EASY PEASY BASIC MUFFIN RECIPE

INTRODUCTION

I am a bit embarrassing to issue this post as my blueberry sunk to the bottom of the cupcake and I do know exactly what is the cause of it. As I want to maintain the moisture of the cake, my batter was rather wet and hence can’t hold the blueberry properly. In addition, as I am using dried blueberries, that make it even worst.

Out of my surprise,  when I posted in some Facebook Groups, the response was very encouraging. Members were requesting for recipes and obviously, they do not care much about the sunken blueberry but the basic recipe..

Yes, this is a very basic simple, fast and easy peasy recipe.. It needs only 2 eggs to prepare 9 small cupcakes size muffins and it took me only 45 minutes to get everything done. Ingredients are simplest and most basic possible. Facebook Group members have commented that they need this type of simple down to earth recipe as time is precious. In addition,  it is just a nice bake for a small family. After long consideration, I have decided to share the recipe and readers can easily adjust to suit their own taste.

If the readers wanted the blueberries to stay put on top of the muffins, it is recommended to use freshly mashed blueberries and will have to add another 50 grams of plain flour  but it will become less moist as compared to the version in the illustration.

The ingredients are eggs, cooking oil, milk, sugar and self raising flour. I have purposely selected cooking oil for illustration because I wanted to cut short the timing of preparation. It will be much faster if I can just use the cooking oil in the kitchen. In fact, the flavour prepared using cooking oil is different from those made from melted butters. Each have its own uniqueness.. As cooking oil is quite flavourless, therefore, the plain muffins will be full of egg aroma…resembling some type of traditional cakes sold in the bakery.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings :  About 9 cupcakes size muffins

• 2 eggs
• 120 grams of self raising flour (170 grams with fruits, chocolate chips etc.)
• 100 grams of cooking oil or melted butter
• 100 grams of milk
• 100 grams of sugar
• 100 grams of blueberry or other dried fruits (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda – not in picture
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence (optional)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Preheat the oven to 175 degree Celsius.

• In a big mixing bowl, crack eggs, put oil, milk and sugar. Use a hand whisk to whisk until well combined. Add in vanilla essence and sift in self raising flour. Use a hand whisk to whisk until well combined.

• Add in blueberry, if preferred. Transfer to the muffin tins  （at least 90% full) and bake in the pre-heated oven at 175 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

SPECIAL NOTES

• The batter is rather watery, therefore, if you want plain muffin, you can follow this recipe. If you want to add in chocolate chips or dried fruits such as blueberry, raisins and etc., you have to add at least additional 50 grams of self raising flour. It will be slightly drier than this illustration but still delicious with a cup of coffee. If fresh blueberries were used, it have to be mashed .

• You can always adding 2 tablespoons cocoa powder or 1 tablespoon of coffee paste or other essences (such as strawberry essences) and etc. transform it into chocolate muffin, coffee muffins and etc..

• You can easily adjust the recipe. To add an additional egg, just add 60 grams of self raising flour and 50 grams each of sugar, milk and cooking oil. One egg should yield additional 5 cupcake sized muffins.

• Depending on your liking, I have used cooking oil for this illustration as it coincides with the purpose of time saving for busy house chefs. Feel free to change it to melted butter, vegetable shortening or even margarine if desired.

• If you don’t have milk, just substitute with plain water. To make it moister, whipping cream can be used to substitute.

• For it to rise beautifully, you should have your cups at least 90% full so that the batter all rose to the height of the cup and all the other uncooked batters were pushed to the centre for it to get cooked..

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CONCLUSION

The purpose of this post is to share with readers the very basic muffin recipe. I encourage readers to change to suit your taste buds. This is very easy and a very fast way of preparation and may be you can consider trying it.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 10th February 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .  

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Back To Basics–Modified Traditional Butter Pound Cake

 

INTRODUCTION

This is not my first post on pound cake or butter cake, but this is the modified version of my one number baking ratio pound cake issued a few month’s back. (Basic Pound Cake). You can refer to the post to see the waves of dramatic discussions in that post. I found that I did not do justice to this recipe. I am preparing the cake based on the traditional recipe but with the inclusion of one portion of milk, the cake was moist and soft. I do not plan to elaborate further on the history of this cake and if readers are interested in how I come out with this recipe, please refer to the recipe link above.

It is not uncommon to hear complaints from elders that the butter cake in recent days are not as aromatic as the olden days. I do concur as I found that the current butter do lack of some traditional buttery aroma. Therefore, in this recipe, I have modified to include the use of a clarified butter (ghee) to boost the butter aroma.

