November 30, 2015

Chocolate Ganache-filled cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Chocolate Ganache-filled Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

These cupcakes are likely the most decadent cupcakes that I’ve ever made. A moist chocolate cupcake topped with luscious peanut butter frosting. To up the decadent factor, I filled these cupcakes with a rich chocolate ganache. Gorgeous isn’t it? I baked 50 of these lovely beauties in two days. The first batch was for an office gathering and I ended up with so much left-over frosting that I baked another batch for my cell-group party.

To be honest, I didn’t originally plan to fill these cupcakes with ganache. However, I was inspired when I came across the Wilton filling tip on a trip to  Phoon Huat. Afterall, I had some leftover ganache from making the Chocolate Banana Cake, and thought, why not? More chocolate is always better, right? (By the way, I love love LOVE the filling tip. You don’t need to dig an ugly hole in the cupcake. Just stick the tip in and pipe away. Amazing.)

So there you have it. Chocolate ganache-filled cupcakes, topped with peanut butter buttercream. Don’t tell your guests that you’ve filled them with ganache. Watch their faces after they take a bite. You can also get creative with the filling. How about some chocolate liqueur ganache? That sounds pretty awesome too.

Chocolate Ganache-filled cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream
 
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Serves: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
  • 1 cup cake flour
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • ¾ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1⅓ cup Demerara sugar
  • 2 eggs (room temperature)
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup buttermilk (Add 1 tbsp white vinegar and add milk to form 1 cup)
  • 1 cup hot coffee (1 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in hot water)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache
  • 60g dark chocolate couverture (I used a mix of milk and dark couverture)
  • ½ cup whipping cream
Peanut Butter Buttercream
  • 115g unsalted butter
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Planters)
  • 1 cup icing sugar, sifted
  • 3 tbsp whipping cream
Instructions
Chocolate Cupcakes
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C and centre an oven rack.
  2. Fill a 12 hole cupcake tray with paper liners.
  3. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
  4. In another large bowl, combine the wet ingredients.
  5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and using a whisk and starting from the centre, slow combine till you get a smooth batter.
  6. Fill each liner till ¾ full.
  7. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle of the cupcake cups out clean.
  8. Cool cupcake tray and fill with the remaining batter. You should have 24 cupcakes in total.
  9. Allow cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
Chocolate Ganache
  1. In a small pot, heat whipping cream till bubbles form at the side. Do not allow it to boil.
  2. Pour hot whipping cream over chocolate and whisk till chocolate melts.
  3. Refrigerate till semi solid for ease of piping.
Buttercream
  1. Using a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and peanut butter.
  2. Add sifted icing sugar and cream on medium high speed for a few minutes till the frosting is light and fluffy.
  3. Add whipping cream and cream for another minute or so.
  4. Use frosting immediately, or refrigerate it for a short while so that it can set up a little for smoother piping.
  5. If using frosting that has been refrigerated for some time, whisk it up before use.
To Assemble
  1. Fill a piping bag fitted with the filling tip with semi-solid chocolate ganache.
  2. Insert ½ way into each cupcake and fill. Do not overfill or cupcake surface may crack.
  3. Fill a piping bag fitted with the 1M open star tip with the peanut butter buttercream.
  4. Pipe swirls or ruffles on each cupcake.
  5. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow buttercream to set up before serving.
  6. (For more stability in the buttercream, you can replace half the butter with shortening.)

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November 22, 2015

Chocolate Banana Layered Cake

chocolate banana layered cake

This was my birthday cake. And yes, I baked it myself. For the first time in forever (you can tell that my daughter is still having Disney Frozen fever), I baked myself a birthday cake. It was a spur of the moment decision really. I bake my childrens’ birthday cakes, I bake my husband’s birthday cake, I even bake my friends’ children’s’ birthday cake, why shouldn’t I bake my own birthday cake? My hubby didn’t agree though – he said I deprived him of a chance of buying me a cake. 🙂

So happy me got to bake TWO birthday cakes for myself. Well, theoretically this is the birthday cake but I had a staff workshop in the morning and baked a simpler chocolate banana cake (the non-layered type) for my colleagues. But let’s talk about this cake instead. I love the Secret Recipe chocolate banana cake. On the rare occasions that I’m there, that’s the cake I always order. Unfortunately, it’s expensive. Well, most cakes are these days. And so when I saw The Baking Biatch’s Chocolate Banana Cake, I decided to try my hand at making the cake. I didn’t end up using her recipe, as I wanted a more chocolatey cake (her sponge cake is a lighter chocolate cake with less cocoa content), but inspiration came from there.

