HOW TO MAKE ROYAL ICING CUPCAKE- MY FIRST EXPERIENCE

I'm having a great fun with baking lately. Never that I thought that at this age I'll will be skillful with my hand. First I started with buttercream icing, then fondant and yesterday out of sudden....my hands were itching to start the royal icing. As usual my world of reference is youtube....went through and found one that made a simple and icing royal icing decorations. I baked one batch of vanilla cupcakes and start my journey of ROYAL ICING...Ha...ha just like any other cake decorations..this one is super fun!   I absolutely love all the detail in the decorating!  

I used the basic cupcakes recipe  found on The Joy of Baking's blog.  I've used her royal icing recipe too. So, I have put together a post, for the rest of us who are slowly working up the courage to start cake decorating skills to create some incredibly delectable AND beautiful cakes or cookies.  Trust me, this is going to be a very detailed and step-by-step approach.  Here goes……

For The cupcakes

250g (8oz) unsalted butter, softened

250g (8oz) caster sugar

250g (8oz) self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

4 medium eggs

4 tablespoons milk

Ice-cream scoop (optional)

2 x 12-hole muffin tins, lined with paper cases

These plain cupcakes can be decorated with our perfect cupcake buttercream to create delicious celebration cakes.

Method

Set the oven to 190°C or Gas Mark 5.

Tip the butter into a bowl and beat it until softened.

Add the sugar, flour, salt, eggs and milk and whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Use a traditional-style ice-cream scoop, or spoon, to divide the mixture between all the paper cases.

Place both muffin tins in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then swap over the position of the tins over and bake for a further 3-7 minutes, until both trays of cupcakes are a light golden colour.

Remove the tins from the oven. Leave the cupcakes to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Freezing: The cakes are best eaten on the day that they're baked, but if necessary, once cold, they can be wrapped in freezer bags and frozen for up to 1 month. They will defrost in about 1hour. They can be decorated with the buttercream topping while they are still frozen, which will help to keep them as fresh as possible before serving.

Flavour variations: If you don't want plain cupcakes, then try one of these flavours:

Lemon: Add finely zested rind of 2 lemons to the mixture, and use 4 tablespoons of lemon juice in place of the milk

Chocolate: Use 2 level tablespoons less flour, and add 2 level tablespoons cocoa

Rose: Use 1-2 tablespoon less milk and replace with 1-2 tablespoons rose water

Coffee: Omit the milk and, in its place, use 2 tablespoons instant coffee, dissolved in 4 tablespoons hot water

This is what I use for the Royal Icing

2 egg whites

3 cups of icing sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Large bowl

Handheld mixer with hooks or kitchen mixer with paddle attachment

Cling film

Step 1: 

Combine egg whites and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add some of the sifted icing sugar to the mixture and start the mixer. 

Step 2:

Keep adding icing sugar a little at a time. When the mixture looks like thick whipped cream and makes soft peaks when you push down the hooks/paddle in it, you can use it for piping. 

Step 3:

When you have the soft peak icing, you start to only add 2 tbsp of icing sugar at a time because from now on the icing will get more and more stiff. When you can pull out small stif peaks the icing is ready. Cover the icing with cling film and a lid or wet cloth and store it in the fridge.

Runny icing:

If you want to make runny icing for flooding cookies or making run-outs then take some royal icing (stiff made) into a bowl and start mixing it with water, a few drops at the time. Continue this until the icing it thin and liquid. It should be smoothing out when you lift the spoon. The mixing with the water will most likely cause many air bubbles in the icing, so it is always good to cover up the icing and let it “rest” for 30 min. Then give it a slow stir and you have reduced the amount of air bubbles in your icing.

 Happy Caking!

Here's the video from You Tube that can guide you further

My journey with cupcake royal icing. I made these for my niece and nephew

Entah angin apalah sejak dua menjek ini..dah gila baking dan dah giler menghias kek. Saya sudah cuba butter cream, saya sudah cuba fondant,,,tetapi tiba-tiba semalam tangan ni gatal pula nak cuba royal icing. Seperti biasa rujukan utama saya ialah internet. Nampak satu dalam youtube yang  menunjukkan cara menyediakan royal icing untuk cupcake. Bahan semua ada jadi saya buat. Saya buat cupcake vanilla yang basic dan buat sedikit royal ising ini..wah menarik juga ya. Adunan cupcake saya dapat 18 biji jadi saya bahagi 3 dan buat 3 corak yang berlainan, satu corak Angry Bird..yang saya beli siap angry birdnya..satu matahari pink ku dan satu  lagi Ungu cinta hati ku..ha..ha..kalau kena gaya ni..boleh ambil upah buat barang hantaran. So resipinya semua saya sediakan di sini berserta juga dengan video yang saya muat turun dari youtube. Berpandukan ini sahaja insyallah anda mampu membuatnya.  SELAMAT MENCUBA

Next Post - More About Fondant

BOSTON BROWN BREAD

These dense, moist, delicious low fat breads feature whole grains and natural sweetness. 