Since one of my Facebook friend is requesting for a butter cake recipe that have no baking powder, I have used plain flour instead of self raising flour. However, I still used 1/2 small teaspoon of baking powder and the cake rose rather well. I seriously believed that even if I do not use baking powder, the number of eggs will be adequate for the cake to rise on itself. To have an even finer butter cake texture, I have resorted to the use of icing sugar instead of castor sugar. Yes, the cake is even finer.

Overall I am rather happy with the cake aroma and texture but  i am unhappy with the “holes” on my cake. I am unsure how the holes come about but I believed it is due to the uneven mix of my baking powder during the sifting of flours.  Hope readers can bear with me with these small holes . it never appeared in all my previous bakes as you can see in my earlier posts.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 8” square cake

• 150 grams of butter, soften at room temperature
• 100 grams of ghee (or butter)
• 250 grams of eggs
• 250 grams of plain flour
• 250 grams of icing sugar or castor sugar (divide into 100grams and 150 grams respectively)
• 250 grams of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Note that you can either use whole eggs or eggs by grams (meaning 250 grams). I  have used 6 whole eggs which worked out to be 300 grams, any excess eggs will be deducted from the milk volume, and my milk volume was 250 grams of milk  minus (300-250) grams of excess eggs used = 200 grams of actual milk used. Instead of using 250grams egg, 250grams milk, I am using 300grams eggs and 200 grams milk. I prefer to use whole eggs since it is rather difficult to measure the eggs exactly, therefore, I reduced it from my milk volume.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius

• Lightly grease an 8” x 8” baking tin preferably with a detachable base.

• In a big mixing bowl, place your egg whites and beat using the machine whisk to whisk the egg whites until firm peak. Note that the bowl have to be extremely clean, dry and free of any oils.

• When the volume expands, add in the sugar (100g) gradually, beat until thick and glossy and until all the sugars dissolved. Spoon the filling into a clean bowl and set aside for later use.

• Change your whisk to a K beater (look at the second picture for the shape). Place your remaining 150 g sugar,ghee and butter, beat until light and creamy.Add in the vanilla essence and eggs yolks and use slow speed to “mix” until well mixed. Eggs yolk should be added one by one and scrap the bottom of the bowl to ensure no unmixed egg yolk settled at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

 

• Shift the flour into the mixing bowl, use the machine lowest speed to stir until well mix. Add in milk gradually until all milk were added. Take out the mixing bowl.

• Fold in the egg whites as swiftly and lightly possible until all the ingredients are well mixed.

• Transfer the batter into the baking tin and baked at 180 degree Celsius from the first 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 165 degree Celsius and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the top turn yellowish brown and until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Note that this cake is moist and rather dense, hence, it is important to ensure that the cake is cooked. If it is not cooked, just extend the cooking hour and reduce the temperature by 10 degrees switching off the top heat.

• Transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for at least 1 hour before cutting the cake. It is best to let it rest overnight if time permits.

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CONCLUSION

This a simple butter cake modified from the traditional pound cake theory. It will be a good choice if it was served during Christmas House gathering. Is it not good to revert to having some simple, traditional cakes during Christmas. Do give it a try. Characteristic of this butter cake is soft, moist and fragrant and please let me know whether or not if you like it. I would appreciate your comments.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

I am submitting this to the “Baby Sumo’s Christmas Recipes Collection 2013“ event which is hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out.

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Simple and Easy Bake–Passion Fruit Yoghurt Butter Cake

INTRODUCTION

This was not a difficult bake at all. It is very easy and the results were very satisfactory.

I was introduced to passion fruits only very recently, possibly less than 5 years. I remembered the first time I had my passion fruits, it was very sour, so sour that sent a shiver down my body. Since then, I seldom buy passion fruits. It is not until last year that my girl told me that she wanted to try passion fruits.  Sensing that since the fruits were very sour, it was very likely that she will like it. Therefore, I have to mix it with something sweet to let her try the flavour and texture. I am thinking of adding the fruits to ice creams, making into fruit juices or mixing with yoghurt. Subsequently, I have decided to mix with plain yoghurt and that was the right choice. The sour passion fruits blends extremely well with the sweet yoghurt and since then, passion fruits yoghurt is always my top choice of dessert.. or when I am craving for something cold and refreshing.

