Chocolate muffin

One reason that I like to make muffin is that it is very easy. Just mix everything together and tadaa! Muffins with a glass of milk makes a very good breakfast. You can store them in containers and before you want to eat it, just pop it into the microwave and warm it up a little and it will taste like you just baked them.

So I am craving for something chocolate-y recently... :D


Ingredients

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup unsalted butter (Melted)
Semi sweet chocolate chips (Optional)*


Directions

Preheat oven to 180 Degree C.

Beat the eggs with sugar. Mixed in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, vanilla and milk.
Add in the butter. For me I like to use either whisk or a spatular to mix the ingredients. This can prevent over mixing which will make you muffins comes out too tough.

*Optional : You can add in some chocolate chips if you want, depending on your preference.

Pour mixture into muffin cups, about 2/3 full. Bake for about 20 - 25 mins. Depending on the size of you muffin cups. Mine is about the medium size cups. If you are using bigger ones, you may increase the baking to time to about 30 mins.

For me, I like to eat my chocolate muffins with vanilla ice cream. I think they are really a perfect match. Can't go wrong with it. :)

Buttermilk Chocolate cupcake with Oreo Creamcheese frosting

So last week is the Valentine's Day and we decided to just have a simple picnic under the stars at Marina Barage. Well, not really stars because it rained before that. But it was a nice cooling evening.

We celebrated the day after and I prepared for him a full dinner. Haha. I made salad, beef burger, and cupcakes and all of them is a success! I am proud of myself. :D

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup water

 

Method

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

3. Beat in Vanilla

4. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt

5. Combine buttermilk and water

6. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with butter and water

7. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full

8. Bake at 190 Deg C.

 

Vanilla cupcake with chocolate cream cheese frosting

I posted an entry of the red velvet cupcakes that I made recently and they all look so cute and adorable. So now I am quite into cupcakes.

And this time, I made vanilla cupcakes with Chocolate creamcheese frosting for a Christmas lunch gathering at my friend's place.

It was a great Christmas day celebration with great company and good food.

Merry Merry Christmas!!

For the cupcake

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)

1/2 cup buttermilk *

* If you can't find buttermilk, you can also use the following substitute

- 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice - set aside for 5 minutes before using

- 1/2 cup yogurt

Directions

* Preheat oven to 350*F (180 Deg C)

* In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with whisk, and set aside.

* In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds.  Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil, beat.

* Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture.  Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk.  Beat until just combined.  Scrap down the side of the bowl.

* The batter will be thin.   Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners.  Fill liners about 2/3 full.

* Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.

* Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.

* Frost as desired when fully cool.

For the frosting

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick/8 Tablespoons) butter (set at room temp about 10 minutes, but should still be cool)
8 oz. cream cheese (directly from fridge)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (always use pure vanilla extract if possible)
4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
1 to 4 Tablespoons heavy cream, heavy whipping cream

Direction

* Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Add cream cheese and blend until combined, about 30 seconds.

* Add cocoa powder and blend until combined.

* Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.

* Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don’t add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)

* Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.

*Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

I woke up early in the morning to bake a birthday cake for my Fiance. However, this time round my cake turned out with big cracks. I think my oven was too hot. I got to say, the looks of the cake doesn't do the cake justice because even thought the cake looks ugly, it was still indeed a very yummy cake.

This is by far the best chocolate cake recipe I ever tried. The cake was very moist and the taste of chocolate is very rich. And because chopped chocolates was added to the batter, you can taste the melted chocolate from every bite. Yummylicious~

Recipe

Got this recipe from The Little Teochew. Here & here.

1 cup (4oz/114g) cake flour (plain flour is fine too)
1/2 cup (1.6oz/46g) Dutch-processed (alkalized) cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks/6oz/170g) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups (8.8oz/250g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (180ml) buttermilk*
2 tablespoons (30ml) Kahlua or substitute with 1 tbsp on rum (optional)**
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 ounces (113g) finely chopped bittersweet chocolate
or 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate morsels bittersweet

* If you do not have buttermilk, pour 180ml of whole milk in a cup, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, stir and let it sit for 5mins. You can alternatively use about 1 tbsp of white vinegar in place of lemon juice.

** I didn't use any Kahlua or rum and it still taste fine.

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Generously grease the interior of a 6-cake Bundt-lette pan (it's best to use shortening here). Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess.

*Because I do not have a 6-cake Bundt-lette pan, I used a 7 inch cake pan instead.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed for 2 minutes, until very creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 3 minutes, until the mixture is well blended and light. At medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

4. In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk, Kahlua (or rum), and vanilla extract. If your mixer has a splatter shield attachment, attach it now. At low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk cream mixture in two additions, and mixing just until blended. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the finely chopped chocolate or miniature semisweet morsels. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake molds, dividing it evenly and smoothing the tops.

5. Bake the cakes for 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan set on a wire rack for 10 minutes. 

If you also using a 7-inch cake pan like me, you can try following Miss Teochew instruction. 
Baked at 175°C for the first 30 minutes. After that, lower the temperature to 160°C for the next 40 minutes. Test with a skewer at round the 1 hour-mark. You should also tent your cake throughout the entire baking time to prevent having a burnt top. 

This is the the second time I baked this cake and the cake crack more seriously than my first attempt. I didn''t tent my cake this time round, so this is also maybe why my cake have bigger cracks though the top are not burnt. 

* During my first attempt, I did tent my cake, but end up the foil got sticked to the cake. Not nice. So if you want to tent your cake, you may want to ensure that your batter is not too full.

6. Invert the cakes onto the rack and cool completely.

* If you intend to chill the cake(s), make sure they are stored in a tightly-lidded container to prevent drying out.

Look at the cracks.. Its like earthquake!

 

Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes

I baked a buttermilk chocolate cake two weeks ago and I have some leftover buttermilk and kept them in the freezer. I usually do not want to keep leftovers for too long, so I will always search on the internet for recipes. Today, I am making some buttermilk chocolate cupcakes. I love baking cupcakes and muffins because they are just so easy to make. Preparation time is short and you just mix all ingredients together. Its great for parties!

There is no frosting for the cupcakes because of the lazy bug in me. Still, eating the cupcake alone is good enough as the sweetness is just nice. Usually I find that frosting are a little too sweet for me though cupcakes are suppose to look pretty and cute. :D

I like having cupcakes warm so what I will do is that I will simple pop them in the microwave for a minute or two. The fragrance and taste of the chocolate is richer when its warm. This is also one of the reason I prefer not to use frosting. 

The recipe

1/2 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Combine buttermilk and water. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk and water, beating well after each addition.

During the whole mixing process, I just used the whisk and spatula. This is to avoid over beating or else your cupcakes will come out too tough.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

MMmmm~~ I just love the scent of freshly baked cakes. They smell heavenly.