Small Baking Project

Hello again

The subject I am about to write is so small and insignificant matter. It really is nothing important. It doesn't deserve to be in the blogosphere. But then what deserves. . . sigh . . .

I have no specific subject that I write in depth.  Ah they say I have not found my niche. (What? Write on health and wellness? Mammogram? Menopause) I am in a wilderness. Nevermind  me think, as long as I enjoy writing and you enjoy reading.

Its going to always be light, easy happy reading for you . . .

And so I write . . .

A relative invited us for a casual makan makan last weekend at her house. It is usual for me to bring buah tangan to give to the hostess . By doing so I think we can create warmth and goodwill. Give her something which I can make myself is more meaningful. At the same time I can jolt myself out of the lazy mode.

So I made for her a tray of cupcakes. Sedap punyer! And I hoped she and her children would like it.

When I arrived at her place the first thing I saw in her living hall was the dessert table, elegantly set up and right in the centre was a very big cake all beautifully decorated  . . . aaahh . . .  my simple humble miniscule no glamour cupcakes . . . but did it matter?

Here is the recipe which I got from the internet and which I often use. As usual I will tweak it to suit my palate. If I am going to ice it with the sugar buttercream I have to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe so that the sweetness don't overkill. If I want to frost it with the less sweet Swiss merengue buttercream then I use the recipe in its originality.

Vanilla Cupcakes

175 gm butter salted ( I let the butter go soft first)
175 sugar( I used 165 gm)
175 gm self raising flour ( I used about 190gm)
3 eggs ( I used 4 eggs)
Vanilla essence (I used pure vanilla powder which makes the cake taste nicer)
Milk about 2 tablespoon ( I added lemon juice to the milk.)

Vanilla powder comes in a tube

My method of doing it is easy. Dump everything into the mixing bowl. Start slow the mixer. Then hey go full speed one to two minutes. Don't over mix.

Line the cupcake holes/pan scoop the batter into them. Bake.

Icing

Seive 4 cups of icing sugar ready. Add about 1 dessertspoon meringue powder.

Keeps longer in the fridge

Mix well about 1/4 cup shortening and less than 1/4 cup butter.

Mix in the powdered sugar. Mix well.

Add lemon juice and milk to get the right consistency. Mix.

I wanted to use the russian icing tips to pipe the flower and not the usual swirls with the star tip. So I was careful when adjusting the consistency of the icing. I made a wee bit stiff.

I mixed blue colour gel to some and green to a small amout of icing. The rest I left it in original colour.

The end product?

The cake was soft and not so sweet. The icing flowers keep its shape after travelling,

A small icing flower and three small leaves on the cake did not make it doubly sweet. One cupcake can be finished in two bites. No harm to dieting.

So here's the picture of the end product.

Flowers piped with the Russian icing tips

From the picture you can see that some paper liners peeled away. Why this problem.          

Trouble shooting:

• Low quality cupcake liner. (Throw away the unused liners. Buy better ones)

• Baked cake left too long in the baking pan after being taken out from the oven. The heat cannot escape causing the paper to be wet. (Or should I say the cake perspired). Do not dilly dally to remove cake from the pan.

• Cake under bake. Some. The oven temperature not even. ( My built in oven was installed about 15 years ago. High time to get a new one hehe)

• To make it more presentable put the cake in decorative cupcake wrapper.

So there my small baking project . 

Do try making it yourself.

Enjoy baking.

Bye . . .