Using yoghurt in baking cakes is nothing new and it always enhance the textures of the cakes. Prior to making this cake, I am unsure what will happen to the aroma of the cake since both passion fruits and butter have very strong and nice fragrance. The conclusion is: Passion fruits fragrance is stronger than the butter aroma but the aftertaste of the cake remained to be buttery in the mouth.. The cake was moist and in this piece of sweet butter cake, there are tinges of sourness that make the cake very refreshing.. It was really worth the try..and I am extremely please to share this recipe without any hesitation to those who wanted to have a change from the traditional butter cake.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius and lightly greased a 8” x 8” baking tin. You can also line with parchment paper.

• 250 grams of butter
• 250 grams of eggs
• 250 grams of self raising flour, sift
• 250 grams of sugar
• 150 grams of passion fruits (use the scissor to slightly cut the membrane in between)
• 100 grams of plain yoghurt
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda (optional)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• In an egg beater machine, place sugar and butter. Beat until the butter are light and pale. Add in eggs one by one, use the machine to “beat” at the lowest speed (note: it is not actually beat, the machine is performing the role of mixing the ingredients). Add in passion fruits and followed by yoghurt. Sift in 1/3 of the self raising flour and use the machine to mix well at the lowest speed. Continue with the remaining 2/3 until all the flour are mixed.

• Take out the whisking bowl and use a spatula to scrap the sides and bottom and ensure all flours are well mixed. Spoon the batter in the lightly greased baking tin (8” x 8”). Level and bake at 180 degree Celsius for the first 20 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 165 degrees Celsius and continue to bake for another 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. If you want to use the cup cakes cup, bake at 180 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes of until a skewer comes out clean.

For purposes of this illustration, I have used a long loaf tin which is totally not necessary. My timing for this loaf is about 30 minutes.

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CONCLUSION

This is a simple bake yet I am really pleased with my results. What make it unique is the passion fruit aroma of the cake. In addition, it is sweet and slightly sour. It is refreshing and moist. It is definitely worth a try and if you are looking for a change. Hope you like the recipe today and have a nice day. Cheers.

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For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .

 

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Luxurious Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sauce–One Baking Ratio Number Adventure (12)

INTRODUCTION

I have to admit that I am rather poor in cake decoration. When I prepared the chocolate sauce for the cake, the whole kitchen was in a mess. During photo taking sessions, that was another disaster.. The chocolate sauces stained my phone, my plates, my cloths …… I gave up. What a consolation statement when one of my friends told me, chocolate is supposed to be messy anyway, what is more important is the taste of the cake. For taste, I am very confident that I wouldn’t disappoint reader with this easy to do and moist chocolate cake..

The cake uses 500 grams of sweeten dark chocolate (including 250 grams for making of the chocolate sauce) and I would say, it is designed for the hard-core chocolate addict.. It is extremely easy to prepare, just mix and bake and was prepared using “one number baking ratio”. In order to maintain the moisture of the cake, I have opted to use steamed bake method, meaning putting the baking tin in a pool of hot water. The steam will help to conserve the moisture of the cake. However, this step is optional. Don’t be shocked by the watery batter, it will turn out well as long as you bake it according to the prescribed time and temperature.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

• 250 grams of melted butter
• 250 grams of eggs (about 5 eggs) – lightly beaten
• 250 grams of sweet dark cooking chocolate –melted
• 250 grams of white castor sugar
• 250 grams of milk
• 250 grams of self raising flour
• 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda (optional)

For chocolate sauce

• 250 grams of sweet dark cooking chocolate – melted
• 250 grams of normal cream or double cream

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Put a baking tray and put 2-3 cups of water in the baking tray.

• Lightly grease a 8” x 8” baking tin or line the baking tin with some baking paper.

• Melt butter in the microwave using medium to high heat (about 1 minute). Melt the chocolate in the microwave using medium heat. This will take about 2-3 minutes. However, stir the chocolate in a minute interval to ensure all the chocolates have melt.

• Put all ingredients into a machine whisking bowl and whisk until smooth. Once smooth, transfer the batter to the baking tin. In the illustration, I have put in stages for purposes of photo taking. Don’t be alarmed by the watery batter. For all recipes using one number baking ratio, the batter is usually very wet.

