, I seldom bake for ourselves anymore unless there is a birthday.

I must admit that steaming is simpler and less work and of course healthier but at times baked stuff has more fragrance and they have longer shelf live. Therefore, once in a while when I have the ingredients sitting around in the house I will still make an effort…

Here is a banana cupcake recipe which I got from one of the popular site but forgotten which since I am such a sloppy person! I have modified it a little to our taste. Everyone at home love it so I thought I’ll just share it here with everyone.

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Ingredients
Makes 2 dozens

• 300g Flour
• 2tsp Baking powder
• 2tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp Salt
• 200g Sugar
• 220g Butter
• 4 Eggs (medium size)
• 400g Bananas (I used pisang emas) - mashed
• 5tbsp Milk
• 1tsp Vanilla essence
• 1tsp Banana essence (optional)

Methods

1. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy white. Add beaten eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition.
3. Add in vanilla essence or banana essence, milk and mashed bananas.
4. Fold in flour and mix well. Pour mixture into muffin cups (3/4 cup) and add a slice of banana on top before sending the tray into the oven and bake at 180?C for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cuppies comes out clean.

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Tips: Turn your cupcakes tray after 15 minutes into baking to ensure eveness

Life has definitely been very hectic the past few months and hence I did not get to do much experiments from any of the cookery or recipe books on my book shelf.

Since it is the Lunar New Year now and we will be going to KL tomorrow, I decided to bake some goodies to bring for some of the friends I will be meeting. Initially i have wanted to just use the regular recipes I have been using but after looking through one of the recipe books I thought I’ll try a new one.

Found this really nice and easy to do chocolate brownie cupcakes from the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins book by Fergal Connolly.

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Ingredients
(makes 12 cupcakes)

• 125g Plain chocolate chips (I used cooking chocolate bar)
• 125g Unsalted butter (I used salted butter)
• 2 Eggs
• 300g Castor sugar (I used 200g only)
• 1tsp Vanilla essence
• 115g Plain flour

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Methods

1. Melt chocolate and butter in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring until melt. Set aside to cool.
2. In another medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and thick using a whisk.
3. Fold in the chocolate and the flour until well mixed. The batter should be gooey and sticky.
4. Spoon batter into cases and bake @ 160 degree Celsius for about 25 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing from tray and cool on rack.

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You can make some cream topping if you want but it tastes good as it is! 

Some of you know that I am into bento-ing right now and has been learning to make simple snacks to ‘decorate’ my bentos. I can tell you it is not as easy as it seems as my boy is beginning to be very picky with his food now. A few weeks ago, he told me he don’t like vege! All this while he has been a good boy eating almost anything I served him.

Sometimes it can be brain cracking… since I have to think about the designs to come out for my cupcake projects. Even though I don’t have much time to spare these days, I will still try to lurk in some really good recipes blogs to get some ideas. Today’s idea came from my favorite blog. Aunty Yochana has been very inspiring and I learned a lot just by browsing her blog.

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I have some white bread and want to get rid of them so my fridge will have some space so I decided to bake some bread pizza. I had some tomato paste from one of my pizza making adventure earlier and thought it a good idea to clear the tomato paste.

To make the beautiful shape, I used a flower cutter to cut and squeeze each piece into the muffin tray after spreading them with some tomato paste.

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Ingredients
(Make 6)

• 6 slices of Bread (White or Wholemeal)
• 1 slice Chicken ham (cut into small squares)
• 1/4 cup Mixed vegetables (corn, green peas & carrot)
• Mayonnaise (to mix with ham and mixed vege)
• 1 slice cheddar cheese (cut into small strips)
• Tomato paste (for spreading on bread)

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Methods

1. Cut out the flower shaped bread using the cutter and spread a thin layer of tomato paste in the centre and squeeze into muffin pan cavities.
2. Mix Mayonnaise and mixed vegetable and ham pieces and slowly scoop into each ‘flower bowl’ and topped with cheddar cheese strips.
3. Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.