Double Chocolate Muffins

In the mood for baking recently.
So I reorganised my baking cupboard and made an inventory of baking equipment, packaging, dry and wet ingredients.
Threw away tons of expired items as well.

Definitely feeling accomplished and the tidy cupboard is motivating me to bake more often.
Sorry in advance to everyone around me,
you might find yourself gaining some weight in time to come.
HAHAHA.

Sissy saw this recipe on FB and she forwarded it to me saying that the muffins looked good in the pictures.
Decided to give it a try over the weekends after tweaking the original recipe a little and I think my muffins turned out looking not too shabby in comparison.
:)


Anyone else hates cleaning batter off the whisk attachment like me?
:(















Ingredients

Makes 15 regular muffins

- 3 eggs
- 160g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 250g heavy cream
- 35g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 135g plain flour
- 130g chocolate buttons 56% cocoa

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C and line the muffin tray with paper cups.

2) Chop the chocolate buttons into small chunks.

3) In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla extract using an electric mixer. Beat till mixture is thick, creamy and pale yellow in colour.

4) In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream till stiff peaks form.

5) Add cocoa powder into the whipped heavy cream and mix well.

6) Add whipped heavy cream + cocoa powder mixture to the eggs mixture and mix well.

7) Add baking powder and flour and mix to combine.

8) Fold in chocolate chunks and keep aside some for topping.

9) Spoon the mixture into the paper cups till 2/3 full and scatter the remaining chocolate chunks on top.

10) Bake for about 25 minutes or so or until toothpick inserted into centre of muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool before serving or keeping them into boxes.



This recipe is great for those who do not like their muffins too oily (because there is no butter used) or too sweet.

Relatively easy to make and pretty hard to go wrong in my opinion.
;)

Valentine's Day Recipe II

I promised that I will be back today to share this awesome strawberry recipe with you girls and I'm keeping that promise!

Hehe.

Need to make up for my absence for the whole of last week!

This recipe is definitely worth a try because:

1) It's super simple to make, you don't even have to follow the recipe THAT closely!

2) It tastes ridiculously and unbelievably good despite how simple it is to make.

3) It looks super photogenic and suitable for Valentine's Day, red and full of love!

4) It does not require sophisticated baking tools...
DUHHH it does not even require you to go near an oven.

5) Have I mentioned how good this tastes??!
Okay yes, I did.





How to make:
Strawberry Cheesecake Cups/Jars


You'll be needing strawberries, of course.


Cook the strawberries with sugar in a small saucepan.


Awesome strawberry sauce in just a few minutes!


Crush the digestive biscuits into small breadcrumb-like bits.


Mix with melted butter and press onto the bottom of your cup/jar!


You need cream cheese and plain yoghurt for the cheese filling!


I used Bulla's Lite' n Healthy plain yoghurt!
Mix well with cream cheese and vanilla extract.


Layer cream cheese mixture onto digestive biscuit base and refrigerate.




Pour the strawberry sauce upon serving.


And now,
the exact recipe!
:)


Ingredients

Makes 6 cups/jars

- 1 punnet of strawberries, about 250g
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 6 digestive biscuits
- 25g unsalted butter
- 250g cream cheese, room temperature
- 50g icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 140g non/low fat plain yoghurt


Method

Heat 1/3 of the strawberries and sugar and in a small saucepan over low heat until the berries have broken down.
Add the rest of the strawberries and cook for another 1 minute.
 Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat.
 Crumb the digestive biscuits until they resemble breadcrumbs.
 Mix the crumbs and the melted butter until combined.

 Spoon equal portion of the biscuit mixture into the bottom of cups/jars.
 Lightly press down the mixture into the bottom of the cups/jars.
 Leave to chill in fridge.

Mix cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes/till smooth and creamy.

Add in yoghurt and beat for another 1 minute till the mixture is thoroughly mixed.

Spoon cream cheese mixture into the cups/jars in equal amounts.
Leave to chill in the fridge again for 2 hours before serving with strawberry sauce on top.



