Sunday 30 July 2006

Butter Republic cupcakes - a Marshall special


A couple of weeks back, I made a Chocolate Blueberry Loaf Cake for my Marshall group of fellow scholars but was unable to attend the dinner gathering & bring along my sweet goody. The cake turned out really great. I was afraid it might taste a little strange cos of the wet blueberries which I've always associated with trifles, muffins and really..not tea loaf cakes. (for the recipe & pictures, you can scroll down to the end of this entry) Ever since, I've been feeling terribly guilty and thus, today's special which will be served to you guys tmr! :D

I was feeling very kiddyish and played around with blue, green and pink! Finally...a time to stop being so stressed abt everything going on around me so I can just be quirky and whimsical. I had the best time of my life in the kitchen today, whipping and beating and fiddling around with hundreds & thousands. After all that effort, I do hope my marshall pals love em........yikes.

The recipe for these cupcakes were the very basic vanilla cupcakes I've always used. The next time round I'm gonna try another recipe I found in this month's Donna Hay magazine under cupcake coutoure section, which uses rose water and some other interesting stuff. I've always wondered how exciting cupcakes can be because it pretty much uses the same kind of ingredients but every time I check out Cupcake Bakeshop's webbie, I can only say she proves me wrong ALL THE TIME. She uses ingredients like pistachio cream, tea, etc. It's really amazing how she gets so creative with something so beautifully simple & satisfying like cupcakes. I'm inspired to experiment as well..but of course, my laziness is such a deeply-set flaw in me that it hinders any progress I wish to make. HEH. In time to come, I suppose. For now, let me just enjoy rainbow coloured, silly looking cupcakes for all its worth..:)

I was a little surprised with my buttercream today. I've been using the usual Magnolia's buttercream recipe for all cupcakes that I make and this time round I believe I probably threw in too much butter. It got a little difficult to beat, and it kept making disgusting slapping sounds. I remedied this problem with a lot more milk than usual, so my buttercream this time round was very glossy, sometimes bordering on an oily look. The colouring solved that too as it made it slightly less obvious. If it was van, think she wouldn't mind the butter at all....Butter Republic! It's sooo her. :D

* Baking Tip of the Day : Should you run out of self-rising flour (like I did today), there are 2 ways to substitute it.

1) 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 1/2tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp fine salt --> this gives you 1 cup self-rising

2) 2 cup cake flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp fine salt --> this gives you 2 cup self-rising

I went with the first method cos that's the substitute I've been using all this while. Am pretty unsure how my cupcakes would turn out if I used cake flour in addition to the plain flour in the rest of the recipe. Suppose it'll be of a fluffier texture? If any one knows how cake flour can change the texture, do drop me a comment. :)

Chocolate Blueberry Loaf Cake (adapted from Lisa Yockelson's Choc Chip-Banana Tea Cake)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 tsp cocoa ( I used Cadbury's this time round)

1/2 tso baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup semi sweet choc chips, miniature sized

8 tbs unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 punnet washed, dried fat fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 180dCelsius.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda and salt.

Cream the butter for 3 min. Add granulated sugar in two additions, beating for 2 min after each portion. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in the vanilla extract. Scrape down bowl, then add the sifted mixture in two additions, beating on low. Stir in the chocolate chips and fold in the blueberries. Spoon into prepared loaf pan, mounding slightly in the centre.

Bake for 1hr. Cool loaf in pan for 10min then remove it from pan. Cool completely. Be patient after this, let cake mellow for 2-3hrs before cutting into slices for serving. You can wrap in clingwrap if keeping overnight, this locks in the flavours very well. **bake & serve within 2 days**

2 comments:

Rachel said...

pretty, pretty!

diva said...

thank you dear! :)