The search for best vanilla cupcake

For the longest time, I had been using Amy Sedaris' vanilla cupcake recipe (google it and it shows up). It was said that her cupcakes were voted No. 2 in NYC. Now, I am oceans away from NYC, so I don't know. But I think their tastebuds certainly differ from tastebuds here.

It was indeed not bad, don't get me wrong. But not as good as I would have expected either. 

It was a little too dense and too sweet for me. Still, other than tweaking the sweetness, I stuck with the recipe for a while. While looking and finding time to try some others. 

Then there was a day when I was feeling less lazy, I decided to try the Planet Cakes recipe. Actually it was because I borrowed their cupcakes book from the library and my loan was overdue, but I was still clinging on to it, reluctant to return it even though the library was increasing my fine by the day. But that is me. When I borrow a book, it usually sits somewhere for 1.5 weeks. Then 2 days before the due date, I scramble to finish reading it. 

So, when I finally decided to return it (the library sent me an email with "Final Reminder" as subject), I thought I'd better do something useful with it, at least to feel a little more justified in paying the fine.

I was glad I did.

Vanilla Cupcake

It has been uncomfortably hot over the past few weeks! There is nothing I felt like doing except to soak myself in the bathtub until my skin creases (a pity I do not have a bathtub actually). Wherever we went, it was humid, and we get hot and sticky all over. Yucks, it doesn't feel good at all. For this reason, I did not step into the kitchen very much. Most of the time at home was spent hiding in the aircon room, either facing the computer, the TV, a book or on the bed.

Just a few days ago, I suddenly remembered the bake for April at Sweet & Simple Bake is Vanilla Cupcake. Great idea, it's a classic and always a hit. I realised the recipe is the same as the one we had done for Halloween. But no problem, I don't mind doing it again since I enjoyed them the previous time. I decided to keep my vanilla cupcakes real simple.

Firstly, my family members do not like stuff which are overly sweet. So, I replaced the frosting recipe with some Swiss Meringue Buttercream I have, which we find less sweet. I also used soy milk in place of regular milk.

Secondly, unlike me, they do not like cakes with too much cream on them. Instead of doing a swirl on the cupcake, I only added a small amount of buttercream on top. This also managed to hide the fact that I am not good at making swirls...and that I actually do not have enough buttercream to cover the tops of all the cupcakes! :)

It was wonderful. With a cup of iced chocolate, it was simple, comforting and satisfying.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I have never celebrated Halloween in my life. The closest I got was many years back, when I bought a pack of ghost shaped chocolates from Marks & Spencer and gave them to my colleagues. Ok, that doesn't count as celebration.

In my world, Halloween is non-existent. My knowledge only goes as far as knowing that pumpkins are always been carved, pictures of cats, witches, ghosts, spiders are always associated with Halloween....that's all.

But I could not miss joining SSB's October Bake of Spooktacular Halloween Cupcakes, because I did not have to have a celebration to eat the cupcakes. The cupcakes came out very nice (as with all previous SSB's chosen recipes). Everything about the cupcake was just nice - the sweetness, the amount of butter, the soft texture.

I frosted them using Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC)...instead of my usual icing-sugar-added-to-butter buttercream. Goodness, I didn't know I was missing out this much before! I had always wondered how bakeries can make their buttercream so light and yet not overly sweet. Now I finally know. I'll never go back to using buttercream made from only butter and icing sugar.

Though I had good fun frosting the cupcakes, you can see that creativity is not something I am born with. It's the first time I work with black colouring, and though I seemed to have added so much colour, I still could not get the shade that I wanted. I eventually decided not to add too much colour, which is why the spider (if you could make it out as a spider!) and the spider webs are not black. I had planned to decorate 2 'eyeball' cupcakes with white frosting background and some red jelly lines as red veins. But I completely forgottten about them, until I realised that dear and I had eaten 2 unfrosted cupcakes..oops. The "BOO" words were supposed to be in darker colours, but I had added a lot of colouring yet the colours remained pale, so I let them be.

Dear was the first to try to unfrosted cupcakes, thumbs up! He tried them again after they were frosted, just as good! He couldn't exactly work against his conscience and gave me thumbs up for my designs, which hardly look spooky. In fact, they look comical. Mum tried the cupcakes and love them too. Not too many comments from her on the piping too, other than "is that meant to be a spider?" Haha!

