Birthday Month Cakes - Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes, Halloween Carrot Cupcakes & Wheat Free Sponge Cake

October is always my favourite month. It always seems too long to arrive every year and that makes me even more excited when it finally comes. This is all because I was born in October and I always felt loved throughout the month. I feel happy easily this month and I always try my best to make myself happier! I used to spoil myself with some new clothes, books from my favourite authors, CDs etc using the only excuse - it is my BIRTHDAY! This year I have decided to make myself one cake a week, just wanted to celebrate from the beginning until the end of the month! Woohoo!!! XD

Well I am not a professional home baker, I just find recipes online and try my best to follow the instructions and wished that the cakes turn out nice and lovely. I have made 3 cake in total because I had a date with my friends on the last weekend which I have baked some cookies instead. Happy enough because the cakes were all successfully baked I would say and I really like some of them. 

Birthday Month Cake No. 1 - Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I used the browneyedbaker's recipe for the cupcakes. The ganache in the middle of the cupcakes gives a little surprise. The cake is so moist and rich. I love that to the bits! I changed the frosting to peanut butter because I do not like it chocolatey from head to toe. Used this recipe from the browneyedbaker too and it was amazing. Both the cupcakes and the frosting just complemented each other beautifully and I swear this is the best cupcake recipe I have ever made. I will definitely bake the cupcakes again because I love how heavenly the gooey ganache work together with the cupcakes. Yum...

Note:

•  I filled the cupcake liners 70% full and added half tablespoon of the ganache in the middle. The ganache flowed everywhere when the cupcake raised during the baking. Should just fill up to about 60% next time. 
• I used 120ml of whipping cream instead of 80ml as stated in the recipe and it resulted a soft frosting. Should just stick to the recipe for firmer frosting in the future. 

Birthday Month Cake No. 2 - Halloween Carrot Cupcakes

I have never made carrot cake before although I have been always wanted to make this because my husband is a big fan of carrot cake. He always remember the carrot cakes that his colleagues bought him during the cake days when was working in the United Kingdom. I found this recipe from dailydelicious and decided to give it a go because not much spices was used. I liked it less spicy. 

This is one of the easiest cakes I have come across and it tasted fantastic! Absolutely love the moist and spongy texture, full of carrots and not too spicy. It is delicious on its own but the frosting taste great too! I reduced the sugar in the frosting which caused the runny (but not watery) texture which is not usually found on carrot cakes but it works perfectly for me because I wanted to decorate the cupcakes using piping bag and tip. I decided to decorate my carrot cupcakes with Halloween theme because Halloween is around the corner! My playful husband helped out with some spider and spider webs decoration and made a pumpkin face too! He loves the cupcakes too! That gives a great courage in my baking ^^

Note: 

• The cake taste great on its own, may try to make it in normal cake size next time.
• Reduced the icing sugar to 100g makes slightly runny frosting, stick to 130g for firmer icing.

I made the mummies, 'casper' and the blood drops decorations ^^

Birthday Month Cake No. 3 - Wheat Free Sponge Cake

We have planned an all day out on my birthday (Sunday) so I decided to make an easy cake on my birthday eve. Seen some bloggers posted this cake lately and was really curious how the cake would really taste like with only 3 ingredients used! I could not believe my eyes when I saw the recipe, all you need to make this cake are eggs, sugar and corn flour. The key would be the beating time as you need to beat in as many air as possible to raise the cake in the baking. Luckily the cake raised nicely and you have to be patient to let the cake cool completely after taking it out from the oven. The once looked dry and firm surface will turn into a completely different surface when the cake is cool. 

A very soft cake indeed with very simple flavour made of eggs and sugar but a little too dry. However it is a less sinful cake as it is almost oil free (only used some oil to grease the baking tin). It goes really well with a cup of hot drink like tea, coffee or hot chocolate. We tried it with some fruit jam and it tasted lovely. The recipe I used is here.

Note:

• Very dry texture.

I had an amazing birthday dating with my beloved husband for lunch, movie (watched the Inferno starred by Louis Koo was amazing!), and shopping! Rushed home to have a simple dinner with my family as well and that ended our eventful day. 

It is nearly the end of October now. We were out seeing my girl friends and their husbands yesterday (27th October 2013) and done loads of catch ups because we have not seen each other for ages! Spent half a day at Bangsar Shoping Centre, a nice and relaxing mall indeed and seen kids in their halloween costumes bringing their pumpkin buckets walking around the mall asking for sweets (not sure if they said "trick or treat" though lol) from shop to shop. The kids were lovely in their costumes, we saw a cute little snow white, little pumpkin, princess Jasmine, Dark Vader, Minions (!!!) and a scary scarecrow! Love the kids and enjoyed seeing them having fun in collecting sweets from the shops. Met another old friend in the evening and had dinner at Marche, The Curve. Not bad an experience and tried the unusual Rosti. The catch ups were much memorable though. 

Wishing it will be a smooth year ahead and shall wait for aaaages again until the next October arrives! 

