Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Although I've lately been posting about more breads than cakes, I still do cakes too;)

I made these for our car sales guy and he specifically asked me to make 'very chocolate' cupcake.

So..., I made sure I did 'very' chocolate cake...

Melting chocolate and gently folding it in the cake batter is always a very therapeutic event. I love it! :)

Moist cake with plenty of milk chocolate on the top,

it's got to be a nice sugar supply for a Friday afternoon...

Ingredients:

Egg 5 (Egg white 4, Egg yolk 4, whole egg 1)

Sugar 125g

Butter 125g

Self raising flour 110g

Dark chocolate 125g

Coco powder 15g

Milk Chocolate chips for the topping

I also made these cupcakes for Lana's nursery teachers since she is moving up to the next class and today was her last day at the current class. (Awe, she is growing up too fast...)

☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎

Smile!

Pineapple yeast vanilla cake

Recently I've been using less and less dried yeast and more of my own starter for baking breads. Then I thought... why not use it for my cakes too... so, I did. ;)

I made a simple buttery vanilla cake with my pineapple starter. And and..., it was a great success! I think the pineapple yeast was a good choice for a cake because it has a very sweet fruity flavour to it.

Andy took the round cake to work (I put ginger pear jam and butter icing in the middle) and apparently it was gone in 5 minutes! That's to me the best compliment I could get as a baker. :D

One thing with using the starter for a cake is that it's a much longer process than an ordinary cake because you need to wait for the cake to rise before you put it in the oven, and it could be more than a few hours depending on the size of the cake and the condition of the starter. So, plan your baking time! Don't start it late in the evening because you might end up waiting and waiting and won't be able to go to bed until midnight... (that was my case...silly me...).

Strawberry & Peanut butter cupcake

As well as Andy's 32nd Birthday cake, I made strawberry and peanut butter cupcakes for Andy's birthday for him to take to the office.

I asked Andy what he wanted in the middle of the cake, and he said 'strawberry jam and peanut butter'. Since I'd already planed to put fruits and cream in the big cake, we decided to make cupcakes with strawberry and peanut butter for the office.

I made strawberry jam cupcakes (I used the same recipe as the Raspberry jam cake, but replaced the raspberry jam to strawberry jam.). With an apple corer I made a hole in the middle, then filled it with strawberry jam and covered the top with peanut butter icing.

It was like "America in a cupcake!",  I think...
I guess Andy got what he wanted on his birthday. :D

Blackberry crumble muffin

There was some crumble topping left from my chestnut crumble cake, so I baked some blackberry crumble muffins.

Because I didn't strain the jam the muffins had a lot of pips, which I was quite fine with, but if you like more smooth texture I recommend you use a jam without pips our strain it with a sieve.

By the way, for some of the muffins I mixed the crumble topping in the batter in stead of putting it on top. And..., it was actually pretty good! One thing is when you mix in the crumble, make use not to over mix or the cake will become tough.

Ingredients:

Flour 150g

Baking powder 1 tsp

Brown sugar 150g

Egg 3

Butter (melted) 100g

Blackberry Jam 100g

Crumble (see chestnut crumble cake or apple crumble cake)

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Make the crumble by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and rub with fingers until the mixture becomes sandy.

2. Make the cake mixture. Beat eggs and sugar together until it's fluffy.

3. Add melted butter into 2 and mix well.

4. Sift flour and baking powder. Fold them into 3.

5. Fold in blackberry jam into 4. (Mix in the crumble if you want the crumble in the batter.)

6. Pour the cake mixture into a cake tin. Put the crumble on top.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the top of the cake is lightly golden.

Have you seen my other cakes with Blackberry jam?

Skinny Blackberry pie

Blackberry Swiss roll

Hazelnut latte cupcake

Andy ordered some cake to take to work. So, I made those nice and sweet hazelnut latte cupcakes.

The sweet flavour of hazelnut and a hit of coffee reminded me of Starbucks hazelnut latte. ;) Next time I'm tempted to make it alcoholic by swapping the espresso to kahlua and the hazelnut syrup to frangelico...

Hopefully those midweek treat will do for Andy's colleague to get through the rest of the week. :D

きなこカップケーキ (Kinako cupcake)

きなこ(kinako, soy powder) is one of my favourite food since I was a little kid. I used to sprinkle sweetened kinako on my rice which is for me an ultimate comfort food...