Give this a try!
Promise you won't regret it for sure.
;)

Happy Valentine's Day in advance to all you lovelies!

♥

Valentine's Day Recipe I

Hi!

I'm finally back from my break,

time to wipe the dust off my neglected blog!

Here's a short summary of what I did during my break:

- CNY visiting

- Play with my fur babies at home

- Sleep

- Rekindled my love for baking

- Watch at least 5 hours of HK drama every day

- Sleep more

Which explains why I did not update my blog.

Hahaha.

Now that I'm back, 

I thought I should share some of my bakes during my week long holiday!

Wanted to blog about my CNY this year but since Valentine's Day is just around the corner,

I thought these recipes (with step-by-step photos!) would come in handy for some of you.

;)

Something chocolate-y for today,
then strawberries for tomorrow!





How to Make :
Double Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies


Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer and beat till light and fluffy


Add an egg into the mixture and beat till well incorporated.


Time for some vanilla extract to enhance the flavour of the cookies!

Weigh cocoa powder and flour according to recipe.


Sift dry ingredients together.




Mix big spoonfuls of sifted dry ingredients into the butter/egg/sugar mixture till it's well combined.


Weigh the semi sweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips!


Mix the chips into the dough mixture and stir it till well combined!


Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto baking tray.
You can press a few butterscotch chips on top of the dough if you want the chips to be more visible after baking.
*Be sure to leave sufficient space else your cookies will stick together as they expand quite a bit during baking.

After 9-11 minutes of baking,
super chocolate-y and decadent cookies are yours for gobbling!
WHOOPEE!

If your special someone loves anything chocolate,
this is one recipe you need to make for him.


And finally,
here's the recipe with the exact ingredients and exact timings!


Ingredients

Makes 18-22 cookies

- 140g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 200g caster sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 125g all purpose plain flour
- 85g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup butterscotch chips
(can replace with white chocolate chips)

Method

Preheat oven to 175 deg celsius.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy, scraping the sides of bowl when needed.

Add the egg and mix well.

Add vanilla extract and mix well again.

Sift dry ingredients together, then add in batches to the mixing bowl.
Mix till just combined after each addition.

Gently add chocolate chips and butterscotch chips into the mixture.

Scoop the dough by spoon and drop onto baking sheet. Dot the top of each cookie with additional butterscotch chips if you want them to show up on the cookie after baking.

Bake for 9-11 minutes depending on your oven,
till cookies are barely done but soft and chewy.

Let cool on a wire rack.



And you're done!

A really simple and absolutely fool proof recipe if you're looking to bake something for this Valentine's Day!

Most of the ingredients can be easily found in any NTUC/Phoon Huat/baking supplies shop.
I bought the butterscotch chips from Cold Storage but they were quite costly.
Would definitely try this recipe out again in future,
but maybe with white chocolate chips instead!
:)

If you have any questions you can just leave a comment below and I'll be happy to help!

Sharing another recipe tomorrow so remember to come back!

Nutella Swirls

Thom's birthday fell on 30th August and I really wanted to make something entirely from scratch for him given that he isn't one who likes lavish gifts.
I decided on cupcakes in the end.

People who know me are always shocked/surprised to know that I can actually bake.
Hahaha.
Yes I can.

Before I started an online store,
I always thought that it might be nice to own a bakery someday in future.
But now,
I'll leave that as a daydream.
Hehe.

Baking for me now is more of a leisurely hobby (which I can't really afford thanks to my crazily busy schedule).
I love how the smell of freshly baked goodies waft out of the kitchen.
And it really is rewarding to see the different ingredients form into something yummy by the end of a couple of hours.




Batter is ready for the oven!

The recipe is pretty simple to follow,
just do it step by step and you can hardly go wrong.







**I got this recipe a few years ago from a random website.. Can't remember who and which website to credit. If you know, drop me a note and I'll be happy to do so!



Ingredients (Makes 12 regular cupcakes)

210g all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder
(I used 1 teaspoon double acting baking powder, it should be the same!)