Breakfast Cups (with Traditional Hainanese Bread)

English breakfast moment is the happiest moment in the weekends as a beautiful comfort for the efforts we have made for the week. We used to visit one of our favourite local breakfast bar in the weekends when we were in Hendon (London). A plateful of our choices of sausages, ham, bacon, mushrooms, baked tomatoes, eggs, toasts and most importantly baked beans with a cup of nice coffee brings to the highest satisfactory. There are many other choices like poached eggs, black puddings, hash browns and etc but we always order the IDEAL SET in our minds. 

I make English breakfast for us once in a while now because we cannot find good breakfast at local restaurants and we cannot be bothered to spend too much eating proper ones at posh restaurants. We can choose our favourite ingredients making at home and it is so easy! 

I saw a breakfast cups recipe one day and that inspired me to make some in the weekend. I used the traditional Hainanese white bread I bought from the supermarket, sausage slices and mushrooms in the cup and topped with an egg. The toasts are so crunchy and the best moment is that when your knife breaks the egg yolk and it slowly immerse into the mushrooms, sausage and toasts. Trust me, that was incredible! It is a great idea if you are an egg lover like my brother, none of the egg yolk is going to be wasted as it sticks on the plate like served traditionally. Everything will be in your tummy peacefully ^^

There are a few versions of breakfast cups recipes but I like mine the most because there is not any wastage like excessive toast crusts. The toast is so crunchy and it goes really well with the baked beans and ketchup! If you want to make this using square bread you can refer to The Baking Biatch's recipe or if you want a fancy breakfast cup here is an idea by Felicia. Lets make some this weekend and have fun!

Tools:
 3 Ramekins

Ingredients: (makes 3 cups)

4 slices of Hainanese bread (white)

1 Sausage (I used frankfurter, sliced)

8 Button mushrooms/ closed cup mushrooms (diced)

3 Eggs

1 tsp vegetable oil 

Some fresh parseley (chopped) or dried parseley

salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Lightly oil the ramekins. 

2. Heat a pan and add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Fry the sausage slices until lightly golden. Remove sausages from pan and set aside.
3. Use the remaining oil in the pan to cook the mushrooms at medium low heat until soft and brown. Season with some salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Press a slice of bread into the ramekin at the center to fit the base and form a well in the middle.

5. Cut 1/3 of another slice of bread and cut into 2 equal square. Insert the squares into the gaps  between the bread. Do not press too hard as you want it to be nice and crunchy after baking.

6. Divide the sausages into 3 portions and add into toast cups accordingly. Divide also the mushrooms into 3 portions and add them on top of the sausages. 
7. Crack one egg onto the mushrooms  in each cup. 
8. Send the ramekins into the oven and bake at 180°C for 12 minutes, lower the heat to 100°C and continue baking for 4-5 minutes until the transparent egg whites become white and the surface of the egg yolks are less wobbly. 

9. Remove from the oven and sprinkle some salt, pepper and parseley on top of the eggs. Serve hot with baked beans and ketchup to personal taste. 

Tips:

• Different ovens have slightly difference in temperature so keep an eye on the breakfast cups when they are in the oven to prevent the toasts from getting burnt or eggs over cooked. 

Halloween Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

Halloween has just passed and I hope everyone has enjoyed their Halloween parties with their coolest costumes and had loads of sweets.

I still remember how much kids in the UK like Halloween and they always seems cannot wait until the day is arrived. They come in a bunch in the evening (you know the day gets dark fairly early in the end of October in the UK) knock on your doors and you better have some sweets prepared for the 'Trick or Treat''. If you are lucky like me and my house mates in London, we met some really cute kids, some in their costumes and some with masks. They said thank you and continue their Trick or Treat happily to the neighbours after receiving your sweets. If you are unfortunate like one of my friends who lived in a rough area in Liverpool when he was still a student, kids knocked on the door and he greeted them with some Snickers chocolate bars. You would not expected this, the kids said they want a fiver instead (a five pound note). My friend just shut the door and went back to his room. The next day morning when he come out of the house, his door has a few cracked eggs on it and left a mess in the entrance lol

Well there is not much Halloween atmosphere in Malaysia especially in my family. However I wanted to spice up our lives sometimes and wish to bring back some UK memories to my husband and me, I decided to make a Halloween cake. I started to google for recipes and I found these fun and easy recipes on www.joyofbaking.com. I am not baking expert but I really like the texture of this cake and the soft and indulgent chocolate frosting.

Meringue Ghost Recipe

Makes 30-35 Mini Meringue Ghosts

Ingredients:

2 large egg whites 

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

100g caster sugar

1/4tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat over to 100°C. Line baking paper on a baking tray. 

2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites on low and then medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar in and continue the beating until the egg whites forms soft peaks.

3. Add the sugar into the egg whites a little at a time (at least 3 times) and beat until the mixture becomes very shiny, fluffy and holds very stiff peaks.

