Junior Masterchef winner's lemon cupcakes

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I wonder how the kids in Junior Masterchef did it. Especially the winner, Isabella. How did she just suddenly think of a good lemon cupcake recipe in under an hour? I call her a 'cooking prodigy'.

If you haven't watched Junior Masterchef, you ought to! Some of them are honestly so cute, still missing some teeth, and I find myself falling off my chair, laughing when I see them using safety plastic knives. But the things they come up with... They're only 8 years old and they plate up incredible dishes! When I was 8, the most I could make was instant noodles.

Vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Baking is somewhat therapeutic. It is somewhat comforting, when you have buttery fingers, pressing into dough, scooping cupcake batter into muffin cases or just simply, decorating cakes. Baking has become one of my stress-relievers, and on Thursday, I did that.

I had a pretty terrible week, so a good way on the day before Friday, was to bake some simple vanilla cupcakes.

Red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

 Moist red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Red velvet cupcakes have always been a classic favourite.

Cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes

 I've only made cheesecake bars and mini cheesecakes. Not an actual real big cheesecake. #projectforsummer 



These are perfect to bring for parties, and so much fun to make! What makes it real fun the bottom of the cupcake, which is a whole Oreo, which acts like a base. I'd normally put an Oreo crust, by actually crushing the Oreos with some butter and digestive biscuits, but this time I decided to put an Oreo instead.

I just can't get enough of Oreos!

Have you met anyone who does not like Oreo cheesecake? I sure haven't. The weird thing is, my dad will not eat any other cheesecake besides my mum's Oreo cheesecake. What is your favourite cheesecake? 

These are so easy to make, the hardest part is waiting for it to sit in the refrigerator for 4 hours. What helps, is when you bake at night! Bake at night, wait for it to cool, refrigerate and go to bed. 

Oreo Cheesecake cupcakes 
Recipe from Martha Stewart via Handle the heat 

*Makes 30 (I only made half) 

Ingredients

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds (4 8-oz packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 275°F (135 degrees Celsius). Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

*I mixed by hand. I've become a little bit lazy to take out the mixer. 

Chocolate cupcakes with Nutella cloud frosting

I'm a chocoholic. I love chocolate on chocolate. So how does a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting on top appeal to you?

I don't know about you, but chocolate on chocolate cupcakes just grabs my attention. Move over vanilla, I need my chocolate dose! 

Btw are these images too big? Should I reduce them to the normal size I normally do?

These chocolate cupcakes came out really moist with a really good flavour of chocolate. I mean, reaaaaally good flavour. Though, with this frosting, next time, I'd probably increase the amount of cocoa to make it a bit more rich. The frosting is quite nice, but I think there's a little bit too much Nutella for my liking. I'd probably go from 100 grams of Nutella to probably like even about a tablespoon? You can omit it if you like.

But this frosting pipes out beautifully. Probably one of the best chocolate frostings I've ever made! I made rose swirls with my favourite icing nozzle, Wilton 1M. 

Chocolate cupcakes with Nutella cloud frosting
Adapted from Sweetapolita

For the cupcakes:
3/4 (95 g) cup all purpose flour *
3/4 (150 g) cup white sugar
1/4 (30 g) cup dark cocoa powder *
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk *
1/4 cup brewed coffee or espresso, hot
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1-1/2  teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* I used self-raising flour instead of all purpose with the baking soda and baking powder.
* For the cocoa, I only had Van Houten, so I just did about 1/2 cup instead.
* Buttermilk can be substituted by putting a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon into one cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes, until it curdles.
*  I also didn't need to use the mixer. I just used a large bowl to mix all the ingredients.

For the Nutella Cloud frosting:
1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, softened but cool
1 and 1/2 cup (190 g) icing sugar (confectioners'), sifted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (125 g) premium bittersweet chocolate. Chopped, melted and slightly cooled.
1/3 cup (100 g) Nutella *
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch of salt

* I would use probably only about a tablespoon or 2 of Nutella next time

For the cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 degrees Celsius) and line a muffin/cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
2. In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch and salt.
3. In a medium bowl or measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, coffee, oil, egg and vanilla.
4. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed. Divide batter evenly among the liners. The batter will be quite liquid-y.
5. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until toothpick or skewer comes out with a few crumbs. Try not to over-bake. Remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack until completely cool.

For the frosting
1. In a bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the icing sugar and butter and beat on low speed for about 1 minute.
2. Add vanilla, and beat on low speed until well combined. Add the melted and slightly cooled chocolate and beat on medium speed until smooth for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the Nutella, milk and a pinch of salt, and beat on med-high speed for another minute.
4. Frost onto cupcakes with a spatula or fitted nozzle

Oreo cupcakes

As you can tell by now, I love Oreos. I have some Oreo truffle balls to share soon. Mmm.

Baking cupcakes are always so much fun! Especially frosting. I obviously still have some work to do on my frosting skills (I've only recently started using icing nozzles. I used to just spread frosting on a cupcake like there was no tomorrow.).

