Muffin to Cupcake

After getting my baking stuff from Bake with Yen last week, i was trying very hard to find a way to incorporate them into my baking last weekend. What did i buy exactly? i bought measuring spoons (not as if i dont have 1 already...but its one of those Too-Cute-To-Miss moments), i bought a packet of prunes for bf's Far Breton cake which he loved (and which i dislike!), pipping nozzle and bag (suppose to be for Choux pastry)and termometer (for candy making)

so i was trying to decide between making choux pastry or Cotton cheese cake. i met my bestie during the week and che claimed that cotton cheese cake was reli easy...hmmm...totally opposite compared to what my mum said. Anyway i still had 1 block of cream cheese in the fridge and i didnt know what else to use it for..so might as well be a cotton cheese cake.

Then during the week, my colleague gave me some Kenny Roger's vanilla muffins...and hmmmm..were they reli reli yummy.It has been gazzilion years since i have had Kenny Rogers, the muffins reminded me how much i love their vanilla muffin. The strange thing about their muffin is that, it doesnt have the rough muffin texture you normally get..it taste more like CUPCAKE!

So i was on the quest to find the secret to Kenny roger's vanilla Muffin...it wasnt such a big secret after all...1 google and i found it in front of the screen...no hassle! 2 months ago i did make some cupcakes, i think it could be because butter was still too cold and i didnt cream the butter and sugar enough that it turned out to be too grainy. After that i was too put-off to to make anymore cupcakes. I was trying my very best to avoid making them no matter how attractive it looks.

So after all the thinking finally decided that my weekend project would be Vanilla muffins (or Vanilla cupcake) with swiss Meringue Buttercream taken from a blogger HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE.

so saturday at 7am i started on the muffin...the strange thign about this recipe is that it requires 50g buttercream to be mixed inside the batter. so by hand i mixed 120g butter and 120 icing sugar and 1 tsp vanilla essence. it was easy peasy. next was creaming the butter and sugar till its WHITE AS NIGHT! seriously thats what the recipe says, and i thought night was suppose to be pitch black!, then had to add 01 egg at a time, then 50g butter cream, milk and flour and vanilla essence. Now this recipe required that flour to be FOLD into the butter and sugar mixture. This is one tricky area for me bcos i always always tend to overmix especially muffins. i was pretty careful with the baking temperature as well, i lowered the temperature and bake it for longer so it wont get too dark.

after 20minutes, the muffins came out with an amazing smell (butter and vanilla always...always smells good!)

Next was the Swiss Meringue buttercream. I made just half of the original recipe simply bcos it was too large. anyway it required 3 egg whites to be whisked with sugar over a double boiler until temperature reaches 160F. Wow..i had never exercise so hard in my life b4. 1 hand had to whisk the mixture continuously and another hand had to hold onto the termometer....after 5minutes or so termometer finally registered 160F...wheuuuuu....tat was tough!

Then the egg white mixture had to be beaten with mixer till it forms a soft peak...i had to add small bits of butter and beat it well before adding more butter.. in the end i had a rely glossy frosting...wow... i was amazed i did it

I think deco is really not my thing..lol...but overall it was still yummy and the recipe is definately a keeper...i am wondering if i can use the same method to make it lemony? I guess cupcakes arent that evil after all..hehehhee

GATEAU BRETON

Last thursday i was looking through some foodblog, trying to find a suitable recipe for father's day. sigh..after all that hard work 2 weeks ago..i was not looking forward to do another complicated recipe! the idea of a coconut cake was still swimming round n round my head and i was getting less n less interested in the idea.

so i was reading this blogger Parispastry and came accross this recipe
om Nigella Lawson. I just love the simplicity of the cake, anyway whats not to like about a butter cake? now the cake was spose to be done on saturday...that was before the migrain kicked in :( so i ended up spending the whole saturday afternoon on the sofa motionless.

sunday was more promising. woke up bright and early...went paramotor with bf...it was raining cats and dogs but bf managed to fly once. bf cooked a lovely lunch of fish and fish eggs...yum..i am crazy about fish eggs, pan fried and finished off with some salted butter! bf then asked if there will be something to eat for breakfast during the week.

well traditionally i will bake something during weekend so bf and ms O can have something to eat for the following weekday. Its quite rarely that it will keep for 5 working days as bf also tend to snack very very regurlarly (how he keeps his weight down, is a secret he keeps perfectly well). Normally i avoid tempting to eat what i make simply because i know the amount of butter, eggs, sugar thats goes in and i dont want to regret later on!

