Random baking

Here's some random baking photos for the past month. I don't have recipes to show you. These were just 'bake by feel'.. because I was too lazy to get my measuring tools out. Hehe.. :P

Childish vanilla cupcakes. For GK. A pre-birth celebration for the little one inside. :)

Happy cupcakes (Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate coconut ganache). For JK. Happy cupcakes for a happy person :P

Rustic jam tarts (Apricot jam and Apple, rhubarb + cinnamon jam). Well, I was making cookie dough.. then couldn't be bothered making cut out cookies anymore. So I decided to make jam drop cookies. These are a bit larger, so I guess you can call them tarts! Haha.

Baking is therapeutic. Decorating is fun.
I have so much that I want to make.. but I can't seem to find enough time or energy.. :(

Tiny teddy cupcakes

There's grumpy, happy, silly, sleepy and fatty. Well, I thought he was called fatty.. until I was told that it was hungry. :P Tiny teddies are cool~ The honey flavour is the best. I can't believe they've made tiny teddies with 100s and 1000s now. Eek. How horrid would that taste? Extra diabetes for children?!


Red velvet tiny teddy cupcakes
Makes 34 baby cupcakes

150g self raising flour
90g sugar
40g butter
20g cocoa powder
2 tsp red food dye
1 tsp vanilla extract
125ml milk
1 egg

cream cheese frosting
chocolate tiny teddies

Preheat oven to 170C.

Mix cocoa, red dye, vanilla extract and some of the milk, to form a paste.

Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add in egg.

Sift flour in a large bowl.

Add in butter mixture, milk and cocoa paste.
Mix on low speed until just combined. Mix on medium speed for 2mins.

Bake for 15mins or until cooked.

Allow to cool before applying cream cheese frosting.

But I didn't want to hurt these little bugs..

I generally hate bugs in general. But I found this bug silicone muffin tray too cute to resist.


Unfortunately for me, it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. The butterflies didn't like me. :(


But the dragonfly turned out okay. (Yes, there's only 1 on the silicone tray.) I don't really like dragonflies though.. there are so many of them buzzing around Port Melbourne! -__-

Chocolate Chai Cupcakes
Makes about 6 bugs (the packaging said 4 cup mixture capacity) and 4 cupcakes

250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g Pure Chai chocolate drink mix
70g caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
96g butter, melted
50g (1) egg, lightly beaten
300gm Vitasoy vanilla soy milk (1 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 180C.
Lightly brush silicone tray with some melted butter.


Combine dry ingredients together.


Mix in liquid ingredients until just combined.
Spoon mixture into moulds.


Bake for 20-25mins or until cooked. (The moulds were different in size which were a bit annoying. The butterflies took a lil longer to cook.. -__-)


Allow to cool before removing from tray.

Neither butterflies liked me. :(


Beetle turned out okay, though I broke the antenna from the other beetle. Whoops..

Ladybird

Dragonfly.



A hint of chocolate chai brings a nice flavour to a cupcake. I'd prefer something more spicy though. I'd put more cinnamon in next time. I actually don't like that chocolate chai drink mixture. I think it tastes horrible as a drink. That's why I'm trying to use it up.. Haha. Damn. I still have more.. and no one wants to drink it.

I like Arkadia branded Spice Chai mix. I notice a lot of cafes using that as well. Mmmm. I love my chai lattes. Too much milk = yuck though. GRR. I ordered one from Gloria Jeans just the other day, cos every chai I had at any cafe tasted the same thus far. But no. It. Was. HORRIBLE!! Never buying a chai latte from Gloria Jeans ever again. Oh. AND the chai latte that I had from Amigos on Lygon St. Now, who the hell sprinkles TEA LEAVES on top of the chai? Or leaves tea leaves in the drink as well?! I choked myself out of disgust. And it took a million years to arrive at the table too. Never stepping foot back there again either.

Anyway. Enough chai talk from me.

Two weeks ago

I've been busy.. so I haven't had a chance to post anything new.


I made chocolate orange cupcakes for M about 2 weeks ago.
Because it was a last minute confirmation, I didn't realise that I was low on butter. Oh well.. :P

Watched Iron Man 2 that day too. I thought it was quite good (though I haven't watched the first movie). I don't usually watch movies because I find it hard to stare at a gigantic screen. But a movie is generally good if I can sit through it without falling asleep or if I'm not constantly moving around in my seat. I have a short attention span if something doesn't interest me enough. Haha.

Chocolate orange cupcakes
Makes about 12

55g butter, softened
100g sugar
135g self raising flour
25g cocoa
150ml fresh orange juice
2 (60g) eggs

choc orange frosting
finely grated orange rind, dried out in the oven
grated chocolate
Lindt Orange Intense chocolate

Preheat oven to 170C.

In a large bowl, sift flour and cocoa.
In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.
Add orange juice and butter mixture to flour. Gently mix until combined.

Bake for about 12-15mins or until cooked.
Allow to cool completely before applying frosting and decoration.


I made a choc orange frosting, grated some chocolate and oven dried some orange rind (which had the most lovely smell to them!) and topped off with a piece of Lindt Orange Intense dark chocolate.

Very red

What does red symbolise? Love? Anger? Happiness? Blood? Devil?


Why red velvet? I have no idea.
I mean, if you can have red.. you can have any other colour you want really! :D


This time, red. Next time.. who knows. Perhaps I'll try a rainbow cake. Haha..