Yesterday I fancied a comforting Japanese sweet so decided to make some cupcakes with kinako. I mixed kinako in my very easy basic cupcake recipe and used dark brown sugar for a rich taste.

It took me only less than 30 minutes to make this cupcakes which is really handy when you have a little baby. These cupcakes are fairy healthy too that is another good thing when you're watching your diet. (I kind of am... because of breast feeding...)

The cupcakes tasted very "homely" which was just what I was looking for... I loved them, but Andy said "it's not for me..." because he doesn't really like kinako... Ok well, if you like kinako, then that's for you...:)

If you like your cupcake sweet then add more sugar (you can add up to 100g or so...)

Ingredients:

Flour 70g

Kinako 30g

Baking powder 1 tsp

Dark brown sugar 50g

Egg 2

Butter 100g

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Melt butter.

2. Beat eggs and sugar together until it's light and fluffy.

3. Mix in melted butter into2.

4. Sift flour, kinako, baking powder into 3.

5. Pour the mixture into cupcake tins and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Cupcakes for our new car

This weekend we had an exciting new arrival... a new car, BIG ONE! Yay!

Now, I can drive in the UK for the very first time because it's an automatic car! And and, our baby stuff fits perfectly with lot more other stuff. Plus, it's got one of my favourite things... electric sliding door... oh...."like"...

So, I made cupcakes for the guys who helps us to pick this car. Black chocolate cupcake for our black car...:D Thank you:)

Apparently these cupcakes are so moreish that one of the sales people came up to the car as we were leaving and asked for us to drop in with more cakes! There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a happy smile made by my cake;)

Very moist lime cake

After the last weekend's party, we had a lot of limes and cream left over from making cocktails and mocktails. So, I decided to use them up in my cake as usual;)

This time it's a variation of my "non butter cream cake". I've changed lemon to lime and quantity of eggs. I also made lime syrup to brush the cake to give it as much lime flavour as I can. :D

I've left the cake in the fridge overnight to let the syrup properly soak in. When I took the cake out of the fridge the following morning, I smelt of lovely citrus flavour, and as soon as I bit into it, the sweet and tangy taste of lime spread in my mouth... Humm, heavenly...

It's nice to eat soon after the cake is cooled but it's better wait until next day so that it becomes really moist and juicy, just how I like it!

Ingredients:

Plain flour 200g

Baking powder 1 tsp

Double cream 250g

Sugar 150g

Egg 2

Lime juice 3 tbsp

Lime zest 1 tsp

1.Sift flour and baking powder together. Preheat the oven to 180ºc.

2. Combine double cream and sugar in a bowl and mix to just before "soft peaks".

3. Mix in eggs, lime juice and lime zest to 2.

4. Fold in flour and baking powder.

5. Pour the mixture into a cake tin. Bake in the pre heated oven (180ºc) for 40 minutes.

6. While the cake is in the oven, prepare the syrup. Combine all the ingredients for the lime syrup in a bowl. Put in the microwave for 3-4 minutes. (Be careful, it gets really hot!)

7. When the cake is done, pour the syrup over the cake while the cake is hot.

My little assistant - House warming & Wet the baby's head party -

We had a "house warming & wet the baby's head" party this weekend. And here she is..., my little cake assistant, Skyla! Isn't she lovely? :)

She did a great job helping me decorate the cupcakes. We made funny faces on the cupcakes as well as topping them with colourful sugar animals, balls and marshmallows. By the time we finished, we tasted 2..3..4 of them (... can't remember how many...) and we both had sticky hands with icing;)

Oh and, I thought Skyla was a real chef because she asked me "can we try the cupcakes? Because we need to know how they tastes before we serve them, don't we?" I was like... "Sure, yes!"

Well done and thanks, Skyla;D

Gluten free ginger cupcake

Even though I'm not particularly on any special diets (except non-meat...), I sometimes like to try recipes for special diets such as gluten free, wheat free, sugar free...

So today, I'm going for "gluten free". I used rice flour as an alternative to normal flour and unrefined palm sugar instead of refined white sugar. Sounds more nutritious and healthier, no?

Since I'm a big ginger lover and brown sugar and ginger go so well, I've added a lot of ginger in the cake. When I was mixing the ingredients, the spicy flavour of ginger was hitting my nose heavenly...

