Showing posts with label Cupcakes. Show all posts

Sirap Bandung Cupcakes (Recipe)


Sirap bandung. How do I say that in English? Rose milk? Rose syrup? Somebody help. Hahaha. It's basically a popular Malaysian drink made up of rose syrup and milk. It's pink, too. It's really common to see this drink on the menu of the local restaurants here. I had to google up how this drink originated and apparently, this drink is an adaptation of the rose milk served in India. Okay, new knowledge! There's even bandung-flavored soy milk sold in the supermarkets. Now that Ramadhan is approaching, I'm pretty sure it's easier for you to find it on the shelves of the supermarkets near you. 

Anyway... this recipe was made out of curiosity. I knew it was possible to create another new recipe from the good old vanilla cupcake recipe, but I wasn't sure if sirap bandung would work. So I tried. Since the vanilla cupcake recipe required milk as one of the ingredients, I tried substituting it with rose milk instead. It worked and I never felt so good! Here's how you can make these lovely sirap bandung cupcakes.

Cupcakes
Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream, either one)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 sirap bandung (rose syrup, condensed milk, water)
If batter is not pink enough, add in a drop of red food coloring. Not too much!

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven. Go.
2. In your mixing bowl, beat sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract until the eggs and oil are well incorporated. Keep mixing until the batter gets lighter in colour.
3. Mix in the yogurt and beat until well combined.
4. Add half the flour into the bowl together with baking powder. Beat on low speed while pouring half of the sirap bandung until the mixture starts to incorporate.
5. Add the remaining flour and continue mixing while pouring the remaining milk. Beat until all of the ingredients are well combined.
6. Divide your batter evenly into your cups. Be sure not to overfill them. Stop trying to taste the batter with your finger too 😛
7. Bake for 17-20 minutes at 160 degrees C. Once done, let them cool completely.

I once participated in a cupcake decorating competition with my friends and won third place. One of the judges told us that the reason why my team didn't make it as the champion was because our cupcakes weren't frosted properly (refer photo above). The right way to frost your cupcakes is to make sure that your cupcakes are fully covered with your frosting. 


However, as you can see, whatever he said didn't change my way of frosting my cupcakes. I like my cupcakes the way I like them to be. I'm not doing it professionally, so I don't need rules. #rebel 🙊 And yes, those are mint leaves.

Yup. You figured. It's buttercream frosting! Nothing different, except for the fact that I added a drop of rose extract into it. If you don't have it, you can totally proceed with the regular buttercream frosting. 

Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
 125g butter
250g powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon rose extract (optional)
Directions:
 Beat butter. Add powdered sugar gradually and mix until fluffy. Add rose extract into mixture and mix until well combined. If you want it colored, drop your desired food coloring into it.
Okay, that is one lengthy post. If you made it up to this point, you're the best! 
Ramadhan Kareem to everyone ðŸ’—
p/s: leave a comment and tell me what you're planning to bake, i'd love to get to know my readers hehe

Moist Coffee Cupcakes (Recipe)


Like, really moist! I was so infatuated with the nice coffee scent, the soft texture, and how amazingly moist they are with not even a hint of dryness. Might even go as far as suggesting that you should skip your daily morning coffee routine (or cancel your expensive Starbucks trip) and pop these babies into the oven instead. What's amazing is that you get to taste a perfect balance between both chocolate and coffee in these cupcakes. I love this recipe because not only there is a high possibility that you have all the ingredients in your kitchen, they are so easy to make too. Nothing expensive, nothing time-consuming in terms of preparation.

CUPCAKES
Ingredients:
Bowl A:
1/2 cup of brewed coffee
1 1/2 teaspoons coffee powder (I used Nescafe Classic)
1/2 cup fresh milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bowl B:
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2  teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Bowl C:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat the oven. Come on,  you know the drill.
Bowl A:
Mix the coffee powder into the brewed coffee until dissolved. Add in milk and vanilla extract and set aside.
Bowl B:
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
Bowl C:
Beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until nicely combined. Add flour mixture (Bowl B) into the egg-butter-sugar mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of coffee mixture (Bowl A) until well incorporated. Flour-coffee-flour-coffee-flour. 
Lastly, pour the mixture into your cups! Bake for 20 minutes at 160 degrees. Cool completely before you frost the cupcakes. Be patient, please.