This particular brown bread is made with rye, corn, and whole wheat. It tastes great warm, I love while it is warm and serve with cut butter..hemmm...

Boston Brown Bread - Boston Brown Bread is traditionally served with baked beans because the combination of grains and legumes (beans or peas) produces a protein that is as complete as that in any meat but held together with fiber rather than fat.

Brown bread is usually steamed, not baked, in a hot water bath. I used the normal steamer. This bread will take some time to cook. The slow steaming helps soften the corn meal.

INGREDIENTS

200 g self raising flour

25 g bran

150 g rye flour

75 g wholemeal flour

225  g ground corn meal (must be finely ground)

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

200 g raisins

150 ml black treacles

600 ml buttermilk

50 ml fresh milk

METHOD

1 You can either make this in the oven or the stovetop, and you can either make this with a loaf pan or a metal coffee can. If you are using the oven method, preheat the oven to 325° and bring a large pot of water to a boil. If you are using the stovetop method, set the steamer rack inside a tall stockpot and fill the pot with enough water to come 1/3 of the way up the sides of your coffee can. Turn the burner on to medium as you work.

2 Grease a  loaf pan with butter. In a large bowl, mix the all-purpose flour, rye flour, corn meal, baking powder and soda, salt. Add the raisins if using.

3 In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk and vanilla extract if using. Whisk in the molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well with a spoon.

4 Pour the batter into the  loaf pan taking care that the batter not reach higher than 2/3 up the sides of the container.

  

5 Cover the loaf pan tightly with foil.  Steam for 2 1/2 hours.  

Tidak ramai yang mengetahui rati dan tidak ramai yang menyukainya kerana rasanya yang agak masam..kismis, begitu juga tidak ramai yang suka membuatnya kerana roti ini perlu dikukus selama 2 1/2 jam. Walau bagaimanapun roti adalah sihat kerana mengandungi bijirin seperti cornmeal, rye, bran dan whole meal. Kalau di Barat ini amat digemari..biasanya direbus dan dimakan bersama bake bean. Saya lebih suka menyajikan roti ini panas-panas dan makan dengan ketulan yang sejuk...hemmmm sedap.

Next Post - Pandan Chocolate Swirl Cake.

JOCONDE DE COCOA / OPERA CAKE

This classic and elegant French Chocolate Cake or Opera Cake is a work in four acts. There are one layer of almond cake, each soaked in a potent coffee syrup,, one layer flourless chocolate sponge cake and a layer of bittersweet chocolate buttercream and a topping of cocoa powder. Traditionally, the cake is decorated with its name written in glaze across the top and finished with a piece of shimmering gold leaf. It was worth it, because the cake tasted super delicious. 

The flavor combination is absolutely delicious. The layers of different colors make it so pretty to look at. The cake took a long time to make, but I think it's worth it! Give it a try.

The  Yellow Sponge Cake

280 g - whole eggs

210 g - icing sugar

210 g - ground almond

  60 g  - cake flour

190 g - egg white

  35 g - caster sugar

  35 g - melted butter

1. Whisk egg, icing sugar, ground almond till fluffy then add in flour and mix
2. Whisk egg white and sugar till light soft peak then fold into flour mixture

1. Then get some mixture to fold into melted butter
2. Then slowly fold into reminder mixture
3. Bake at 220 C for 8 minutes.

Flourless Chocolate Sponge

240 g egg yolk

100 g caster sugar

425 g egg white

350 g caster sugar

120 g cocoa powder

Whisk egg yolk and sugar till fluffy

Whisk egg white and sugar till soft peak

Fold egg yolk into egg white until well mixed

Then fold in cocoa powder and mix well

Bake at 180 C for 18 - 20 minutes

Coffee Syrup

140 g - warm water

  10 g -  instant coffee powder ( I used nescafe)

    2 g  - gelatine

140 ml -  sugar syrup

 15 ml  - water

Dissolved gelatine with water then dissolved nescafe with warm water and mix together. Then pour in sugar syrup set a side

