Baking Project

Earlier on I had given a recipe for cupcake, the ingredient was :

The cupcakes made using this recipe is really delicious, it’s moist and had a full butter flavour. However, there are times when I made this recipe, I encountered problems with the cupcakes not sticking to the cupcake paper/ liners. This is quite frustrating sometimes. The cupcakes came out nice and fluffy, but after it is cool, the papers start slipping off. I have tried to reduce the butter content and the oven temperature, but I still get this problem now and again. 

So, today I tried a different recipe. I got this from Wilton’s website. It’s a basic yellow cupcake recipe.

• 3 cups sifted cake flour ( I use all purpose)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 Pure Vanilla Extract (vanilla essence also can..)
  
• 1 1/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease bottom of two 8-inch round cake pans and line with waxed paper or parchment paper.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. Cream sugar and butter together until light.
5. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed.
6. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.
7. Continue beating one minute.
8. Pour into prepared pan.
9. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
10. Cool 10 minutes in pan on rack; remove and cool completely before decorating.

The cupcakes do rise a bit, so I only put about 3/4 full coz I didn’t want a high dome shape. I’m happy with the results. The colour is slightly pale due to the low butter content. I must admit it doesn’t taste as rich and moist as my first recipe. But if you are making a big batch, this recipe is really reliable. The cupcake liners doesn’t come off easily and the texture is quite firm (doesn’t shrink once it is cooled). Perfect for decorating. Since I’m baking a lot of cupcakes for my classes, I think I will stick to this recipe from now on.

Anyway, if you have any tips on baking cupcakes, I would love to hear from you. I bought an electric oven recently, and am still in a trial and error mode, to figure out the right temperature and so on. I find that baking cupcakes in the electric oven takes longer than my gas oven. I wish I had bought a gas oven instead . I guess both have its pro and cons.

I’m off to Sungai Petani tomorrow, that’s like a 4 to 5 hours drive from KL… will be there until this Thursday, to accompany my hubby on his outstation duties. I will miss my cake decorating but I’m really looking forward to having the Mee Udang at Sg. Dua ! Dieting to see my students on Friday the 6th.

Glace icing is the simplest form of icing. Very handy if you don’t have enough time to decorate your cake or cupcakes. I made some cupcakes yesterday and decorated it with glace icing. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

2 to 3 tablespoon of warm water or fruit juice

food colouring

Method : Sift the icing sugar. Use a wooden spoon, add the warm water and stir until the icing is smooth. The consistency should be similar to that of a whip cream. Or it should coat the back of your spoon. Add the colouring and it’s ready to use. This recipe is enough to cover an 8 inch round cake or for 24 cupcakes.

However take note that glace icing will harden quickly, so you have to work fast. I also find that my cupcake doesn’t look very nice the day after. Some of the icing started to crack. So it’s best eaten on the same day. There’s a few variety, you can add coffee powder, cocoa or fruit juice to flavour the glace icing, in place of the water.

All beginners should try this icing. A no-fail recipe !

I must admit that not many people know about fondant here. When I’m chatting with my aunties, they keep saying fondant is marzipan. I guess I’ve also had the misconception earlier on. I’ve read about marzipan, but never tried it before. So, for my hubby’s birthday party today, I made a fruit cake and covered it with marzipan followed by a layer of fondant.
Marzipan is usually use to prevent the loss of moisture in cakes. It also provides a smooth under-coat for the top layer which can be fondant or royal icing. Here’s the recipe for the marzipan. Mine turned out ok, only thing the almond is still showing, not as smooth as I wanted.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups ground almond

1 cup icing sugar

1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 drops almond essence

1 egg, beaten
Method

Mix the ground almond, icing and caster sugar. Add the lemon juice and almond essence. Lastly slowly pour in the beaten egg until the dough will just stick together. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth. I use my mixer with the dough hook to make my marzipan. This recipe makes about 450 gm or 1 lb. Enough to cover a 7 inch round or 6 inch square cake.

Some illustrations. Covering with marzipan after brushing the cake with warm apricot glaze:

I use my fondant smoother to smooth the surface.

The right way is to let the marzipan dry for a few days. Then apply the fondant, but since this is a last minute job I went ahead and decorated the whole cake.

My hubby always comes home from work and then sleep on the sofa like this. Tv set is sagging, I should have used gum paste or something stronger

At least he’s happy with his cake..happy birthday hubby@my faithful cameraman, as the saying goes “life begins at 40″.

Cheers,