• In a large baking tray, put in 2 cups of water. Place the baking tin in the baking tray. Bake in the oven for 180 degree Celsius  for the first 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 170 degree Celsius and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

• To prepare the chocolate sauce, put equal amount of dark chocolate with equal amount of double cream (I used normal cream) and melt in the microwave using medium heat for 3-4 minutes. In between a minute interval, stir the chocolate and cream and ensure that it is well combined. Note that you have to constantly stir the mixture, otherwise, the chocolate or the cream can be cooked rather fast. As long as the chocolate melts, you can off the microwave. Of course, you can resort to the traditional method of placing the chocolate and cream over a pan of hot boiling water and stir until it melts. In this case, make sure the water vapour should not have a chance of touching the chocolate sauce. Otherwise, the sauce will not be smooth.

• Cut the cake into halves or into 3 layers horizontally. Pour some chocolate sauce evenly on one layer, top by a new layer and follow by some chocolate sauce. Cut into the desired sizes for serving. Before serving, drizzle with additional chocolate sauce.

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CONCLUSION

This is my own recipe without referring to any recipe book. If you looked at the ingredients list, can you see a pattern? There is only one number –  250 grams. Hope you can give it a try! Not confidence that it will work? Okay, try making with 1 egg. Measure your egg and if your egg is 50 grams, then use 50 grams for all the other ingredients and share with me if this is the cake that you are looking for? Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

 

 

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Healthy Vegetables Muffins (健康蔬菜小松饼 （素））

 

UPDATED POST ON 23-11-2014

Have not prepared this for a year and in this attempt, I have transformed the muffin into a savoury muffins and reduce the olive oil used. Please refer to recipe 2 highlighted in red .

If you are not a vegetarian, you can always add in cheeses and bacon or ham.

 

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INTRODUCTION

My post is getting shorter and shorter because my recipe is getting easier and easier. I have a number of muffin/cupcake posts and I am not tired of creating more based on my one number baking ratio theory. The theory is to promote the use of same ratio in the baking of cakes or muffins. It is based on the basic pound cake ratio with some modifications. It is easy to practise and in essence, it is just the manipulation of 4 basic baking ingredients: fats (butter, peanut butter, cooking oil, olive oil), liquids (eggs and milk), flour (wholemeal or plain flour or even semolina flour) and sugar (brown sugar, white sugar, icing sugar and etc.). Because of using this ratio in the baking, the muffins/cupcakes are usually very moist.  If you are interested in my other muffins/cupcakes series, these are the few that you can consider:

• Peanut butter chocolate chips muffins
• Banana cream cheese cupcakes
• Yoghurt marble cupcakes
• Simple carrot muffins

This is a healthier version of muffins. No complicated creaming of butter, folding of flours and etc. It is just a simple mix and bake muffins. In addition, to further testing the “simple” principle behind the theory, I have started with 100 grams of fats and all remaining volumes will be 100 grams. The muffin uses olive oil and the inclusion of some vegetables – mushrooms and broccoli. Is the results satisfactory? Yes, definitely yes. Not only the pattern insides the muffin looks pretty, the taste is awesome as well. 

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: Make 5-6 medium sized muffins

• 100 grams of self raising flour (or wholemeal flour+1/2 teaspoon of baking powder)
• 100 grams of olive oil (or cooking oil or melted butter)
• 100 grams of eggs (about 2 eggs)
• 100 grams of sugars
• Some cauliflower and mushrooms
• 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda

Recipe 2

• 100 grams of self raising flour (or wholemeal flour+1/2 teaspoon of baking powder)
• 50 grams of olive oil (or cooking oil or melted butter)
• 100 grams of eggs (about 2 eggs)
• 10 grams of sugar or any flavour enhancer that your are using now such as mushroom concentrate granules etc..
• 20 grams of fresh milk
• Some cauliflower and mushrooms
• 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda
• Pinches of salt
• Some cheddar cheeses, bacons or hams (if preferred)

 

• Please disregard ‘!!” in the picture as it is my mistake to include in the picture.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparation:

• Lightly grease some muffin tins or get ready 5-6 muffin cups and put in the muffin tins.

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius

• Shift the flour and add in the sugar. Stir until well mix. Make a well in the centre and put in eggs and olive oil. Stir lightly until it is “mix” and slight lumpy is okay for muffins. Filled up 1/3 of the muffins cup with batter, put  one small size broccoli and ensure that it is surrounded by the batter. Continue to fill until the batter is 85% full. Top with additional broccoli and mushrooms.

• Bake in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes or when the skewer inserted comes out clean.