Sugar Syrup

65 g water

75 g caster sugar

Boil at low heat for 3 minutes

Chocolate Cream

250 g dairy UHT whip cream

100 g egg yolk

    5 g gelatine powder

  30 g water

130 g dark chocolate melted

250 g Rich's chowhip cream

Boil dairy cream to 60 C then pour into eggyolk  and again boil at 80 C

Gradually pour in dissolved gelatine

Pour in melted dark chocolate

Finally mix in whipped chocolate cream

To assemble the cake: 

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.  Place almond cake on the parchment and moisten the layer with coffee syrup. Spread about three-quarters of the coffee buttercream evenly over the cake. (If the chocolate cream is soft, put the cake in the freezer for about 10 minutes before proceeding.)  Spread the chocolate cream over the surface, top with the chocolate sponge cake, moisten, then chill the cake in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Cover the top of the cake with a thin layer of coffee chocolate cream. (This is to smooth the top and ready it for the glaze - so go easy.) Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour or for up to 6 hours; it should be cold when you pour over the glaze. If you're in a hurry, pop the cake into the freezer for about 20 minutes, then continue.

At serving time, sieve coao powder and carefully trim the sides of the cake so the layers revealed.

Keeping: Each element of the cake can be made ahead, as can the assembled cake. The cake can be kept in the refrigerator, away from foods with strong odors, for 1 day, or you can freeze the cake, wrap it airtight once it is frozen, and keep it frozen for 1 month; defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator.

Kek yang popular di Perancis, dan tidak sah jika anda ke Perancis tanpa mencuba kek ini. Menarik tentang kek ini...ia seperti kek lapis, lapisan pertama ada kek sponge badam, dilapiskan dengan kek cocolate sponge tanpa tepung...yang disapukan dengan sirap kopi dan cokolat krim dan diakhiri di atas nya dengan ganache. Untuk kek ini saya tidak membuat ganachenya tetapi cuma menggunakkan cokolat krim yang di tapis dengan serbuk koko. Membuatnya memang renyah tetapi masyallah sungguh sedap. Jonde de Cocoa ini juga dikenali sebagai Kek Opera. Anda dapat meraskan kombinasi rasa, kopi, badam dan cokolat..hemmmmm.

Next Post - Steam Boston Brown Sugar Bread

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIPS MUFFIN

These creamy peanut butter muffins, studded with mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels, will serve as the perfect tea or morning breakfast. It's yummy and easy to prepare.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup reduced-fat creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup milk

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.)  Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375º F. Paper-line or grease 18, 2 1/2 –inch muffin cups.

COMBINE all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, peanut butter and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs and milk; beat until smooth. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture; beat until just blended. Stir in morsels. Spoon batter into prepared cups, filling 3/4 full.

BAKE for 18 to 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centers comes out slightly sticky. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Store in airtight containers.

Peanut Butter dan Cocolat chips adalah satu kombinasi yang menarik. Sedap muffin ni terasa chocolate chips dan peanut butternya. Sesuai dijadikan sajian petang atau breakfast.

Next Post Jonde De Cocoa Cake @ Opera Cake

BEST EVER BAKED DONUTS

I believe most of us love donuts..however in Malaysia..we tend to make the deep frying method more then the baked one, may e this is due to fact that we don't have the donut pan. I got mine from a friend who visited States and personally asked him to get one for me. It's better baked dan deep frying..it's less oily and beautiful. You can do any flavour you like or may be you can get some ideas from BIG APPLE and Dunking Donuts..but I still prefer mine to be simple chocolate flavour with some peanut sprinkles....it is great for tea.

I'm sharing here with you two recipes one with donut pans and the other one without. Both baked donuts recipes are great.

FIRST RECIPE WITH DONUTS PAN

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (100g) all-purpose flour

1/4 - 1/3 cup (50g - 75g) sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 tub (150 gm ) plain yogurt

1 tablespoon canola oil

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Method

In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
Combine the egg, yogurt, oil and lemon juice, mix well.

1. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
2. Coat the tube pans with nonstick cooking sprayand dust with 1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar. (I omit this since I'm using a nonstick pan)
3. Transfer batter into a piping bag and pipe into pan.
4. Pipe the batter till half full so that you will see donut hole when baked. 3/4 full will not be able to see any donut hole when baked.
5. Bake at 200°C for 10 - 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
6. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

 SECOND RECIPE WITHOUT DONUT PAN

1 1/3 cups milk, warmed to 95 to 105 degrees F

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (one package)

1/2 cup turbinado sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

two pinches ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

For Serving

Chocolate Ganache

Peanuts

Place warm milk in a large bowl and, with a wire whisk, whisk in the yeast and sugar until sugar is dissolved.  Set aside for approximately 5 minutes to let it proof.

