Megan's Lemon Cupcakes + How to Make a Makeshift Cupcake Holder

Hello!

Sorry for the one and a half year hiatus, but *we* are back! (Not that I can confirm that we are gonna post from now on!).

So I made a Lemon cupcake for a Christmas Party cum birthday (cup)cake for a friend.

These cupcakes are basically the classic white cake batter with the zest of a large lemon, frosted with simple butter cream frosting.

For a recipe of 12 cupcakes, you need:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated whitesugar

3 largeeggs

1 teaspoon purevanillaextract

Zest of 1 largelemon(outer yellow skin)

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purposeflour

1 1/2 teaspoonsbaking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/VanillaCupcakes.html#ixzz3MMPERM17

I used the recipe from the link above, but i left out the vanilla extract, just so the taste of the lemon is stronger. The recipe calls for a small lemon, but do use a big one if you attempt this modified recipe. 

The cake turned out to be more dense than expected, and i suspect it is due to my oven being way too hot! I think its high time to invest in some sort of a thermometer to get an accurate reading of the oven's temperature.

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How to Make a Makeshift Cupcake Holder

I had to bring these cupcakes to a friend's house, but i don't own the carrier specific for cupcakes.

I found a solution online, and its basically using the back of the muffin tray, going over the cups carefully to mimic the cupcake shape using aluminium. Remember to tear the aluminium foil of a size 1.5 times the muffin tray. 

slowly follow the contours of the muffin tray carefully, so as to not tear the foil :-)

Turn it around, place on a tray, pop your cupcakes in, and you're good to go!

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Beatrice's blondies

heheh hi sorry for the lack of updates we were busy with ire and stuff lol haha sry

This time i made blondies using Forget Those Calories (Kejia's recipe) ((kind of)). It's my first time baking blondies and i've only ever made brownies which weren't even that good. All i can remember is that they tasted really strange lol.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
150g butter
3 eggs
3/4 cup chocolate chips

*if you're thinking 'OMG 2 1/2 CUPS OF BROWN SUGAR????'... same. I really hate it when things are too sweet, like my last batch of chocolate chip cookies. So, i reduced the amount of brown sugar to just slightly over 2 cups and they turned out fine :-) (i still find it a bit too sweet tho but it's personal preference i guess). Also, i don't like it when the chocolate chips are overpowering and you can't taste the cookie/ cake. I reduced the chocolate chips to 1/2 a cup.

Directions:
1. Combine the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together and set aside.

    

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan on medium low heat. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring a few times, until the butter has a nutty smell and turns a golden brown. Take off heat and let it cool for 10 minutes.

The original recipe said that you could add butterscotch chips in, but i've never heard of them before lol. Instead i added 5 teaspoons of butterscotch sauce that i found in my fridge.

   sorry for the low quality photos, it's hard to take photos with dirty hands )-: 

3. Add the eggs to the butter then mix in the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Mix in the chips.

     

Adding milk to cake mix will make the cake (or brownies) more moist and apparently it helps with browning. I added 1 tablespoon of meji milk :-)

4. Use cooking spray to grease a 9 x 13 pan. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth to the edges. Bake for 30 minutes.

     

If you're using greaseproof paper, plz plz plz remember to oil them before putting the batter in.

After 30 mins.....

~wooOoOHhoOooOOO~ look at the crisp edges that look (slightly) similar to Kejia's ones 

Image: Forget Those Calories 

I didn't oil my paper (idk if it's my fault or the paper's fault) and the blondies got stuck )-: 

It took me and my helper Wati like 20 mins to cut everything and put them into containers hahahahha.

 

Overall i think these blondies are perfect if you lower the sugar level haaa haaa haaahahha hahheahh hah they're moist and chewy and really yummy!! :-)

Ariel's Eggs Benedict

This eggs benedict recipe has been derived from Laura Vitale, although slightly emended. I like to think that this recipe is for lazy days when you don't want to go out grocery shopping for fancy ingredients. No English muffins, cayenne pepper, or Canadian bacon.

This is my first try making it, and it wasn't so bad. I wish you the very best in your future eggs benedict making endeavours.

 Place your bowl of egg yolk+lemon juice over a pot of simmering water.
(Make sure your bowl is glass, duh)
Keep whisking the mixture non-stop, otherwise your egg yolk will cook!

