Nancy Ho

Strawberries are so cheap in the supermarket .... so bought 2 punnet without knowing what to do.
So i search online for strawberry cupcake recipe till i came across Martha Stewart website on Sprinkles cupcake.

Btw, mine looks very different from Sprinkles way of decorating their cupcake



Makes 1 dozen
2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature
Sprinkles' Strawberry Frosting (see recipe below)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.
Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Sprinkles strawberry frosting
1/2 cup whole frozen strawberries, thawed
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
Pinch of coarse salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
Place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended. Do not overmix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.

With all these learnt, I present Chocolate and Green Tea macarons.


The chocolate filling was made with chcolate ganache of the steam chcolate cake but it was too water ... so i added nutella.
This result in a chocolaty with nutty taste yummy and no wastage too

The green tea macaron filling was made with buttercream by Aunty Yochana left from making cupcake.
I added 1tbsp green tea powder to the buttercream ... and with a can of Japanese red bean paste
The centre is red bean paste surrounded by green tea buttercream
Its a mixture of refreshing yet with tinge of bitterness green tea with sweetness of red bean ... its makes a great combination!!

I have been wanting to make this but without proper steamer, steam cakes are impossible.
This is an extremely easy to make cake that is very moist .... without the need for mixer or oven.
Use a good quality chocolate is also important in creating the taste!!
Definitely a keeper!! By the way, the picture below is only 1/2 the cake .....



The original recipe came from KC by dralion.
I used a different recipe for chocolate ganache that uses semisweet choclate, butter and heavy cream.

Steam moist chocolate cake

1 1/2 bar of butter (250 gm + 125 gm) OR Corn Oil **
2 cups of castor sugar
1 can of Evaporated Milk
4 Eggs,lightly beaten with a folk
2 cups of Plain flour **
1 cup of Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

** this recipe can be halve easily

Combine castor sugar,Evaporated milk,vanilla extract or essence and butter in a saucepan.
Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted,off fire and
keep warm.
Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cold Evaporated milk mixture and stir till well mix.
Sift the flour,cocoa powder,baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl then pour the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till well mix (cake batter should be runny).
Heat up the steamer.
Lined and greased a 9 inch baking pan or 2 9'inch sandwich pan. (I used 10x7 pan as that the only that i have)
Pour the batter into prepared pan and place the pans into the steamer and cover the top of the pan losely with a piece of aluminuim foil.
Steam over medium heat for 1 1/2 hour (45 mins for 1/2 recipe/ingredients).
Cold the cake in pan before turning out for further decoration.


Chocolate Fudge topping

35 gm cocoa powder,sifted
1 cup full cream Evaporated milk
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup or 50 gm Butter
3/4 cup water
200 gm Sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
50 gm Corn flour,sift togeter with the cocoa powder
1 tsp Nescafe

Mix all ingredints well (except the butter), stir over double boiler (at low heat) till thicken.
Add in butter,off fire and stir till well mix.
Sandwich and coat the cake with the slightly warm fudge.
Chill cake in fridge before serve.

P/S: this Chocolate fudge topping is very flexible,it can be use as all kind of Chocolate Cakes topping

I have not tried macaron since my failure a while back ...... now i am back !!
This time round my macaron have feet in fact big feet!! So happy!!



There are may things to learn about macarons, the two batches with success and failure taught me so much.
1. How do you go about pouring the syrup into the mixing bowl.
The last time when i pour the hot sugar syrup into the bowl, i poured it at the side of the bowl. This resulted in many sugar crystalized on the side resulting in insufficient sugar to the meringue. This time i poured the syrup between the whisk and the bowl !! All the syrup got in ....
2. the amount of time use to beat the meringue
If too little time ... the meringue will not be stiff and the end result is a very watery mixture
3. Overmixing meringue can result in a watery texture, making piping extremely difficult
4. The mixture cannot be left for too long, all mixture needs to be pipped and dry on baking tray. Otherwise it will get too watery
5. The best baking liner to use will be Silpat. Other brands, it tend to make the macaron loop sided as it tend to bend
6. Oven temperature is also important in making macarons

I only have 1 oven and it can only bake one tray at a time .... so that can also result in some macaron cracking for putting out for too long.
Another failure was macaron sticking together, especially when we pipe too close

Making cupcake has always been in my mind, these tiny treat with buttercream swirl .... such pretty picture.
In reality, the thought of making buttercream scares me!!
Give myself a challenge as i need to make cakes for my meeting and prepare my children's birthday cake in March .... with that i started my cake decorating journey again.

