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**

DIVANA vanilla cupcakes

Once again, today was preparation for our virgin order! Our blessed first customer had ordered gingersnaps, absolutely chocolate cookies and vanilla cupcakes (topped with heavenly buttercream as you can see from the picture. this one has been coloured a light pink. i made both white and pink ones to alternate in the box!)
My feet were really aching when I was done and there was just so much cleaning up to do because I had used so many bowls and spoons and forks, it was kind of crazy. But I'm glad to be busy with business than with stupid things like math, or econs. Ha.

Anyway these cupcakes can be done in the ordinary swirly creamed kind or the cloud cream kind. I had lots of fun doing this, despite the heat of the afternoon. And thank God, the buttercream didn't melt. It stayed in place!These cupcakes are perfect for those who utterly enjoy the scent and taste of vanilla and the fact that it goes so well with the rich aroma of butter. It's a no-holds-barred kind of thing, so if you're dieting then too bad for you but my recommendation is to not miss it for the world, right Sam? :D

So...interested? Do drop us an email then for your order!

DIVANA.living for divine moments.

Housewarming

Today was the big day, big dinner. Tonnes of people came, and so many i had never ever seen before in my life. But they were friendly faces so that was alright. Got up way early in the morning to bake the cake for the dinner. It was a Debbi Field's Devil's Food Cake which basically means a pretty special Chocolate Cake with this wonderful chocolate icing. Did a bit of adjustments but it turned out just right. Think the only problem with it was that i might have beat too much between adding each egg so it ended up too light and crumbly?
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
Cake:
6oz semisweet chocolate
1,3/4cup boiling water
1,1/4cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2cups sifted cake flour
2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
1,1/4cup softened unsalted butter
1,3/4cup darked brown sugar
4 eggs
1tbs vanilla essence
Frosting:
1,1/4cup softened unsalted butter
4cups sifted powdered sugar
1cup unsweetened cocoa powder (it's very important that this is sifted otherwise your frosting would not be smooth but ugly and lumpy, though the taste wouldn't be affected)
1tbs vanilla essence
1/4cup + 2tbs lowfat milk (use full-fat milk if you want an even richer and thicker frosting)

Directions
Cake:
Preheat oven to 180dcelsius. Butter the sides of 2 springform 9" rounds and place a circularly cut baking parchment on the bottom of the pan.
Chop the chocolate and place into a bowl, pouring the boiling water over it. Set aside for a short while then add the cocoa and stir till smooth, rubbing the unmelted pieces at the sides till it melts into the mixture. Set aside to let cool to rtp.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Next, cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy for around 4min on medium speed. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and beat well in between each addition.
Beat in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and half of the chocolate mixture. Beat to combine.
Add the remaining chocolate mixture and beat on low speed until smooth.
Divide the batter evenly between the 2 pans and bake for 30-35min.
Remove to cool on wire racks for 10min or so then remove the springform to let cool completely. After about another 10min, remove the baking parchment and the bottom pan.

Now to the frosting!
Put all the softened butter in a bowl and beat it with your electric mixer until fluffy. You'll know it's fluffy when the butter starts making a slicky little sound and looks pretty glossy.
Whisk together the sifted sugar and cocoa in another bowl and beat about a third of the mixture into the butter. Add the vanilla and beat.
Just keep beating~
Add the remaining of the mixture and beat until the frosting is ABSOLUTELY smooth.
Once your cake is completely cool and that is when you touch your cake, it's no longer warm, you can begin to frost it. I waited around an hour for mine to cool. Used that time to munch on some food, rest my aching feet and watch some tv (jungle book II was showing on cable).
So basically, get a cake stand or a cake plate and put the bottom cake layer on it. If it is slightly volcanoed like mine was, slice off the top to get a nicely flat surface. Do the same for the other layer if it is so.
Using a metal spatula, lop on a generous amount of frosting and in neat gentle circles, (or by simply moving the plate) ice the top. Then place the next layer on top, arranging it such that it is directly above the bottom layer, frost the top and the sides to give a very smooth looking cake.

Debbi Field's used a pastry bag to pipe decorative rosettes but i did mine simply by using cranberries and fresh strawberries. Try using peaches, kiwis or whatever fruits. They go well with such a cake and add a burst of colour to the deep brown richness of the cake as well. Just make sure you keep the cake cool because my cranberries started to bleed after all in the warm tropical air of Singapore. :S