This enjoyable bake is a first for me in a couple of ways:

- first time I use SMBC
- first time I use black colour (I did not know I have to add so much!). My cream was still not black, I stopped adding colour when it was dark grey.
- first time I pipe grass. Obviously I need practice. My grass looks like an abandoned patch in the forest.
- first time I pipe a rose. I used the remaining frosting to try piping a buttercream rose, based on the videos I have watched on Youtube. The first attempt was ok, though not exactly nice. The subsequent ones were disastrous and the piping was not stiff enough.

I spent a lot of time on the frosting and it was tiring but was good practice. All the cupcakes are already in our stomachs by the time you see this post!

The great recipe can be found in my Recipe Blog or SSB's website.

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Today is my cousin's daughter 16th birthday and she held a BBQ celebration this evening. October also happens to be the month of the birthdays of my godbrothers, as well as my cousin's other daughter. I made them a handful of cupcakes and hope that they will like them.

Using the fondant skills I have just acquired, I made some fondant stuff 2 days back (giving them time to dry). My godbrother is born in the year of the pig, so I made him a pig face. My niece Peiwen, gives me the ever-relaxed, happy-go-lucky feeling, so I made her a pair of flip flops. For my other godbrother Wilson and other cousin's daughter Michelle, I am not sure what they will like (on hindsight, the pair of flip-flops should be for Wilson instead..), so I put cheerful flowers next to their names.

Last year, I gave Willie some cupcakes for his birthday too, I hope this year's cupcakes are an improvement. They are made with a different recipe, and I hope he finds them delicious. The chocolate cupcake is from Donna Hay's book named Chocolate. Willie will be back tonight from Hong Kong, so I guess they will be a surprise for him.

I am not sure how they will like the cupcakes, because buttercream is not something everyone likes. I find that the locals do not favour buttercream because of the sweetness and high calorie count. That is why I tried to frost them as thinly as possible, instead of making nicer and higher swirls. I would have liked to keep them to a common theme, but the fondant figures that I made cannot belong to a common theme...so I guess..until I master more fondant figures, then I will try to make the colours and figurines to a common theme next time.

The youngsters sure had a good time this evening. Seeing them makes me feel old...I am not as energetic as them anymore...I need to get my beauty sleep now..zzzzzzz

Recipe for the cupcakes has been added here!

Fondant decorations

These days, I have been looking up videos and information on fondant and how to make figurines with them.

I have seen how beautiful cakes, cupcakes and cookies can turn out to be when covered with a layer of smooth looking fondant. But I had my reservations about them because I know that most people do not actually like to eat them very much. Especially for my family and friends, I know that they will not be great fans of the sweet sugarpaste. And the tools for fondant making can be quite expensive, and I procrastinate because I am not sure if I will get to use them often.

However, I still decided to learn something new, so I signed up for a Fondant Decoration class. It was only last night that I knew my registration for today's class has been confirmed. But yesterday, I had already bought some new colours and readymade fondant, ready to do some experimenting even if the class was full and my registration had to be rejected.

So, this morning, I went to the class with great excitement and enthusiasm. It's like playing with Play-Doh, really fun! The instructor taught us to make teddy bear, penguins, roses and goldfish etc. The numerous videos I had been watching on Youtube lately has been of great help. I went to the class, with knowledge of how to make fondant roses and bumble bees. But the class is useful so that I know how to handle the fondant in our humidity, and to pick up any useful tips that the class might provide.

These are my results. As you can see, more practice is very much needed. My bear doesn't quite look like one, and the penguin is out of shape by the time I got home. While the instructor was letting us try out doing the animals, I managed to make a bumble bee by recalling the Youtube video I saw. It's my favourite because it is very easy to make! :D I also tried making a pumpkin, which I might be able to use for Halloween.

With my pack of readymade fondant and some new knowledge, throw me the cupcakes! I am ready to do some decoration! Throw me the cupcakes! And you will not only see the minty green in my frosting anymore! I have bought new colouring! Hahaha!

My birthday (chocolate) cupcakes

This evening, I came back later than usual from work. So, we had dinner later than usual. By the time we cooked, ate, and washed up, it was about 8pm.

Still, I wanted to make cupcakes. It was quite a wrong decision, in the sense that I stood there to make the cupcakes all night long. Making the cupcake and making the frosting is so tiring.

By the time I'm done with washing up (there's so much to wash for cupcakes! And so oily!), it was just nice, 11.59pm. When I snapped the picture, it was 12 midnight, MY BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday to me!