• Note that the shape of your muffins will depend on the positioning of your vegetables. If you put the mushrooms too close to the muffin cups, you will have a funny shape muffins like the above picture. Of course, the taste is still awesome and edible. Try not to put big pieces of broccoli in the centre of the muffin batter as it will hinder the rise of the muffin.

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CONCLUSION

A simple, quick and easy recipe. It can be as healthy as you want it to be. Try to substitute the self raising flour with wholemeal flour and you can get a wholemeal broccoli mushroom muffin. Run out of breakfast tomorrow? Why not making it today as it utilizes mostly common household ingredients. In addition, it is fast and easy.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX

(updated as at 20 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.  

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Banana Cream Cheese Cupcakes–One Number Baking Ratio Adventures No. 10

INTRODUCTION

It is fun and easy to make, you can ask your kids to help out as it is just mix and bake. It is tasty, moist and cheesy. I should have put more cream cheese in it.

The inspiration of this recipe comes  from one of the entries in the FOUR SEASONS BLOG HOP #22 – Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. The blog owner, Ms. Christian had her version of pumpkin cream cheese muffins. In her muffins, she put one tablespoon  of cream cheese in the batter and the muffins looks extremely delish. I commented on her post that since pumpkin prices in Singapore appeared to be unaffected, I will try her recipe by substituting using carrots. She is unsure but she offered alternatives to substitute with sweet potatoes or yams! How kind is she! I wanted to take this opportunities to thank her for her kind advise.

This morning when I woke up, I looked at the whole bunch of bananas “sitting” quietly in my dining table. It was ripe and I did not foresee we were able to finish all within a day. Then it stroke my mind the above recipe. I told myself that I should try to get rid of these overly ripe bananas by making some banana cream cheese muffins/cupcakes utilizing my proposed “one number baking ratio” theory…. and I am glad that the results were very satisfactory as you can see for yourself in the picture.

One number baking ratio basically means that using equal portion of the ingredients to prepare the baked products. If you are interested to read more about my “one number baking ratio” adventures, you can refer to the following posts –Basic Pound Cake, Peanut Butter Muffins, Fruits Dates Cakes, Zebra Patterned Pound Cake, Grapefruit Cognac Pound Cake，Almond Sugee Cake and Yoghurt Marble Cupcakes.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED?

Servings: about: 12 medium muffin size cup cakes

• 250 grams of cooking oil or melted butter (I used half each because I have some melted butter left)

• 250 grams of self raising flours

• 250 grams of castor sugar or brown sugar

• 250 grams of eggs (or if you want to use actual weights of 5 eggs, any excess weights from 250grams will have to be deducted from 100 grams of milk) – see explanation below

• 150 grams of ripe bananas (or if you want to use actual weights of 3 ripe bananas, any excess weights from 100 grams will have to be deducted from 150 grams of milk) – see explanation below

• 100 grams of milk (or subject to excess volume of bananas and eggs)

• 1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate

• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon spice mix (or the spice mix for cakes)

• 1 additional banana for decoration toppings.

Cream Cheese Fillings

• 100 grams of cream cheese, soften

• 50 grams of icing sugar

CACULATION OF ACTUAL MILK VOLUMES USED

My actual eggs volumes used are =5 eggs x 53 grams per egg = 265 grams and my actual banana volumes used are 175 grams. Therefore milk volume = 100 grams – excess egg volumes (265-250) grams – excess banana volumes (175-150)grams = (100-15-25) grams = 60 grams. Therefore my actual usage today is 265 grams of eggs used, 175 grams banana used and 60 grams of milk.

Of course you can just stick to the exact volumes as stated above without performing the above calculations.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparation

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degree Celsius

• Line 12 medium sized muffin tins with muffin cups or slightly greased the muffin tin with butter.

• Lightly beat the cream cheese and sugar using the machine whisk or manual whisk until smooth and not lumpy. Set aside for later use.

• Mesh the bananas using a fork until it is soft and fine.

• Sift the self raising flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder (spice mix) into the big bowl. Add the sugar and make a well in the centre.

• In another bowl, mixed all the liquids ingredients (eggs, meshed bananas, milk, melted butter or cooking oil) together, stir until well mixed.

• Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use the fork or a big spoon to quickly mix the batter. It is okay if there are some lumps in it.

• Scope 2 tablespoons of batter into the muffin cups. Add in one tablespoon of beaten cream cheese. Ensure that the cream cheese does not touch the walls of the muffin cups. Fill in additional batter until it is about 80% full.  Cut 2 thin slices of bananas and placed on top of the batters.