You can see how moist and soft they are just by the look of it. Did I tell you how much I've missed doing food photography? I felt like my skills and creativity have deteriorated during the times I have not held my camera. Really loved how the pictures came out for this recipe, though. My mood boards on Pinterest really helped me a lot. #photographytips 😂 Aaaa, I need to shop for more props. I've been using the same props in almost all of my photos. It gets boring.


The good old buttercream frosting. Don't tell me you have no idea what buttercream frosting is unless you're new to baking. YOU. MUST. KNOW. THIS. It's the only thing that can save you when you are clueless of what to frost your cupcakes with. All you need are butter and powdered sugar. If you want it flavored, PUT ANYTHING YOU WANT. Chocolate, mint, lemon, caramel, butterscotch, and even coffee... You can always keep it in the fridge for the times you're not using it. For its long shelf life, I can say it's a lifesaver.

How to make coffee buttercream frosting?
Ingredients:
125g butter
250g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of brewed coffee 
Directions:
Beat butter. Add powdered sugar gradually and mix until fluffy. Pour coffee into mixture and mix until well combined. 
** you might wanna check the consistency of your frosting to know when you should stop mixing. If it's still too soft and runny, piping will be a hard work. Try mixing a little bit longer until it becomes stable!


Anyways, I have a lot of things to be done for my final year project. I have yet submitted my draft to my supervisor. I have yet started writing for my chapter 3. I am so behind the schedule. SEND HELP. 

Coconut Lime Cupcakes (Recipe)

Hello hello hello! *wipes dust off my blog*
Now... how long have I been gone? Totally not in the mood to do the math now. Pretty sure it has been almost.. a year, I think? The last time I wrote was when I was on my foundation semester break. Now I only have a month left before I start degree. A friend asked me if I had a blog where I write about what I bake and stuff, and then I remembered leaving my so-called recipe blog abandoned for a long time already. So here I am, trying to come back to posting recipes. Guys, blogging does involve a lot of effort and commitment, and time. But whatever! I'll post whenever I bake (and have good photos) sooo, have fun. Do leave comments too, would love to interact with my readers!!
I can totally feel my laptop telling me, "as if you have readers....."

Anyway, I've been on Pinterest for quite a number of times lately, and boy do I love Pinterest. It's like, the adult kind of Tumblr, you know? Where you get legit cool stuff like DIY ideas, simple but cool recipes and design ideas too?! So I stumbled upon this coconut lime cupcakes recipe, and thought, "why not?" One, because I haven't baked in a long time. Two, because I love anything citrus. (Don't you, too?!) Three, because they're so easy to bake. Plus the recipe doesn't require expensive ingredients too so that's a bonus.



I don't know if people are going to judge me for the "messy background" but I kinda purposely made it messy. Art IS messy sometimes guys, deal with it!! Hehe. Borrowed my sister's studio for this shoot. By the way, my younger sister is amazing at arts.

Ain't she amazing?!
Back to my coconut lime cupcakes. Yes. I made coconut cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes and it's heeeelllaaaa good. I know some people don't like coconut (why though?!) so you can always go with the normal cream cheese frosting, or maybe lime, yum! These cupcakes are super moist, probably because the recipe uses vegetable oil, and who hates moist cupcakes? I definitely hate dry cupcakes. They're not fun to eat. Here's the recipe!

CUPCAKES
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar (I personally prefer using caster sugar)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Lime zest
About 4-5 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon coconut extract
3/4 cup coconut milk (Used the santan kotak)

Directions:
1. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar in a separate bowl just until they're well combined. 
3. Add oil, lime zest, lime juice, coconut extract and coconut milk into the egg-sugar mixture and mix until incorporated.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Make sure not to overbeat.
5. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, 165 degrees celcius.

That easy! 




COCONUT CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Ingredients:
8oz cream cheese
3/4 cup non-dairy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract (or some lime juice if you don't want coconut)

Directions: 
1. Beat the non-dairy whipping cream until it becomes stiff enough.
2. Beat in cream cheese until well-combined.
3. Add in coconut extract and mix.





