Hazelnut Shortbread

Recipe modified from: Gorgeous Biscuits (Periplus Mini Cookbooks)

A short post here about one of my latest baking therapy project - Hazelnut Shortbread!

Was scanning through the recipes in one of those Cold Storage-bought cookbooks I acquired eons ago and found one that featured ingredients that I could easily pull out from my current stash of baking ammo.

For sloths who find grinding raw hazelnuts (toast + process) a chore, ground hazelnut could easily be bought from Phoon Huat ($6+ for 250g).  I had packet of it sitting in the drawer but I can't remember what I bought it for though...

No thanks to our sunny tropical weather.. do refrigerate the biscuits after coating them with chocolate, for best results! Remind the lucky souls who receive your baked products to stick them in the fridge too :)

 Makes: 22


Ingredients:
100g ground hazlenuts
150g butter (cubed and slightly softened)
80g soft brown sugar
185g sifted plain flour
100g dark chocolate, chopped
15g vegetable shortening

Method:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 180 dC. Bake the hazelnut powder for about 5 min (you might want to prepare this prior) and let it cool.
2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper (or lightly grease them with butter)
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add hazelnuts and beat briefly.
4. Add sifted flour and mix to a soft dough.
5. Roll 2 level tsp of the mixture into balls and place well apart on the trays.
6. Using a fork, flatten the balls to 4cm in diameter.
7. Bake for 20 min or until lightly golden. Cool on wire rack.
8. Melt chocolate and shortening in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth.
9. Coat half of the top side (the ridged side)with the choc mixture.
10. Lay on foil-lined tray and stick it in the fridge.

Chocolate Marble Chiffon Cake

Recipe modified from: Baking Illustrated

A mile high and light as a feather.

Photos will prove the former, and samples will for the latter. Thank you for the support (family and colleagues)in gamely trying out my first attempt at chiffon cakes!

So whats the difference between chiffon cakes and angel + sponge cakes?  Well, chiffon cakes are made with vegetable oil while sponge + angel cakes are generally fat-free (angel cake has the most sugar content). The oil + water liquid combination gives it a really tender and moist texture that is simply out of this world.


It was invented in 1927 by an American - Harry Baker (not kidding about his last name) who kept it a secret for 20 years before selling his 秘方 to General Mills (Betty Crocker's owner) and the rest is history.

I have modified the recipe because the amount of sugar quoted in the original one scares the living daylights out of me. And I don't want to have anything to do with increasing your chances of getting type II diabetes. Also, the chocolate portion of the batter seems a little too dense, so I have decreased the amount of sifted flour used at the end.

I had a fun time alone messing around with mum's 1970s tube pans. She has so many of them!
What a tube pan looks like:

This cake apparently keeps for up to 2 days at room temperature and will retain its tenderness and moistness. (tried and tested!) So, it will be great for a weekend tea-time snack or morning breakkie. Enjoy!

Serves: 12

Bakeware: 9-in tube pan

Ingredients:
7 oz caster sugar
1 1/3 cup plain cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
7 large eggs (2 whole, 5 separated) at room temperature
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Chocolate portion:
2 tbsp packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp boiling water

 

1. Adjust rack to lower-middle position and heat the oven to 160 dC.
2. Dissolve the brown sugar and cocoa powder with 3 tbsp of boiling water, mix well.
3. Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl.
4. Whisk in the 2 whole eggs and 5 yolks, water, oil and extracts until batter is smooth.
5. Pour reserved egg whites into bowl of standing mixer; beat at low speed until foamy, about 1 min. Add cream of tartar, gradually increase speed to medium-high.  Beat until whites get very thick and stiff (about 7 min).

6. Fold whites into batter with large spatula till you get an even mixture.

7. Divide batter into two large bowls.
8. Scoop 1/4 cup of batter from one bowl and mix it with the chocolate mixture from step 2. Then pour the mixture back into the same bowl of original batter.
9. Partially fold in the chocolate mixture
10. Add 2 tbsp of sifted cake flour into the chocolate batter and fold it till well-mixed.
11. Pour half of the white batter into the tube pan, followed by half of the chocolate one. Repeat until all batter has been poured into the baking pan.
12. Bake the cake for about 55 minutes (till skewer inserted into centre comes out clean).