Anyway i remember reading the recipe for Gateau Breton many times, it asked for CAKE FLOUR. Now what on earth is cake flour? I wasnt able to find any Cake flour, i found Pau flour (which is to make traditional chinese pork buns), and superwhite flour, bread flour, self raising flour but NO CAKE FLOUR!! so i spend half the afternoon texting my mum asking about Cake flour and substitute. Again no result, seems that in Sabah there is such thing called Hong Kong flour and Rose Flour. i was more confused that ever. Anyway mum said just to use self raising flour and never ever use superwhite flour, bcos its chemically bleached flour..sigh "ok mum."

then i thought the recipe asked for room temperature butter. well i thought wrong! recipe didnt ask for such a thing. it asked for diced butter..logically when u dice butter it had to be firm, not soft right? I found this out at 6pm, hurriedly put the butter in the freezer, did my ironing (while praying my butter will firm up by the time i am done with ironing!!)so i went back to the kitchen at 6.15pm to try my luck..well it did firm up. i left it back into the freezer and gathered the rest of the ingredients. everything took me 15minutes to assemble. i was a bit sceptical about the texture. i was thinking gateau breton was more like a part pastry, part cake. But the batter was a bit too sticky..anyway recipe did say the texture would be sticky.

after 15minutes in the oven on high 190C, i had it reduced to 170C with the timer for 25minutes. Then i left for dinner at our usual chinese restaurant.

Ms O was a bit excited when i told her that i was making gateau breton. She missed eating the cake. I told her if it didnt worked out it will be Cleo the cat's diet for the next week!

the first thing we did when we got home from dinner was to check on the cake.. 1st impression was the smell. The smell was AMAZINGGGG! both bf and Ms O gathered around the kitchen island examining it. I asked if the cake is spose to look like that, they said yes but a bit more darker....ok so bf had the 1st bite. He said its like the real deal...hehhee...Ms O took a hefty piece...and i stole a bite...it was crazy! trust the French to make something so wonderful with just butter, flour, sugar and eggs...anyway i went back for 2nd helping the same night! hah!! bf sneaked another bite..hah!!

Bf is now bugging me about Far Breton cake. I think he gets excited when i make traditional cakes..i am glad i have a easy-to-please-bf!

Ms O slicing a piece

Yum!

THE CAKE THAT TOOK 3 DAYS TO COMPLETE!

Okei so i got a bit too adventurous this time around. for the pass 2 weeks i have been thinking about what would be a good birthday cake for the bf. Well a while ago bf did say something about loving coconut in cakes. so after searching i found the coconut cake recipe in Joyofbaking (http://www.joyofbaking.com/) then after reading a-z i realized that its not something i can finish in a day since i have to make lemon curd n bla..bla.bla... truthfully i am not too keen on the coconut cake idea :( so then looking throught Joyof baking website again i came accross another looker! hummingbird cake..wow.looks impresive...but then again recently i made a carrot cake which would taste very very similar to hummingbird cake....hmmmm...dilemma!

Then last thursday a supplier came visiting with a whole Mille Crepe Cake! it was the most heavenly cake i have ever tasted...the vanilla cream with the cake was simply simply excellent. So besides managing to stuff myself with not 1 portion of it but 2! i also thought bf would probably love to try this cake.

So i googled the recipe and everyone seems to have the SAME RECIPE! so i guess it didnt matter whom or where i took it from,  (Mille Feuille Crêpes Cake recipe: Batter adapted from "Joy of Cooking", pastry cream adapted from "Desserts" by Pierre Herme).

so anyway i started studying the recipe. its not complicated but its something that requires ALOT OF PATIENCE.. i mean no kidding! ALOT OF PATIENCE! so i came up with a plan which was day 1, make the vanilla custard and the batter for the crepe, day 2, cook the crepe batter, day 3 assemble the cake.

