Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry-Grapefruit Buttercream

For Mothers' Day! this post is self-explanatory......

Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar (I reduced it to half cup)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Into a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. 
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour.
4. Pour batter into cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely 
6. Decorate as desired.

Raspberry-Grapefruit Buttercream filling 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick butter, at room temp
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 Tbsp grapefruit zest, unpacked
• 1 1/2 Tbsp grapefruit juice
• 1/2 tsp Marks & Spencer Bat's Blood

Method:

1. Cream the butter, powdered sugar, salt, and grapefruit zest on high 3 to 4 minutes. Add the bat's blood and mix for another minute

Honey Nutty Cupcakes

for a Xbox lunch party... 


my second try on this recipe.. simple and quick; great when you are time constrained...

Oreo CupCakes

moving house is a lot of work. i wasn't in time for halloween and i also could not find halloween oreos in Singapore. Modified the halloween oreo cupcakes recipe from gingerbread bagels a little (love her foodblog!) and came up with normal oreo cupcakes. 


it is just less the color; still creamy and oreo-licious....


Oreo Cupcakes (adapted from gingerbreadbagel)

Ingredients:
2 cups -------------------- plain flour ( i used cake flour too)
1 1/2 cups ---------------- sugar
2 tsp ---------------------- baking powder
1 tsp ---------------------- kosher salt ( i used normal salt)
1/2 cup ------------------- shortening, softened (i used buttercup luxury spread)
3/4 cup ------------------ whole milk
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp -------------------- vanilla extract
7 Oreos, ground into coarse crumbs

Buttercream
4 cups ------------------- icing sugar
1/2 cup ------------------ unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup ------------------ shortening, softened (i used buttercup luxury spread)
1/2 tsp ------------------- vanilla extract
1/8 tsp ------------------- kosher salt
3 1/2 oz ------------------ heavy whipping cream (a little more than 1/3 cup)
10 Oreos, ground into fine crumbs

Method:

1. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt using an electric mixer

2. Then add in the shortening (the shortening should be very soft, almost melted), milk, eggs and vanilla extract and mix to low speed to combine. (about 1 minute) You don’t want to over mix the batter. Set the batter aside.

3. Put 7 Oreos in the food processor and grind them up into coarse crumbs. Throw them into the batter and fold them in.

4. Line a cupcake pan with liners. Using an ice cream scooper (i didn't use that), scoop the batter into each cupcake liner.
The cupcakes should be filled about 2/3 of the way. Make sure you don’t overfill them!

5. Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then take the cupcakes out of the pan and transfer them to a cooling rack.
Cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting:
1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, mix together the shortening and butter for about 3-4 minutes on medium high speed.
3. On low speed, slowly add in the powdered sugar. Add in 1/2 cup at a time.
4. Once all of the powdered sugar is added, increase the speed to medium for a minute or two.

5. Slowly add in the heavy whipping cream on low speed. Then increase the speed to high and mix for 10 minutes. (no discount!)
Set the buttercream aside.

6. In a food processor, grind up 10 Oreos into fine crumbs. Add them to the buttercream and fold them in.

Assembling the cupcakes:
Put the buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a decorating tip. Pipe the buttercream onto the cooling cupcakes. Or you can simply frost them with a small spatula or knife.

coffee walnut whip cupcake

i was never fan of cupcakes but have recently taken an interest in baking them, but not yet eating them maybe just because they look pretty. images of cupcakes do great justice to plain-looking recipes with just words. yes, i only read recipes with images. i know that is quite superficial right? but thats how my brain neurones work when it comes to recipe hunting - first impression counts.... 

anyhow, i personally think that not all cupcakes are super fanciful. some are simpler and their toppings are coloured by natural ingredients such as coffee and fruits as compared to the pretty ones which could have coloured icing and fondants as toppings. my current interest in cupcakes is in those that are "paler-in-comparison" ones. think they are also quick and easy; great for hosting a large number of guests!

coffee walnut whip cake
(adapted from goodhousekeeping book)

little notes: i used vietnamese coffee. was a gift from my mum's friend. the aroma was heavenly!

ingredients
100 g ------------- walnuts, grounded
175 g ------------- butter, soften
150 g ------------- self-raising flour, sifted
175 g ------------- soft light brown sugar (the cupcakes turned out so sweet that i would use 100 g the other time)
1 tsp ------------- baking powder
50 ml ------------- milk
3 ------------------ medium eggs

coffee buttercream
1 tbsp ----------- instant coffee granules
50 g ------------- butter, soften
200 g ----------- icing sugar, divided (i used only 150 g)
50 g ------------- walnut, chopped finely

Method:

1. preheat oven to 190degC. line muffin paper cases in 12 muffin tins
2. put grounded walnuts into a large mixing bowl
3. add butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs and milk to the walnut. using a handheld electric mixer, mix the mixture until pale and fluffy
4. spoon and divided the mixture into the 12 muffin paper case
5. bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and risen
6. cool cupcakes in the tin for 5 mins and then transfer into cooling rack and cool completely

coffee buttercream
7. dissolve coffee granules in 2 tbsp of boiling water
8. add the butter and 100g of icing sugar t coffee mixture and whisk until smooth
9. chill for 30 min
10. add the remaining icing sugar to the chilled mixture and whisk until smooth and creamy

11. using a jam spread or small spatula, spread the coffee buttercream on the top of the cupcakes and dip the top into chopped walnuts.

viola! aromatic coffee walnut whip cupcakes.. perfect with a cup of afternoon tea...

Gone Nuts

Recently, work has been hectic. And so are my house renovation and wedding preparations. Weekends were burnt meeting with IDs.

Finally managed to find some time for baking this week!

In mood for cupcakes and nuts!

Honey-Nutty Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 150 g unsalted butter 
• 175 g self-raising flour 
• 50 g caster sugar (I reduced to 40 g as I used honey in this recipe) 
• 100 ml golden syrup (substituted with honey since I had no golden syrup) 
• 3 medium eggs 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp ground mixed spice (I used cinnamon) 
• 50 g chopped nuts (I used almond) 

For the topping

• 3 tsp double cream 
• 1 tsp milk 
• 50 g milk chocolate, finely chopped 
• 50 g dark chocolate, finely chopped 
• 75 g roasted chopped hazelnuts (I also used almonds) 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190degC. Line 12 muffin tin with paper muffin cases 
2. Put the butter, flour, sugar, syrup, eggs, baking powder, mixed spice and nuts in a large bowl. Whisk the mixture using a hand held electric whisk until pale and creamy. Divide the mixture equally among the paper cases 
3. Bake for 20 mins or until risen and golden. Leave in tin to cool for 5 mins and then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. 
4. Heat the cream and milk in a small saucepan until near boiling. Put both chocolates into a bowl and pour the hot cream over them. Leave to stand for 5 mins and stir until smooth 
5. Put the hazelnuts into a shallow bowl. Dip the top of the cake into the chocolate cream, allow excess to drip off then dip into the nuts until coated all over. Stand the cakes upright on the wire rack and leave for about 1 hour to set.