Chocolate & Coffee Cupcakes

Recently Nat had a change of taste bud... Suddenly she just like coffee flavor. Amongst my 3 gals, she is the one who has an exotic taste, like enjoying durian, coffee, enjoying even red wine & beer... Hmmm, that's pretty unusual for a little girl though...

Nevertheless, she had been quite supportive of the bakes that I had tried, and she will always be the one whom is willing to try, unlike Mimi, who used to "test" my cakes, simply just tell me these days that those cakes are not her favourite.. :-p

These Chocolate & Coffee Cupcakes were quite tempting.. Being chocolate & coffee..

But I guess I didn't fare quite well on these cupcakes.

Firstly, I felt that my chocolate flavour wasn't too much

Secondly, the coffee smell was there but not too satisfying to me

Thirdy, my cupcakes came out abit hard

... ...

But the consolation was, the coffee cream was yummy!!!!

I used my own combination of the whipped cream + instant coffee mix, and topped with chopped peanuts!
hahahahahaha.....

If I hadn't mentioned those cons, these cupcakes would look extremely fantastic isn't it???

Recipe as adapted from Kevin Chai:

Ingredients:

250g butter

180g sugar

4 eggs

200g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

150g melted chocolate

2 tbsp canola oil

30ml kahlua

Method:

1. Beat butter & sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

2. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder & soda.

3. Stir melted chocolate with canola oil, then pour into flour mixture with kahlua, mix well.

4. Spoon the mixture into the cases. Bake for 20mins in a preheated oven of 175C. Remove cupcakes & cool on a rack.

Coffee Cream:

200g butter

150g icing sugar

1 tsp instant coffee powder

100g melted chocolate

Prepare the cream by beating butter, icing sugar and coffee powder until light & smooth. Stir in melted chocolate and pipe on top of each cupcake. Decorate with chocolate.

Steamed Chocolate Cupcakes

Yes, Steam Cakes are indeed in trend this month in my home... And I am enjoying it very much. I had given alot of steamed cakes to my friend, and her hubby mentioned that I seemed to be enjoying doing so... So I told my friend, this month onwards my daughter will be starting her school vacations, plus my boss is not in SG, so taking all these time available to bake again...

I had bought this "Steamed Cakes" recipe book when I was in Penang last October, but I had never tried any of the recipes since I bought it till today.

From this book, I had selected the Steamed Chocolate Cupcakes as the ingredients were rather basic. Some of the other recipes required evaporated milk and condensed milk, which I wasn't too keen in them.

A full ingredients could actually fetch quite a number of cupcakes, depending on the size of your paper cups.

*Note: It is better to use those "paper" cupcake cases as compared to the other cupcake cases as the paper cups will "opened" up during steaming.

These steamed chocolate cupcakes were not too bad. I had modified some of the ingredients. Cutting down a huge amount of the icing sugar, using margarine instead of butter, and replacing the hot water with milk too. The cupcakes did turned out well, soft and moist, but a little not so sweet.. So perhaps I should increase a little more sugar...hehehehe...
The gals loved these cupcakes too. I was glad that they liked it. Mimi had 2 of them and she said it was yummy. My friend who tried the cupcakes said they were delicious as well.

Would you like to try one as well?

Recipe as adapted from the Steamed Cakes by Mdm Zubaidah Bte Chepa

Ingredients:

Yields about 16 medium size cups & 16 mini size cups

250g superfine flour (I use self raising flour)

1 tsp baking soda (omitted)

75g cocoa powder

350g icing sugar (I used 200g)

250g butter (I used margarine)

3 eggs

1 bowl of hot water (I used 250ml cold milk)

Method:

1. Beat butter & sugar until smooth.

2. Add in the egg one at a time, mix well at each addition.

3. Add in the flour+cocoa powder, alternating with the milk. Mix until well blended.

4. Pour batter into the paper cup cases and steam over high heat for about 10mins.

(If you are using my ingredients, you can fill the batter till full as the cupcakes will shrink a little after removing from heat)

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #25 – Steaming Hot Cakes (November 2012) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders

Orange Cheesecake (Non-Baked)

I have never fancied adding orange essence into my cakes somehow as I do not like the taste of it. It seems to make me feel like as if I was taking those very bitter medicine when I was young... Hahaha... But to others, this orange essence was rather pleasant to them and in fact they do quite like it. How about you?

Reason of baking this cheesecake was because I have a pack of whipping cream which is due to expire soon. So I found this cheesecake using whipping cream... Hmmm but all ended up quite a mess as the whipping cream that I bought, did not whipped up as my top whipping cream...

In fact, being a non-baked cheesecake, this cheesecake is very easy to prepare and it should be ready by 15-30mins time.

I probably had exceeded the amount of whipped cream and I put in 250g of cheese instead of 200g. Thus the texture of the cheesecake was abit soft, more of like a mousse texture. Overall, it was quite yummy. My hubby had taken 2 slices of it, and my friend say it was delicious too. And she said she like the "orangey" taste of it:)

Ingredients as adapted from Kevin Chai.

Base:

140g crushed chocolate marie biscuits

70g melted Butter

Combine all ingredients. Press into a 7" square tin.

Cheese Filling:

200g cream cheese

70g sugar

2 tsp gelatine

2 tbsp water

200g fresh whipped cream

3 tbsp orange compound

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Melt gelatine with water over simmering water. Add into cheese mixture until blended.

Fold in whipped cream, add in orange compound, mix well.

Spread cheese filling into prepared tin.

Topping:

80g crushed marie biscuits

40g melted butter

Combine all ingredients and sprinkle over the top.

Wrap well and refrigerate until set.

Chocolate Chips Cupcakes 2

I had joined the Baking Wonderland Malaysia in Facebook, and from there, I have bookmarked lots of recipes in my phone... And I better updated those baked items into my blog before my phone is overloaded with all those recipes.

I had gotten this recipe from Michelle Heong from Baking Wonderland. These chocolate chips cupcakes were a delish! Soft texture... But 1 regret... I didn't add enough chocolate chips.. Hehehe, else it would have been heavenly delish with plenty of chocolate chips!!!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

100g Butter

80g Sugar (75g)

2 eggs

120g self raising flour (125g)

1 tsp baking powder (omiteed)

20g cocoa powder

50g chocolate chips (can use more)

Adequate chocolate chips to sprinkle on top of the batter.

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar until well combined. Adding 1 egg at a time and make sure they are well-blended in each addition.

2. Add the flour into the mixture, mix well.

3. Gradually add in the milk.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Pour the batter into the cupcake cases, about 80% full, bake in a preheated oven of 150C (180C) for about 35mins.

Chocolate Marble Cake

I must say this Chocolate Marble Cake is one of the best that I had ever baked... Unlike some, this cake is not too oily and most importantly, this cake texture is very soft and fluffy. This cake remains soft even on the next day.

If you are a butter cake lover, this one will suits you well...:)

Here is the original recipe as adapted from GoodFood Magazine (August 2012 issue)

Ingredients:

225g butter, softened

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self raising flour

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180C. Grease a 20-cm cake tin and line the bottom with a baking paper.

2. Beat butter & sugar, followed by the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Fold through the flour, milk & vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.

3. Divide mixture between 2 bowls. Stir the cocoa powder into one of the mixture, mix well. Take 2 spoons and use them to dollop the chocolate & vanilla mixes into the tin alternately. Take a skewer or knife & swirl it around the mixture to create a marbled effect.

4. Bake the cake for 45-55mins. Turn out on a cooling rack and leave to cool. Will keep in 3 days in an air-tight container.