140g unsalted butter, room temperature

130g brown sugar
(you can use granulated white sugar too but it will be slightly sweeter)

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence

bottle of Nutella



Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

2. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder) in a bowl and put aside.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer at high speed till light and fluffy.

4. Add eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, one at a time. Mix in with electric mixer.

5. Add vanilla extract.

6. Gradually fold dry ingredients into the butter, sugar and eggs mixture until well mixed.

7. Scoop the batter into cupcake moulds (lined with paper cups) and make sure it is not more than 3/4 filled.

8. Top one teaspoon of Nutella onto each cupcake mould and make swirls with a toothpick.

9. Put into oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until you insert a toothpick into the centre of a cupcake and it comes out clean.

And there you go.
12 decadent cupcakes for Nutella lovers!

I have yet to hear of anyone who dislikes Nutella actually,
hahaha.

Go on,
give the recipe a try and let me know if you do!!
Please credit my blog url if you want to repost these photos anywhere as well.

Have the best week ahead and I'll be back with my OOTDs soon!

How to make... Strawberry Jelly Sweethearts!

After many 'trials and tribulations',

I've finally figured out how to do up the video! 

*pops champagne*

HAHAHA yes, I'm aware of how the music doesn't match the content of the video.

But I don't have a wide genre of music in my Mac and I cannot be bothered to find appropriate songs to download...

So...

Make do with it okay??

It's my first attempt at 'video editing' after all!

Here're pictures of the finished product!

Not perfect, but I reckon they're not too bad given that I haven't attempted them for the longest time ever!

Don't doubt it,
these babies taste as good as they look!
Super perfect combination of Tortally jelly, strawberry, cheese and digestive biscuit crumbs!
:D

Not easy to make (even though the recipe looks simple).
But I think you'll be safe to go if you follow the tips I've included in the video!







Here's the recipe!
(Makes 1 X 7" by 7" square tin)

Ingredients


Base:
- 110g digestive biscuits (about 8-9 pieces), crushed
- 40g melted butter


Filling:
250g cream cheese, room temp
50g icing sugar
1 tablespoon gelatin powder
40ml boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence

1 box strawberry flavoured Tortally


Around 5 strawberries larger that your heart shape cutter
(I bought 2 bonnets of strawberries before I can find 5)


Method


1. Stire biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly with the help of a spoon onto the base of your lined tin. Chill for at least 30 minutes in the fridge or until cream cheese mixture is done.

2. Mix gelatin powder and boiling water in a small bowl.
Heat a pot filled with some water until just simmering and place the bowl inside the pot to keep warm while doing up the cream cheese mixture.

3. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese , icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth & fluffy.
Mix in gelatine solution and beat for few seconds.

4. Pour the cheese mixture onto the biscuit layer. Lightly arrange and press strawberries on the cheese mixture. Chill for 3 to 4 hours.

5. Do the jelly according to the instructions on the jelly packet. Let cool completely.
 Pour the jelly on the cheese mixture.

6. Leave in the fridge until the jelly sets completely before attempting to remove from the tin.

*While cutting them into squares, wipe your knife clean with paper towels AFTER each slice.

HAPPY CLEANING UP! 


I hope you enjoy eating it...
And whoever you make this for is bound to be super duper happy!

You can ask me any questions...
And I'll help within my means, haha.
You gotta remember I'm no pro baker okay!
:p

Quality time.

Been staying home quite a lot for the weekends.

:)

I really enjoy just staying at home, 

doing nothing, 

and just spending time with my loved ones.

And maybe squeeze in a little time to bake some Red Velvet Cupcakes?

Hehe.

Tweeted that I'll share the recipe if it's a success.

So here it is!

Not sure if it will appeal to your taste buds, 

but no harm trying if you've some free time on hand!

Baking also helps to relieve stress,

with all the whisking, mixing, folding and sifting,

minus the washing up part.

Left to right: Plain flour (aka all purpose flour),
double acting baking powder (recipe called for baking powder, but I only had this at home, so I halved the quantity which the recipe called for!),
hershey's cocoa powder.


I use SCS butter (unsalted),
which I feel gives more buttery fragrance to my bakes as compared to other brands.