• Baked in the oven for 15-20 minutes or when a skewer inserted the skewer comes out clean. But note that there are melted cream cheese inside the muffins, so it is best that you inserted near the muffin cups.

Note: make sure all the batters have cover the cheese and so that there is no chance for the hot cheese to leak out. Otherwise, it will resulted in an elephant muffin like this.

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CONCLUSION

This is a bake that I will strongly recommend. Easy, fast and tasty. Be it a muffin or a cup cake is up to you to call it though there is a thin line to differentiate a muffin from a cupcake. This bake however felled in both muffins and cup cakes categories. It is a muffin because there is no creaming but a simple mix and bake. It is not a muffin because it’s fat content have reached the cake level and its flour is relatively less than what is usually used in a muffin….Sound confusing, never mind, me too. Since I have to give it a name, I have decided to call it BANANA CREAM CHEESE CUPCAKES. 

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day. For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE.

For Four Seasons Blog Hop where I am the Co-host, please join us for the party where you can get a lot of the family related posts. Please click the above logo to enter your post.

One Number Baking Ratio Adventures (9)–Yoghurt Marble Cup Cake

INTRODUCTION

My wife told me yesterday afternoon that she needed some cupcakes when we visited my relatives last night. I did not have much time to think of  what to bake nor do I have the luxury of ingredients to choose from. Due to these constraints, I have decided to prepare some simple cup cakes that are fast to make and of course delicious. Since I have one cup of yoghurt with me, I have decided to make the YOGHURT MARBLE CUPCAKE.

I did not refer to any cook book when I am preparing the cup cakes. I am preparing based on my proposed one number baking ratio with a slight twist of incorporating one cup of plain yoghurt in place of some milk portion. The results are moist and tasty cup cakes.

One number baking ratio basically means that using equal portion of the ingredients to prepare the cake. If you are interested to read more about my “one number baking ratio” adventures, you can refer to the following posts – Basic Pound Cake, Peanut Butter Muffins, Fruits Dates Cakes,Zebra Patterned Pound Cake and Grapefruit Cognac Pound Cake，Almond Sugee Cake.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: about: 18 – 20 small cup cakes or 8 muffin size cup cakes

• 250 grams of unsalted butter at room temperature

• 250 grams of sugar

• 250 grams of plain flour 

• 250 grams of eggs (use 6 eggs) – separated into egg yolks and egg whites)

• 80 grams of yoghurt (about 1 cup)

• 170 grams of milk or less subject to eggs volume and amount of yoghurt used  (balancing – see calculation below) 

• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon of baking soda (optional)

• 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar (optional)

Note that you can either follow exactly the above recipe or you can follow the following calculation to work out the milk required. This is especially so if you do not want the volume of the eggs fixed at 250grams.

CACULATION OF ACTUAL MILK VOLUMES USED

Yesterday, my actual eggs volumes used are =6 eggs x 55 grams per egg = 330 grams

Therefore milk volume required = Theoretical egg volume (250 grams ) – yoghurt volume (80grams) – excess eggs volume (330 grams – 250 grams) = 250 – 80 – 80 = 90 grams of milk actually used in this illustration. To summarize, this illustration uses 330grams of eggs, 80 grams of yoghurt and 90 grams of milk = 500 grams

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparation

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degree Celsius

• Line 18 small muffin tins with cup cake cups or slightly greased the muffin tin with butter

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Preparing the meringue (Beating of egg whites)

• In a big mixing bowl, place your egg whites, cream of tartar and beat using the machine whisk to whisk the egg whites until soft peak. Note that the bowl have to be extremely clean, dry and free of any oils.

• When the volume expands, add in about 5 tablespoons of sugar gradually, beat until thick and glossy and until all the sugars dissolved (firm peak)  Spoon the filling into a clean bowl and set aside for later use.

• Change your whisk to a K beater. Place your remaining sugar and butter, beat until light and creamy. Add in the vanilla essence and eggs yolks, yoghurt and use slow speed to “mix” until well mixed. Eggs yolk should be added one by one and scrap the bottom of the bowl to ensure no unmixed egg yolk settled at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

• Use a big metal spoon or wooden spoon or a spatula, quickly and swiftly fold in fresh milk and the sifted flours and baking soda. Alternate between fresh milk and sifted flours.

• Once well mixed, fold in the egg white swiftly and lightly until the batter are smooth.

• Separate the batter into two portion. Put the sifted chocolate powder in one bowl and use a metal spoon to stir lightly until well mixed. Stirring action is just like folding of flours and it should be quick and light.

