Easy yellow cupcakes 簡易雲呢拿小蛋糕

Yellow cupcake by Martha Stewart 

Recipe from Everyday Food, September 2006

Prep Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Makes 12 Cupcakes (6" cake) ( I doubled the recipe for making 24's or 7")
Triple recipe for 10" cake)

Ingredients

For The Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar (I put only 1/2 cup. But I still think it is a bit sweet for me)

2 large eggs

Sprinkles, for decorating

For The Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line the cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups (a 2-ounce or 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop is good for this).

Place tin on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cupcakes 5 minutes in tin, then remove and cool completely on a rack before frosting.

Prepare frosting: In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth. Mix in up to 1/2 cup more sugar or a few more teaspoons of milk as necessary to achieve a spreadable consistency. Makes enough for 12 cupcakes.

Frost cupcakes; decorate with sprinkles before frosting dries to ensure that they stick. The frosted cupcakes are best eaten within 1 day.

Piping Buttercream Frosting Flower with recipe

These flower cupcakes are made for my friend's birthday today. Red Velvet cupcakes with Rose essence buttercream frosting.

Buttercream frosting:
(I use partial Crisco because I will leave it out at room temperature for a while before giving it to my friend's hands)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (113g) Cricso (can be replaced by butter)
1/2 cup (113g) butter softened
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk,  depending on consistency needed 3 Tbsp powdered Dream Whip
1 Tsp vanilla essence
1 Tsp rose essence
depending on your personal taste
2 lbs powdered sugar sifted

Instructions:
There's no wrong way to mix this. Mix all together. The longer the mixer runs, the smoother it gets. Sifting the powdered sugar before blending helps with smoothness but is not necessary.

The making of piping flowers.

Creamy Chocolate Fudge

My older daughter will visit her old school today again. So I prepared some treats for her old school buddies. Creamy Chocolate Fudge. I found this recipe from a Christmas Cookbook that Nicole borrowed from school library this week.

Individually Package

Ready to go!

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup full fat cream cheese
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp cooking oil for greasing
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp butter
a shallow square cake or brownie pan
parchment paper

Directions:

1. Put the cream cheese into a bowl. Sift the cocoa and powdered sugar into the bowl too. Mix them together well.
2. Put the cake pan onto a sheet of parchment paper and drae around it. Cut out the shape, just inside the line.
3. Use a paper towel to wipe oil onto the sides and base of the pan. Press in the paper square and wipe it too.
4. Melt the chocolate and butter on a heat proof boil place over simmering water. Stir until all mix and melt together. Then, stir in a tbsp of the cream cheese mixture.
5. Pour the chocolate into the cheese mixture int the bowl. Beat them together with a spoon until they are creamy.
6. Spoon the mixture into the pan, and push it into the corners. Make the top of the fudge as flat as you can.
7. smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Put the pan in the refridgerator for two hours, or until the fudge is firm.
8. Use a blunt knife to loosen the edges of the fudge, then turn it out onto a large plate, Remove the paper.
9. Cut the fudge into lots of squares. Then, put the plate in the refrigerator for two hours, until the fudge is hard.

Source from Usborne Activities Christmas Cooking cookbook.

Happy Halloween Om Nom Cut the Rope Pumpkin Carving



Front view with lights



This is the 3rd year I'm carving a pumpkin for Halloween. This year I plan to carve a translucent type of pumpkin. I know my younger daughter loves the game Cut the Rope and she loves the character there! His name is Om Nom!





Side view with lights.



Draft



Clear front view

 



 





Steam Chicken in Lotus Leaves 荷葉杞子蒸滑雞(翼) - how to marinate chicken (醃滑雞的方法)

材料
雞 半隻  (我今次用了一打半雞翼)
細冬菇 10隻
乾荷葉 1片
杞子一小許 
 

做法
１）冬菇浸軟，浸洗杞子 ，備用。 
２）荷葉用熱水浸軟。
３）雞先斬成小件，醃雞才會滑。
４）用蛋白及生粉醃雞，放入雪櫃雪半小時。
５）再用生抽、老抽、糖、麻油、酒、薑醃最少2小時。
６）把北菇、醃好的雞及杞子撈勻放在荷葉中央。
７）荷葉包好放入蒸籠或蒸碟裏，用錫紙把碟面包好 (如不是用蒸籠)，隔水猛火蒸二十分鐘即成。