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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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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November 18, 2013

Cookie Top Brownies

Cookie Top Brownies

In my humble opinion, there are few desserts that are as charming in their simplicity as brownies. Moist chocolate goodness, in a bar, or a slab, or in a cup, whatever your preference. I used to think that the best brownies were the ones that were oozing chocolate goodness, with bits of nuts in them, the crunch of the nuts contrasting with the soft texture of the brownie. I have since changed my mind about what the best brownies are. The best brownies are the ones I’m about to introduce to you – Brownies topped with Cookie dough, baked to a golden brown perfection. Crisp chocolate chip cookie atop a moist dark chocolate brownie. NOW THAT IS PERFECTION.

Cookie Top Brownies

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November 2, 2013

Nutella Swirled ChocoNana Muffins

Nutella swirled choco nana muffins

I was mulling over what to bake for breakfast and asked my husband if he preferred oatmeal bread or honey wholewheat bread. “Chocolate Banana bread!” my little one chimes in. Chocolate banana bread? Now where did that come from! She has never tried chocolate banana cake, bread, muffin or anything of that combination. It did sound like a good idea though. After all, I really like chocolate mousse cake with banana slices.

So breakfast was decided. Chocolate banana bread. Only that a loaf of bread sounded a little boring. “How bout chocolate banana muffins instead?” I asked the little one. She nodded in agreement. I never thought that my 2.5 y.o will be deciding the breakfast menu at such a young age!

I set out to bake Chocolate Banana muffins. And then I had a brainwave. My husband loves nutella. How bout topping each muffin with just a little nutella? Brilliant isn’t it? I would think so because the muffins were so good. I love the texture, the flavour, the chunky banana and the bits of chocolate AND the nutella. You would love it too, if you try it!

Nutella Swirled ChocoNana Muffins
 
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Author:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed coarsely
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup buttermilk
  • ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • nutella
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven 175ºC.
  2. Place 8 large standing muffin liners on a baking tray. (You can use a muffin tray as well.)
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
  4. In a smaller mixing bowl, add eggs, melted butter, vanilla extract and buttermilk to the mashed bananas. Stir to combine.
  5. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold gently.
  6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  7. Fill each muffin cup to ¾ full.
  8. Top with ½ tsp of nutella. Swirl with a toothpick or a small spatula.
  9. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

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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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April 28, 2013

Red wine chocolate cake with mascarpone cream

redwinecake2 I posted some time earlier about a red wine chocolate bundt cake that received rave reviews from my friends. So when I had half a bottle of unfinished red wine, I thought about baking that cake again. While surfing though, I came across a recipe on smitten kitchen that looked simpler and really good. So I tried that instead and tested it on my colleagues.

The texture of the cake is a cross between a brownie and a cake. It is dense but moist and boy was it rich. Deb from smitten kitchen calls it the real velvet cake and I think she is right. The cake is baked at a fairly low temperature of 160°C and so the alcohol does not boil off much. The red wine flavour comes through really strongly so my advice would be to use a fairly good bottle of red wine. I used a merlot for this cake, but you can use pretty much any kind you like. The mascarpone cream topping is a must. Do not omit that!

Red wine chocolate cake with mascarpone cream

Print recipe
Red wine chocolate cake with mascarpone cream
Website adapted from smitten kitchen

Ingredients

cake

  • 3oz unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 2/3 cups brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup caster sugar
  • 1 egg + 1 yolk
  • 3/4 cups red wine
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 Cup + 1 Tablespoon plain flour
  • 1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

mascarpone cream

  • 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
  • 1/2 cup chilled whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons caster sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Step 1
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 9 inch round cake pan and spray the interior with a non-stick spray.
Step 2
Using a standing or a handheld mixer, cream butter until smooth then add the sugars and beat till light and fluffy.
Step 3
Add the egg and yolk, then the red wine and the vanilla and beat after each addition. The batter will look lumpy.
Step 4
In a separate large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Step 5
Sift the ingredients over the wet ingredients and combine on low speed. Fold in the last bits with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix!
Step 6
Bake for 25 minutes on the centre rack of the oven. The tester should come out clean. Do not overbake or the cake will be dry.
Step 7
Cool for 5-10 minutes in the tin then turn it out onto a rack and cool till it comes to room temperature. Dust with icing sugar if you like.
Step 8
Whip together mascarpone cheese, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract till soft peaks form. (Cream can be refrigerated for a couple of hours)
Step 9
Serve each slice of cake with a large dollop of cream.
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