• In the greased muffin tins, start with 2 tablespoons of the beige batter. Add 1 tablespoon of chocolate batter on top of the beige batters. Shake it slightly so that the batter spread over a wider surface. Add another 1 tablespoon of beige batter on top of the chocolate batters follow by 1 teaspoon of chocolate batter on top of the beige batter. Do the same until the muffin cups are 85% filled.

• Baked in the oven for 15-20 minutes or when the skewer inserted comes out clean.  For bigger cup cakes, you may need additional 5 minutes to the baking time.

Note:

• If you want a mushroom shaped muffin, you have to be at least 85% filled so that when it rise, the batter will overflow a bit and stop by the flat surface. This will looked like those sold in bakery shop. Otherwise, just fill 75% full.

• You can always by pass the zebra pattern, you can just have one tablespoon of beige batter followed by another one tablespoon of chocolate batter.

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CONCLUSION

This is definitely not a difficult bake, it is easy and simple. I am just  an old man and long winded to share with readers points I think is necessary for home chef who are new to baking. If you are a baking expert, without looking my long winded procedures, I am sure you will also be able to succeed by using your own procedures. Do try this moist and buttery yoghurt marble cup cake.

Hope you like the post todays and cheers.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE.

Another One Number Baking Ratio Adventures (7).. Sugee Almond Cake

UPDATED POST ON 4-11-2014

I have not bake this cake for almost one year and start to crave for this cake with unique texture.. I told my friends, I loved this cake, not a bit but a lot. It is slightly chewy and it is not as oily as those normal butter cake. I have decided to change my recipe to substitute plain flour with almond flour or almond meal. Therefore, this cake have no plain flour. Depending on the type of semolina flour that you used, if it is a product from buckwheat, this cake can be considered as gluten free.. If the semolina flour is produced from durum wheat, it will not be gluten free.

I also did not use baking powder for this cake, purely leavened by eggs . I love the dense and chewy unique texture. It is a cake good for festivals and you can use this as a festival cake by gradually infusing alcohol to enhance the moistness and flavour.. For kids consumption, I did not do intend to add in any alcoholic drink..

Please scroll down for the new Recipe 2 (without plain flour version).

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INTRODUCTION

In Singapore, usually one package of semolina flour will weigh 500 g and costs less than SGD2 depending on the brands. However, being a Chinese, there are not many cuisines that use semolina flour as the ingredients. I have issued a post of Indian Short Bread Cookies – Nan Khatai that uses semolina flour and ghee, it was quite well received and a number of readers who tried the recipes still have lots of semolina flour left. They are asking what shall they do with the semolina flour? That recipe only called for 50 grams of semolina flour and effectively, they still have 45o grams of semolina flour left in their kitchen shelf. I have promised those readers that I will provide a recipe of SUGEE ALMOND CAKE, a traditional Malaysian Singaporean Eurasian festival cake that also uses semolina flour …

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SUGEE CAKES DEFINED

Rather surprisingly, Sugee cake is included in Wikipedia’s explanation of Singapore’s cuisines, it was written:

“Sugee cake, a soft cake made with semolina flour and a high concentration of egg yolks; served in Eurasian, Malay, and Chinese cuisine.” (Source: Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singaporean_cuisine)

Sugee cake is traditionally treated as a festival cake usually served in Kristang families both as a happy occasion cake (Christmas, birthdays, weddings) and sombre occasion such as funerals.  In fact, it is also a type of cake for the Christmas. Kristang are local Portuguese descendent Eurasians in Singapore and West Malaysia. The popularity of this cake however has extended to other races such as Chinese, Malay and Indian households.

Effectively, this is a type of butter cakes made using semolina flour and large quantity of egg yolks. It had a special texture, a big chewy and unlike cakes that uses the normal flour, it is denser. Though dense, it is easy to down the throat and in fact, both my wife and me have concurred that it is another way of appreciating the butter cake. Chewy, buttery, aromatic and moist.

There are many recipes of sugee cakes in the internet, some called for pan frying the semolina flour or soaking of semolina flour in butter, some called for use of brandy or other fruits alcohol, some used less eggs and some used lot of egg yolks.. However, I have adapted the recipe from http://sg.theasianparent.com/sugee-cake-recipe-award-winning/.