Essentially, I used my favourite Chocolate Devil’s Food cake (recipe modified from Munira’s chocolate devil food cake) as a base, filled the in-between layers with chocolate whipped cream and bananas, and covered the cake with chocolate ganache. I used Valrhona chocolate for this cake (which really made a difference), but you can use your favourite good quality chocolate. For the many who have been asking for the recipe, here goes…

Chocolate Banana Layered Cake
 
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Serves: 1 8 inch cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
  • 1 cup cake flour
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • ¾ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1⅓ cup Demerara sugar
  • 2 eggs (room temperature)
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup buttermilk (Add 1 tbsp white vinegar and add milk to form 1 cup)
  • 1 cup hot coffee (1 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in hot water)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate whipped cream
  • 85g couverture chocolate (dark or milk, your preference)
  • 1 cup whipping cream
Chocolate ganache
  • 120g dark chocolate couverture (I used a mix of milk and dark couverture)
  • 1 cup whipping cream
To assemble
  • Simple sugar syrup (optional)
  • 3-4 large bananas, sliced
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
  2. Grease and line three 8 inch cake pans (you can use one large one and split the cake up as well)
  3. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
  4. In another large bowl, combine the wet ingredients.
  5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and using a whisk and starting from the centre, slow combine till you get a smooth batter.
  6. Divide among the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  7. Turn the cakes out of the pans and cool on racks completely.
  8. Wrap cakes in cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes or more to allow for easier frosting.
Chocolate whipped cream
  1. Melt chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler. Allow it to cool for 15 minutes or so.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk whipping cream in the bowl of a standing mixer till it forms stiff peaks. (I chill the bowl and the whisk before use)
  3. Add ⅓ of the whipped cream to the melted chocolate to lighten it.
  4. Then pour the chocolate mixture into the remaining whipped cream and fold gently to combine.
Chocolate ganache
  1. In a small pot, heat whipping cream till bubbles form at the side. Do not allow it to boil.
  2. Pour hot whipping cream over chocolate and whisk till chocolate melts.
  3. Allow it to cool slightly and thicken before use.
To assemble
  1. Spray the first layer of cake with sugar syrup (optional)
  2. Spread whipped cream on the cake and top with sliced bananas
  3. Top with more whipped cream and place the second layer of cake above it.
  4. Add whipped cream, bananas and more whipped cream.
  5. Top with the third layer of cake.
  6. Ice the top and sides of the cake with more whipped cream.
  7. Place in the fridge to chill till firm.
  8. While the cake is chilling in the fridge, you can prepare your ganache.
  9. Place chilled cake on a rack.
  10. Pour ganache over the cake and allow it to flow down the sides.
  11. Chill cake till ganache sets.
  12. Slice, serve and enjoy.

 

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September 17, 2015

Steamed pandan coconut cakes (Kuih Puteri Ayu)

Steamed pandan coconut cake

The flavour combination of pandan and coconut never fails. Just think of kaya, pandan cake, and so many other kuih kuih that uses this combination. It’s almost always perfect. I found these moulds at Phoon Huat recently, and decided to try my hand at making some of these small dainty steamed cakes. Surprisingly, they are really easy to make! My little one prefers the cake without the coconut, but I like the sweet and slightly salty touch that the shredded coconut adds. If you have the time, use freshly squeezed coconut milk and grated coconut for that extra fragrant touch.

Steamed pandan coconut cakes (Kuih Putri Ayu)
 
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Serves: 20-22 pcs
Ingredients
  • 120 ml coconut milk
  • 10 pandan leaves, cut into small pieces
  • 2 eggs
  • 80g granulated sugar
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 50g shredded coconut
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp corn flour
Instructions
  1. Grease cake moulds with a small amount of oil.
  2. Blend pandan leaves with coconut milk. Sieve to obtain pandan milk. Measure out 120ml and set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a standing mixer (or with a hand mixer), whisk eggs with sugar till thick and foamy.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  5. Add 120ml of pandan coconut milk to the egg/sugar mixture and mix on low speed.
  6. Add in flour in two to three portions and mix on low speed till combined. Do not overmix or the batter will deflate.
  7. Mix shredded coconut, salt and corn flour together.
  8. Add a small portion to each mould and press to flatten. (I simply place another mould over it to compress the coconut).
  9. Fill the moulds with batter till it is almost full.
  10. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes.
  11. Remove and cool slightly on a cooling rack before serving.

 

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August 29, 2014

Pandan Snow Skin Mooncakes

Pandan snow skin mooncakes

Mid-autumn festival is approaching and I’m back on the blog after a 2 months hiatus. I gave birth to my 2nd baby girl two months ago (she’s such a cutie) and have had my hands rather full. Now that she is slightly older, hopefully I’d have more time to blog (fingers very crossed). But I digress. Let’s go back to mooncakes.

