have a Happy Valentine's with coconut milk cupcakes!

well, here's wishing everyone a happy V-day! for the occasion i tried a recipe that i have been wanting to taste for awhile - coconut milk cupcakes. the cupcake had both coconut milk and dessicated coconut in it. the final result was nice. the taste was subtle and light...very summery and tropical! the icing was a cream cheese coconut icing and i must admit that i was a little disappointed with it. first of all, it was impossible to ice nice designs with because it was a bit on the gooey side and also with the pieces of dessicated coconut in it, made it difficult to squeeze out evenly from the icing bag. also it looked lumpy and like the ingredients were not mixed in properly when really it was the bits of coconut...hmph! so i ended up just smearing it on the cupcakes and decorating with a foil-wrapped heart. not bad, but i would have preferred something a tad more spohisticated. also the pictures don't really do it justice - the icing was more pink but in the photos came out as looking salmon - hmph, again! overall not a bad result, but next time if i were to make these, i would make a buttercream icing, colour it so that it would be more delicately pink and use the icing bag to swirl it on with more finesse - leaving out the dessicated coconut from the actual icing and maybe sprinkling it on after. also a different flavour for the icing might have provided a better contrast to the end result...let's see what flavours might go nice with coconut - lime? chocolate? or just plain vanilla?

Gong Xi Fa Cai! - chinese new year cupcakes

so, very excited today because it is our first meet-up with the Singaporeans in Ireland group! we're going for a Chinese New Year party and of course, no guesses as to what i am bringing! yes, yes, chinese new year cupcakes of course and don't they look cute as a button? i completely lucked out after a long hunt for golden coins to actually find chinese gold coins in the oriental emporium here. they are just too perfect and without them...well they just wouldn't have looked so festive. i used a previous recipe for caramel cupcakes for these as i didn't want to experiment with anything new and the caramel cupcakes are pretty neutral in that most people like caramel (on other occasions when i have baked cupcakes with particular flavours people have not liked them i.e. gingerbread, black forest) so i wanted to have a flavour that most people like (have you ever heard anyone say they don't like caramel?) so hoping that these go down a treat today and for those celebrating, wishing you all Gong Xi Fa Cai!

devilishly undecided on these devil's food cupcakes

so my mum asked me to have a look and see if i could find any cupcake recipes that used brandy as she had a bottle of brandy that someone had given her as a present and thought it would be good to use some of it up....hmmmm, ok! so i found a recipe for a devil's food cupcake. now, i have made devil's food before, and it was really good, so i thought that the addition of brandy might work well. followed the recipe as stated and the batter was seriously RUNNY! i had to pour it into the cases (as opposed to scoop, spoon, etc.) when it came out of the oven, it looked decidedly interesting...very dark and heavy looking in the cases...gulp!...was this a sign of an impending cupcake-tastrophe! anyway i let them cool and iced them with vanilla buttercream icing - hubby even got in on the act and requested to try and ice a few...funny! then hubby grabbed one to try and i tasted some of the cake. the taste seemed fine but there was a strong presence of the brandy (hell, it IS strong stuff, right!) and this did seem to make the cupcakes heavy, in that, you didn't feel like you could just gobble another 4 or 5 of them down. for me, that's what i like so much about cupcakes, that they are usually so light and airy(fairy) but these cupcakes were not. i would recommend this one as a serious adult dessert only and alcohol-lovers at that! on the upside though, i got really creative with my icing designs and had the opportunity to try out ideas for the chinese new year cupcakes i'll be making on saturday for the Singapore expat group get-together.

The Foodie Blogroll

http://www.leftoverqueen.com/the-foodie-blogroll

Come one, come all, ye budding bakers, cooks and closet chefs! If you think you have an inclination for interesting ingredients or marvellous magical mixtures that you want to share then join The Foodie BlogRoll! Share your creations, experiments and explorations with foodies around the world and broaden your taste bud horizons! See ya there!

sunday morning treat - french toast cupcakes

mmmmm, french toast...i just love french toast - especially in the morning and on sundays...it's absolutely perfect weekend comfort food. so what about french toast re-created in a cupcake. now that sounds even more perfect! so this morning i got up and got baking. i used a basic cupcake recipe with the addition of cinnamon (oooo, the smell of it baking in the oven was yummy-licious!) while the cupcakes were baking, i hunted for some maple syrup and found some secreted away at the back of one of my parents' many crammed cupboards - this was for drizzling down through the baked cupcakes. then i set to work on the icing. i had some cream cheese icing in the freezer that i took out to defrost and once ready, added some cinnamon powder to that too, which turned it a lovely...well...cinnamon colour! once the cupcakes were baked, i poked some fork holes into the cupcakes (which i think i did too soon because they hadn't cooled enough and later kinda broke up on eating) and drizzled maple syrup down through the cupcake (oh ya, remember to cut back on sugar in the cupcake recipe!) then topped with the cinnamon cream cheese icing and some little chocolate chews. wow! it has never felt so good waking up on a sunday morning. the taste was superb...just like french toast and little brother had eaten 3 before i even had time to finish icing the rest!!! i love lazy sunday mornings...coffee and french toast cupcakes...sublime!

