Chocolate Cupcake with Caramel Buttercream

Starting to fond in those pretty cupcakes, I now tend to make more cupcakes. I found this recipe from this blog. The batter of chocolate cake is from Cupcakebakeshop and the Buttercream is from dailydelicious. It looks pretty so I give it a try.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes

(adapted from cupcake bakeshop) ~12 regular cupcakes / 375 degree oven

1/2 cup (125 g) butter, room temp

1-1/4 cups (250 g) sugar (I used only 100g, reduced ridiculously)

2 large eggs, room temp

3/4 cups (75 g) all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup (62.5g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.

4. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.

5. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine6. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine.

6. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

7. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2’s full. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Note from Chockylit: As mentioned previously with this recipe, if you overfill the cupcakes, they will overflow and then sink. To be on the safe side I am now recommending that you fill the cupcakes 1/2 full. With a big batch you may still have some problems with one or two of them, but the majority should work out just fine. Your oven must be for sure hot enough, so it doesn’t hurt to get an oven thermometer and make sure it’s at the correct temperature. These cupcakes are temperamental, but the resulting cake is worth it.

I was a bit over fill.. about 2/3 full.. so become a small mountain lol

* I normally scale 1 cup of all purpose flour = 100 g. by this conversion (unless it's Australian recipe then I might scale 145 g for 1 cup). Can anyone please tell me what is the weight for flour that you normally use for 1 cup?

Italian Meringue Buttercream
(adapted from dailydelicious)

75 g egg whites

140 g caster sugar

1/8 cup water

225 g unsalted butter

1. To make the sugar syrup, place the candy thermometer in the saucepan and heat the water and 120 g of sugar over medium-high heat. Partially cover with a lid to capture the evaporating water this helps to moisten the sides of the saucepan to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

2. With the mixer on high speed, begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. When the peaks are stiff, with the mixer still running slowly pour the remaining sugar into the meringue.

3. Raise the heat under the sugar syrup to bring the syrup to 245°F, if it is not there already. When the syrup is at 245°F, remove the thermometer and slowly pour the syrup into the meringue.

4. After 1 to 2 minutes reduce the mixer speed to medium for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the meringue is cooled. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated.

5. Add in the caramel until you like the taste.

The buttercream turned out beautifully smooth but I found it is a bit too heavy. I will try to find some lighter version of buttercream.. any recommend?

Caramel

75g caster sugar
½ tsp water
½ cup whipping cream
½ tsp salt

1. Bring sugar and the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. After that, turn to low heat. Cook, undisturbed, until caramel is dark amber.

2. Remove from heat, and slowly add cream, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. Let cool.

This is my first time making caramel (yeah, you read correctly, even I studied in LCB, we make a lot of caramel but not the version that put whipping cream in it.. very excited when it was bubbling. haha. It's extremely delicious.

The piping can be better as you can see the end of it.. Definitely have to practise more. It's my first time piping rose though... so happy about the outcome :D

Blueberry Muffin No. 2

Again, after saw Blueberry in Coles discounted to $3.95, I grabed one with no doubt to make another new muffin recipe :D

The very tempting recipe for me now is from Lisa. In her blog, it seems so yummy ! I made just half recipe and use 1 punnet of fresh blueberry....It was too many of blueberry, I think !

Orange Berry Muffins

From Dorie Greenspan's Baking From my Home to Yours

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange (I used blood orange)
About 3/4 cup buttermilk (I used non-fat yoghurt)
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries - fresh, preferably, or frozen (not thawed)
Decorating sugar, for topping (optional)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

1. Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

2. In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.Bake for 22 to 25 minutes.

If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean.

Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.


I totally forgot to rub the orange zest with sugar, I just mix it with the juice mixture...but the result still turned out fine....except a bit to dark in colour? hehehe

When it just came out from the oven, sooooooooooo good I tell you! The muffin was so light and fluffy, just the way I like..I prefer this version than last time .. About the taste...felt something missing, maybe I will try buttermilk next time. Very happy !

But after one day, it became more dense and a bit wet...Wahhh...I had to try again for the perfect Muffin I want !

PS. this time I didn't reduce any sugar at all ....lol

Blueberry Muffin

Again, after raspberry & white chocolate muffin, I am still continue finding some good muffin recipes to accomplish my mission.

Since I had a half punnet of blueberry in my fridge, I tried this recipe with no doubt after I saw the recipe from K'Gam. From the recipe, I knew that it is not exactly the one I want (cuz it is butter-texture muffin) but it looks good...so why not I give a try!

Bluberry Muffin

Ingredients

75 g Unsalted butter

60 g Caster sugar (I used 40 g)

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking powder

90 g All-purpose flour

75 ml Natural yoghurt

125 g Fresh bluberry

1 Egg (M size)

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1. Grease 6 holes in a standard muffin tin or prepare 6 muffin papers and preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.