13. Take the cake out and turn it upside down to cool (2 hours)

14. To unmold, turn pan upright. Run a thin knife around the pan's circumfrence between cake and pan wall, always pressing against the pan. Flip it over again and place it on a wire rack. And I am pretty sure you can figure out how to wrestle the cake out yourself (its pretty intuitive! harder if you are using a one piece pan - that will involve some serious bangs on the table to whack it out). 

Fallen Chocolate Cake a.k.a Molten Chocolate Cake

Recipe from: Baking Illustrated

Molten chocolate cake has always been one of my favourite western deserts. No thanks to countless visits to the Chili's at Ann Arbor. I never fail to order one when I am there. And its not even the greatest, have always found it too sweet and a little unrefined, but ah, its a habit.

Here is a short description of what Fallen Chocolate Cake is all about : " an undercooked-in-the-center mound of intense, buttery chocolate cake, which ranges from a dense, brownie-like consistency to something altogether more ethereal" - Baking Illustrated

Perfect description.

One of the most famous version of this cake hails from the famous French chef Jean-Gorges Vongerichten (who claims to have invented the souffle-cake hybrid, but of course, you will always have someone else disputing it). Baking Illustrated combined elements from the recipes of 3 cooks: Jean-Gorges, Todd English and Richard Sax. The culmination is a recipe that is easily manageable for the average home-based baker and it yields great results! Trust me as my first attempt was spot on (can't say that was the case for most of my other baked products).

Side note: This recipe will not produce an extremely molten chocolaty core if you stick to the full baking time. Try to pull it out a little while after it reaches 1/2 inch above the ramekins. Also, once cooled, it will lose its 'molteness'. So, serve/eat it hot!

Serves: 8

Ingredients:
2 tbsp plain flour + a little more for dusting
60 g unsalted butter
8 oz bittersweet/semisweet chocolate chopped coarse
4 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 sp salt
3.5 oz granulated sugar

Method:
1. Adjust over rack to the middle position and heat oven to 200 dC
2. Generously grease and flour ramekins. Tap out excess flour.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter and chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost-simmering water, stirring once/twice until smooth; remove from heat
4. Beat eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, sugar in the bowl of standing mixer at the highest speed for 5 minutes. Volume should triple. (remember that your utensils should always be spot dry when you deal with egg mixtures)
5. Scrape egg mixture over melted chocolate mixture.
6. Sprinkle flour over egg mixture.
7. Gently fold the egg and flour into the chocolate until mixture is uniform in color
8. Ladle/scoop batter into prepared ramekins.
9. Bake until cakes have puffed about 1/2 inch above rims of ramekins, have a thin crust on top and jiggle slightly at the centre when ramekins are shaken (gentle pls!). Takes about 12-13 minutes
10. Serve warm with whipped cream, cocoa powder or icing sugar.

The mixture after step 7 can be refrigerated for up to 8 hours (cling wrap the bowl) just in case you don't want to destroy the peace of entertaining your guests with the whirring din of the mixing machine. Leave it out at room temperature for 30 min before baking.

Try this recipe yourself, you would be amazed.

Corn Muffins

Recipe from: Baking Illustrated

Been a long time. 5 + months since my last entry and much has happened since then...

I have decided on a grand plan in any case. Its called Project Run+Bake (i know, my lack of sophistication pains me). It is a weekly goal to run at least 10 km (i am 40% done for the week, yay?) and bake or cook twice.

Point is... look out for more posts on this site!

First up, fans of Kenny Rogers corn muffins...look no further! Baking Illustrated's rendition of it is as good as it gets - might just need to add a little corn nibblets into the mixture to make it more authentic.

I had great fun looking for cornmeal at our local NTUC. The closest I could find was corn grits (aka Polenta) in the Organic section. But... fret not, a little spin in the kitchen blender and you would get finer bits resembling cornmeal. Cold Storage apparently sells the real deal itself, will check it out soon.

