Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

 

Baked some cupcakes for my son's birthday last weekend. Decided on the chocolate banana cupcakes as seen on the Joy of Baking site.

The cupcakes were indeed moist and delicious. Must be the use of oil instead of butter as stated in the recipe.

The first batch baked followed the recipe to the T. But I found them a tad salty so for the next batch, I skipped the salt. Tasted much better. On the video, a very, very ripe banana - near the blacken stage, was used. The bananas I used were ripe, not over-ripe but ripe. Am keeping a couple of bananas and waiting for them to turn nearly 'black' before baking another batch of cupcakes.

You know, these cupcakes are special, not only they were baked for my son, but they were an instant hit with my wife. She devoured them. Wish she would do the same for my other bakes...:)

For the Guitar Man

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting

It has been ages since my last post. I have been baking just as frequently as before. Took great shots of my bakes. Never got down to post them and write about them. There goes another missing piece of the history of my baking adventure. But it is never too late!

I just had to put up this post. It is my son's 18th birthday. Yes, I am a 'young' dad. I shall not define young here but note the inverted commas I have attached to it.

My son Theodore adores my bakes, in particular, my Red Velvet. He literally slurps up the cream cheese frosting neatly twirled on top of each Red Velvet. My son Theodore likes to play the guitar. Hence the title of this blog. He owns a classical, an electric and an acoustic. So naturally, for his special 18th years on this earth, I had to top each Velvet with not just the frosting but a guitar topper. Pretty neat, I must say. Family members were thrilled and amused at each different topper. 

Ironically, the birthday boy gave a cursory glance at all the cupcakes, picked one at random, removed the topper and wolfed down the cupcake. That was it! I mean, that was it? I am very much curious to know if any bakers out there had experienced this once in their life time. That is, you put in much effort and love to bake and decorate for a loved one only to get an immediate less-than-excited reaction. It hurts! But I reckon an 18 year old wants to be cool about all things and anything. That night, as he was about to go into his bedroom, he called out to me and said, "Thanks Dad. Thanks for the cupcakes". 

You cannot imagine the emotions that swelled within me at that point of time. I shall continue to bake for my family. I shall bear with the unspoken appreciation from my two teenage boys. They are good boys. Excellent fine young lads.

The recipe for the above Red Velvet cupcakes is taken from Barefoot Contessa's How Easy Is That? You may also want to refer to my post dated 31 August 2011.

Tis the Season to be Holly...

Holly Cupcakes

It has been quite a while since my last post. Not that I haven't been baking. On the contrary, I have been baking at least once a week.  Just that I had the writer's block when I wanted to update my blog. I should have blogged about my most challenging experience, that is, baking close to a hundred Red Velvet Cupcakes for my mum's 80th Birthday in November. Praise the Lord - all's well that ends well.

Anyway, the Christmas mood has suddenly sunk into me. Been working and could not apply leave until now. Going on a vacation with my family to Tokyo - free and easy. But before I go, I had the strong itch to make some chrismassy cakes. Imagine being bombarded by all the food magazines that feature on their covers Christmas bakes and food. Well, since I am planning the dessert menu for the family's annual Christmas Dinner - just like any other year, I thought I should experiment with some cakes and frosting.

Came across this site that shouts "The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes". Go check it out yourself - a must at www.cupcakeproject.com. 

Followed the very simple recipe, every step of it, except adding in the sour cream. Didn't have it in my pantry so I substituted both the sour cream and milk with buttermilk. Not bad actually. It has become my own "The Ultimate Buttermilk Cupcakes"! Besides, if you checked out the recipe, it did not call for the decorations above. 

 I was inspired to make the Holly Swiss meringue buttercream after leafing through Martha's Stewart's "Cupcakes". Didn't have the confidence at first to make the buttercream. Well, it turned out quite good  as far as I am concerned and I should say I am rather pleased with it.

After my trip, I am thinking of baking a Christmas...