2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together.

3. Beat the butter and gradually add sugar, beat until fluffly and pale in colour

4. Gradually add egg in the butter and beat until it all combine (medium speed) and add yoghurt.

5. fold in flour mixture and lightly fold together, taking care not to overmix.

6. Add blueberry, flod just combine. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or till a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.

Serve 6.

It was similar to butter cupcake but more light due to yoghurt...and I found out that my muffin was not sweet at all since I reduced lots of sugar...haha...so if you will use this recipe, just follow it ..:P


Enjoy !

Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffin

In Thailand, fresh berries are very expensive like raspberry and blueberry are about AUS $ 12-15.00 per punnet...So I don't dare to buy them :P

Here, Australia, they are also a bit expensive. Raspberry is about $8.99 but last week I saw they was only $4.99 in Woolworth then I just grabbed one punnet and thinking about baking something...Yeah ! Raspberry and white chocolate muffin is one of my favourite .

I LOVE muffin, just that don't have many chances to make...I always see many muffin recipes...too many ..hehe....so I can't decide which one I should try first....I made it a couple times and it didn't turn out good...When I have some nice muffins, I really wanna ask them the recipe ;P

In Australia, I had some very good muffins: White Chocolate with mixed berries muffin from the book kitchen, mixed berries muffin from the bourk street bakery, Raspberry & dark chocolate muffin from Beetroot, Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffin from Cafe No.5 and the latest one...Mixed berries muffin from Consumate...(ummm....it is all I can think now)

I searched on an internet about raspberry and white chocolate muffin and found out an interesting recipe from Kitchen wench. But I made half recipe and substituted lots of ingredients due to the things in my cupboard.

Mixed Berry Muffins

(Adapted from ‘Marie Claire - Comfort‘)

Ingredients

125 g plain natural yoghurt (I used Peach & Mango yoghurt)

50 ml vegetable oil

1 medium-sized eggs

1 tsp natural vanilla extract

140 g all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

50 g brown sugar (I used 30 g of caster sugar)

125 g frozen mixed berries (I used fresh raspberries)

Demerara sugar (I used caster sugar)

White chocolate 80 g.

1. Grease 4 holes in a standard muffin tin or prepare 4 muffin papers and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Whisk together the yoghurt, vegetable oil, egg and vanilla extract till well combined.

3. Sift together the all-purpose flour with the baking powder, then stir in the sugar and mixed berries till evenly mixed together. Add the yoghurt mixture to the flour mixture and lightly fold together, taking care not to overmix.

4. Spoon into the prepared muffin containers and sprinkle the top of each muffin with a tsp of demerara sugar and place in the oven to bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or till a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.


Looks really not bad, rite ! \^o^/

Lots of raspberries...I think I put too little white chocolate.

Haih....The taste still was not exactly the one I want. But again, due to my big substitution, I am not sure how it taste like if I follow 100% recipe..haha

However, I found another recipe which seems to be good, just that I don't have baking soda which is required in the recipe...I will try that soon..

Oreo Yogurt Cupcakes

I have been falling in love in this recipe since i first saw it in sweet for my sweet last year. The recipe was created by My Kitchen:My laboratory. Finally, I decided to make it just before i have been to Sydney...

Oreo Yogurt Cupcakes

225g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
85g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
150g sugar2 eggs, beaten
1 cup(240ml) nonfat unsweetened yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
80g Oreo cookies, roughly crushed
Whole Oreo cookies for decorating

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease or line a 8-inch round tin.
Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and creamy.Dribble in eggs slowly, about 1 tbsp at a time, beating constantly for about 2 mins.
3. On LOW speed, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined. Beat in ½ of the yogurt. Then beat in 1/2 of the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining yogurt, and vanilla extract. Finally beat in the remaining flour mixture.
4. Lastly, fold in the crushed cookies.
5. Pour into prepared tin, arrange whole Oreos on top and bake for about 40 - 50 mins till skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 mins. Unmold and cool completely

So cute !

After I tasted my cupcake...i was thinking ''this cupcake was a bit dry...It's just ok...but why it was dry...must be something wrong..cuz everyone who baked before all said it is so good...'' I was thinking, thinking and thinking...May be I reduced too much sugar? or I have to put the oreo cream in the batter too? (i thrown away the cream inside, just put the biscuit)

Oh...my goshhh...I have found out the reason !!! I read in the recipe..it said 1 cup(240ml) nonfat unsweetened yogurt ... then I just put 1 cup of yogurt while I forgot that 1 cup of yogurt in Thailand is only about 125 ml....which means I have to use 2 cups of yogurt...hahaha...so silly....

Some of Thais can read my kratoo in Pantip here