Add in melted butter a little at a time.

Keep whisking the mixture until it turns to a pale yellow.

If you leave your egg yolk mixture over the simmering water for too long, it will look like this.

However, to achieve the proper, runny consistency of Hollandaise sauce, add in 1 tablespoon of warm water (or more, if required).

Season with salt.

Now you can set your Hollandaise sauce aside for later!

Put in a tablespoon of butter on your pan.
Toast your bread for about 15 seconds on each side.

Your toast should look golden brown.

Again, add one tablespoon of butter (or less) and fry your ham.
You can have as much ham as you'd like.



Now for the last and trickiest part, making poached eggs to put over your bread and ham.

To poach your eggs:
Bring a pot of water to a boil, and add in the distilled white vinegar.
Using a spatula (or any kitchen utensil), stir the water to create a mild whirlpool.
Make sure to crack your egg into a small bowl first, instead of cracking it directly into the pot.
Pour your egg in, and the egg white should wrap around the egg yolk nicely.

Take out your poached egg after 3 minutes.



Place your poached eggs over your bread and ham, and drizzle Hollandaise sauce over.

Serve.

Beatrice's macarons

SORRY FOR THE LONG HIATUS!!!! WE HAD EXAMS!!!!

But anyway we're back :-D

This time, i made macarons with my cousin. I've actually been wanting to make them since last year but i was too scared because sooo many things can go wrong when making macarons- not beating the egg whites enough, over mixing etc etc. So i suggest before you take on the challenge, watch as many tutorial vids that you can find!!! I think i probably watched about 10 to make sure i wouldn't over mix the mixture.

Watch the video here

Recipe:

INGREDIENTS
3 Egg Whites
¼ cup white sugar (50 g)
2 cups confectioners sugar (200 g)
1 cup almond flour (120 g)
pinch of salt
¼ tsp cream of tartar (2 ml) * You can omit if needed, just may take a bit longer to reach stiff peaks but the recipe will still work)


RASPBERRY BUTTER CREAM (we did not use this, but you can if you want to) 
½ cup salted butter (120 g)
3/4 cup powdered sugar (75 g)
1 cup (150 g) fresh raspberries, worked through a sieve to extract 3 tbsp of juice

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 150 degrees celcius

Beat egg whites and sugar for 8-10 mins. TIP: #1 eggwhite should be room temp. To create room temp eggs, submerge in warm water for 5 mins.

Whip until they form a peak that stands upright. -We used a hand mixer and it took 20 mins on medium speed

Then add the food coloring. TIP#2 Color does fade as it cooks, so do a shade or two darker than you want them to be.

we put 3-4 drops of pink food coloring 

(the ones that NTUC has in the small bottles) 

TIP#3 Sift almond flour, and powdered sugar. What remains will be the larger lumps of almond pieces. Just discard those, or use them to snack on :) You want a really fine powder mixture to create a smooth and pretty on top to your cookie.

Fold flour/sugar mixture into the egg white mixture. TIP#4 This is where all your hard work can really go wrong. Under mix and your macaroons will be lumpy and cracked when the bake with no feet, over mix and your macaroons will be flat and won't have feet, the mark of a well-made macaron. In my experience 65-75 turns of your spatula when folding is about the right amount of time. But again, it can be tricky, depends on how strong you are, Ha! So it can take a few tries to get it right. But when you do, the trumpets will blare and you will feel SO accomplished! 

Transfer batter to a pastry bag.

Pipe out 1 inch rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

TIP#5: tap the pan hard at least 2-3 times to release the air bubbles. This will prevent the tops of your macaroons from cracking.

TIP#6 Let them sit out for 2--30 mins, or up to an hour if you want. This will allow them time to dry out a bit before hitting the hot oven. They should be "tacky" to the touch, but not stick to your fingertips. This is another important step to assuring your macarons develop feet! When they dry out they can't spread out in the oven, and are forced to rise up. That's what creates the feet!

Bake for 15-20 mins. DO NOT UNDER BAKE, even if they look done! Otherwise they will stick to your tray. In the video, the woman says not to take them out to rotate them because idk why but just don't!!!! 

You know they're done when they can be lifted off the parchment 

paper without leaving marks

Meanwhile mix the buttercream. Whip butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Slowly add sugar. Then place sieve on top of a bowl the same size. Work raspberries through the sieve with a spatula, pushing them through, mashing them around until you extract their juice. You want 3 tablespoons of juice.