I wanted to bring a few to the office for my colleagues, but dear said why give to the people who do not appreciate them? Let's keep them for ourselves, haha. It's quite true. He loves the buttercream....my colleagues would have scrapped them all off, even though I had already spread it very thinly.

*notice my silly penguins making their rounds again*

Vanilla cupcakes

So, it was my sister's birthday yesterday. Our family went for lunch at a nice restaurant and we brought along the vanilla cupcakes I made.

I made the cupcakes on Friday night. Why not on Saturday?... because I had to go paint my new place on Saturday. But it was only on Sunday morning that I made the frosting.

For the cupcakes, I followed a recipe from the book given by my friend. It is quite funny to call it vanilla cupcake, because out of the whole recipe, vanilla is only added in the frosting part.

It turned out ok, but it was oily. It tasted much like butter cake. I did not alter the amount of butter, so I am not sure why there was so much oil. So much oil came out, that when I took the tray out of the oven and tilted it, I could actually pour out the oil. Any idea why? This did not happen the last time I made other types of cupcake.

I made some minty green frosting on Sunday morning. I like the green! The word "Minty" just comes to mind when I see this colour...but no mint is involved here. Then the lazy me just put a silly-looking penguin candy on top to decorate it. They all looked like they are sleeping on some fluffy mattresses haha.

My sister liked the cupcakes...but her comment was "the candy was very nice"! Err....how about what's inside.... "it's a little hard, but it's ok". Hmm...not exactly the greatest compliments, but I'm glad she appreciated them.

Duo chocolate cupcakes (yinyang) with chocolate frosting

it's gonna be my godbro's birthday in a few days' time...and i thought ok, since I haven't been giving him any presents for years, how about making something this time?

so i decided to make yin yang cupcakes, with both white and black chocolate.

the frosting was made with some nice semi-sweet chocolate, with some kahlua...i coated a thick coat and then decided to melt some white chocolate to write 'Happy Birthday".

As you can see, the words look like of wriggly and ghostly. i thought they look more suitable for Halloween instead, hahaha!

So, with some sprinkles, and a silly looking penguin, i am set to give him this box of cupcakes tomorrow, hoping he will like them!

Next time, i will make buttercream frosting instead. I always think that swirls always look nicer and more elegant than chocolate frosting, of course, minus the ghostly words :p

cupcakes again!

i'm back from my cupcake class! so what happens when you pay half the cost of my previous class (i know I'm bound to compare)?

Instead of:

1) Bringing back 6 BIG cupcakes of 2 flavours each, I bring 3 SMALL cupcakes from 3 flavours each

2) Having aprons and boxes provided, I have to bring my own

3) Having a dishwasher in the classroom kitchen, I have to do my own washing of the equipment used

4) Having a 3 small groups of 3 pax in the class, there are 2 BIG groups of nine pax!

5) Having branded equipment to work with, I used non branded ones

6) Having an aircon classroom, I have a non aircon one (although the place was windy and has a nice view facing the sea)

7) Having cupcakes that rise nice and evenly, we have trays of cupcakes which all turn out loop-sided and no one told us what to do to avoid it (phew! good thing I already knew!)

Well, the crowd is different, the place and everything is different. I am seriously thinking whether there will be a second time for me here.

The reason why I am there today is to learn more different flavours of cupcakes and different types of frosting. There are not much tips to pick up, because honestly, whatever she says, I already know...and for the questions raised by others, I already can answer them as well.

I have earlier seen the pictures of the end result in the email ad of this place, and I had to admit I was not at all attracted by the look of its cupcakes. They taste and smell quite good nonetheless, but cupcakes are like human beings --LOOKS DO SELL.

The reason why these cupcakes I learnt today are not very professional looking is also partly because of the colour. All the 3 cupcakes I learnt today are black, or almost black, and so are the 2 frostings. Black on black does not stand out very well obviously. And the other reason, is of course, my lack of creative decoration skills.

I did not take many pictures of the cupcakes today because

1) they are not very photogenic

2) i don't even know whether i can say i made them. it was a hands on class, but because the group is so big, there wasn't much that I could do except to sit and let others do what they want to do.

I met 2 who look my age and have not baked anything before, so they are pretty eager to do things. I on the other hand, actually do not enjoy baking with other people because I want to do things MYSELF. And I cannot stand people who just want to spend time measuring exactly 200g of flour when they already have 198g on the weighing scale. This kind of people, I realised, pop up in every class. I think this is what I can call the newbie-kiasi-and-nonsensical syndrome.

