Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts
Friday, 22 March 2013
banana cupcakes with bailey's buttercream
One time my uncle decided to add a splash of Bailey's Irish Cream to the milkshake and it was so good I've come to associate Bailey's with bananas. Hence this recipe.
Banana Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream Frosting (makes ~12 cupcakes)
Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients
160g plain flour
110g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
125g unsalted butter
3 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
3 small bananas or 2 large ones (the riper the better)
Directions
- Mash the bananas in a bowl and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 175°C.
- Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Add in the vanilla extract and mix well.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and eggs and mix until well-combined.
- Add in the mashed bananas and continue mixing.
- Fill cupcake liners with mixture until ~¾ full
- Bake for 15-20min until you can smell the cupcake aroma from the oven, the tops have turned golden brown, and toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Bailey's Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
2 egg whites
60g caster sugar
84g unsalted butter, softened
30-40ml Bailey's Irish Cream (or to your liking)
Directions
- Pour egg whites and sugar into a clean, heatproof bowl and heat over a saucepan of simmering water, whisking the egg and sugar constantly so it does not curdle.
- Continue whisking until mixture reaches 70°C.
- Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl with whisk attachment
- Whisk until soft (not stiff yet), glossy peaks form and mixture has cooled to room temperature.
- Add in the Baileys a little bit at time, whisking well between additions.
- Change to paddle attachment, add in the butter and beat until it reaches frosting consistency. (Refer to this post for greater detail)
- Taste the buttercream--you can still add in more Bailey's if you wish.
- Frost as desired.
Additional:
I decorated my cupcakes by sprinkling some Banana Nut Crunch cereal (finely crushed), and topped it with a banana slice coated in honey.
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
(not quite) black forest cupcakes
For my Valentine's Day baking project I was hoping to do something a little edgier than the usual trite heart-shaped confections. Looked to the supermarket for some inspiration and was delighted to find cherries at the offer rack. [Truth be told, I spend more time at the supermarket than any other retail outlet. Which is a bit sad for a woman who is not yet married with children.] I love my stone fruits and cherries are tied for first place favourite with peaches. Cherries in their natural form, that is. I cannot stand maraschino cherries. Or indeed, any type of "cherry"-flavoured foods, which I automatically associate with cough syrup.
But I digress.
The original intention was to do a Black Forest cupcake inspired by the excellent BFG (Black Forest Gateaux) we had at the Fat Duck which I still dream about from time to time. Sadly, I didn't manage to find kirsch so I substituted it with rum, which apparently is commonly used in the Austrian version. Brandy might have been a better alternative but I was rather reluctant to use the Cognac at home.
I also switched the whipped cream for a cherry-rum-infused cream cheese frosting as the cherries I used were rather sweet and I wanted something tart to complement the richness of the chocolate cake.
So yes. There you have it! My Valentine's Day project which my valentine was rather pleased with.
(Not quite) Black Forest Cupcakes (makes ~24 cupcakes)
A. Cherry Filling
Ingredients
12 cherries, pitted and halved
1 cup rum (or just enough to soak the halved cherries in)
Directions
- Place the cherries in a bowl and pour in the rum, making sure that the cherries are immersed.
- Leave to soak for at least 3h.
B. Chocolate Cupcake
Ingredients
1¾ cup plain flour
1½ cup caster sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup strong black coffee (steaming hot)
Directions
- Place flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking power and salt into a mixing bowl.
- Add in eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee.
- Mix well using paddle attachment.
- Preheat oven to 175°C.
- Fill cupcake liners with batter until ¾ full.
- Bake for ~18min or until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.
- Leave to cool on wire rack
- When cool, use a sharp knife to core out centres of all the cupcakes. Do not discard the 'lid'.
- Stuff in a rum-soaked cherry half and ¼ tsp of cherry-rum (from A.) into each cupcake and replace cored out cupcake lid
C. Cherry-Rum-Infused Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
240g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
120g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
~1 cup confectioner's sugar (This is arbitrary. You can adjust the amount according to your preference for frosting sweetness.)
2 tbsp of cherry-rum (from A.)
Directions
- Mix cream cheese and butter together until well-combined.
- Add in sugar ¼ cup at a time until desired sweetness level is achieved
- Add in cherry rum and continue mixing until fully incorporated.
- Frost as desired!
Friday, 26 October 2012
lemon & maple syrup cupcakes
Next step was trying to figure out how to incorporate it into a cupcake. Lemon and maple syrup frosting on a butter cupcake base would have been the obvious choice. But I had been wanting to try out Glory's Perfect Vanilla Cupcake recipe for the longest time so I chose to omit the butter component and play up the lemon and maple syrup parts more.
So vanilla cupcake + lemon and maple syrup frosting then? I wasn't entirely satisfied with that. I wanted something less...predictable. And so we threw in a surprise lemon curd centre!
Final product: vanilla cupcake with a lemon curd centre, topped with a lemon-maple syrup cream cheese frosting, served with a drizzle of maple syrup.