4. Add in the vanilla extract and fold together using spatula until well combined.

5. Get a piping bag with 7/16" (about 1cm) plain round piping tip and fill all the meringue mixture into it. If you do not have those you can use a large freezer bag like me after filling all the meringue mixture into the bag, cut one of the bottom corner into about 1cm diameter.  (If you do not have a large enough freezer bag then use the one you have and refill it until finish, no big deal on that ^^). Try your best to press the filling down towards  the bottom and make sure there is no air in there. Twist the bag to compact the filling.  

6. Hold the bag straight, pipe the meringue onto the baking paper. Hold the same position until you are satisfied with the size of the base (I made a roughly 3cm base), lightly pull back a little and continue piping on top of the base, make a slightly smaller hill and pull back a little and continue piping until you form a 3-4cm high mound. Stop pressing the filling and pull off lightly to for a tail light 'Ghost hair' ^^.

7. Bake the meringues for 70-100 minutes until they are dry and crispy. Simply touch it with your fingers, if they are still sticky, you need to put it back to the oven and continue baking.

8. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the oven. Leave the door open ajar to let the meringues finish drying for several hours or overnight. 

Ghost Eyes Recipe

Ingredients:

1tbsp plain flour

2tbsp water

some colouring powder (I used yellow and red)

1. Mix all the ingredients well in a bowl and and transfer half of the mixture into a separate bowl.

2. Add some colouring powder into each bowl of mixture, adjust the colour to your preference (basically just a little pinch of colouring is enough as the colour will turn darker when it is cooked).

3. Heat a non-stick pan at medium heat, no oil needed, add in a spoonful of each colour of batter and cook until it sets. Do not flip over. Remove the pancake from heat and let cool to room temperature.

4. Cut the eyes using straw and poke it out using toothpick or skewer.

5. Melt a small piece of cooking chocolate over a pot of simmering water.

6. Apply some melted chocolate onto the 'eyes' using toothpick to form eye balls.

7. Using a tweezer or toothpick, apply a little bit of the chocolate onto the meringue and stick the eyes onto it.Done! ^^

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake Recipe
8inch mould

Ingredients:

4 large eggs

200ml vegetable oil

1tsp vanilla extract

300g caster sugar

350g mashed pumpkin/canned pumpkin purée

220g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1/4tsp baking soda

1/4tsp salt

1tsp ground cinnamon

200g chocolate chips

1. Skin and seed the fresh pumpkin if you are not using canned pumpkin. Cut into small chunks and steam for 30-35 minutes. Remove from heat and remove excessive water. Mash the pumpkin with potato masher and let cool to room temperature.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease an 8" tin.

3. In a large mixing bowl, add in eggs, oil, vanilla extract, sugar and beat until combined.

4. Add the mashed pumpkin into the mixture and beat until everything combined.

5. In a separate bowl, add in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices and stir to mix well using a fork or whisk.

6. Sieve the in the flour mixture into the pumpkin batter and beat until combined.

7. Add chocolate chips into the batter and stir to mix well.

8. Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake for 60-65 minutes. Remove from oven and insert a skewer into the cake and pull out. If the skewer comes out clean the cake is cooked. If it comes out wet, place the cake back into the oven and continue baking for about 10 minutes.

9. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and let cool to room temperature (this may take a few hours).

Chocolate Glaze Recipe

Ingredients:

160g semi sweet chocolate 

40g unsalted butter

11/2 tbsp light corn syrup

1. Chop the chocolate into pieces and add into a stainless steel bowl. Add butter and syrup into  the bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate all melted and the mixture is well combined.

2. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

3. Pour the glaze over the cooled pumpkin cake. Use a mixing spatula or an icing spatula (if you have it) spread the glaze around the top of the cake and let it flow down the sides from edges.

Pumpkin Lamp Recipe

Ingredients:

100-120g sweet potato (orange fleshed)

10g unsalted butter

2tsp sugar

a pinch of salt

6-10 chocholate chips

1tbsp melted chocolate

1. Skin and dice the sweet potato, steam for 35-40 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and mash using a potato mash until the texture becomes soft and fluffy.

3. Add in butter and a pinch of salt, mix well before it cools down.

4. Let cool to room temperature.

5. Wet your palms and get some mashed potato, shape into little balls and press it lightly with your thumbs and forefingers. 

6. Repeat step 5 until the number of the pumpkin lamps reached. (you can eat the left over mashed potato, it is yummy ^^)

7. Draw cheeky or spooky pumpkin faces on the potato balls with melted chocolate using toothpick. Be careful do not press too hard you might scratch the 'face' lol

8. Place a chocolate chip on top of each potato ball to form the pumpkin stems.

Now you have everything ready and all you need to do is to arrange the meringue ghosts and pumpkin lamps on the cake to your preference. Lightly press the items onto the frosted cake to make sure it will not slide away and you are done. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour to let the frosting set and here you go a lovely cake is ready for the Halloween party! ^^ Me and my husband had loads of fun in making the meringue ghosts and drawing the pumpkin faces. He took so many nice pictures during the process too. We had a lovely Halloween and hope you guys enjoy it too ^^