I would say that seeing the recipes, they should taste quite nice. Actually I tasted one just now and it wasn't as nice as I had imagined (which was disappointing). I shall taste the rest tomorrow and try baking them myself some time soon. I can't wait to get my hands started on the one with nuts, bananas and chocolate.

Meanwhile, here are the not too photogenic pictures.

my carrot cupcakes

Today I tried making carrot cupcakes. It sure took a lot of time and effort..Grating carrots, jucing oranges to get the juice to soak raisins in....and of course the usual of making the batter and frosting. Took me about 4 hours to make 23 cupcakes.

Of course, they didn't taste as nice as when I made them at Palate Sensations under the supervision of a chef. I think I know what is the problem with them, and what caused them to be harder on top, yet still moist below.

Anyway, I made the cream cheese frosting. I had decided not to pipe carrots like before, because I do not have green food colouring (for the carrot stem). I thought I had orange colouring only. But when I started to add the colouring, I realised it was yellow and not orange. Goodness, really good thing I did not intend to pipe carrots!

The yellow was not going to be obvious against the rest of the white cream cheese, so I simply added a few drops of blue. Lo and behold! They turn out to be a nice green!

I piped some flowers and it was not easy. The tip was a bit not right and the flowers din turn out proportionate, but piping really need some practice.

The ones below are the more photogenic ones. See the one which has many piped flowers on top? Mum says it looks like a cactus. haha!

my first cupcakes

tried making cupcakes today. I followed what was taught, for the cupcakes and the chocolate ganache. The end result? Not too bad, except that the frosting was too sweet.

For the cupcakes, after the whole mixing process, I was afraid that mine would fail because the consistency of the mixture did not look alright to me. But it turned out fine, thank goodness!

I did not follow the frosting receipe taught by my 'teacher' because that involves too many steps. I tried another receipe, which flopped the first time, just because 'tsp' was wrongly written as 'tbsp' in it!

Wasted 120g of butter and 250g of icing sugar (which was actually to much and in the end made the frosting too sweet...I must tweak the dam* receipe), and so, I had to wait for my butter to soften again, and do it over again. It sure took me a lot of time and washing today. I spent about 3hours plus in baking about 22 cupcakes ( myself too! I was sweating so much today!).

Will definitely try again!

hot from the oven...uneven height...need more practise..

making 'wells' for the chocolate ganache

some colourful star sprinkles and strawberry sprinkles

not too bad huh?

My cupcakes!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm back! OMGoodness, I am bouncing with excitement. I was about to take more pics of my cupcakes when the battery of my digital camera ran out...I will let it charge for 5min and then take more pics...though I have already taken quite a few during the class.

The class was fun! It was like a dream came true, or rather it was like living in my dreams!

Working on a big island kitchen top, with blocks of professional expensive knives, using Kitchenaid (OMG...I can't get more excited than using this...I have always yearn for it...will buy one for myself one of these days when I have saved $749)..using Scanpan pots, silicon bakeware (you know how expensive these are??), under light jazzy music, in rainy weather where the pitter-pattering of the raindrops make you float in a light romantic mood. It was nothing to complain about. Ok, maybe I am overdramatizing it...but how often now do I come back and blog about something that has just happened??

When I drove back, I was careful to drive slowly, especially when going over humps and bumps, so that the frosting on the cupcakes will still be pretty when I reach home. Ok, it is not much compared to those made by professionals, but I am really glad at the outcome. Only thing is, I think there are not enough cupcakes for me. I brought back 18 cupcakes, 6 Opera ones (with chocolate flowing from inside) and 8 Carrot with cream cheese frosting.

I loved every minute of it. From the mixing of ingredients, whipping, piping (especially excited at this, since I have always wanted to try at home)..to trying to steal secrets out from the teacher.

Just this morning, my dad asked my mum what's up with me, and I going to open a bakery? I hope so, but not up to mark yet. Maybe it's my calling..haha!

Bear with the for the number of pictures, I am totally thrilled. The joy of the baking process is always greater than the anticipation of eating it.

filling with chocolate ganache

all topped with frosting

my group and our cupcakes..mine's the tray in the middle

you don't always see my face in my blog, but here goes..beaming with joy

closer look at my carrots..

all home safely, looking pretty...ok beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder..

see the chocolate inside...the moist part..

my carrot!! ok, think you get the idea..