In the meantime, in a separate small bowl, mush and mix together the eggs and butter.  Pour egg mixture into milk mixture and mix well.

In another large bowl, mix all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, nutmeg, and salt together until well combined.

With large wooden spoon or spatula, begin pouring flour mixture a little at a time into the wet ingredients mixture, folding as you go and combining well each time, before adding in more of the flour mixture.

Keep adding a few tablespoons at a time, repeating step above until dough starts to pull away from side of bowl and is soft and smooth, but still slightly sticky to the touch.  Begin using your hands once dough starts to come together, and knead in bowl until dough is the right consistency.

Important:  Make sure not to over-flour dough.  You may not even use the entire flour mixture; just go by texture and feel.  In other words, if dough is soft, smooth, and slightly sticky, it doesn’t need any more flour – i.e. toss the remaining flour, and you’re good!

Next, transfer dough to a large greased pot with lid, cover, and put in a warm, draft-free place and let rise for about an hour, or until it has doubled in size.

Remove dough from pot onto lightly floured counter.  Punch down dough and with lightly floured rolling-pin; roll out to approximately 1/2-inch thickness.

Using a 2-3 inch circle cookie cutter, dusted with flour, stamp out circles in the dough — i.e. your doughnuts.  Then, with a smaller cookie cutter, also dusted with flour, stamp out the inner circles – i.e. your doughnut holes.

Important:  Make sure that the inner circles are large enough so that when the doughnuts rise again and bake, they won’t fill in those inner holes as they do.

Carefully lift the big circles and remove the inner circles, by “popping” them out with your fingers.

Transfer the doughnuts and holes to a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about an inch of space between them.  Cover the tray lightly with plastic wrap.

Let doughnuts rise a second time, for approximately another 45 minutes, or until almost doubled.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, remove plastic wrap, and bake doughnuts in middle rack until bottoms just barely begin to golden, 8 to 9 minutes.

Important:  Start checking the doughnuts at around 8 minutes.  It’s really important not to overcook them.  They should still be pale on top — just slightly golden — and just barely baked through.

While doughnuts are baking, prepare the spiced sugar and topping fixings.  Combine turbinado sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom in small bowl.  This will be your spiced sugar.  Mix well and set aside.

Baked donuts ini boleh dibuat dengan dua cara...satu dengan menggunakan acuan donuts..untuk resipi ini adunanya adalah lebih kurang adunan kek..ia agak cair...dan resipi yang kedua adalah resipi tanpa menggunakan acuan..resipi kedua caranya adalah lebih kurang sama dengan apa yang selalu kita buat. Saya menggunakan cokolat ganache untuk donut ini dan ditaburkan sekit kacang tanah tumbuk.Untuk flavor toppingnya bolehlah dapat ideanya dari BIG APPLE atau DUNKIN DONUTS...bergantung kepada citaras masing-masing...semua flavour boleh kita buat. Sajian minuman petang yang biasanya menjadi kegemaran aanak-anak kan.

Next Post - Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Muffin

OUTRAGEOUS PECAN BROWNIES

These brownies are truly “outrageous.” They are so fudgy that you can just barely call them a brownie, and that is exactly how I like them.  Moist and chocolatey, they are sinful in the best possible way. Crusty base and nutty top....OMG..really outrageous and irresistible. Recipe adapted from Sifu Jimmy.

For the Base

160 g plain flour

20 g roll oats

110 g brown sugar

170 g butter

1/2 tsp salts

10 g milk powder

1 tsp vanilla essense

Mix all ingredients then press into 7" square baking pan. Press with fork and bake at 180 for 20 minutes

For the Brownies

70 g unsalted butter

190 g dark chocolate  

1 tbsp cocoa powder

2 eggs

70 g brown  sugar

70 g all-purpose flour

pinch of salts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter,  chocolate, cocoa powder over low heat.  Add in brown sugar stir until melt. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs and fold in the flour and salts.

Don’t over-mix. Pour mixture over base.

Sprinkle  with pecan, walnut, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips

Bake for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares.

Peminat Cokolat anda pasti suka brownie ni..lengkap segalanya...dasar yang ranggup brownie yang fudgy dan kaya dengan ras cokolat dan atas yang cukup ranngup dengan wlanut dan pecan. Memang hebat brownie ini..yang terbail pernah saya buat..tekturnya menepati tektur brownie yang sebenar. Kekadang bila kita buat brownie,..brownie akan jadi tektur cake..tetapi yang ini..memang hebat tekturnya. Renyah sedikit kerana perlu membuat basenya tetapi cukup berbaloi.

Next Post - Best Ever Baked Donut