The Perfect Dome

I am a super newbie at baking.  As a matter of fact, I have only baked three cakes and four batches of cupcakes after I took baking classes in June.  But there's one thing I'm proud of --- I've already made a perfect cuppy dome! 

When I started making cupcakes, getting that dome shape was a mystery.  My cupcakes always looked flat and lonely, or they would dome right after I took them out of the oven but would deflate eventually.  But now I already know the "secret" after scouring the web for tips and tricks!  

Bake the cupcakes at 400 degrees F initially, 

then lower it down to 350 degrees  after five minutes 

and for the rest of the baking time.

And that's it!  Hehe.  Ang simple lang pala ng solusyon. :)  But the thing is, no cupcake recipe would tell you that.  Glad there's a bunch of ingenious bakers out there who discovered and shared this after years of experience.  This is not 100% guaranteed though, the practice hasn't been tested for every single recipe on the planet.  What's sure is that it works for most cuppy recipes, and that's enough for me. :)

Cheers,

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes

After my relatively successful attempt at vanilla cupcakes, I just couldn’t wait but try my hands at chocolate! And how do we want our choco cuppies? Moist, always!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
¾ cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg
½ cup whole milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
4. Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin).
5. Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. Since the batter is thin, I used my measuring cup with a pour spot so it’s easier to transfer.

6. Bake cupcakes for approximately 18-22 minutes.

Fresh from the oven! :)

7. Cool completely on wire rack.

I used my purple liners for this batch. :)

I tried making meringue frosting for the cuppies, but boy was it a mess, like all other eggwhite-based icings I did in the past. :( Guess what came to the rescue?  My mallows and candy sprinkles! Good thing I had them on hand.

Ta-daaaah!  There goes my moist chocolate cuppies! :)  They're yummy!   Sabi ko at ni hubby!  Haha. =P Hmm... I wonder what I'll do next.  Will practice making frosting, perhaps? :)


Cheers,

Vanilla on Vanilla

For quite some time now, I have been obsessing about cupcake baking.  The truth is, I took basic cake baking classes with the end goal of learning how to make these cute little cuppies with pretty frosting on top! :)  Weeks ago, I tried making some but the icing was a failure. I tried again last weekend, and I finally did it! These are vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting.  Sweet!♥

If you're interested about what recipe I used, this was it:

FOR THE CUPCAKES:

Source: http://www.glorioustreats.com

Ingredients:
1 & 1/4 cups cake flour
1 & 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 & 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil (I used canola oil)
1/2 cup buttermilk

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.
4. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk. Beat until just combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl.
5.  The batter will be thin. Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners. Fill liners about 2/3 full.
6.  Bake cupcakes in the pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.
7.  Cool in pan for 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.


FOR THE FROSTING:
Source: http://www.browneyedbaker.com

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Procedure:
1.  Using the mixer's wire whisk attachment, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl once or twice.
2.  Reduce speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar.  Once all sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and add the vanilla, mixing until incorporated.  Whip until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Then it's done! :)  When the cupcakes are completely cool, frost away using your favorite decorating tip (I used a big French piping tip here.) :)

*******

Baking these vanilla on vanilla cupcakes is actually pretty easy, you just to have the right tools and the right attitude (read: PATIENCE). I am no expert yet and I'm sure I'm gonna fail again in some other recipe I would try next time, but that's fine.  As C.S. Lewis said, failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.  And as long as I'm on this road, I'll keep on going. ;)

Up next: chocolate cuppies!♥



Cheers,

Baked Birthday Goodies

Obviously, this one's a mess! Hehe. This is a sponge cake with foam icing topped with nutella frosting.
There were so many things that went wrong as I was baking this.
Won't enumerate anymore. =/ =P

Fudge brownies with semi-melted marshmallow toppings.
Looks gay, I know. Hehe. But it tasted really good! :)
Well, at least that's what my friends told me. =P

My award-winning mango butterscotch! =P
Didn't get to taste enough of this though
'coz it was wiped out by ze friends so quickly.

I baked these three when I invited my friends over last month in celebration of my and Xylem's (a friend) birthday.  It was the first time ever that I let them taste anything from my oven, and gladly, I got their thumbs up, despite some baking mishaps that I went through.  Hehe.  Happy happy! :)


Cheers,