GREAT COOKS Blogroll

so in an attempt to link up with other cooks and get more involved in the world of food blogs i have joined the GREAT COOKS Blogroll and imagine my joy to hear i'm the first cupcake blog to join too! it's wonderful to see the array of blogs out there and the many different food types people experiement with and explore with a mixture of love and passion! i love it! Click below to explore further....http://simpledailyrecipes.com/great-cooks-blogroll/

guinness cupcakes - embrace 'the black stuff'!

so what is a girl to do when in a country where 'the black stuff' is almost considered to be part of the staple diet!?! embrace it, of course and get creative with it! so guinness cupcakes became the mood of the moment. the recipe started off with melting the butter in the guinness (hot guinness....yeuch!) and then the rest of the ingredients were added to it. by the time the batter was ready to scoop into the cupcake cases, i was ready to just sit down somewhere quietly and lick the bowl of batter up...no need to bake! it was that good and the smell....divine! but i figured there were a family of eager testers and tasters waiting to see what guinness cupcakes would taste like so who was i to disappoint! i topped with a mascarpone vanilla icing and OH MY GOSH! these little guys tasted FANTABULOUS (that's a mixture of fantastic and fabulous for those not in the know....cos one word is just not enough!) the guinness added this smoothness and richness to the chocolate and the cupcake just seemed to melt in your mouth. these are such wonderful adult cupcakes that it really puts to rest all those critics who say that cupcakes are just for kids....these certainly are for the adult population...proof....18 made yesterday....3 left today on last check....need i say more?

Guinness Cupcakes

Cupcake
1 cup Guinness
1 stick + 1 Tb unsalted butter
¾ cup cocoa
2 cups dark brown sugar
¾ cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 Tb vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 ½ tsp baking soda

Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1 ¼ cups icing sugar
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tray.

Combine the Guinness and the butter (chopped into 1 inch chunks) in a double boiler and heat to melt the butter. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa and sugar.

In a bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla, then add to stout mixture.

Sift together flour and baking soda and fold into batter.

Pour into cupcake cases and bake for 25 mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Let stand 10 mins and then remove from tray and cool on a wire rack.

In a mixer, whisk together ingredients for icing and spread over cooled cupcakes.

marmalade cupcakes with lime drizzle

so i've been really enjoying marmalade recently. my mum bought this jar of thick cut dark bitter marmalade (it's really dark brown as opposed to regular marmalade which is light orange) and it has been so good having it on my toast in the morning that it kinda wanna makes you wake up just to have breakfast! so i thought i'd try some marmalade cupcakes...i found a jar of not so dark marmalade in the fridge and thought i'd use that up. it wasn't too strong because i didn't want it to overpower the mixture. well it worked out just nice...the cupcakes had a lovely subtle taste of orange marmalade and then to top it off i made some lime drizzle to put on top just for that extra tangy bite. delicious and a great start to the day - sorta puts that extra 'zing' in your step as you head out the door!

caramel mudcake cupcakes

so it was hubby's birthday today and had to make something special for him because it's his first time away from home on his birthday and from family. so i had been thinking about making something toffee-like because i love the taste of toffee and recently bought a toffee cake from the local supermarket but was disappointed by how much ginger was added to the recipe so that you really lost the smoothness of the toffee taste and were overwhelmed by this aftertaste of ginger (which i'm not a big fan of - giner that is, as opposed to toffee, which i'm a huge fan of!) not great! so i stumbled upon a recipe for caramel mudcake cupcakes and decided to give it a whizz. you melted the important toffee base ingredients first - golden syrup, brown sugar, butter, etc and even the smell of the ingredients melting together was enough to make you salivate. when they finally came out of the oven, the smell was so good.....WOW - just not enough words to describe it! i iced them with vanilla buttercream icing which tasted just like vanilla ice-cream (thanks to this great vanilla extract i bought at a local gourmet shop) and decorated with rainbow sprinkles because let's face it...a birthday ain't a birthday without some rainbow sprinkles!!!! Happy Birthday, honey x

lemon muffins with lemon drizzle

so i decided to take a break from cupcakes and make some chunky muffins for breakfast. i love the taste of lemon so went with lemon muffins. now i don't know about you but i just don't feel right icing muffins...so i thought a drizzle might be nice instead. i mixed some icing sugar and lemon juice together until i got the consistency i was looking for and drizzled it on top and wow! it was perfect. it had this lovely tangy flavour to it that just made the muffins taste so great. must explore some more with drizzle and maybe on cupcakes this time....