White vinegar and red food colouring.


Caster sugar.

DIY buttermilk because the NTUC we went to didn't have the ready made ones.
It's really easy to make this,
I'll also share the recipe later!
:D

Ingredients list


Cupcake:
- 125g sifted plain flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
(I used 1/8 because mine is double acting)
- 57g unsalted butter, room temp
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 120ml buttermilk***
- 1 tbsp red food colouring
- 1/2 tsp white vinegar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda

Frosting:
- 115g cream cheese, room temp
- 390g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 110g unsalted butter

**buttermilk substitute:
- 1 tbsp vinegar/lemon juice
- enough milk to fill 1 cup (around 236ml)
- let stand for 5 minutes




1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees.


2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.


3. In another bowl, beat butter till soft (around 1-2 mins).
Add sugar and beat for 2-3 mins.


4. Add egg and beat till incorporated.
Then add vanilla extract and beat.


5. In the measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk and food colouring.


6. With the mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternatively to butter mixture.
Beginning and ending with flour mixture being added.

7. In a small cup, mix vinegar and baking soda.
Allow mixture to fizz and quickly fold into cake batter.




It will look like this in the end, a lil curdly but it's fine!
:)


Our cute princess wants to eat the cupcakes too!
:D

8. Divide batter into separate paper cups.
Do not fill up the entire cup, fill about 1/2 cup to give room for the cake to rise.

9. Pop them in the oven and bake for 18-23 minutes!




Poking a toothpick in to test whether it's ready to get out of the oven!


While waiting for the cupcakes to cool,
prepare the frosting!
:D

- Sift sugar and set aside.
- Beat cream cheese till creamy.
- Add vanilla extract.
- Add sugar in batches, beating well.
-Frost awayyyyyy!

Hehehe.
Sense of achievement!
Wished I had more time for baking so that I can try out the many many recipes I bookmarked on my laptop!

Recipe credited to: Joy of Baking

Next item on my to-bake-list:
Pineapple tarts for CNY!


Went to visit Chinatown's night market on one of the weekday nights to get some shopping done!
Wore the Fairylights Fishtail Skirt, in a new colour!
:DD
I already have like... 3 different colours of this skirt.
Still couldn't resist keeping one more, making it my 4th.






Sorry for the spam in pictures,
really ♥ this outfit!


Lim Chee Guan.
Best Bak Kwa in my opinion!
They always have long snaking queues when it's nearer to CNY,
so I thought I'll get mine early!




The uncle who is really expert at scooping and weighing the bak kwa.
I went for the traditional kind,
the bacon version and the gold coin version doesn't really appeal to me.
I like my new year goodies to be traditional!


The already crowded night market.
Frankly speaking, nothing much to buy!
Or maybe I didn't have the mood to shop that day.
Hahah.


Outfit for today:
TTR Basic Tank and the upcoming remake of Rahrah Cheerleader Skirt!
:)))
Wearing polka dots never fails to make me happy.



Also kept this in 4 other colours/prints already,
my 5th Rahrah skirt.
As you might have guessed,
my wardrobe is in an extremely pathetic state right now.



On the cab to meet Steph,
Thom on the phone giving her directions on how to walk to the Punggol Nasi Lemak from Kovan Mrt.






Passed her some gifts which I got for her since Christmas...
And the hua kai fu gui skirt, hahaha.

Steph also passed me a gift which she was proud of getting,
(better than a paperweight) a Dior eyeshadow palette with a cute pop up mirror!
:D




Yummyyyy Nasi Lemak!
:D


And right after Nasi Lemak,
I went for my dad's birthday dinner + mini celebration for Jessie's results day!
BURPS.

Went to Mellben's again, my dad's pick!
:)












Family photooooo!
:D
It's been a really long time since we all ate out together,
so taking a photo is a must!

Plus the boyfriends!
Just noticed Ben's guilty look...
Because eat too much right?
HAHAHAHAHA.

Nothing beats spending some quality time with the people I love.
:)
Can I have more weekends like this?

formspring me!