I was slightly worried that the cake might not rise with rice flour but it did come out looking just perfect! As soon as I bit into one, I was like..."I'm genius..." Oops sorry... I'm normally a humble baker..., but this gluten free cupcake was so tasty. Just how I like it!

Ingredients:

Rice flour 130g

Corn flour 20g

Palm sugar (grated) 150g

Butter 150g

Egg 2

Milk 50g

Baking powder 1 tsp

Ginger powder 1tsp

Crystallised ginger (chopped)  2-3 tbsp

1.Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Cream butter and palm sugar until it's fluffy.

2. Add eggs and milk into 1 and mix well.

3. Sift together rice flour, corn flour, baking powder and ginger powder into 2. Fold in.

4. Fold chopped crystallised ginger into 3.

5. Pour the mixture into a cupcake mould. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 20-25 minutes.

Children in Need 2011

On Friday, Andy went to sell World of Sweets cupcakes at BBC to raise money for Children In Need. I made four different cupcakes, lemon & poppy seed, cherry & almond, chestnut & walnut, and rose & pistachio. They were all dressed up with pretty icing on top and line up nicely. :)

About a half way through of the day, I got an update from Andy... apparently the cupcakes were half gone! That did put a smile on my face. And not only that... by the end of the day, 64 cupcakes were all gone! Sold out! Yey, that really did make me happy. ;)

Thanks to everyone who bought my cake. All the sales were donated to Children In Need.

I'll share recipes for those cupcake soon:)

Super mini cupcake

I think it's time I shared this exciting news with everyone....We're expecting a new addition to the family..., it's a baby girl! Yes, it's a GIRL!

Andy bet on a boy, but my instinct was telling me it was a girl from the very early days.... and today we finally got to find out who has been right. So... I was right, it's a girl... a baby girl... mini me... I'm already extremely excited about sharing the kitchen with her. ;)

These cupcake are for Mr and me... and a mine one for a little person in my belly. I know it's a bit too early to bake a cake for her, but couldn't help it... I'll take care of the eating bit since I'm supposed to be eating for two, right?

Sugar free cupcake

Yesterday, we were invited to Steve's for BBQ and I brought the cupcake family with us...

This time they were sugar free. Although I'm still experimenting the sugar free cake recipes and these weren't  quite 100% "THE" one yet, I think (or at least I want to think...) it is getting closer to what I want.

So..., here is how they were this time...

My :-) points..., the cakes were risen perfectly. The taste of mixed spices did work. The cherry nose gave a nice accent.
My :-( points..., the texture was still not as moist as I want. It could have been sweeter...

Just to share my experimental recipe...

Ingredients;

Flour 100g

Artificial sweetener 1/2 cup

Butter 50g

Cream cheese 50g

Egg 2

Baking powder 1 tsp

Mixed spice 1/2 tsp

Vanilla extract 1 tsp

---

Cream cheese and sweetener (For decoration)

1. Pre heat the oven to 180ºc. Cream butter, sweetener and cream cheese together.

2. Add eggs and vanilla extract into 1, and mix well.

3. Sift flour, baking powder, and mixed spices into 2. Fold in.

4. Pour the mixture into cupcake moulds. Put cherry in the middle. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 30 minutes.

5. Mix cream cheese and sweetener and decorate the cupcakes as you like....

Well, well, well..., I hope I will get the "Wow" moment with my sugar free recipes... Until then, my experiment continues...

PS. Steve... Thank you for the lovely Sunday BBQ... ;)

Russian Roulette cupcakes

I've always wanted to make them, but not to get involved in the game so that I don't hit the ONE...

And finally, the best opportunity has come! Andy was going to his mate, Yung's stag do at Glastonbury... it had to be done.. The Russian Roulette cake for the boys!

I made my normal buttery cupcakes with a hint of cassis liqueur... However, there is one  with Wasabi hidden inside (and I'm quietly telling you that the one with "eat me" written with pink is the one!)...Mwahahaha!! Not only that, I also added a good amount of Wasabi underneath of icing...Mwaghaahahaha!!! I feel such an evil... Sorry for one of the boys who is going to get it, and that will probably be Yung...

Well, the cupcakes have been sent to the boys. Let's wait to hear from my partner in crime... Can't wait! Guahhahahahah!!!

父の日, Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dad and father-in-law!

Unfortunately, I can't send these cup cakes to either of them because they are both away... but we'll take care of eating them and send some love instead...