I have fond memories of mini pandan snow skin mooncakes that my mom would buy from this old fashioned bakery near Alexandra during Mid-autumn festival. I was probably in my teens then and to me, those were really delicious snow skin mooncakes. They were freshly made, had a strong pandan flavour and the snow skin was very soft. Unfortunately, the bakery closed down a couple of years later and I couldn’t find similar mooncakes. So a couple of years ago, I decided to start making my own. One of the more popular mooncakes I’ve made are these Red Wine Berry Snow Skin Mooncakes.

Pandan Snow Skin Mooncakes

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June 23, 2014

Very Chocolatey Salted Brownies

Very Chocolatey Salted Brownies

Home renovation is depressing. Even when it’s just renovation of the toilets, the whole house gets messed up. One of the worse parts of renovation? I am deprived of my kitchen and my oven. I wish I could start baking with a vengeance once my renovation is over but with the baby due to arrive just a few weeks, that does not seem very likely either.

Anyway, while browsing through my food photos, I realised that I have not shared my favourite brownie recipe on the blog! These recipes are rich and fudgey and the salt on the top gives it extra crunch. I like to add some chocolate chips to the batter to give it a little extra bite but you can omit these if you prefer.

Very Chocolatey Salted Brownies
 
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Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 170g unsalted butter
  • 60g dark chocolate chips/chunks (I use 70% dark chocolate)
  • 45g unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 110g plain flour
  • 220g granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1½ tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use 55% dark chocolate) - optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C.
  2. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with alumnium foil and coat lightly with non-stick baking spray.
  3. Melt butter and chocolate chips over a water bath or using a microwave, stirring occasionally.
  4. Allow butter and chocolate mixture to cool slightly.
  5. Sift flour and cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and whisk in till combined.
  6. Whisk in the sugar till combined, followed by the eggs, one at a time.
  7. Lastly, whisk in the vanilla extract and salt.
  8. Fold in the extra chocolate chips if desired.
  9. Pour batter into the baking pan and smooth out the top using a spatula.
  10. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until the centre is just slightly soft.
  11. Allow to cool in the pan for an hour. Refrigerate the brownies for 1 - 1.5 hours to allow them to set completely.
  12. Remove brownies from pan and peel off the aluminium foil.
  13. Cut brownies into squares and sprinkle a little extra sea salt on top.
  14. Serve at room temperature.

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April 4, 2014

Breakfast series – Japanese Hot Cakes

japanese hot cakes

What’s the difference between japanese Hot Cakes and our usual pancakes? Well, japanese hot cakes are thicker and sweeter. They are very popular, and many use the Morinaga hot cake mix. Delicious though they are, they can be a little hard on the pocket, especially if you have many mouths to feed. Some time back, I came across a recipe on a japanese sweets website. As the instructions were all in japanese (and google translate was not very accurate), I had to fiddle around with it before getting it right. I also changed the ingredients slightly. The method for preparing the hot cakes is also slightly different from preparing pancakes. If you follow the instructions though, you should be able to get thick delicious hot cakes! It’s definitely cheaper than using the Morinaga hot cake mix too!

Breakfast series - Japanese Hot Cakes
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 egg
  • 40g caster sugar
  • A pinch of salt
  • 110g milk
  • 40g sour cream
  • 20g unsalted butter, softened
  • 140g cake flour, sifted
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Whisk egg with sugar and salt till pale and thick.
  2. In a separate bowl or measuring jug, combine the milk, sour cream and butter.
  3. Add the milk mixture to the egg and sugar mixture and whisk to combine.
  4. Add the flour and baking powder to the wet ingredients in three parts. Fold in gently with the whisk. The mixture will be thick.
  5. Set mixture aside for about 10 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, set aside a damp cloth and heat a griddle pan or cast iron pan over medium heat.
  7. Add a little oil (not too much) and spread evenly over the surface of the pan.
  8. Before cooking the hot cakes, place the pan on the damp cloth to cool the pan down slightly.
  9. Scoop ¼ cup of hot cake batter and pour it onto the pan from a height of about 25 cm.
  10. When bubbles form, flip the hot cake over and cover the pan for 1 - 2 minutes. Remove hot cake and repeat with the remaining batter.
  11. Serve hot, with butter and maple syrup.

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October 22, 2013

Passionfruit Marble Cake

passionfruit marble

I love the combination of passionfruit and chocolate. I remember tasting my first passionfruit chocolate macaron some years back. It was love at first sight taste – the tangy sweetness of the passionfruit combined with bittersweet chocolate. Pure bliss.

This passionfruit marble cake is my attempt to recreate the passionfruit chocolate flavour that I love. My first attempt at passionfruit marble cake was a loaf cake. Though it was nice, I felt that the texture could be improved and so I did not post the recipe. This time, I modified the initial recipe and used a bundt pan to bake the cake. Why use a bundt pan? Bundt pans help to conduct heat evenly to all surfaces of the cake while keeping the cake moist. Not to mention the added advantage of a pretty cake!Continue Reading

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