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.
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| 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!