This is my all time favourite vanilla cupcake recipe. You can't go wrong with this recipe. It's not too sweet, even my dad likes it (without the frosting)! It also has a distinct taste of vanilla. It uses vanilla bean paste, instead of the normal vanilla extract. Vanilla bean paste just enhances the vanilla flavour, and tastes so great! I chose an Oreo cream cheese recipe, as I'd happily pick cream cheese over buttercream for cupcakes.

Vanilla cupcakes

Adapted from Taste

*Makes 24 cupcakes

200 g butter, softened

1 3/4 cups (370 g) caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract) 

4 eggs

2 3/4 cups (405 g) self-raising flour

1 cup (250 ml) milk

  

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350 F). Line 24 1/3 cup (80ml) muffin pans with patty cases
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla bean paste with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined. Add the flour and milk in alternate batches and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.
3.  Spoon mixture evenly among the patty cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Once cooled completely, frost with an icing bag attached with a nozzle (I used Wilton 1M) or spread with a spatula or knife.

Oreo cream cheese frosting

Adapted from the Cupcake project

8 oz package cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup butter (57 grams), room temperature

3-4 cups powdered sugar (use more or less depending on how stiff you want the frosting to be) *

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3/4 cup crushed Oreos 

1. Whip cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.

2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.

3. Add vanilla extract.

4. Gently stir in crushed Oreos.

* For the powdered sugar, I only used 2 cups. 

* I did about 1 cup and a bit more of oreos. Though, I will still consider putting even more so that you can taste more of the oreo flavour.

Cupcake central

One of my favourite baked goods to eat are cupcakes. Cupcakes are somewhat special and meaningful to me; they were the first things I baked. I remember excitedly running the kitchen mixer, making a vanilla cupcake batter from scratch. I remember I used to put some sort of runny, glaze sugary icing. I used to like that but now my tastebuds have changed and I find it way too sweet, and I much prefer a fluffy buttercream or my favourite: cream cheese frosting!

My oldest sister gave me a voucher from her Entertainment book (this kind of coupon book), for Cupcake Central. She said "I'll give this to you if you buy us cupcakes one day." and so I agreed. The coupon is 50% (up to 10 dollars value) off any cupcake purchase. I could get the boxes 50% off! 1 box of 4 regular cupcakes is normally 16 dollars and 1 box of 10 babycakes is normally 20 dollars. I decided to go with the babycakes because I wanted to try a variety of flavours. 1 big cupcake is $4 and 1 babycake is $2.

My sisters have brought home cupcakes from Cupcake Central numerous times, but I've never tasted some of these flavours before. I love their cupcakes because they are not overly-sweet, and the cupcakes are very moist.

I bought French vanilla custard, dulce de leche, cookies and cream, salted caramel, nutcase, cookie dough, vanilla vanilla and devil's food chocolate.

Baking

The Salzburg post is the last post of Europe '10. The next day, we went back to Munich, then flew to Dubai. Our flight from Dubai back to Malaysia was at 2 AM, I actually fell asleep. My dad had to start hitting me lol! I'd really like to actually visit Dubai one day. The things I've heard sound amazing, especially the pictures. Looks like an extremely modern city with uber awesome places.

But Europe in 2010, was seriously an amazing trip. I never thought I'd be able to visit Europe until a few years time, and to just see those places, which you pretty much don't normally see on your first visit to Europe (Paris, London are those kind of stereotype places you go to on your first visit to Europe) and experience those countries which used to be part of Yugoslavia. I loved the balance of the scenery change in that trip, from the alps to the Dalmatian coast. Um well except for the cathedrals, I kind of got sick of them.

My favourite country that I visited in Europe? Croatia! Dubrovnik and Split are such lovely coastal places. I would definitely recommend anyone who visits Croatia to at least go to Dubrovnik. The  buildings and the colour are pretty vibrant, not to be missed!

I also hope that sometime soon, I will be able to go to the U.S. I really want to visit, because 

1. The food.

2. The shopping. 

3. Scenery.

4. It's the U.S.

5. I want to take lots of pictures. There's this photo competition I want to enter hehe.

6. OOHH I want to see my little nephews in San Fran :) 

But really, I love travelling to anywhere in the world. It's just something I can see through my eyes and learn about the roots, the history and the beauty. The thing about travelling is that you usually experience the unexpected, see how a culture differentiates with yours and taste different flavours. Sometimes, you see things that really make you appreciate for what you have. 

So anyway, I may be just doing a bit of random posts like Japan, Thailand, Gold Coast. Not really a follow up, unlike Turkey, U.S.A and Europe. Expect a post about Thailand soon!

I also baked some cupcakes for my friend's birthday, Tina. She's my cute, tall and somehow eats like a pig, yet stays so skinny (high metabolism) Korean friend,and I decided to bake her rainbow cupcakes. Don't worry. It's not sickening sweet. It's just a vanilla cupcake with added colouring. And with cream cheese icing. The next time I make cupcakes, I want to use this piping flower tip my mum has which I think would look incredibly cool.

Oh if only you could see the layers and explosions of colours when you ate the cupcakes... But I couldn't, since I brought them to school!

I don't know what is with me, but I love baking for people. I love that feeling when you create something spectacular, or something so simple yet tasty, and it brings smiles. Put it this way, baking is like a science experiment. You have your different variables, your method, and even just one alteration can change the whole thing. 

Oh and did I ever mention that I love science?