Lemon & Maple Syrup Cupcakes
(yields ~ 16 cupcakes)
Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients
1¼ cup cake flour
1¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup buttermilk
Directions
- Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius
- In a bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir the dry ingredients together and set aside
- In a mixing bowl, beat eggs for ~10-20s. Add in the sugar and continue to beat for 30s on medium speed.
- Add in vanilla extract and oil and beat again.
- Add in half the dry ingredient mixture and mix together on low speed
- Add half of the buttermilk, then rest of the flour, followed by rest of the buttermilk, mixing well in between each addition
- Line muffin pan with cupcake liners and pour batter into liners until ~⅔ full
- Bake in oven for ~15min or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Lemon Curd
(adapted from Valli Little's recipe on taste.com.au)
(Note: There will be quite a bit left after filling the cupcakes. You can use the rest on pancakes, toast, biscuits, as a tart filling, in crepes and so on.)
Ingredients
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
82g caster sugar
40g unsalted butter
zest and juice of 1 lemon
Directions
- In a saucepan, whisk together the egg, egg yolk and sugar until smooth.
- Place pan over a low heat
- Add the butter, lemon juice and lemon zest, whisking continuously until mixture thickens
- Remove from heat, pour into a jar and leave to cool
Lemon-Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Frosting
(adapted from Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting recipe on allrecipes.com)
Ingredients
150g cream cheese, softened
40g unsalted butter
20ml lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
¾ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp maple syrup
¾ cup confectioner's sugar (this is subjective, you can add more/less depending on your preferred level of sweetness)
Directions
- In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, maple syrup and vanilla together until smooth and fluffy
- Add the sugar gradually, tasting in between additions until desired level of sweetness is attained.
*Assembly
- Use a sharp paring knife to core out the centre of the cupcake, taking care to leave a little bit of cake at the base.
- Cut the core in half (in a transverse direction), leaving the upper segment as a lid and discarding the other segment (or you can eat it!)
- Add a tsp of lemon curd into the hole you just made and fit back the upper part of the cupcake core (or the lid) to close the hole
- Pipe frosting as desired
- Drizzle maple syrup over the frosted cupcake before serving
Sunday, 23 September 2012
matcha & white chocolate cheesecake cups
Green tea-flavoured KitKats are one of my favourite snack foods (Kinder Bueno being my all-time favourite) even though I'm not really fond of green tea itself. I like my matcha in small doses as excessive bitterness is not exactly my cup of tea. (Hohoho!) Cheesecakes, too, I prefer in small doses. More often than not, they tend to be cloyingly sweet and rich, and I find myself giving up after the first 2 bites. Fortunately, this cheesecake manages to find the perfect balance of bitter and sweet.
I opted to divide the cheesecake into cups rather than bake it as a whole cake to facilitate portioning. I was pleased to discover that doing so enabled the cake to be baked more evenly (and quicker!) No more problems with centres that take forever to set!
Matcha & White Chocolate Cheesecake - makes 10 cups
(adapted from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings)
Ingredients
80g digestive biscuit crumbs
30g unsalted butter, melted
250g cream cheese, room temperature
80g + 1.5tsp caster sugar
50ml + 20ml whipping cream
1/2 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp cake flour
4 tsps matcha powder
100g white chocolate couverture
Directions
- Mix together biscuit crumbs and melted butter and press onto base of soufflé cups
- Preheat oven to 150 deg Celsius
- Whisk together cream cheese and 80g sugar until creamy
- Add in 50ml whipping cream, followed by egg and cake flour
- Measure out 25g of batter and set aside
- Add matcha powder and 1.5tsp of sugar into remaining batter and mix well
- Pour mixture onto biscuit base
- Heat 20ml whipping cream and pour over white chocolate
- Mix chocolate mixture into 25g of cheesecake batter previously set aside
- Add a dollop of chocolate-cheesecake mixture into each of the cups and swirl it with a toothpick
- Bake for 30min until cakes are firm but the centres are slightly wobbly
- Switch off oven and leave cupcakes to cool completely in oven
- Refrigerate overnight (or at least 2-3h) before serving
Sunday, 19 August 2012
white chocolate & strawberry cupcakes
Several years ago when I started baking on a more regular basis, my sister got me 500 cupcakes and muffins for my birthday. While I have yet to test out all 500 recipes, the white chocolate & strawberry cupcake recipe is my favourite thus far. The cake is light and fluffy and it smells absolutely delicious fresh out of the oven. My family seemed to agree as the first batch I made got wiped out in record time.
I didn't really like the icing recipe recommended in the book so I swapped it for a strawberry swiss meringue buttercream one. However, if, like most of my family, you do not like frosting, feel free to do without it as the cupcakes taste just as good topless.