The frosting didn't fail me this time. I absolutely love my frosting this time, the consistency is satisfying. So yeah, that's it. Are you baking anything special for Raya? Do share with me :)

Black Bottom Cupcakes (Recipe)



This is a very long overdue post. I was planning to post this last week, I think, but meh, procrastination got me. Remember when I baked Victoria Sandwich Cake? I got some leftover cream cheese and chocolate and some berries so tada. These cupcakes are DIVINEEEE, the soft cream cheese filling is to die for!! They're moist, light, and are tasty even without frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FILLING
Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup castor sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Beat cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add sugar, egg and vanilla and beat until it's creamy and smooth.
3. Set aside and let's move on to the cupcake batter!


CHOCOLATE CAKE BATTER
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar (preferably castor sugar)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
PREHEAT OVEN: 170 degrees celcius
1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. 
2. In a separate bowl mix water, oil, vinegar and vanilla extract.
3. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients until nice and smooth.
4. Divide the batter evenly into your cupcake cups.
5. Spoon a few tablespoons of the cream cheese filling into the center of each cupcake. 
6. Bake for 22-25 minutes.
7. Enjoy your cupcakes!!!



Oh somebody asked me how I decorated these cupcakes. I found this really helpful video on Youtube on how to frost a cupcake without a proper piping bag and nozzle, and I hope you'd find this video helpful too! Hehe. Have fun!! ♥♥♥

Pandan Gula Melaka Cupcakes (Recipe)

(What do you think about this GIF that I made? Hehehe)

PART A - Pandan Juice
Ingredients:
About 10 pandan leaves
3-4 tablespoons of water

Directions:
1. Wash clean the pandan leaves and cut them into small pieces.
2. Grind the pandan leaves and add 3 tablespoons of water to the ground leaves.
3. Squeeze (as much as you can) the juice out and sieve. Set aside.

PART B - Pandan Cupcakes (About 24 cupcakes)
Ingredients:
2 eggs
200g cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you use the normal salted butter, leave this out)
125g unsalted butter (softened)
150g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
65g coconut milk + 25g water
2 1/2 tablespoons pandan juice (from Part A)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. 
2. Sift cake flour, baking powder and salted into a bowl. Put aside.
3. Mix (as in stir) well coconut milk, water, pandan juice and vanilla extract and set aside.
4. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed until creamy and fluffy.
5. Add eggs, one at a time until the mixture is incorporated.
6. Add flour mixture from step 2, alternating with the coconut+pandan mixture from step 4, in three additions. Mix until the batter is incorporated. Make sure not to overbeat the batter.
7. Bake for about 20-22 minutes. (I normally go with 20.)


PART C - Gula Melaka Syrup
Ingredients:
50g gula melaka
3 pandan leaves
2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1. Place together gula melaka, water and pandan leaves in a saucepan over low heat. 
2. Stir until all sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to a boil.
3. Set aside and let it cool completely.


PART D - Gula Melaka Meringue Buttercream
Ingredients:
3 egg whites
50g castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
150g unsalted butter (softened)
5-6 teaspoons gula melaka syrup (from Part C)

Directions:
1. Place egg whites, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water. (Like the double boil method)
2. Whisk continuously until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Transfer into a mixing bowl, and beat the mixture at medium high speed until stiff peaks are formed and until the mixture has cooled to room temperature. You can check by touching the bottom of your mixing bowl.
4. Turn your mixer to medium speed and add butter, piece by piece. Beat until mixture turns creamy.
5. Add gula melaka syrup 1 teaspoon at a time, until incorporated. Now this is really up to you. If you don't really fancy sweet frosting you can add maybe around 3-4 tablespoons of syrup.
6. Frost the cupcakes any way you like and drizzle the leftover gula melaka syrup over the frosting!


Pheeewww that is one long recipe. IF you're not a fan of sweet desserts (really sweet) you should cut down the sugar for the cupcake batter or maybe you could leave out the syrup drizzle over your frosting. The syrup alone is already so sweet!! But the cupcakes, I promise you they're really moist. Anyway, good luck and have fun trying! (If you ever wanna try.. Hehe)
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