Sweet Cupcakes

America is definitely the cupcake nation. I still don't understand what the fuss is all about because given the choice between a chocolate cupcake and a chocolate cake, I'll go with the cake, almost 98% of the time. However, I'm starting to suspect it could be because, since the cupcake is smaller, maybe it's okay not to share it or offer a part of it to whomever is sitting opposite you. And so it is like your very own cake, no need to share!

Anyway, in Boston, the best cupcakes I've ever had has gotta be from Sweet. Here's what we had on Saturday afternoon:

Organic Karat: Moist carrot cake with shredded organic carrots and crushed pineapple topped with classic cream cheese frosting and an edible gold leaf petal

Dark Chocolate: Rich chocolate cake baked with Dutch cocoatopped with buttercream frosting in chocolate

The Sweet Cake: Creamy Madagascar vanilla bean cake with buttercream frosting in chocolate

Boston Cream Pie: Sweet chiffon cake filled with homemade pastry cream topped with chocolate ganache and a frosting "cherry"

My favourite is definitely the Boston Cream Pie cupcake! It was sooooo goooood!

Sweet

Harvard Square, Zero Brattle Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

Apple Streusel Cake

As we know, apples aren't just fruits to be eaten as food. As the saying goes, it keeps the doctor away. And I often stuff my face with apples when I get hungry as they fill me up but have as little as 90 calories. Also, every apple tastes different - they vary in color, shape, texture and flavour. Their colors can range from deep red, light red, green, yellow to brown. Their flavours can be sweet, tart or mellow. And their textures can be soft, hard or my personal favourite, crunchy! There's a kind of apple for everyone!

So while I crunched into a delicious red apple on sunday night, I decided to look for a recipe to bake apples apart from an apple pie. And here I am, with a yummy apple streusel cake that I had for breakfast. You can also have this as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Ooooohhhh...it's not sinful! It's apples!

Here's what you need for this yummy cake:

Streusel topping:

- 1/2 cup flour (do not sift)

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature)

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 1/4 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts

Cake batter:

- 1 cup flour (do not sift)

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/8 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)

- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar

- 1 egg

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1/3 cup milk

- 2 large apples

And off we bake bake bake!!!

1. Peel and core the apples. Cut into thin slices. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, 177 degrees C. Butter an 8 inch spring form pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

3. Place the chopped hazelnuts on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15 mins. After it's baked, place the toasted hazelnuts on a kitchen towl, roll it up and let it cool. After it's cooled, rubbed the hazelnuts in the kitchen towel gently. (Toasting the hazelnuts removes its bitter taste and brings out its buttery flavour).

4. For the streusel topping, mix together the flour and ground cinnamon. Then cut in the butter with a fork until it becomes coarse crumbs.

5. Stir in the brown sugar and toasted hazelnuts. Set aside.

6. Now for the cake batter, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

7. In another bowl, with the hand mixer, cream the butter. Then add the white sugar and beat until it is light.

8. Add in the egg and vanilla extract.

9. Add the flour mixture and alternate with milk. (Flour - milk - flour)

10. Spread the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

11. Evenly arrange the apple slices on top of the cake batter. Don't worry about having too much apples, but make sure you cover every inch of the cake batter.

12. Sprinkly with the streusel topping.

13. Bake for 45-50 mins or until when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Cool it on a rack before you cut and serve.

You can store this in air tight containers at room temperature that is if you have any left to store! :o)

Cookie cutters: Cute VS Alphabets

I need some cute cookie cutters and I am undecided between the cute and whimsical child's collection set that includes a teddy bear, angel, x'mas tree, santa, etc....

or the more practical but kinda boring set of alphabets....

I am very inclined to satisfy the childish side of me and get the child's collection instead. After all, what am I gonna spell with my cookies - my name? Yikes.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie. I don't think I know anyone who dislikes chocolate chip cookies or would reject one. And apparently, it is the number 1 favourite cookie of America. (When in America, gotta learn what baked goods the Americans like, no?)

This recipe is adapted from the book "The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie" hence it does have the old-fashion simple taste. This also means that the steps to this cookie is simple and anyone can bake this!

Instead of chocolate chips, I substitute it with chunks of dark chocolate. This is to give the cookies a more intense taste of chocolate. You can use any kind of chocolate, I chose dark chocolate because they are my favourite. :o)

They are super yummy! Very crispy and buttery with a rich dark chocolate flava that is to die for. I had them with milk in the afternoon...YUMMS!

Here's the recipe and what you will need:

- 2 cups flour (do not sift)

- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)

- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar

- 2/3 cup brown sugar

- 1 large egg

- 1 large egg yolk

- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

- 1 cup chocolate chunks or 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Off we go to bake!