Here's what i did:

The picture looks easy ... bake some cupcake and make some buttercream. Let me tell you, its not!!

For the cupcake:
1 need to ensure that i get the correct recipe and the temp of my oven is correct otherwise the dome will be loopsided and split.
From my pic you can see my cupcake look like "huat kueh", its a result of playing with the fan ..... so cupcake like slow gentle heat.
Also, scooping the right amount of batter into the cup is also important if you want to do decorations

Btw, took this vanilla cupcake recipe from baking mum but the original recipe came from IK

195 gm cake flour
140 gm plain flour
150 castor sugar
100 light brown sugar (I use molasses)
1 tbsp baking powder
225 gm salted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup fresh milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract

* changes that Baking Mum have made from the original recipe

1. Preheat oven to 165C. Line cupcake pan with paper cups. In a bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking powder on low speed until well mix with the k-beater. Add cold butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2. In another bowl, combine eggs, milk and vanilla essence. Light whisk to mix well. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients into the flour mixture in 3 parts, scraping down the sides of the bowl before each addition. Beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

3. Fill papercups with batter to two-third full. Bake it for at least 20 to 25 mins depending on how brown you want you cupcakes to be. Test cake with cake tester and when it comes out clean, it is ready. Transfer to cooling rack to cool down completely.

For the butter cream, the recipe came from Aunty Yochana
Here's the end result:




The picture on the left is standard swirl, I cannot make the end tip into a long "tail" as my buttercream was made too stiff (Kiasu lah!!). I managed to make a rose swirl (Yes!! the famous elusive swirl that many people want to know how to) after researching online how to go about doing it.
After decorating the cupcakes, its really warms my heart to see how pretty they become. Just like plain jane becomes princess heheh
I still need to improve on my consistency of piping. One thing for sure ... I finally overcome myself to do it



Mood: Satisfied!!

I took a long break from baking after suffering from tummy problem. Looking at my frige, i still have egg white left!!
Made egg white brownie the recipe of From My Ktchen - quick and easy treats



Ingredients
250gm dark/semi-sweet cooking chocolate
100gm oil (original uses melted butter)
2 tsp vanilla essence
100gm cake flour
220gm egg white (original uses 5 egg whites)
150gm sugar
80gm almond slivers, toasted
a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips/nuggets

Method
1. Double boil or microwave butter and chocolate untill chocolate melt and let it cool
2. Sift flour into chocolate mixture and stir gently till well combined and add vanilla essence, put aside
3. Beat egg white till bubbly and slowly add sugar bit by bit and whip till stiff peaks
4. Take 1/3 of the egg white and mix it gently with the chocolate mixture
5. Stir in mixture into the balance 2/3 egg white and gently mix till well combined
6. Add half of the almond and stir
7. Pour mixture into a 8x8 pan that has been lined and greased
8. Top batter with remaining almond and chocolate nuggets and bake in a 180C preheated oven for 35-50mins (took 35 mins for my oven)
9. Once baked, leave brownie in the pan for 5-10mins before removing and cooling it on the rack

Verdict: This brownie is very light unlike those thick and fudgy ones. Definitely a keeper

I still have many things leftover in the fridge including my homemade strawberry jam and cream cheese.
Found this simple recipe from My Kitchen snippet. My version was not as pretty as this lady's as i was too lazy to warm up my jam ... so my jam sink

Ingredients :

1 ¼ cups graham crumbs ( Use Digetive biscuit)
¼ cup butter, melted
2 packet (8 oz each) I used low fat cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
3 tbsp of lemon juice
2 eggs
1/3 cup strawberry jam (home made strawberry) jam

Preheat oven to 325ºF.
1. Grease and line an 8” x 8” square baking with parchment paper with leaving an overhang on both side (for easy removing you slices later)
2. Mix crumbs and butter together and press firmly into bottom of the pan. Set it aside.
3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and lemon juice in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition, just until blended. Pour over crust.
4. Heat up strawberry jam slightly in the microwave. Gently drop jam by small spoonfuls over top of batter. Cut through batter several times with knife for marble effect.
5. Bake 40 min. or until centre is set. Cool. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before cutting it.