**Please note...**
By the way, neither of them look like these cupcake-men... (Just like my mother's day cupcake...)

お父さんへ
今日は父の日なので、こんなん作りました〜。残念ながら、日本には送れないけどこっちで食べときます。。では、暑い夏がやって来ますが体に気をつけて過ごして下さい〜。

3x celebration!

Everyone! Have you realised that this post is my 100th post of The World of Sweets Diary! Lots of nice treats and some failure, I'm so happy to come this far. Of course, I'm aiming for thousands and thousands more posts to tell you about the World of Sweets Kitchen affairs:)

So, the 100th post is one of 3 celebration of today. The second is, it's my "Mum in England" (that's what I call her), Louise's birthday. Happy Birthday Louise, xxx! I've sent her lots of love with this cute cupcake:)

The Third is... maybe not as big as the last two, but I've completed my 30days of Bikram yoga session without failing any single day! I've got to be a bit aware of being fit so that I have a bigger cake hole... anyway, this is for me an amazing achievement, and I think I should give myself a little treat.....

Well, well, well, so far so good, let's run forward to 1000s post!

70 little ones for Scanners Night

Tonight I did something I'd never done before. I went to a thing called "Scanners Night" where creative people get together and everyone helps you to make your big idea happen. So..., I went there with my cakes to tell them what my idea is! Yes of course, it is The World of Sweets!

Going there and thinking I'm going to give these cakes away to people I'm going to meet the first time was already nerve racking but the most terrifying thing was John, the founder of the Scanners Night, let me speak in front of everyone! Yek, I felt like I was a wobbly jelly... really nervous... But thanks to John, I manage to spread my little ones to everyone in the room.

Seriously, that was the biggest promotion ever done for The World of Sweets! Thanks to all the people who took my cake tonight:)

SmartSaver cupcake

I'm doing design works for iPhone Apps. One of the apps I'm working on has just been released, called "SmartSaver". It's a kind of finance app that helps you save money. And...., the icon of this App is the piggy on these cupcakes!! His unique eyes are hard to ignore!

Yesterday, we met up with the developer of this app, his wify, a friend of ours and his girlfriend for an app release celebration dinner. I brought these cupcakes. As well as it had the iconic piggy on top to promote the app, it's a honeycomb cupcake which our friend, Andrew, gave me the idea of. Thanks to him, crunchy and sort of biscuity cake was lovely and addictive.

Honeycomb is a great fun to make! Try this mini science experiment, and of course... SmartSaver!

Ingredients;

Sugar 100g

Golden syrup 3 tbsp

Bicarbonate of soda 2 tsp

1. Put Sugar and Golden syrup in a pan. Place the pan on a low heat for about 10 minutes. Stir well to prevent burning it. 

2. As soon as the syrup reaches the stage where dropping a little syrup into a glass of water and it snaps cleanly, remove the pan off the heat. Add Bicarbonate of soda and mix well. You'll see a little volcano.

3. Pour 2 into a cake tin. Let it cool, then break it into chunky pieces.

Plum cupcake

I love seeing colourful winter veges and fruits sitting neatly at the market stall on a beautiful sunny day like today:) There are lots of plums around now, and we got so many of them on the other day. They were still a bit sour after a week, so I decided to turn them into plum cupcakes;)

First of all, I made plum compote. When I cut the plums into chunky pieces, I thought..."humm, it's a bit more than I thought...". But when they were being cooked, an amazing amount of water came out and eventually they sized down to 1/3.

Plum and almond got on really well, so I mixed almond powder with flour.

Smelling beautiful, I could already tell those cakes were going to be tasty when they were still in the oven.

Here they are out of the oven..., ooh..., they're really really lovey:) The taste of slightly sour but sweet plum, and the nutty flavour and texture of almond...

Honestly..., really good.

Gorgeous desserts plate

We visited Mahalia, Brian, and Skyla yesterday.

Mahalia cook lovely veggie burger and pea soup for us. Her pea soup and veggie burger had a really nice flavour and went well with the cheesy bun beautifully. She is really a good cook! and mum..., and wife..., and singer...;)

For dessert, I got a big portion of treats! Mahalia's key lime pie was, again, lovely. Smooth key lime filling and biscuit base with icecream filled my cake hole nicely:)

I brought my cupcakes too. I loved seeing Skyla's big smiley face when she licked icing. Nothing can beat seeing people eat your cakes with joy:D

Thanks to Mahalia, Brian and Skyla for an amazing evening;)