Cupcake baking with Special guest: Cakestory!!!

I am so thankful to have the opportunity to work with Wen from Malaysia who is the founder of Cakestory in Malaysia ^__^ A cupcake catering business! hehe! Found out we have a lot of things in common (mainly baking) and I hope that I can set up my catering business one day! Or maybe even a collaboration~! You guys should check out her facebook page! Many yummy cakes there :D

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes (with Cream cheese frosting)
Recipe adapted from Cakestory

Ingredients

Cupcakes
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups (195g) cake flour (I just used plain flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Lemon zest for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 180oC and line 18 holes of muffin pan with cupcake cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar with electric beater until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture in three additions, beginning and ending with flour.
5. Toss the blueberries in 1 tsp plain flour to coat - this helps the blueberries maintain their shape. Fold the blueberries into the cake mix.
6. Fill cupcake cases with batter (~2/3 full) and bake for 15 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack.

Cream cheese frosting
500g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
160g soft icing sugar
160g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
Juice of 1/2 lemon

1. In stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add in icing sugar and butter and beat until smooth.
3. Squeeze in juice of 1/2 lemon and beat until incorporated.

Assembly

• Fill piping bag with frosting and pipe swirls of frosting onto cupcake. If you have star tips, it would look even prettier! unfortunately I don't :(
• Place blueberry on the top together with a sliced lemon zest.

Pro piping skills =p even without a tip!

pretty in blue :)

BakingTray & Cakestory

We had a great day baking! Also used the leftover cream cheese frosting for macaron filling~ Coffee flavoured macaron shell with cream cheese frosting! YUM! If you guys come up with any suggestions on what to call this new flavour... leave a comment below! We wanted to call in "Tiramisu" but realised that uses mascarpone cheese
.. not cream cheese! Oops!!

New macaron flavour that needs a name!!

Check out our feast!!! :D

Thank you Cakestory for sharing your knowledge and tips =) Hope to use this recipe again and try out other flavours!

Wen from Cakestory and her delicious cupcakes ^_^

So that's all from me in 2013!!! Off to Brisbane tonight! cannot wait!! :D

Still have so many posts yet to publish but that shall wait till next year =D 

Happy baking people!! 

Work Catering #7: Cupcakes and cookies!

Back into the catering swing of things!! This week it was all about cupcakes and cookies =) I wanted to use the ready made Cream cheese frosting I had bought so I looked back at my previous recipes and found Red Velvet Cupcakes! I made mini cupcakes so I could cater for more people :p

before icing..... Just so you can see the red colour =)

Ready made cream cheese frosting!!

This stuff is the BEST! and actually cheaper and easier than making it myself... sometimes I do get lazy too ;)

My friend ripped out pages of a magazine filled with wonderful recipes for me! thanks!!! So found this simple recipe for cookies (basic dough only using 4 ingredients!!!). It makes a bunch of cookies (~50.. depending on how big or small you make them) and its so simple as well =)

Choc chip and Macadamia cookies
(Recipe adapted from New Idea magazine)

Ingredients
250g butter
200g sweetened condensed milk (1/2 x 395g can)
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
250g dark chocolate chips
110g macadamia nut halves

1. Pre-heat oven to 170oC and line 3 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Beat butter, condensed milk and sugar in bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Stir in the flour, choc chips and nuts. (You can really add your own flavours! such as M&Ms, raisins, cranberries, walnuts....)
4. Roll teaspoons of dough into balls and place on lined baking tray. Press down with back of spoon or palm of hand to flatten cookie. (remember to leave a bit of space between each one!)
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden in colour.

cookies!!! :D

ready for catering~

mini mouthful

Birthday request: Red Velvet Cake with Cream cheese frosting

I had a request to make a friend's birthday cake last month. This request was made quite some time ago (I think since last year) so I was looking forward to making it. I've always wanted to make a red velvet cake, it's one of those classic bakes. I've baked red velvet cupcakes before, but wasn't too happy with the "redness". 

This cake turned out slightly more red but still more brown :\ I think it's the food dye I used. Next time I think I'll find a red food gel instead of liquid. My FAVOURITE thing about this cake is the FROSTING! Cream cheese frosting <3 <3 <3 =D

RED VELVET CAKE 
Recipe adapted by Allrecipes

Ingredients

1/2 cup (113g) butter 
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tbs cocoa powder
4 tsp red food colouring

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line 2 round cake tins.
2. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and beat.
3. Combine cocoa powder and red food colouring to make a paste. Add it to the creamed mixture and mix well.
4. Combine salt, vanilla and buttermilk. Add flour to buttermilk mixture. Mix well and then add to creamed mixture.
5. Mix baking soda and vinegar. Fold into the cake batter. 
6. Pour cake mixture into cake tins and bake for 30 minutes. Allow cake to cool completely before icing.

Cream cheese frosting
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

250g cream cheese
1/2 cup (113g) butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Beat cream cheese until softened. Gradually add butter and beat until smooth.
2. Sift in icing sugar and continue to beat. 
3. Add vanilla and stir to combine.

The cake is now ready to frost =D Spread 1/3 frosting on first layer then add second cake layer and frost all around :)

2 layers of cake ready for frosting!

Red - ish velvet cake =p

HAPPY BIRTHDAY J :) Hope you liked the cake~~ It was fun baking it :)