Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Made these cupcakes and moist chocolate cakes for Archie's housewarming. Good reviews :)
Got the recipe from here. I followed the modified version. It was not too sweet yumz. I have reproduced the recipe below for my own future reference.

Ingredients:(Makes 12)

130g cake flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

130g cream cheese, at room temperature

135g butter, at room temperature (reduced to 100g)

145g castor sugar (reduced to 100g)

1 tsp grated lemon rind (increased to 2 tsp)

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Steps:

Preheat oven to 175 Degree C and line muffin pan with paper cups.
Sift cake flour, baking soda and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and cream cheese until light and creamy for 8-10 minutes.
Add castor sugar and continue to mix until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Stir in lemon rind and lemon juice.
Finally, fold in sifted flour into mixture.
Divide batter evenly into paper cups. Bake for 20 – 25mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Remove the pan from the oven. Rest for 10 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan. Cool on wire rack.

Moist Chocolate Cake

Recipe from here.

Ingredients (5" x 8" loaf pan):
1 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
125g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate Paste:
½ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp instant coffee
¼ cup sugar
½ cup hot water
¼ cup evaporated/fresh milk
Pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
Grease the loaf pan and line the bottom with baking paper.

Chocolate Paste:
Combine cocoa powder, instant coffee, sugar, hot water and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
Whisk the mixture until the sugar is melted, then add in milk and mix well.
Set aside for later use.

Sift together flour with baking powder for 2-3 times. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter together with sugar until creamy.
Add in vanilla essence, and eggs one at a time. Beat until light and fluffy.
Fold in sifted flour in batches, alternate with chocolate paste.
Start with flour and end with flour.
Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Japanese Steamed Cakes

Saw this at Daiso and was curious why it was called Steamed Bread. Ingredients contain rice flour so I got it to see if it taste anything like our Wa Ko Kueh.

I added a tsp of matcha powder to half the mixture.

Split the remaining mixture and added half tsp Valrhona cocoa powder to a portion. ;)

Matcha Flavour
The Original
Chocolate

Update: The texture was sticky like huat kueh but not as dense. Something different from our wa ko kueh. :)

Orange Blossom Madeleines

Thought I'll make some madeleines and share with the class tomorrow.

All was looking fine initially... then the hump development wasn't too successful for the last 2.

Probably due to hot spots in the oven?
The humps were not nicely developed too. Looks oozed out.

I've adapted the recipe from Fergal Connolly.

4 eggs

100g caster sugar

1tsp orange blossom water

125g self raising flour

115g unsalted butter, melted & cooled

1tbsp lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 230C. Beat eggs, sugar and orange blossom water till pale and thick.
2. Sieve flour in a separate bowl. Slowly add flour to egg mixture.
3. Pour in the melted butter and fold in the lemon zest.
4. Refrigerate the batter for 20 minutes or overnight.
5. Transfer batter into piping bag and fill moulds till almost full.
6. Bake at 230C for 4 minutes, lower temp to 200C and bake for further 4 minutes.
7. Remove from moulds and cool on rack.

Chocolate and Orange Blossom Madeleines

Recipe from Chocolate by Maxine Clark.

update: the cocoa powder delivered a wonderful smell and fragrance, however overwhelmed the orange blossom flavours. It was also on the dry side, I think I over baked these batch.

Hong Kong - Mango Mochi

Tried this in Hong Kong, absolutely yummilicious! The mochi has a firm bite and the dessicated coconut compliments the sweet mango filling within.

Simply loved the prints on the back of the carrier. :)

Hong Kong buys

An array of teas from Hong Kong. Found some adorable shell moulds from Shanghai Street too! *beam*

New Toys

I got these gadgets from Daiso awhile back and did not get to photographing them till now. :)

Cheddar Cheese Cupcakes

It almost slipped my mind we're celebrating my bro's birthday in advance. I got into action asap when I got home and made him these cheddar cheese cakes since I have all ingredients on hand. I'm glad he liked it. :) Texture of cake was light and soft, however I'll reduce the amount of cheese the next time I make these. Mum found them too salty too.

Happy Birthday Bro!