I've found it! The best vanilla cupcake.

So I've been trying to find a recipe for the perfect vanilla cupcake. Because I already have one for chocolate. Because The Gardener prefers vanilla over chocolate. But people who prefer vanilla over chocolate need to get their tastebuds checked out. Because chocolate rocks. Period.

Anyway...I stumbled upon this blog a couple of weeks ago. And I found this recipe for the famous vanilla cupcake from the famous Magnolia's Bakery in New York. And I was in the middle of toiling through my thesis so it was excruciating to have to set it aside first. Excruciating. Because I could just smell it baking in my oven, the wonderful buttery smell filling my kitchen. The buttercream aside (because personally, I don't fancy buttery frosting), the recipe tasted delicious. Excruciating.

But I'm almost ready to submit my beloved thesis, save for a few modifications. So I had time to bake this weekend! Yay me!

First of all, I'd like to reiterate that I really, really, really do prefer chocolate over vanilla. Ice cream, cakes, candy, you name it, I'll choose chocolate over vanilla anytime and everytime. But this cupcake...is heaven. And I don't even like the usual buttercream frosting you find on cakes. But this buttercream frosting is light and airy and moussey. Not too sweet and not too buttery (surprisingly considering the amount of butter that's in it). It's like whipped cream. Yes, just like that. But heavier. With more oomph.

And the cake itself? Exactly what I pictured it to be. The perfect vanilla cake. Complemented by the perfect buttercream. Sob sob. And I have no more =( because I gave them all to my sister and niece. So I recorded the whole eating process, spoonful by spoonful, to remind myself how lovely it was. So that I'll bake another batch. Soon.

My to bake list

Am checking in to remind myself that these are the cupcakes that I'd like to try out. Soon. Yum.

• Caramel cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream frosting
• Chocolate banana cupcakes with banana cream cheese frosting

And also to try making marshmallows again. Damn candy thermometer. Super failed marshmallows sitting on the table now :(

Updates next week, I hope!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I've come to a reluctant revelation recently. I am now officially a cupcake junkie. Yes, me, the one who used to loathe and despise the sickly sweet frosting, the one who always preferred a wholesome muffin over a pretentious act-cute cupcake. Bleh. As I was rejoicing over the success of this latest cupcake and tried to offer the recipe to my bestie, she turned it down saying how she didn't appreciate the sickly sweet frosting of cupcakes. That was when I went, crap damn, I have gone over to the dark side. Or rather, the pretentious act-cute side. *Groans*

But as I bit into the moist cake along with the sweet and tart cream cheese frosting, it made perfect sense to have both. Granted some of the decorations offered out there can be overkill, but a little sprinkle here and there, or a little cookie here and there just entices you reach out for the yummy-ness that is underneath all that pretentious act-cute-ness :D

I got this recipe from here but used a cream cheese frosting instead since I've never really enjoyed buttercream frosting.

After frosting and plopping on the Oreos...

A close up. A generous dose of cream cheese never hurt anyone :P Especially not a cheesecake lover like me, bleh. 

And inside, even more Oreos. 

The cake turned out surprisingly soft and moist. So recipe is definitely a keeper! The Gardener already devoured 3, and he usually doesn't eat my cupcakes unless I force him to. Try some today! :D

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Curd and Cream Cheese Frosting

So after the success of my lava fudge cupcakes, I decided to make a vanilla version. But there were so many questions, like what filling should I put inside and what goes well with vanilla as the frosting? I almost made some white chocolate fudge as the filling even though it would be painfully sweet, until I found a recipe for vanilla curd! Kind of a duh moment then because it hadn't occurred to me that since there was lemon curd, there would be vanilla curd. But I was kinda hoping there would be vanilla fudge...unfortunately not, though.

Anyway, I decided to stick with the plain cream cheese frosting since I couldn't think of anything that would complement vanilla well enough. If you have any suggestions though, please let me know!

Also, this is my second batch of vanilla cupcakes :| because the first one was a bit too dense and I accidentally spilled too much blue colouring onto the frosting and it turned out rather sickly looking. Oh well...onwards!

The chocolate that melts on the frosting, not in your hands!

Yes, I know that the curd is hard to spot, but vanilla curd is pretty colourless okay. 

