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!

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? 

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