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Makes 12 cupcakes

60g butter
150g sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa
2 tsp red food colouring
1 tsp vanilla extract
120ml milk
150g self raising flour

some cream cheese frosting

Preheat oven to 170C.

Mix cocoa, red dye and vanilla extract together to form a paste.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in egg and beat gently.

Combine with the red cocoa paste, milk and flour.

Mix with an electric mixer on low until combined.
Increase speed to medium for a minute.

Line cupcake tray with 12 cupcake cups. Fill to 75% full.

Bake for about 15 mins or until cooked. Check with skewer.

Allow to cool before applying cream cheese frosting.


8 red velvets to go. For MT.


Very moist. And very red. ;) Hope you enjoyed them, after you destroyed them in transition. :(

All about chocolate

I made baby cupcakes. What better than bite-sized cupcakes? I mean, if you like it, you can have another. If you don't, then there's no need. And plus, miniature things are always adorable. :P


The cupcakes were all the same. Oddly enough, the ones with grated chocolate on top disappeared faster. Haha..


I suppose this one doesn't tempt you as much as the one below.


Baby chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting
Makes about 48

125g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cocoa

some chocolate frosting
grated chocolate

Preheat oven to 160C.

Combine all ingredients under low electric mixing speed.
When thoroughly mixed, increase to high speed for a minute or so.
Spoon batter into patty lined cupcake moulds, 75% full.

Bake for about 12 mins per tray or until cooked.

Leave to cool in tray before removing onto cooling rack.
Decorate with chocolate frosting, ganache, icing etc.


The cupcakes turned out very light and moist. :D

Going bananas

I made banana cupcakes for a workmate. I finished work at 5pm, got home by around 5.30pm and started making them.


In order to put the frosting on, I needed the cupcakes to cool. So into the fridge they went. Hmm.. slightly cooled. So I topped them with cream cheese frosting, and then with a slice of banana. Unfortunately, the banana condensed and went a bit gooey on top. I would have topped it with dried banana instead, but I didn't get time to pop out to buy some. Oh well. :(

I hope the cupcakes were okay. And that your friends enjoyed them and the message they were supposed to convey. ;)


But I think in future, I need more than 1.5hrs to make them.. They really do need the time to cool by themselves before the toppings can be added. >_<

Lesson learnt. :)

A lot of C's for a B

I purchased a giant cupcake silicone mould online. It got delivered within 2-3 days. Turns out, that it wasn't that great after all. More than a cupcake shape, it looked like a beehive. So, I covered it in custard flavoured rolled fondant and turned it into a beehive.
Chocolate chilli cherry cookie cake, covered in custard flavoured fondant. Lot's of words beginning with C, ey? Haha.


By the way, those things that look like stones, are chocolate stones. :P

Chocolate chilli cherry cookie cake, covered in custard fondant.
Makes about 10 servings

20g butter
100g Lindt Dark Chilli Chocolate
140g plain flour
45g corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
25g cocoa powder
3 (70g eggs), separated
100g sugar
400ml milk
65g choc cookie crumbs
250gm frozen cherries, thawed

custard flavoured rolled fondant

In a double boiler, melt butter and chocolate. Allow to cool.
Sift flours, baking powder and cocoa together in a bowl.Add milk and egg yolks. Mix.Add cooled chocolate. Mix.
Add in cookie crumbs and cherries. Mix.
Whisk egg whites until soft peaks. Add sugar gradually whilst beating until stiff peaks.
Gently fold in egg whites.
Grease cake pan. (I used my giant cupcake silicone casings) and gently pour cake mixture until 3/4 full.Bake in a preheated 155C oven for 1hr and 40mins or until cooked.
Allow to cool completely before covering with rolled fondant.


Don't ask me about the custard fondant. I ran out of icing sugar in the middle of the night. It was too sticky still so I used up all of my custard powder. -__-

Serve with cookies n cream icecream! To me, the fondant is purely decorative. I don't really eat it because it's just sugar.

Red velvet cupcakes

Be careful when eating red velvet cupcakes. Hehe. Your teeth can go red. :P If you don't know what red velvet cupcakes are, it's just red dyed chocolate cake. Haha. I know others are creating blue velvet and green velvet now. Why not? You can have any coloured cupcake you want! Haha.

My first time making red velvet cupcakes.


With vanilla buttercream frosting.


It didn't look that red under low lighting. But hey, the colour turned out pretty good and I didn't use that much food colouring! Wee~ Haha. I've heard of people using up to 1-2 bottles.. :S


Packed a box of red velvet cupcakes and florentines for a birthday girl. :) Hope you liked them!

C is for cupcake

Cupcake culture. Oh, how I wish to one day own my own little cupcake store. But by the time I do, cupcake culture will no longer be 'in'. They're already blooming these past few years.

Cupcakes on Pitt, Pitt St Sydney.


A cute little cupcake boutique. One very similar to the one I wish to one day own..


Sold in little adorable carry cases, who could resist? I went in there once, but refrained from buying any. But walking along Pitt St and seeing people carrying these made me want them even more. Haha. Easy advertising for them.

Cheesecake and chocolate brownie cupcakes.

Ah, so many flavours to pick from. So I tried to pick the best looking ones.

Vanilla sundae and carrot cupcakes.

I ate the carrot one and brought the vanilla sundae one back home.


It did come back in one piece, although the toppings were 5% disrupted when it went through the customs check at the airport. :(

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Cookie cookie? I smell cookie!

Cookie for me?

Oh nom nom nom nom...

I had so much fun making these. Happy happy. :)

Love Cookie Monster.
Next time, Elmo! :P