day 1, i think overall the custard was the most challenging...why? well the recipe calls to whisk vigorously for 1-2 minutes at the end but didnt indicate how long it was spose to cooking for...sigh..in the end i panicked and lifted up the pot. the consistency was horibbly and was tempted to throw it away then i thought i might as well try and sieve it to see what hapens right? voila! it sieve very well and the cream bcame smoother. then (without a termometer, bcos i cant find one!) i added in the cubed butter and stir it till butter is fully melted. it again improved the texture! so after a few taste test i thought it was delicious enough and jst refrigerate it. then i made the crepe batter. it says to cook butter till it turned hazelnut brown..erm..i think i havent a clue what hazelnut color is so it bcame like a dark maple syrup color...so again i took my chances and did the batter anyway...i guess the finished product will determine if i made the right choice or not :P

Day 2, i was nervous the whole day at work today...simply bcos i think i am out of practice from making crepe. i wished all those times when bf was making crepe i was there to watch and help...sigh...anyway my game plan for the day is do the 1st test as the book says, use 3 tablespoon of batter each time. bad idea bcos it didnt cover the whole pan and i was impatient so i flipped it before its cooked :( so i did 1 bad one. so next i lower the heat to the minimum and use 1/4 cup per pan and it worked perfectly! only thing was it took me 10minutes for each batter to cook well since i was too afraid to burn that thin morsel of a crepe. 2nd crepe onwards it was smooth sailing all the way! only thing was i was to be kitchen bound for 3hours +! i know i am not spose to complain but while i was googling the recipe online i notice there are some bakeries that specializez in Mille Crepe cake...my goodness how on earth does the chef do it?! in between waiting for the crepe to cook over the pan and watching it doesnt burn...the amount of patience that is required. its ridiculous! i was lucky to have Cleo the cat keeping me entertained the whole night. I think the smell of the crepe was getting her intoxicated..hehhe

Day 3, assemble day..what can possibly go wrong? hmmm...my vanilla custard wont mix well with the whipped cream? my whipped cream curdle (like the last time i made lemon cream!)? my crepe sticking to the grease proof paper? 50% of my crepe tearing or breaking to bits? ok so i am freaking myself out. but with such amateurist hand for making cakes ( i want my Mommy!!) you cant blame me right? i still wonder why i do these things only to be freaked out again n again n again. the amount of frustration i get when things goes wrong reli spoils my day! Well in the end my whipping cream turn out beautifully and mixed smoothly with the vanilla custard...testing it in the end...the taste was just heavenly!

it took me alot of strenght not to lick the spatula while spreading it on each crepe...sigh...

so the mille crepe cake wasnt much of a looker...it was lopsided...but i guess whats important in the end is the taste right? the bf was just amazed that the cake took 3 days..he did asked if it was nessesary...i did wish it WASNT nessesary! who on earth would want to do such a thing on purpose??!!! anyway he did enjoyed the cake alot...so thats whats important!!...wink WINK **

The Cake

Cleo waiting for food!

welcome to the world of the CONFUSED CHIN-DIAN

For those of you from Malaysia (or Singapore even), the term Chin-dian is probably not quite strange. For those whom are non Malaysian (or Singaporean), the term Chin-Dian means of Chinese and Indian parentage, and thats what exactly i am. My dad is an Indian and my mum is a Chinese.

Since i am a Chin-Dian do i get the best of both world? well....not really, and that's why being a Chin-Dian can be confusing. Somehow growing up i have always struggle with identity crisis. I have always been too dark to be a Chinese (not to mentioned that when i was growing up my nose always had 2 color tones!!!) and my slang was too Chinese to be an Indian...sighhh..

About a year ago i started experimenting with cooking. My mum is a fantastic cook and i wonder if i have even an ounce of her talent to make things like butter cakes, super moist cake, durian swiss rolls (hmmmm..i am craving for the last one actually!). Being an amateur cook can be extremely frustrating but thanks to Ms Lala and Papout, nothing was too bad to throw into the bin (except for the atempted Kaya recipe :P ) well along the way of baking there were some frustrating (and funny) moments too such as when i didnt realize my mum's buttercake recipe was too big for my tiny oven :( and the time when i broke my carrot cake into half ...sigh thats where the amateur tittle comes in play.

hmmm...i am inspired 1 day to be able to cook at ease very much like Nigella Lawson but until then i guess the tittle amateur cook fits me well enough.

A bit more about myself, my first love is reading, i have slightly advanced from reading Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys to biographies (i still sneak around with enid blyton when noone is watching!)

i love travelling and experiencing foreign cultures and FOOD! the weirder the better (well the food that is)

well thats it from me for the moment ;)