Moist Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot cake is one of the easiest recipe around. It is also a personal favorite because of the moist texture and not forgetting the walnuts. So I made some carrot cupcakes for a gathering with some friends last Saturday and feedbacks from them are good. And that makes me happy. Carrot cakes is a really easy cake to make. You should try it. Just mix the wet and dry ingredients. That's it!

So far I have been using cream cheese frosting for my cupcakes because they don't taste too sweet and I do not like the buttery flavors from buttercream frosting.

So, here's the recipe.


Ingredients

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour or plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
2 eggs
2/3 cups granulated white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil (or vegetable, sunflower. corn oil)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or grated apple / crushed pineapple)
1 1/3 cups finely grated raw carrots

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 Degree C.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon.. Fold in the chopped walnuts. I will usually prepare the dry ingredients beforehand where I just mixed them together and store in a container. As for the walnuts, I usually prefer to roast them for a few minutes.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Then whisk in the sugar, oil and vanilla extract until slightly thickened. Fold in the applesauce and grated carrots. 

Fold this mixture into the flour mixture until incorporated. Evenly fill the baking cups with the batter.

Bake for about 20-23mins or until a toothpick comes out clean,

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, I always used the cream cheese frosting recipe from Glorious Treats

 

Japanese Cheesecake

This is a very light, moist and fluffy cake with a sort of cotton-y texture. If there is such a word to describe. Every bite of the cake will simply melt in your mouth. It's a totally different type of texture from the usual creamy cheesecakes that we usually had.

This is my second attempt and it was a success! My first attempt failed because the cake collapsed. That is because I didn't use parchment paper to line the side of the cake tin. Its always a joy to me to bake a successful recipe.

Ingredients (Recipe from The Little Teochew)

140g fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tar tar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
60g cake flour (can also use plain flour)
20g corn flour
1/4 tsp salt


Directions

1. Preheat oven at 160 Degree Celcius

2. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler

3. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, corn flour, salt and egg yolks and mix well.

4. Whisk egg whites with cream of tar tar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk till soft peaks form.

5. Add egg whites to the cream cheese mixture and fold well.

6. Pour into a 8 inch round springform cake pan or removable-bottom cake pan. Before pouring the mixture, be sure to lightly grease and line the sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper. This is important! Because the first time I baked without lining with parchment paper, the whole cake collapse!

You may also want to line the bottom of the pan with aluminium foil or parchment paper. I do this because its easier to remove the cake from the pan.

7. Bake the cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hr 10 mins or until set and golden brown.

8. Leave to cool in the oven with door ajar for about 30 mins to 1 hr. This is just so that the cake doesnt come into contact with cold air too quickly and ends up collapsing.

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!

Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting

I have always been wanting to try to make a red velvet cake but didn't really go about looking for a recipe from the internet. And recently I found a recipe from Glorious Treats and decided to give it a try because the pictures is just too adorable. This cake is good for occasions like Valentine's Day or Christmas because of the colour.

For the cupcake

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (Dutch process)

1  tsp salt

1 1/3 cups oil (Canola oil or any cooking oil)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 tbsp liquid red food coloring (or 1 tablespoons concentrated food coloring)

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp white vinegar

Directions

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

2. In a large bowl whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt, and set aside.

3. Whisk or beat oil and sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, and continue beating.  

4. Add food coloring and vanilla and mix well.

5.  Add flour and buttermilk alternately, in two batches. Mix just enough to combine. 

*I am not able to get any buttermilk from the Cold Storage near my house, so I used yogurt as substitute which I just so happens to have a tub which I bought to go with my cereals. To use yogurt, it will be 1-to-1 ratio, which means 1 cup of buttermilk equals to 1 cup yogurt. There are other substitutes if you do not have yogurt. You can also use 1 cup of milk plus 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice.

6.  Place baking soda in a bowl or cup, add vinegar and stir (it will foam and expand).  Add to cake batter and beat for 10 seconds.

7. Fill cupcake liners 2/3-3/4 full. Bake cupcakes 20-24 minutes.

For the cream cheese 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 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered confectioners sugar
1 to 2 tbsp heavy cream, heavy whipping cream

Directions

1.  Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend until fully combined

2.  Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar while mixing.  Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy. For the powdered sugar, though I it says 2 cups, it really depends on personal preference. I do not like my frosting to be too sweet, so actually I have only used less than 2 cups of powdered sugar.

3.  Slowly add the heavy cream, add abit 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 and you can start frosting your cupcakes!

 

They looks cute right :D Looking at them makes me smile!

 

 My cake looks darker then the usual bright red velvet cake. This is because this recipe used a slightly more amount for cocoa powder. If you want, you can reduce the amount of cocoa powder so it doesn't look more like maroon colour.