Ingredients:
2 cups (10 oz) plain flour
1 cup (5 oz) fine stone-ground yellow corn meal (or blended corn grits)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (5 1/4 oz) sugar
8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup sour ceam
1/2 cup milk

Steps:
1.Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 dC. Grease a standard 12-cup standard muffin tray
2. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Whisk the eggs in a second medium bowl until well-combined and light colored (about 20 sec)
4. Add sugar to the eggs; whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous (about 30 sec)
5. Add melted butter in 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition.
6. Add half the sour cream and milk , whisk to combine. Add the remaining portion and whisk some more.
7. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mix gently with rubber spatula until batter is combined and evenly moistened. Don't overmix.
8. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, dropping it to form mounds. Do not level or flatten surface of the mounds
9. Bake for ~18 min until muffins are light golden brown and skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
10. Cool the muffins on a wire rack.

enJOY!

Steamed Chocolate Cupcake 蒸巧克力杯子蛋糕

Modified recipe from: Magic Steamed Cake by Alex Goh


Found a great recipe book featuring steamed cakes while sauntering around NTUC with the mum, aunt and grandma 2 weeks ago. Needless to say, in my fervent attempt to build up my (+ mum's) stash of recipe books, I bought it ($10 only. cheap cheap).

Since it is a date-less lonely Friday evening at home, I decided to attempt the easiest looking recipe I could find that had ingredients which were stocked up somewhere in the kitchen. The Chocolate Cupcake fit the bill perfectly and thus, the peace & tranquility of the night was subsequently broken by the whirring 1980s Kenwood Chef mixer and my desperate pleas for help from mum - thanks to the silly + user-unfriendly Bosch steamer that she got for the new kitchen (why can't we just use the simple wok steamer??).

Some tips about steam cakes:
1) Remember to beat the eggs + sugar really really well. And by that, i mean more than 10 minutes of high speed whipping.
2) Heat up your steamer before putting the batter - filled moulds in.
3) DO NOT open the steamer half way through the steaming process (prepare to dump your products if you do not comply ;)
4) Fill the moulds all the way, don't worry about the batter spilling over during the steaming - it won't.
5) DO NOT let water get into your batter. not even a drop. They are really sensitive and won't 发 as nicely if that happens.



Serving Size: About 10 muffin size moulds. I used individual chwee kueh size moulds.

Ingredients:


A
1. 3 eggs
2. 140 g sugar
3. 1/4 tsp salt
4. 100 g corn oil

B
100 g orange juice

C
180 g flour
20 g cocoa powder
1 tsp sodium bicarbonate
2.5 tsp double action baking powder

Method
1. Whip A until sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes pale white + expanded. (About 8-10 minutes of high speed mixing)
2. Add in B, mix well.
3. Fold in sieved C, mix until well-combined with no flour clumps
4. Pour into lined moulds
5. Steam for 20-25 minutes

Enjoy!

Brunch @ Chowy's

Visit Chowy @ http://chowanmushi.wordpress.com

Boozy French Toast and Baked Eggs Recipes from http://smittenkitchen.com

A decade long friendship =)

Was invited for bunch over at Chowy's last Saturday and of course, with C as the cook - this was one invitation that I will never dream of turning down.


Now that i come to think about it, every visit to Chowy's has always been food-related. Tea parties, (failed) baking sessions, even impromptu visits to her house would end up in some food-tasting frenzy (pineapple tarts, Moon Cakes, miso tofu, popiah..and the list goes on). I just might have establish part of the reason why I gained 4 kg (#$@*%@#$!) since coming back from the States! hmm.

Baked Eggs + Spinach & Mushroom

I would say that she is more of an "ang-moh"派 cook who gravitates towards creating Westernized dishes. I guess the Oxford and London years had a compounded effect on her.


Anyways, we had quite a spread that day which she 'claims' to have single-handedly 'slogged all morning' for. (ok to be fair, traces of flour on her black dress serves as evidence for her hard work). The stars of the show besides all the ready-made food were the baked eggs and the "boozy french toast". And trust me, it tasted as wonky as it sounds.

The wonderful brunch spread

I loved the baked eggs with spinach and sauteed mushrooms! The greedy me secretly wished there were more (oops) but servings were limited to one egg/guest which was great since there were so many other yummylicious food on the table. The 'boozy' french toast was...interesting. Like a hybrid between a bread pudding and a french toast. (And yes, just in case you were wondering, the bread slices were indeed soaked in alcohol before baking). Besides these 2 main dishes, there was a throng of other side dishes like smoked salmon, granola+fresh fruits & German sausages. Also, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when freshly baked madeleines were brought out by C's mum towards the end. They looked (+ tasted) tonnes better than our previous combined attempt which failed miserably due to Chowy's questionable French translation skills. Read about it here:

http://valeebelly.blogspot.com/2009/09/madeleines-lancienne.html

Freshly baked madeleines. They go surprisingly well with smoked salmon!

