vegan chai cupcakes

these cupcakes were featured on All Things Cupcake in their weekly cupcake collection

i've been wanting to give these a try for ages - vegan cupcakes from the VCTOTW book, so today was the day. they were really simple to make - i didn't even need to take out the mixer for these. the smell of the batter was very very aromatic (there was cardamom in the recipe...again...i'm a glutton for punishment!) however, i was disappointed that the recipe only yielded 12 cupcakes. generally i can get anything from 16-24 cupcakes from most batters so it was weird to be stretching it to try and fit 12 because they weren't even filled up to the usual height. i like my cupcakes 'up-size' because generally i only want one and so i like to get the most-ess out of it! if i'd have up-sized this batter i might have gotten 6! anyway, popped them in the oven and the smell was just lovely...really smelled like chai that i remember drinking from Coffee Bean in Singapore.

once they were out, i let them cool and got to work on the icing. ok, so i know that they are supposed to be vegan, but no-one in my family is actually vegan so i could get away with it and my brother has a penchant for buttercream icing! i made chocolate this time and piped it on. the taste of the icing was delicious - very chocolate-y, very good! iced the cupcakes and then came the taste-test. my brother tucked in straight away and was happy. as for me, well, first of all, i was a bit disappointed by how much they stuck to the cupcake case...so much so, that the whole bottom was left behind on the paper and it seemed like half the cupcake had gone MIA. not very attractive. i wondered if it was because i had substituted the canola oil for sunflower oil in the recipe? wonder if anyone else has ever experienced this? i normally never have a problem with cupcakes sticking, and i have used both oil and butter in recipes and usually everything is fine. hmmmm, shall have to ponder this a little more. but back to the taste, it was very good, the spices tasted so warm and comforting and blended really well with the chocolate.

i really liked these and perhaps might use the recipe base again to make a non-vegan variety because i definitely noticed a difference in the texture of the cake - more dense and heavy than non-vegan varieties. you miss that airy fairy feel that you get when you cream butter and sugar and of course, add the eggs. but i think it's good to try these things out. educate yourself a bit. photos were taken in the garden (because Spring weather is still happily hanging around - but i am expecting it to go at any moment!) and i couldn't help but use some of the foliage.

a sweet salute to Spring - pistachio cardamom cupcakes

oh my, oh my, it seems like Spring might actually be here. the past few days have been really beautiful sunny days...still cold, but otherwise crisp and fresh and just really nice to be outdoors in. so in honorary celebration of the coming of Spring, i wanted to make some cupcakes. something exotic and spicy to put all and sundry in the mood. i found this recipe for pistachio cardamom cupcakes on vanilla garlic's blog (links on the menu to the right) and really wanted to try them. so, first let's talk about cardamom....cardamom, oh, cardamom, what do i think of thee? i'm very undecided on my feelings towards the mysterious cardamom....

car·da·mom /ˈkɑrdəməm/ [kahr-duh-muhm]
–noun
1.the aromatic seed capsules of a tropical Asian plant, Elettaria cardamomum, of the ginger family, used as a spice or condiment and in medicine.
2.the plant itself.
3.a related plant, Amomum compactum, or its seeds, used as a substitute for true cardamom.

so this is what the online dictionary tells us about it but, me...personally, well, i think when i was younger and living somewhere or other i had a very bad experience with the cardamom in that i ate a whole pod and decided it wasn't for me....the taste seemed too strong and pungent and left a very lasting impression (and not one of the good 'uns either!) however, never one to let past experiences rule the kitchen cake mixer, i decided to bite the bullet (not the cardamom!) and make some cupcakes using them. ok, ok, so i have to admit when i opened the spice jar and took a whiff i had a moment of post traumatic smell syndrome as memories came flooding back. but i baked on and followed the recipe and made the cupcakes (not exactly as listed though...recipe said 2 teaspoons of cardamom and i'm afraid i punked out...and put only 1...i know, i'm a lightweight...but once cardamom'd, twice shy!) smell when they were in the oven was very good...warm, aromatic and exotic. i was pleasantly surprised...could i finally be overcoming years of cardamom-phobia? once cooled, i iced them with a vanilla buttercream. i am currently in love with vanilla buttercream and how good it looks when squeezed out the piping bag and after the valentine cupcake incident, i wanted these ones to look....cupcake-tastic.

best of all, with the cometh of Spring, i had beautiful natural sunlight to bathe my cupcakes in...and i took so many photos...i just went wild...i couldn't help myself! it's the joy of seeing sunshine again! and cupcakes and sunshine, well, it doesn't get much better than that! so after all the hard work was done, it was time for the taste-test...i took a bite...and...i could really taste the cardamom (phew! to only putting in one teaspoon) but it seemed to blend really well with the pistachio and the overall flavour was very reminiscent of india. to my surprise though, everyone else just gobbled them up - even my brother who i always thought was pretty fussy on foods and who i suspected would be the first one to complain...didn't. so, in conclusion, i think it's just me. i'm guessing i must be super-sensitive to cardamom. but at least i can say today that i came, i saw, i cardamom'd!

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

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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!