white chocolate cupcakes with baileys icing

ok so i lurve white chocolate and baileys and wanted to pair the two...and it turned out so nice...i put one of those small bottles of baileys into the icing mix and it was just nice - the right amount of flavour that allowed you to enjoy the taste of it without overpowering the white chocolate cupcake. the cupcake itself, with the melted white chocolate in it, was melt in your mouth divine - soft and spongy. these went down a treat...

christmas chestnut cupcakes

i made these for a christmas eve treat - chestnut cupcakes with a chocolate chestnut icing...and they turned out really good. i made my own chestnut puree from fresh chestnuts and it was delicious, once added and baked the taste was very subtle...not overpoweringly chestnut which was just what i wanted. as i had extra chestnut puree left over i decided to also add it to the icing to use it up and include the delicate chestnut taste in the icing. this also worked nicely and it paired really nicely with the chocolate flavour. i was super pleased with the final result...what a divine treat before christmas day!

double chocolate cupcakes - overdose on the stuff!

ok, so i made these as my contribution to the 'welcome back' dinner my younger brother's girlfriend organised in our honour. they were double chocolate because the cupcake was chocolate made with my favourite chocolate of all time - valrhona and the icing was white chocolate cream cheese...truly a divine combination. they went down a treat - my brother polished off a few at a time followed closely by my husband! plus, for decoration i found these heavenly bottles of sprinkles that have four varieties in one tub and they are really fun but classy (as opposed to rainbow sprinkles!) i don't know what it is about chocolate, i mean most of the time i could just walk around with the stuff pumping into me through an intravaenous drip...it's insane! but for now i'll just have to make do with double helpings of it in my cupcakes!

christmas cupcakes! Ho Ho Ho!

so it was the last get together with the Sunday Clubbers for Z and i for some time...we're leaving for ireland in december. this get together centred around a murder mystery and yet it was also a christmas celebration so i wanted to make something in the spirit of christmas. i decided on gingerbread (cos it's just perfect for christmas) and red velvet because it's umm....red! i searched for recipes that i felt good about and got to work...i had managed to pick up some cutesy christmas decorations in 'bake-it-yourself' a fab shop for baking on bukit timah road so i didn't have to worry about decorations. i also modified (again!) my cream cheese icing...instead of using all philadelphia cream cheese, i added half ricotta instead and it worked like a dream and i think the icing tasted so much better for it too! the final result...gingerbread smelled so good in the oven and when it came out, that it almost brought tears to my eyes of memories of my great aunt bridie and her gorgeus gingerbread she would make for me during my summers in ireland. i like the taste and texture...it was full of spices and rich and moist and dark. however, interestingly enough, this one wasn't such a big hit at the gathering...i think gingerbread is quite an acquired taste and not for everyone. the red velvet also smelled divine and the colour was so rich that i was worried that i'd turn everyone's mouth red (well would have fit in with the murder mystery theme even more!) the texture was light and sponge-like but with a nice taste...the cocoa flavour was subtle so didn't overpower the flavour of the vanilla. i think this was everyone's fav. of course the deocrating was too much fun especially those holly and berry sprinkles which i could have lost all sense of reason with and just madly sprinkled willy-nilly! Happy early Christmas!

a fitting farewell....

so, yesterday was my last day with my darling kindergarten 1 children at chiltern house crescent road and i planned a farewell in a style that only a serious cupcaker could - a cupcake decorating afternoon. i baked a batch of devil's food cupcakes (cos they're soft and delicious) and left them 'naked'. then i brought them in with an array of decorating goodies (hershey's candy coated kisses, regular kisses, cherries, chocolate sticks, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles...) and of course some icing. i let my little darlings ice and decorate their own cupcakes and they loved it! definitely if i ever have my own shop i will organise a cupcake party pack - cos it went down a treat...they all had such beautiful ideas and really enjoyed getting their fingers gooey with the icing! it was my perfect parting gift to them and as you can see...there are some budding cake decorators there in the works!

'the spider' created by tristen & 'the clown' created by miri