All in all, it was a nice brunch where the group of us caught up on life over some lovingly prepared food which ended with a nice cup of exquisite Darjeeling and English Breakfast tea.

Brunch companions

Looking forward to the next invite. erhem. -big wave to Chowy if you are reading this-=)


ps. She swears by the recipes on this website: http://smittenkitchen.com and these are the links which she drew inspiration from for the brunch.


Baked eggs+ Spinach & Mushrooms
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-bacon-is-always-crisp/


Boozy French Toast
http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/12/new-years-day-2001/

Boozy french toast in the foreground

Sweet Potato 发糕

(Again, I apologize for the long hiatus from blogging on this page)

I have caught the baking bug lately and have been incessantly trying to find good/easy recipes for my experimental trials. While flipping through one of the many cook books I got from Popular, I came across this "Sweet Potato Fa Gao" recipe and decided to try it out last week. I had 3 projects going on in one Sunday afternoon and was dead beat by the end of it all. The almond suji cookies (from an earlier post) and fa gao turned out alright. But the Pineapple tarts leaves much to be desired (imagine feeding your bf the pineapple tarts that you had painstakingly baked for the last 3 hours and all he could do was burst out laughing upon the first bite -__-).

First batch of Fa Gaos from the steamer

Anyhoos... I bought some Japanese sweet potatoes from NTUC last week and it turned out to be the 'wrong' kind as it was predominantly pale yellow in color. The fa gao from that batch did not have much of an aesthetic appeal because of that. Today, I dug out the normal orangy sweet potatoes from the fridge (mum always has a stash of them hidden somewhere) and went for round number two.

Needless to say, the orange little cakes looked tons prettier than the ones from last week's. That being said, the yellow Japanese sweet potatoes did not lose out (taste-wise) when compared to it's local counterpart. In short, play around with the different varieties/colors available. Mum was even suggesting that I make purple fa gaos with those purple Peruvian sweet potatoes. Yew??)

Unfortunately, though my fa gaos passed Mama Lee's QC, (read: it tastes so yummy that i got my mum's accolades-and for those who know my mum, those are really hard to come by!!) they did not 发 very nicely. I have seen done my research online and found out the 'secrets' to it. Here are some pointers:

1. Make sure the water in your steamer is BOILING before you place your cake moulds in.
2. Never open the cover of the steamer halfway through baking. Just let it run its course.
3. Use a satay stick/chopstick/whatever to draw a cross on the batter before placing them into the steamer.4. Most importantly, allow your batter to sit for a FEW HOURS before baking. This was one thing that I failed in doing (and i blame the book for that!!#Q#@$)
---------------------------------------------------------

薯泥发糕 - Sweet Potato Fa Gao (Sweet Nyonya Kuih)
Adapted from: 情牵娘惹糕 by Andrew Kow (Pg. 46)

The original orange sweet potato发糕s from today

Ingredients A:

1 tbsp dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
60ml water

Ingredients B:
200 g mashed sweet potato (that is about one medium size potato)
200 ml coconut milk
300 g flour
2 tsp double action baking powder
1 egg

Method:
1. Mix Ingredients A until well combined and set aside for 30 minutes.

2. Add Ingredients B and mix well. Set aside for another 1.5-2 hours. (the original version says 30 minutes, but that wasn't enough for me)
3. Pour the batter into small cups, draw crosses on them and steam for 20-25 minutes. Serve.

Huat Ah!!! (sorry, couldn't resist it.)

发糕 using the pale yellow Jap sweet potatoes.

Madeleines à l'ancienne

Written by: Chowy (hence the stark contrast in writing quality)

Adapted from: 750g.com

Photos By: Val

The madeleine is an extraordinary creation. Oval and distinct with its shell-shaped base, it's a tiny bundle of simple goodness - crisp and moist, buttery and light all at once when done well. It perhaps is best thought of as a glorified butter cake made famous by its Proustian connection and similar to the financier. A quick search on Wikipedia provides the following description. The madeleine, or petite madeleine is "a traditional small cake from Commercy, a commune of the Meuse département in northeastern France". It doesn't require much ingredients apart from the basics - flour, eggs, butter, sugar and some lemon zest, making it a simple treat to whip up at home, guaranteed to be well-received fresh out of the oven. If madeleine moulds are difficult to find, shallow bun pans/muffin trays should do the trick too.

