coffee cupcake.

June 29th, 2011.

I'm thinking if you already succeded in baking original or vanilla cupcakes, you can make any flavors you want. So today i'm making coffee cupcakes. Using my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe and substitute the vanilla extract with coffee extract and add as much coffee powder as you like. Trust me, your kitchen will smell delicious, like Starbucks LOL.

here are my coffee cupcakes, fresh from the oven. let them cool for a while and i'll decorate them with the coffee butter cream frosting ;)

mom's blueberry birthday cupcakes.

June 23rd, 2011

It's my Mother's birthday today, so why don't i continue my baking practice and make her cupcakes? I really loved Laura Vitale's cupcake recipe, so i decided to make them again and substitute the strawberry preserves with blueberry preserves. You might see there are two chocolate cupcakes. I separate a few portion of the cupcake batch and add cocoa powder. The butter cream icing also being separated, and i add the little portion with cocoa powder. So they become chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing. I'm using red, pink, and blue coloring to decorate them.

Happy Birthday, dearest Ibu :) xoxo

vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting.

June 19th, 2011.

Thanks to Laura Vitale, i have finally got back in the kitchen and did another attempt in making cupcakes. Originally, in Vitale's recipe, the jam that i'm using shouldv'e been a rasperry jam. But it's quite hard to find a rasperry jam and raspberries in Jakarta, so i'm using strawberries instead.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Stick Un-Salted Butter, softened
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Salt
1 1/3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/3 Cup Whole Milk

For the Frosting:
1 Stick of unsalted butter, softened
½ cup strawberry jam
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 16oz box of powdered sugar (or 2 cups)
Fresh strawberries, for garnishing
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake tin with liners and set aside.

2) In a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the eggs and vanilla and cream together until you get a smooth mixture. Add the dry ingredients and with the speed on low mix together and slowly add the milk and just mix everything to combine. DO NOT OVER MIX! Make sure you give everything a good stir with a spatula from the bottom to incorporate any bit that wasn’t mixed.

3) Scoop the batter into your lined cupcake tin, make sure its only filled ¾ of the way up because they will rise. Bake for 20 minutes and let cool for about 45 minutes before frosting.

4) To make the frosting combine together all the frosting ingredients except the fresh raspberries and mix together to combine. Add the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. Top with a few fresh strawberries.

strawberry butter cream mixture

kaastengels.

June 8th, 2011.

One of my favorite cookies is kaastengels. It's a non-sweet cookie, because it is made from cheese and butter. Never in my life would i ever thought that i'll be making kaastengels, because i thought it's difficult to make. But it turns out that kaastengels is one of those cookies that's really easy to make. Try this recipe, and you will get the crunchiest kaastengels ever!

Ingredients:
125 g butter (i'm using salted butter, because i like them salty)
150 g plain flour
100 g edam cheese, finely grated
25 g maizena flour (about 6 teaspoons)
50 g cheddar cheese, grated (for sprinkle)
2 egg yolk for the cookie
1 egg yolk for the spread
1/4 tsp baking powder

Directions:

1. Soften butter and egg yolk until soft. Add grated edam cheese.
2. Sift plain flour, maizena flour, and bakin powder, and then add to egg and butter mixture.
3. Form the dough into desired shapes (round, 3 cm length rectangle, whatever). Spread the top side with egg yolk, and then sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese.
4. Put into the pre-heated oven (about 180 degrees C) and bake 10 - 15 minutes.

they're very crunchy they give me chills! LOL

strawberry polenta tart.

June 2nd, 2011.

I got the recipe from Masterchef Australia season 2, it supposed to be a Frangipane Tart. But since i'm having trouble finding almond meal in Jakarta, so i'm using polenta instead. The result is a bit grainy in your mouth, since polenta is made from cornmeal. I don't know if it's right to cook polenta as a dessert, but i googled and did a little research, they said that polenta is one of the subtitute for almond meal.

You will need ...

flour, for dusting

¼ cup strawberry jam, heated
1 punnet strawberries
whipped cream, to serve

375g plain flour
50g icing sugar
200g butter
1 egg

polenta
125g butter, diced
125g icing sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
125g almond meal (or polenta, as said before)
25ml dark rum

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base of a 18cm loose bottomed tart tin.

Step 2: To make the pastry, add the flour, icing sugar and butter to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg and pulse again until the dough comes together. Wrap in cling wrap, then rest in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Step 3: On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the pastry until 3-4mm thick. (you can freeze the remaining pastry for up to 4 weeks). Line the tart tin with pastry, then rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step 4: For the filling, cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time until incorporated in the mixture. Fold in the polenta and dark rum.

Step 5: Remove the tart tin from the fridge. Brush half of the strawberry jam over the bottom of the tart, then spread the frangipane on top. Scatter over half of the berries, pressing lightly into the mixture. Bake in the oven for 30-35 until golden and cooked through. Remove from the oven and brush lightly with remaining strawberry jam. Serve with whipped cream and remaining berries.