Since this recipe do not vary very much from my proposed “one baking number ratio”, I have made slight modifications so that it conform with my believes of using just one number in preparing the ingredients. If you are interested to read more about my “one number baking ratio” adventures, you can refer to the following posts – Basic Pound Cake, Peanut Butter Muffins, Fruits Dates Cakes, Zebra Patterned Pound Cake and Grapefruit Cognac Pound Cake. 

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RECIPE 1 (PLAIN FOUR VERSION) – please scroll down for recipe 2 (without plain flour version)

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted  from:  AWARD WINNING SUGEE CAKE RECIPE from http;//sg.theasianparent.com

Make an 8’ square baking tin

• 250 grams of semolina flour

• 250 grams of plain flour (sift and set aside)

• 250 grams of castor sugar

• 250 grams of butter (at room temperature)

• 250 grams of eggs (use 6 eggs – see calculation below) – separated into egg yolks and egg whites)

• 250 grams of milk or less subject to eggs volume  (balancing – see calculation below)

• half cups of grounded almond

• 3 teaspoons of baking power (sift together with plain flour and set aside)

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence OR 1-2 teaspoons of brandy or whisky

Calculation of milks required based actual weight of this illustration:

In this illustration, 6 eggs weighed about 318 grams 

Milk volume = 250 g of milk – Excess volume of eggs = 250 g  – (318g – 250g) = 182 g of milk

Alternatively, you can use 6 eggs and 120ml of milk as in the original recipes. This recipe have about 60 g more milk which it moister.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparation

• Pre-heat oven to 150 degree Celsius

• Line a 8” square baking tin with parchment paper

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Preparing the meringue (Beating of egg whites)

• In a big mixing bowl, place your egg whites and beat using the machine whisk to whisk the egg whites until firm peak. Note that the bowl have to be extremely clean, dry and free of any oils.

• When the volume expands, add in about 5 tablespoons of sugar gradually, beat until thick and glossy and until all the sugars dissolved. Spoon the filling into a clean bowl and set aside for later use.

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Preparing the batters and folding of flours

• Change your whisk to a K beater (look at the second picture for the shape). Place your remaining sugar and butter, beat until light and creamy. Add in the vanilla essence and eggs yolks and use slow speed to “mix” until well mixed. Eggs yolk should be added one by one and scrap the bottom of the bowl to ensure no unmixed egg yolk settled at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

• Once well mixed, put 1/3 of plain flours, semolina flours, ground almonds and fresh milk and use the slowest speed to let it “stir” for 2-3 cycles.

• Repeat the same for the remaining two third dry ingredients and milks. Once well mixed, take the mixing bowl out.

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Folding of egg whites

• Once well mixed, use a big spoon or spatula and  fold in the egg white swiftly and lightly until the batter are smooth.

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Baking the Cake

• Bake in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for the first 15 minutes and turn down the temperature to 150 degree Celsius for the remaining 45-60 minutes or when the skewer inserted come out clean. When you note signs of burnt, just use some metal to cover the cake tin.

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Recipe 2 (Without Plain Flour Version)

• 250 grams of melted butter
• 250 grams of semolina flour
• 250 grams of almond meal or almond flour
• 250 grams of castor sugar
• 50 grams of milk (optional)
• 6 eggs (separated into egg white and egg yolks)
• 2-3 teaspoons of brandy or whisky (optional)

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Mixed the semolina flour with the melted butter. Let it soaked for at least 4 hours .

• Pre-heat the oven to 150 degree Celsius.

• In a whisking bowl, whisk the sugar (leave 2 tablespoons for egg white) and egg yolk until light and pale. Add the brandy, milk, soaked semolina flour followed by almond meal. Stir until well combine and resemble a sticky paste.

• Beat the egg white until soft peak with the 2 tablespoons of sugar.

• Fold the egg white to the thick yolk batter in 3 phases. Transfer the batter to a greased 8” inches square tin and bake in the pre-heated oven of 150 degree Celsius for about 45 minutes or when a skewer inserted comes out clean.

• Best serve after resting one night as the cake will start to get moister. If preferred, can further infuse more alcohol and can be used as a festival cake.

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CONCLUSION

As it is a very dense cake (about 1.8 kg), a crack may be inevitable… Some international members have commented that a crack signifies that it is a “cake” with character…. It is such a consolation statement to me. The crack do become smaller after 8 hours of resting. Personally, to me that is rather irrelevant to me since the cake is very tasty. It is moist because semolina can better absorb more liquids and butters than plain flour. It goes well with icing or cream or just plain with  a cup of coffee.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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