1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees F, 177 degrees C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. In another bowl, cream the butter, white sugar and brown sugar with a hand mixer for 2-3 mins until light.

4. Add the egg and egg yolk, mix until it combines. And then add the vanilla extract.

5. Scrape down the sides and make sure the mixture is well-mixed.

6. Add the flour in 4 additions and mix well after each addition. At this time the mixture will feel tougher but not hard.

7. Add the chunks of chocolate and mix well.

8. Form balls of dough with your hands. The ball can be at the size of approx. 3-4 cm in diameter. (You can make them smaller if you like your cookies bite-size.)

9. Gently flatten the dough and place it on the baking sheet.

10. Place the cookie dough about 2 inches apart from each other.

11. Place in the oven to bake for 15-17 mins. If you like your cookie to be super crispy, you may bake it for 20 mins. Once baked, they will seem a little soft but after it cools, they will firm up.

My cookies look a kinda square because I placed them too close to each other as I only have 1 baking sheet. Time to get another one! But it doesn't affect the taste of the cookie at all. They are still super yummy.

These will be my companion on the bus ride to New York this Thursday!

My fav chocolate for baking

"Divine", "heavenly" and "food of god" are just some of the words often used to describe chocolate. I dare call myself a chocoholic - any dessert or pastry with chocolate in it makes me weak. And so, every time I bake anything with chocolate in it, I am super uber particular with the chocolate I use. The flava of chocolate in any chocolate dessert or pastry is so key. You might think chocolate is chocolate and when combined with flour, sugar and eggs it will all taste the same - trust me, it doesn't.

The quality of chocolate is dependent on the quality of raw ingredients in the manufacturing process. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the percentage of cocoa butter, the better the flava and texture of the chocolate product. Good chocolate should have an even texture without grains or specks and should have a distinctive taste rather than a flava of cocoa.

My top 3 favourite chocolate brands for baking are:
1. Scharffen Berger
2. Godiva
3. Ghirardelli

If I am baking a chocolate cake, I am definitely using one of the first 2. But this week's baked good is Chocolate chunk cookies and hence I am using Ghirardelli. Instead of using chocolate chips, I am using chunks of dark chocolate.


The dark chocolate bar has an intense chocolate flava, with traces of mocha, blackberry and dried cherries. Can someone say with me, YUMMMS!!!!! I also bought semi-sweet chocolate chips - just in case the chunks fail me, I can always whip up another batch of chocolate chip cookies. I am super excited to bite into my cookies and tasting the divine taste of dark chocolate!

Blueberry Coffee Cake

I have been eyeing the box of blueberries in my fridge for the past 4 days, dying to bake this cake. I had the entire afternoon cleared to bake, and of cos, to eat!

I will be sharing the recipe and photos of each step so that if you should attempt this recipe, you can roughly know if you are on the right track anot by referring to those photos. And you should definitely try this out, it's easy and fast!

First up, let me entice you with yummy photos...

This is the perfect afternoon snack for me. Either with coffee or milk, this makes my tummy super happy! In fact, I think this would make a great breakfast as well. I might just jump out of bed early tomorrow morning just for my blueberry coffee cake. :o)

On to serious stuff, this cake has 3 layers, the bottom is a sponge cake, followed by blueberries and topped with streusel. And here's what you need:

Streusel topping:

1/3 cup flour (do not sift)

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup unsalted butter (cold, not melted)

Sponge cake batter:

1 cup flour (do not sift)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

1 1/2 - 2 cups blueberries

Armed with all of the above, off we go to bake!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, 177 degrees C. Butter an 8 x 8 inch square pan.

2. We start with the streusel topping first. Mix together the flour, sugar and ground cinnamon. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix it in with a fork. This mixture will resemble coarse crumbs. If the mixture is not dry enough, add in more flour. And then set aside.

3. Moving on to the sponge cake batter, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4. In another bowl, cream the butter with a hand mixer. Then add the sugar and beat with the hand mixer until it is light.

5. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat with hand mixer. The mixture will now be wetter.

6. Mix in the flour and milk in alternate steps. (Flour - milk - flour - milk - flour)

7. Pour the batter into the pan and smoothen the top.

8. Arrange the blueberries on top of the batter.

9. Top it off with the streusel.

10. Put it into the oven and bake for 50 mins. It's ready once you stick a toothpick or fork into the centre of the cake and it comes out clean.

11. Cool the pan on a rack for 30 mins and cut into 9 pieces. You can serve it immediately or keep it in an air tight container in room temperature for a couple of days. (That is if you haven't finished it all!)

Try out the recipe and let me know how it works for you!