White Chocolate & Strawberry Cupcakes (makes 18 cupcakes)
(adapted from 500 Cupcakes & Muffins by Fergal Connolly)
Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, softened
150g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1/2 tsp strawberry essence
100g white chocolate chips
1/4 cup finely chopped strawberries
Directions
- Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius
- Cream together butter and sugar until pale and creamy
- Add flour, baking powder and mix well
- Add eggs, one at a time, and strawberry essence
- Stir in finely chopped strawberries and white chocolate chips
- Spoon the batter into cupcake liners in muffin tins
- Bake in oven for ~20min or until toothpick inserted in centre of cupcake comes out clean
- Leave to cool
Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(adapted from callmecupcake)
Ingredients
5 large egg whites
150g caster sugar
210g unsalted butter, softened
100g coarsely chopped strawberries
Directions
- Pour egg whites and sugar into a clean, heatproof bowl and heat over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk the egg and sugar constantly so it does not curdle
- Continue heating the mixture until ~60-65 deg Celsius or until sugar has completely dissolved (rub mixture between fingers to check that it is no longer grainy)
- Remove from heat and whisk until soft, glossy peaks form and mixture has cooled to room temperature, ~10min
- Change to paddle attachment, add butter slowly and beat until it reaches frosting consistency--creamy and smooth but stiff enough to pipe. (The mixture will initially appear soupy, then curdled. Just continue beating, it should stiffen up.)
- Add chopped strawberries and mix until combined.
- Frost as desired!
Saturday, 11 August 2012
s'mores cupcakes
S'mores are campfire treats consisting of toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between 2 graham crackers. I've never actually tried an actual s'more before. The closest I've come to a s'more was probably a tub of Ben&Jerry's Marsha Marsha Marshmallow, which has now been rechristened S'mores. It is one my of favourite B&J flavours. B&J ice cream has a tendency to be overly sweet for me but the slightly salty graham cookie swirl in MMM nicely balances out the sweetness.
I had the privilege of trying a really good S'mores cupcake made by a friend several years back and have been inspired to recreate it ever since.
The components: a digestive biscuit crumb base, chocolate cake, and a marshmallow frosting. I used digestive biscuits as a substitute because where I live, it's almost impossible to get graham crackers.
Digestive Biscuit Crumb Base
Ingredients
15 digestive biscuits
2 tbsps salted butter, melted
Directions
- Crush digestive biscuits until a fine crumb is produced. You can use a food processor if you have one
- Pour melted butter over crumbs and mix well
- Line base of cupcake liners with crumb mixture (about 1.5 tbsps each) and press firmly until tightly packed
Chocolate Cake
(This recipe is widely used and I'm not too sure where it originated. Most have credited it to Hershey's, though, and if you check out the recipe section on their website, you can find the recipe under Black Magic Cake. The one below is my adaptation.)
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong black coffee (steaming hot)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius
- In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt
- Add in the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee and beat at medium speed for ~ 2 min
- Pour batter into cupcake liners with biscuit base
- Bake for ~20min or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean
- Leave to cool
Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
227g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
7oz Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Directions
- Cream butter and sugar together until pale and creamy
- Add in vanilla and salt
- Gently mix in marshmallow creme until well combined
- Frost cupcakes
- Sprinkle remaining biscuit crumb and top off with Maltesers
Monday, 30 July 2012
earl grey cupcakes
I cannot resist the aroma of a pot of Earl Grey tea (especially if it comes with a basket of scones) and probably would be drinking it more frequently if it weren't for the fact that excessive consumption of tea gives me heart palpitations. I figured the smell of Earl Grey would be just as wonderful coming from my oven and went on a search for an Earl Grey cupcake recipe.
And because chocolate goes well with everything, I just had to top it off with a Chocolate Earl Grey Buttercream frosting.
Unfortunately I can't remember where I got the cupcake recipe from so I can't give it due credit. This is my adaptation of it and if anyone does know where the original is from, do let me know.
Earl Grey Cupcakes (makes 12)
Ingredients
3 earl grey teabags
1/4 cup boiling water
1/3 cup milk
100g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cup self-raising flour
Directions
Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius
Immerse 2 teabags and empty the 3rd teabag into boiling water and steep for at least 3 min
Stir in the milk and set aside
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and creamy
Add eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated
Add tea-milk mixture
Add in flour and mix well
Spoon into 12 cupcake liners and bake for ~15 min
(*Note: the cupcakes did not rise as much as I would have liked. Fill the liners preferably more than 3/4 full if you prefer them higher)
Remove from oven and turn cupcakes onto wire rack immediately and leave to cool
Chocolate Earl Grey Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
100g dark chocolate (I use Lindt Madagascar 65% cocoa)
150g unsalted butter, softened
150ml confectioner's sugar
75ml cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1 earl grey teabag
30ml boiling water
Directions
- Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and heat over a saucepan of simmering water
- Set aside and leave to cool
- Immerse teabag in boiling water and leave to steep for ~3min
- Whip butter until light and fluffy
- Gradually add sugar and cocoa power and salt
- Add melted chocolate into mixture and whip until well incorporated
- Add in tea and mix until frosting is smooth and fluffy
- Frost cupcakes as desired!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)