In our case, energised by the thought of recreating the delicious tea-time treat, as well as by the recollection that I had indeed acquired a set of madeleine moulds in a recent trip to Japan, I convinced Val it was worth a shot. After some research online, we went with a recipe from 750g.com - a French food website. As a side point, recipes on the madeleine abound on the internet, varying both in flavours (e.g. chocolate, vanilla, fruit flavoured ones - you name it the net has it!) and the basic ingredients (e.g. some would recommend using almond meal in place of flour, but that I feel would make it more of a financier). It's probably useful to experiment in small batches with a couple and use the one which best suits your tastebuds.

Most unfortunately, our attempt turned out to be somewhat dismal, as the batter stubbornly refused to rise in the oven. Alas, that heavenly aroma of lemony-butter couldn't conceal the dense texture of the madeleines, which made it at times barely chewy. I later discovered the fatal flaw, due embarrassingly enough, to my dismal French - causing me to misread 'baking powder' (levure chimique) for 'yeast' (levure). Which would explain why subsequent batches turned out slightly better after allowing more time for the yeast to interact with the batter. Yes - "oh dear + snigger" cry les Francophiles.

Nonetheless aside from the failed French translation, a la Proust, when consumed with a spot of tea and served slightly toasted, the resultant product was still sufficiently addictive for a couple more to disappear within seconds of appearing. And for that spine-tingling, body shuddering brief moment of pleasure, it's a recipe most certainly worth a shot.

Madeleines a l'ancienne (for 30 madeleines)

225g of plain flour

175g of sugar (can be reduced if less sugar is preferred)

100g melted butter

1 sachet of BAKING POWDER (1 sachet = approx. 11g)

4 eggs

1 lemon (for the rind)

pinch of salt

1) Beat the sugar and eggs together till it thickens and turns a creamy yellow

2) Sift the flour and baking powder together, before gradually adding, alternating each time, the flour and the butter + lemon zest

3) Before placing in the oven, grease and flour the madeleine pan to ensure ease of removal.

The original recipe advises the batter be left to set for about 20 minutes before cooking.

Et voila, les madeleines a l'ancienne! Bon appetit!

P.S. Do drop a line if you've come across any successful modifications!

Banana Nut Bread

Adapted from: Baking Illustrated

Photos By: ME (yes! i got a SLR already=))

I don't even know whether this qualifies as a short hiatus. A quick check tells me that the last time I blogged over here was on june 29th of LAST YEAR. That is like...more than a year ago.

In any case. Things have been moving along and i m finally finally back home (Singapore <3)!

Been trying to bake regularly too since I hardly am motivated to do so back at Duke. Sadly, I have lost a little bit of mojo (maybe baking products in the U.S. are different than in Singapore?!) but still!! I am trying...

Anyhooss..

I found a really great banana nut loaf (the bf insists it tasted more like a cake than a loaf of bread!grr) recipe that I would love to share!

Banana Nut Bread

Makes a 9-inch loaf (use a loaf pan measuring 9" x 5" x 3")

Ingredients:

2 cups (10 oz) or all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups chopped coarse walnuts

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas (1 1/2 cups)

1/4 cup plain yoghurt

2 large eggs, beaten lightly

6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position. Heat oven to 350F

2. Grease loaf pan. Dust with flour, tap out excess

3. Spread walnuts onto baking sheet and toast till fragrant (5-1o min), Set aside to cool

4. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and walnuts in large bowl.