Devil's Food Cake

Decided to pull out Martha Stewart's Cupcakes from the shelves and flip through the pages to see what I should bake over the weekend.  Though I have the book with me for the past one year or so, I really never got down to try out the recipes. I read on the internet that the book is a must-have as it features 175 recipes.
Back to what I should bake on that day. It was a tough choice especially when I do not have any particular cupcake in mind. The appealing and attractive pictures of the many featured cupcakes did not help in making a quick decision either. But I finally settled for the Devil's Food.

The buttermilk added smoothness to the cake; the sour cream lent itself a tangy taste and as a whole the cupcakes were deliciously chocolate-ty. 

I usually do not include the recipes in posts as I respect copyrights or unless I tweak the recipes. However, below are the recipe for this fabulous cupcakes which I copied from  Martha's website mainly for the convenience of readers. It is the same recipe from the book. 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup hot water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• Chocolate Ganache Frosting
• Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.
   
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.

As you can see, I did not make the ganache frosting. Instead, I made my favorite cream cheese with brown sugar frosting. The pearly white sugar balls are my little touches to an otherwise plain frosting. 

Now, which other recipe should I use for the next batch of cupcakes...

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have heard so much of the Red Velvet cakes and cupcakes and I understand some are being sold at SGD4.50 a piece. The Red Velvet has always intrigued me for some time as I wondered how a cake would taste like when white vinegar is added to it.

I managed to get my hands on the book, Barefoot Contessa at our local library. I watch her show on TV and sort of like her and the recipes she churns out (though I must qualify that Nigella is still my fav). Flipping through the pages I came across the Red Velvet. Just what I was looking for! 

                            

This recipe requires white vinegar to be added to buttermilk, and stirred together with the red coloring . A couple of recipes I read on the internet mentioned that the last step is to add the bicarbonate of soda to the white vinegar. This combination is then added and mixed quickly into the batter. 

In any case, the recipe I followed resulted in fabulous little cupcakes. Great texture, dense and moist. No taste of the vinegar though and not too sweet either. The photo below are my cupcakes and if you chance upon the book, the photo of the Red Velvet is exactly the same as mine. Or is it that my cupcakes are exactly like what is shown in the book? No kidding.

I topped the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting with a reduced amount of confectioner's sugar. Tasted perfect. I decided to add a single red rose on every cupcake simply because I had those Wilton icing roses in my fridge. They were gifts from my sister who holidayed with her family in Europe last December.

As I write this post, I have already made 3 batches of 12 each and had given them to my in-laws and my sister's Catholic Cell Group. All of them gave me the thumbs up.  I am rather confident to bake a few more batches as gifts and I must say my confidence was built up all because my dear wife has endorsed it - she said it was fantastic!

But who knows I may just try to sell them at SGDx a piece...

A berry easy cupcake to make

Just thought I should try out this very simple recipe which I spotted on this website -  http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/529118/strawberry-cupcakes. It is a rather straightforward way to make very light sponge cakes. No fuss, can be done in a quickie and yet great to have for tea. For the method, I alternated adding the yogurt and the flour. I did that as I overlooked the recipe calling for adding the yogurt, vanilla and egg before folding all the flour. So trust me, it did not produce a disaster.

                          

My initial intent was to bake these to try before deciding to bake three dozens more for a birthday celebration. You see, over at my office we celebrate the birthdays of staff and we gather all born in the same month and throw a cake(s) eating session. My birthday month falls in July and I thought I should 'supply' my own birthday cake. I guess it was the frosting that I was more interested in. I wanted to attempt different colored frosting and types from mascaporne to vanilla buttercream (recipe for the frosting is also given in the website).  However, I ended up making only the mascaporne one and that was all. I did not go any further...

They say the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. So true in this case as I did not bake for the celebration that week. I could not bring myself to bake. Blame it on the heat.

                                           

I might attempt to replace those strawberries with either blue or black berries or even make the cupcakes with all three berries! Bet it will be colorful and well, I hope this time,  my flesh will be willing too.