Back by popular demand

This is the 3rd time in such a short period that I have bake the same thing. The kids love it so much that they keep requesting me to do it again but actually they love the icing more! So today, the only day in the week with no housework planned in the routine, I set up everything and made them - Rachel Allen's Lemon Cupcakes.

I still have not got my oven thermometer (and now GSS is over... sigh) so I just rely on the manual but the cupcakes still took abt 40 minutes to be brown to my satisfaction. I timed, it took about half hour to get the batter ready to be scooped to cups. I hate to waste these waxed cups, but I have no chance to visit ikea yet.

The process is not of any difference from the previous two. I think I will scribble down the steps I took and the ingredients that I used in this post.

Ingredients for about 12 (I think 10 or 11 will be optimise)

1. Butter (soften) 125g

2. Sugar 125g

3. Eggs 2 nos

4. Lemon rind of half a lemon

5. Plain flour 150g

6. Baking powder 1/4 teaspoon

1. I creamed the butter till soft before adding in sugar.

2. I then further cream the mixture to pale and light, but not sure why the sugar really do not melt. Can still hear the grains rubbing against the stainless steel bowl! Why ah, sigh.

3. I grated in half a lemon's rind. (oh my broken english)

4. I added in the eggs one by one, 2nd egg after the mixture comes together again after the 1st egg. (Rachel says that adding eggs a little by a time allows the sugar and butter mixture to fully absorb the egg. She said that when she need to add 4 eggs into a mixture for marble cake.)

5. When the mixture comes together again (The mixture took sometime to come together after this 2nd egg for this time), I sifted in 150g plain flour (with 1/4 tsp baking powder).

6. Hand stir the mixture to incorporate the flour. Rachel says must be fast in this stage because baking powder will start acting once come into contact with liquid.

7. Scoop the completed batter into cup cases and send them into oven at 180 degree celsius. They are suppose to be done 18 to 20 minutes, but mine took 30 minutes to look cook and 10min more to be brown.

The first two times also took a long time to get brown, so I suspect it is due to the different cases. Rachel uses paper liner that is shallower and wider than my waxed cup that is smaller and taller. I suppose the waxed paper is thicker than paper liner. Isn't that a good reason for the delay in getting them cook?

Upon cooling, I noticed that the cakes shrunk. It became lower and came away from the sides of the cups. Have not tasted them yet, cos I made the sandy butter icing (ya hand stir again) and covered the top so that the kids can decorate the cakes (which are in the fridge now).

Here are the decorated ones.

Oh .. tired liao ...and still got the old post not posted. :-(

Rachel Allen's Lemon Cupcakes

Tada! Very on recently hor, baking and baking.

I have been watching Rachel Allen's and Nigella's show. So the recent episode has Rachel teaching her students lemon cupcakes and I have lemon at home, so .....

I involved my girl in my baking recently, but after the works, while baking, I have to carry on washing and preparing meals so my girl is still neglected.

She helped me to sift in the flour and read the readings on the weighing machine.

My kids had a bite right after the cupcake cool off and they say yummy. Let's see what they say tomorrow.

The steps for this cupcake are simple and since I have them all done in a mixer, the time taken is not too long. However, I do not have a oven thermometer now, so I set the temperature according to the table on the oven manual. The cupcakes took much more longer to bake to a brownish top. Almost 10 minutes into the 20 minute baking time, the cupcakes still not risen. It is almost 20 minutes before I see the cupcakes rise and I think my batch took almost an hour to get the brownish top. The brownish top of individual cupcakes are also not even in colour and I see specks of brown (I assume they are sugar) too. Perhaps I should soften the butter longer, or to cream the butter and sugar longer? The sugar just doesn't melt into the butter. Can creaming melt the sugar into the butter anyway? Any experts out there want to answer the question?

As usual, I did not do the frosting (but an improvement, I measured out the butter for the frosting) today, not sure if I will do it tmr. I do not know how to store the cupcakes if there are frosting.

Here is how mine look and as for the recipe, I can't provide one because I copy as I watch the show. I tried googled and a few links came out. So maybe you can google and follow anyone of them?

Non fancy lemon cupcakes.

Perhaps I will update the taste after I taste them.

White chocolate cheesecake and lemon cream cheese cupcakes

Merry Christmas to all visiting my blog. Ya, its christmas, but I am not capable of baking a log cake so with an expiring packet of white droplet chocolate and Philly cheese (good offer in NTUC now), I tried the white chocolate cheesecake from 孟老师's book.

The cake is a little on the sweet side, perhaps due to the white chocolate. Its also a little harder than those cheesecakes that I tried from coffee joints. My kids can't even finish a small piece, but they can finish the whole piece (which is bigger) bought from the coffee joints. This probably means that the cake isn't to their liking too. Had problem with the white chocolate too. The instructions told me to melt it and have it on standby ... I melted it and took it out of the hot water and it turns hard again when I am ready to use it. However, I am surprised that I cant turn the harden white chocolate back to "melted" state.

Here's the white chocolate cheesecake.


Besides the white chocolate cheesecake, my friend has provided me with a lemon cream cheese cupcake recipe. It's straight forward and doesn't require mixer so I went ahead to try out too. The cupcakes rises a little in the oven but sank when they are cooling, however, my friend's did not sink.

The cupcakes are so soft and light, and they taste fantastically nice. Both my kids had two on the first try. The down side is the sugar and butter involved. My friend advise to cut down on sugar and butter, so will have to try the recipe again with new proportion.

Here's how they looked. (Sorry, I do not know how to "collage" them)





吃完了凤梨芝士蛋糕，看到那包白巧克力在二月就要到期了，赶紧翻查食谱，就在孟老师的书里找到用到白巧克力和芝士的食谱。我的白巧克力乳酪蛋糕就诞生了。这蛋糕超甜，还好只是个6寸的，一人一小片，再给我妈和老弟，第二天就解决了。用剩的100克芝士刚好用在一位朋友给的柠檬芝士小蛋糕。这个小蛋糕真赞，不知怎么形容，反正好吃就对了。我孩子还一口气吃两个。

Lemon Curd Cake

Oh, this close up reveals all the flaws.

This cake is made with a recipe from Phoon Huat. My mother
who went for the demo, brought back a tiny piece and my kids
like it, so requested for it.

The taste of the lemon curd is very refreshing, and nice. The
sponge cake base is still very soft, even thou my cake
collapsed and was dense at the bottom. It is suppose to be a
sponge base, lemon curd filling, sponge layer, lemon curd filling
cake, but I made this in the morning where I have to rush off
to somewhere after lunch, so it is very rush. Infact, I was
cooking the lemon filling and cooking my pasta lunch at the
same time. Anyway, my sponge cake base is too flat to be spilt
into two layers, so I just pour the filling on top.

I must say, the cake base is really very soft and light. I like
this cake very much, but the whip cream, the butter, the eggs
are all quite fattening.   Wondering will lemon offset the
effect.

Will update recipe later, too tired to type now.