Am actually in a grump over my cupcakes. Have been told more than enough times that they are sweet, too sweet. Personally, I don't like things that are too sweet myself. But for effing sake these are CUPCAKES. Reducing too much sugar in any bake will compromise the composition and hence the outcome. If you don't like sweet things, you shouldn't be eating cakes in the first place -.-" and the very last thing you should be getting yourself are cupcakes. Ok, I shall stop this rant before it gets out of hand. 

My next bake will be cookies and cream cupcakes =) Shall look forward to that instead. 

Lava Fudge Cupcake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

So this is my latest bake. Had rave reviews from everyone so far. Have wanted to make a lava cake for quite some time, but am not in possession of proper ramekins :( And then...was watching my new favourite TV program the other day, DC Cupcakes, and had an aha moment!

So I took this recipe for chocolate cupcakes (which is yummy by itself), and added some fudge in the centre!

Then next problem was the frosting. Whipped cream frosting became a hot mess over time. Buttercream frosting  too rich. Cream Cheese frosting was also a tad rich (plus my recipe for cream cheese frosting was always insufficient). So I thought and I thought. And I twisted and turned at night as I thought and thought again...

:P

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting!

With bits of orange zest and a squeeze of orange juice. 

And inside, you have gooey ooey chocolatey goodness.

Chocolate and orange, perfect together!

Of Macarons and Cookies

I've been going through a bad baking spell lately, with lots of failed recipes.

There was my 4th attempt at macaron making, photos of which I'm going to post up anyway. But that kind of dimmed my spirits and I stopped taking photos hence no new blog post.

There were my numerous icing making attempts, which were really horribly measly, and my cupcakes looked pathetic, so again no more photos.

There were the doomed whoopie pies, which looked and tasted awful, so there went my Mother's Day gift.

But before I deliver the good news, let me show you my macarons.

Tadah...my Ribena with white chocolate ganache macarons. 

Yea, my ganache sort of failed because I didn't have enough white chocolate :P 

But it was my first time trying out the Italian meringue method. So now I can understand why they recommend this method to macaron beginners, because it really does stabilize the meringue for you to whip and smooth it out. And I got really pretty obvious feet! At first...

Because the whole process took me so long that I had to go off for dinner and leave the macarons resting. For too long =.=" 

Then I got lopsided feet. Sigh. 

Anyway, the Italian method produces softer shells, I find. Not as crunchy as the French method. Which I prefer. So...I guess I'll keep working on the French meringue. Onward to attempt #5!

So I stopped with the macarons and the cakes for a while. And made some cookies instead. Hmm, which is funny because The Gardener's brother didn't know what they were called and told me that my 'chocolate cookies' were really good. Psst...they're called macarons o.O

Right, digressing.

Made some wonderful crunchy awesome chocolate wafers! But they were so good I forgot to take any pictures :P But I'm telling you they're so good The Gardener who normally avoids chocolate cookies (for example my chocolate macarons) were wolfing them down like crazy. No worries, will make somemore and snap photos then!

And then since I was on a cookie roll and on the quest to search for the perfect crunchy cookie ala Famous Amos, I found and made this!

Best! A tad sweet, but crunchy!

I made about 36 cookies, and these were the last 6. 

But you count five. Where's the last one, you ask? 

Macarons, Part 3

The Gardener came back in a big huff the other day over how some BFM DJs kept pronouncing 'macarons' as 'macaroons', which is a common error. The two refer to completely different things, though, but both equally tasty :)

This is a macaron (mak-kuh-ron):

And this is a macaroon (mak-kuh-roooon):

Both uses egg whites and sugar, but a macaroon contains grated coconut and no special technique, while a macaron uses ground almonds and also requires some sort of filling and a hell of a lot of practice. 

Hence, the part 3 ahem.

This time around, I managed to get only a few cracked shells (yay me!), but some of the feet were lopsided, and I still couldn't get the almonds to be as fine as I wanted. Proof:

Excuse the misshapen one at the side. A whole lump of ground almond escaped from the piping bag :-s

But see! Almost none cracked!

Feet! Also excuse the lopsided feet there :P I believe it's the pan...hmm...

And off to the fridge to store for a night after sandwiching the chocolate filling. 

At this point, I didn't have the heart to take any more pictures because I couldn't get over the frustration of the coarse almonds...grumble grumble grumble...Am determined to try again! And soon!

*I've been making so many chocolate bakes that Ms. Evelyn finally realized I'm a chocolate fanatic. So yea, I should change the name of this blog to Choco-line or something like that :D