Add juice to buttercream, and whip until combined. Transfer to a pastry bag, fitted with a small tip (about ¼ " in diameter)

Reverse cookie shells on their backs, and pipe a small mound of filling on one of them. Top with the other shell et Voila! 

note: my cousin and i used chocolate ganache. When i make chocolate ganache, i put the chocolate in a cup and place it in a cooking pot, boil water and pour into the pot with the cup inside. Close the lid and wait for 15 mins, the chocolate would have melted! Then add whipping cream/ milk until you've reached the consistency that you want ^_^ 

They actually taste really good hahahah. But for one batch i think we over baked them and they turned out really chewy ;_; As in, stick-to-your-teeth chewy. Sooo i guess you'll just have to keep an eye on your oven and make sure they don't over bake! 

Guest Baker Mon's White Chocolate Cookies with Hazelnuts

Made white chocolate chip cookies with hazelnuts using this recipe but tweaked it a bit :-)

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cups whole hazelnuts, toasted, divided
• 9 tablespoons butter, softened, divided
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white baking chips

~Preheat oven to 200°C~

1) Coarsely chop 1/2 cup hazelnuts; set aside. 

2) In a bowl, cream the butter and then beat in the sugars. 

3) Add egg and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy. 

4) Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to batter and mix just until combined. 

5) Stir in chips and chopped hazelnuts.

6) Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. 

7) Bake at 170°C in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. 

8) Remove to wire racks to cool & serve :-) 

If you want chewier cookies, use more brown sugar. You can either put whole nuts or chopped nuts, i used whole & chopped nuts. 

Make sure you don't put them too close! 

Notes from the team!!!:

We really hope you'll try Monica's Cookies, they were really good and sweet and we all wanted more (wink at you mon, ((((make more make more))))  ) Thank you Monica for being April's guest baker :-)

Joell's Apple Crumble

Hi guys! Joell here! I know I'm not one of the official bakers, but as an when I do muster up some courage, I do try to bake. A week ago, I baked apple crumble with my sister. The recipe was given to us by a friend of my mum's - here it is

Apple Crumble

Serves 4

For the apple filling

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) apples

6 tbsp water

Ground mixed spices

1 tbsp caster sugar

For the topping

100 g (4 oz) plain flour

100 g (4 oz) wholemeal flour

100 g (4 oz) butter

90 g (3 oz) light brown soft sugar or Demerara sugar

Method

Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius (350 degrees Farenheit/ gas mark 4)

1. Skin/peel the apples and cut them into small, even chunks. Put them into your pie dish or baking tray
2. Add the water. Sprinkle the apples with a large pinch of mixed spice and a tablespoon of caster sugar (I didn't do this step!)
3. Stir the two kinds of flour together (or one kind, and if you only have one kind, remember to double the portions)
4. Cut the butter into small chunks and add it into the flour mixture. Rub the butter into the flour with your hands
5. When the mixture starts to look like coarse breadcrumbs, mix in the brown sugar
6. Sprinkle the topping over the apple pie dish
7. Bake for approximately 45 minutes until the top starts turning golden brown
8. Leave the crumble to cool for around 5 minutes
9. TUCK IN!

I didn't have wholemeal flour, so I doubled the portion of plain flour.

This is how we cut the apples! Remember to skin them first, and chop them up into sizable pieces so people don't choke when they're eating your apple crumble.

Chopped up apples! We cut around 4 small apples, but found out (a little too late) that it wasn't quite enough to fill up the baking tray! Around 5-6 small apples would be a safe number. Also, we didn't add water or mixed spices to our apples! 

Remember not to rub the butter in too hard! It should still have a bread crumb like texture after mixing everything together.

Lay the apples at the bottom of the tray and put the topping on! It's okay if the topping falls through the apples, it makes it even yummier :-)

The finished product! (before putting it into the oven)

TA-DA!

This was enough for a meager portion of a few large spoonfuls for each person, and fed around 3 and a half people.

To make up for the forgotten mixed spices, we put cinnamon powder onto the apple crumble!

We didn't have vanilla ice cream so we ate it with Rum & Raisin instead.

Hope you guys will all have fun making this super simple apple crumble! Till next time :-)

- Joell