Red Velvet Cupcakes

I made 2 dozen of these for my mom's birthday in February and had kept the last one to snap a photo of. But The Gardener ate it :( Ironically, I left a few in the fridge after I made this new batch the other day but he didn't even touch them...grumble grumble grumble...I have to stick a jumongous sticky note on his computer monitor before he remembers to eat anything...grumble grumble grumbles somemore...

Digressing.

Everyone loved these simple but pretty cupcakes during my mom's birthday dinner. My eldest niece even brought one home to have for breakfast the next day. I made the icing from mascarpone the first time, and it was fabulous! Light but still dairy tasty. However, since mascarpone is rather expensive over here, I decided to switch back to the original cream cheese icing. And to my pleasant surprise, it was yum yum yummy! Not as dreadfully rich as I was expecting it to be. Not overly sweet either. I guess incorporating the whipping cream really lightened it up. The Gardener's family loved them :D And psst...I had 3 myself. Recipe followed to the T from JoyOfBaking.

Before icing. They're supposed to be redder than this, but the thought of adding that much food colouring sickens me a little. 

Pinkish delights

After icing

Meant to be piped but cannot be bothered :P I think it looks better this way. Less fuss. All goes in the mouth then stomach anyway...

Like this :D Sorry, all gone by now. Recipe definitely a keeper! Orders anyone? 

Green Tea Ice Cream

Argh, today has been a looong day, but I have just uploaded these photos and grr...the sight of them has stirred my tummy into its usual growling mode again. I made some macha ice cream yesterday as a sample for a few neighbours. And for myself, of course =P

If you've never had homemade ice cream, you should come visit me when I make some. Because it's fabulous licking the ice cream maker paddle just after it's finished churning! That is, if I'll let you share...not. Did not take any greedy photos of myself. Hello...this is public space after all so let me retain some dignity okay.

Homemade ice cream does take some time to defrost before you can scoop it out, though. And melts pretty quickly since everything is natural. Alright alright...here are the pictures already.

Here's another with a failed attempt at fixing the lighting and colour. 

And another with a close up of the red beans. Yes, I know they look black. No, I dunno how to fix the colour because they're actually just dark red. But it doesn't really matter because bittersweet green tea with candied sweet red beans is heaven in my mouth. 

And now I'm off to have some because I <3 ice cream. Yes, truly. I have a 2nd stomach for ice cream :D

Brownies

Wanted to name this post 'Chocolate Brownies' but then realized how redundant it was since brownies are supposed to be chocolate =P

I think this recipe was one of the first few I discovered and it's courtesy of Jamie Oliver, one of my favourite chefs. I had just purchased my oven and was absolutely jumping with excitement about using it for the first time. My cake mixer was new, too, but the fabulous thing about this recipe is that it has absolutely no need for one. Everything is done by hand. And once you're used to the steps, you can whip this up in a jiffy. The ingredients are pricey though, if you want to produce some good quality brownies. Like mine =P Oozing with dark chocolatey goodness. The first time I baked this and the smell filled the entire house, I remember actually salivating. And the first time I tasted this and it melted in my mouth, I remember immediately grabbing another piece. Yes, this brownie is also one of the reasons I packed on so much weight >.<

Serving suggestion: warm, with several scoops of vanilla ice cream, like this...

The evil things are still in my fridge, and I am still tempted to put a slice in my mouth everytime I see them. Darnit! One comment I've received that I can't get over is how 'chocolatey' it is. TOO chocolatey (???) I wanted to tell him: "Dude, go back to your XXX-brand Milk Chocolate Bar lar..." What a waste of a good slice of brownie. 

Lesson of the day? Never offer brownies to non-chocolate lovers.

Sweets for my sweets...

In case any of you are wondering why this blog is named as such =P

Hummingbird cakes

So here are the hummingbirds I promise to make last weekend but didn't because a lot of events cropped up and I didn't have much time to indulge in baking. Sneaked some time in last night though ;) The cake itself was relatively easy to make because it used oil instead of butter, so no mixer needed. The recipe called for a boatload of flour though, which perplexed me, because I ended up with batter for more than 12 muffins, and the cakes turned out GINORMOUS!

But I need to digress. Because the first time I heard about this cake was again at Whisk@ESG with my Austrahleean friend, and it turns out to be a banana and pineapple cake. So now I'm like, "I need a pretty name for my banana muffins", and she asks, "What did you have in mind?" So one of the names I came up with was 'peacock' because it's such a grand bird but she said, "I'm not going to eat a cake called Peacock." Fine lor...

How's 'Canary' then? :D

So back to my hummingbirds. They were this big...

As usual, I'd reduced the sugar and increased the fruits. Er...maybe less pineapples next time. They might look round and puffy and all...

but I needed to turn them over onto their (supposedly) flat tops. Since mine was round and puffy and all, I got this instead...

Admittedly very funny looking, but I don't think was intended to be that way. The picture in the book definitely did not look that way. They looked...tall and thin. Crap, I have short and pudgy muffins. I have baby chicks instead of elegant hummingbirds. 

But then they didn't look so bad after the icing and sprinkling of pecan nuts. So final output?

Cute, right...So cute, in fact, that I forgot to take a photo of what it looks like inside because I've given them all away =P 

New recipe book

Ho ho ho...found this book in MPH today. Can't wait to try out the recipes! There are 45 assorted recipes of cupcakes, muffins, cakes and buns. This weekend I shall make the Hummingbird cakes...wee...

Interested testers do leave a comment :D