5. Mix mashed banans, yoghurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium pold.

6. Lightly fold banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined. Batter looks thick and chunky.

7. Pour batter into loaf pan

8. Bake for about 55 minutes till loaf is golden brown.

9. Cool in pan for 5 minutes.

10. Serve warm or at rtp.

Suji Cookies

Photos By: JS
Recipe By: Oi Lin at http://pineapple-tarts.blogspot.com



Gong xi fa cai!!!! Yeah...I know I am lagging. Its like day 11 of the Chinese New Year already. Gosh..time flies. The first few days of the new year was spent trying to recuperate from a bad bout of shingles (caused by dormant chicken pox virus)but thanks to the support of my friends and daily consolation by my parents via phone, I managed to have a speedy recovery=) Nothing however, could dampen my festive baking spirit and I went on a CNY cookie baking frenzy. The pineapple tart didn't turn out like the way I wanted it to be (pineapple jam tasted more like the fruit itself than the conventional pineapple filling).The suji cookies however, were pretty awesome and I thought it would be great to share the recipe with you. Go easy on the Ghee though!! It clogs the arteries.



I found Oi Lin's recipe online while googling for pineapple tarts. It turns out that she is quite the professional baker who has published a couple of Asian desert cook books. She also has a vblog at http://pineapple-tarts.blogspot.com Do check it out!!

Suji cookies have always been one of my favourite CNY tart since when I was little. I remember my mum making it a couple of years just before I left for the States (and said bye bye to 3 years of Chinese New Year + Hong Baos) but honestly speaking, I like mine better =) I attended a church service 1 month back and the pastor was preaching about how God's love manifest itself through common family interests and I was just thinking how baking/cooking and bowling forge stronger relationships within my own family. I cannot imagine summer holidays without me and mum contributing to the decibel level of peaceful Siglap by overworking our Kenwood Chef cake mixer (its Dad's birthday present for mum from the 80s!). Can't wait to get home this May for more kitchen adventures!



Suji Cookies
............

Ingredients:
100g ghee
120g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
70g ground almonds
150g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Egg glaze: egg yolk

Method:
Mix first 4 ingredients, then add almonds and mix.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt. Mix and add to above. Mix to form a dough.
Scoop dough with a teaspoon, shape it with your hands (see video) and arrange on lined tray. Brush with yolk glaze.
Bake in preheated 180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 12 to 14 minutes till yolk glaze on cookies look golden yellow and bottoms of cookies are golden brown. Do not overbake!! Do not underbake either or cookies will not be crisp.
Allow cookies to cool completely on a rack and store in container.

Recipe Notes:
Using a measuring spoon to scoop dough makes your cookies all evenly sized.

Magnolia Cupcakes

Recipe from:The Magnolia Bakery
Photos by: JS and CY


So,I have heard alot about bakeries selling good cupcakes in New York but there was a particular one whose name keeps popping up at every food blog and review site. I then decided to try out the recipe for it one Friday night so as to satisfy the photographers' cravings for food with "more life and colour". Quoting JS: "I really cannot help you much if you keep baking things that are brown you know..." Hence, the inspiration for baking cupcakes.

Had a lot of fun doing this one. Invested in this pastry piping bag thing which really, could be ranked number 1 in Val's-bad-baking-tools-investment chart of the year 2007. Well, I could be biased now because I caught sight of this amazing pastry piping pump sold at the Chicago outlet of Williams-Sonoma which costs USD$25 *gulps*. It was made like a huge plastic syringe (easier for cleaning) and had up to 10 different nozzles! The $5 pastry piping bag I got from Krogers was such a disappointment! Seriously.Messy messy affair with frosting dripping everywhere. (ooo.it rhymes!)But, I got it done in the end and yippee..it tasted kinda decent too. Could have done better with the texture of the cupcakes itself though but sigh, what can I say, good creaming = good mixer+patience+noise pollution = need moolah + need to learn to be patient + nice housemates (which I thankfully have)


It is 4am and I am getting really tired!So enough with all the "let's tell you about my life and how it turned out to be a cupcake/cookie/cooking affair".straight to the recipe.

Magnolia CupCake
................
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
1 cup Unsalted butter, softened
2 cups Sugar
4 Large eggs, room temperature
1 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.


1. Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. In a small bowl, stir to combine the flours. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
4. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat.
7. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.
8. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full.
9. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
10. Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes.
11. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
12. Ice with tinted Vanilla Buttercream and sprinkles.


Magnolia's Vanilla Buttercream Icing
......................................
Makes enough for one 2-layer 9-inch cake or 2 dozen cupcakes*

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Do visit Magnolia Bakery at:

401 Bleecker Street
New York, NY. 10014
212 462 2572