Red Velvet Cupcakes

My physio suggested I make Red Velvet Cupcake for my friend's daughters birthday party. My repertoire for cupcakes always only consisted of chocolate, orange, chocolate chip or vanila cupcakes.  To be honest well, everyone has eaten all those cupcakes and well it's not interesting anymore.

So, this time around I decided to give myself a stretch and try to make Red Velvet cupcakes. They are red, and when combined with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with colorful sprinkles will make any little girls hungry for more.

Red velvet cupcakes, so why are they so special, where did their name come from and what makes them velvety smooth. I found out that they are similar to any cupcakes, they contain flour, sugar, vanilla essence and some chocolate powder. The special ingredients in them is that they contain a touch of distilled vinegar combined with baking soda. So, the recipe suggested to actually add the distilled vinegar with the baking soda and wait for the mixture to become bubbly and then quickly stir it into the cake mixture. Maybe, that is what makes it velvety smooth.

The cake is also bright red which can be created using red food coloring or if you prefer a more natural ingredient, beet juice.

This cupcake is perfect for Valentines Day for your sweetheart, Christmas Day or any little girls party.

The cakes taste fantastic, moist and just so pretty to look and great to eat.

I hope you will enjoy the photos of the cupcakes I made. I definitely look forward to making them again.

Abbie's 10 year old birthday

My friend's daughter recently celebrated her milestone double digit birthday. She turns 10 years old. I was honored to be asked to make her birthday cake. Creating the cake was super exciting for me and my kids. We got together and put various ideas together on what we were going to make. A child's birthday cake is super special. Every bit of it from the design, colour, flavour has to be spot on.

My son suggested that the cake had to be chocolate as girls love chocolate cakes. He also said that well, girls this age do not like cute stuff like Barbie doll cakes or any animal cakes. So, teddy bears, rabbits were out of the question.

My daughter came out with all the girly girl ideas. So, in came the love hearts, present with bow cake and basically anything pink and sparkly.

In the end we decided to make Abbie a swimming pool cake since her birthday was to be held at the Wave Pool in Mt Albert. Abbie provided some of her favourite toy animals which will be attending the "party at the pool".

So, the creation begins.

The cake was a chocolate sponge cake layered with buttercream and surrounding it was chocolate sponge fingers. I am sure after all the chocolate, the girls will be hyped up enough for their swim at the Wave Pool.

I hope Abbie loved her cake as much as I loved making it.

Happy 10th birthday Abbie!!!

Berrimisu

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!!!!

It's the time of the year for making Berrimisu. It's my famous scrumptious summer dessert, a fusion between a Tiramisu but covered in layers and layers of yummy, juicy, colourful summer berries. This year I have added green kiwi fruits together with my usual strawberries, blue berries and raspberries. I guess the green fruit gives it a bit of added colour.

The berrimisu is made from sponge fingers which gives it a soft and spongy base. It is then top with a mixture of mascarpone cheese, thickened cream and whipped eggs whites to give it the creamy, rich, smooth and delicious texture. To give it a bit of zing factor, I have scattered a mixture of summer berries. The process is then repeated with another layer of all the above items.

The end product, a rich, smooth, sweet, sour, tasty dessert than everyone will love.

I hope you will enjoy this dessert as much I my family and friends do.

Take care and have a Happy New Year!!!!

Orange Cake

It's my birthday and this year I made an Orange cake and Tiramisu for my colleagues. I have never seen the Tiramisu go so quickly before, All in all, I think it got woofed down in half an hour.

I got the Orange cake recipe off the internet, it was one of the most moist orange cake ever, fragrant and sweet.

Check out the recipe on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/beat-and-bake-orange-cake/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round cake pans. In a measuring cup, combine milk, 1/2 cup orange juice, oil, beaten eggs and 1 1/2 teaspoon orange zest. Set aside.
2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Mix in sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Divide batter into 2 - 8 inch pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
4. To make Orange Butter Frosting: Cream butter until smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in 2 tablespoons orange juice to bring to spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla and 1 teaspoon orange zest.

More Chiffon Cakes

Another weekend another experiment on flavors of chiffon cakes. This weekend my son Andrew and I decided to try out a Cheddar Chiffon Cake and Chocolate Chiffon Cake (using chocolate powder instead of Nutela). Our first experiment was Cheddar Chiffon Cake. Andrew loves cheese cake just like his grandma. So we decided to see if we can make chiffon cake out of cheese. The cake turned out quite good to our surprise. It was a bit heavier than the Orange Chiffon Cake but nevertheless still light. The taste had a hint of cheese but not overly cheesy like the normal cheese cakes. All in all a good experiment.

My colleague came to me a few weeks ago asking if I could make a Chocolate Chiffon Cake. I decided to give it a try but using Nutela.The cake turned out very soft and fluffy but nevertheless I didn't like the colour as it was to pale for a chocolate cake. My mother in law suggested using chocolate powder instead so we did. I substituted the teaspoon of Nutela with 1/2 cup of chocolate powder mix into 3/4 cup of warm water. The cake turned out great, nice dark brown and yet still fluffy. I love this cake as to be honest it's dark colour hid some of the flaws from cutting the cake out of the tin which I must say is a technique I have yet to master.

The third chiffon cake of the weekend was an improvement on my Pandan Chiffon Cake. Previously I didn't add any coconut milk into my recipe. However, a friend suggested I substituted my water for coconut milk which indeed add to the fragrance of the taste and moistness. The colour was also more vibrant as not I substituted the pandan juice which I extracted from frozen pandan leaves with pandan paste.

I must say making chiffon cakes is a stressful process. Every step is so important from cracking the eggs to make sure the egg whites are cleanly removed from the egg yokes, folding the egg white meringue into the rest of the cake mixture, pouring the cake mix into the fluted tin, removing of the air bubbles and finally removing the cake from the fluted tin. I must admit sometimes I loose my cool but my daughter always comes to me and say "Mummy, you can do it and that calms me down". It also reminds me that what I am doing is not meant to be stressful. Cooking is suppose to be therapeutic and I remember a quote from Little Nonya "If you are feeling sad when you cook, the person who is eating the food will also feel it to". Hence, if I am cranky, the person who eats my cake will also feel my grumpiness. So, I have to be calm, happy and remember that I am cooking because I want to share my love for all things Nonya with all of you.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Tonight, the kids and I made Orange Chiffon Cake. We read a few recipes on the internet but decided to use the exact same recipe as our Pandan Chiffon Cake but instead of pandan juice, we replaced it with juice from 2 oranges.

It was fun baking with the kids, they were so eager to help and so curious to learn why we had to do things a certain way. It was a mixture of a cooking class and a science class as I believe baking is a science.

The cake was beautiful and tasted even better, I guess it was because it was made with so much love.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Oh my gosh!! I never thought I can make this cake. It always seem so hard as it is sooooo soft, fluffy and is made in the funny funnel cake pan.

Anyway, after mastering up the courage, I decided to try this cake out. Step by step I made sure I followed all instructions and with the help of my 2 year old, I successfully made this cake for my family.

My eldest daughter's remark when she saw the cake was enough to bolster my confidence for any future recipes I have yet to tackle......she basically just shouted out "This is my favourite cake".

I love this cake, it is just so soft, fluffy, not too sweet and you can taste the fresh pandan in the cake.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do.

My Cake Gallery

Barbie Cake

Cupcakes

Little Einstein