Cranberry White Chocolate Cupcakes.

I wouldn't agree fully that this is a cupcake. Well, the original recipe had buttercream frostings on but if I hadn't lose too much of my short term memory, I was too lazy when I baked these hence its without any frosting. Though I'm seriously not a fan of frostings, a cupcake is never a cupcake without any frosting, in my definition. It's those graceful swirls and colourful sprinkles that gives them their characterstic, no?

Anyways, these were baked some time back.. like 6 months ago? I'm just collating all the recipes that I've tried one by one and hopefully I'll be able to do it like a current thing. *Fingers crossed*

The buttercream recipe is not included here for obvious reason (I didn't use it). If you're interested in frosting these cupcakes, the recipe can be found in original site. Enjoy!

Cranberry White Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit

regular cupcakes / 375 degree oven

7 ounces white chocolate
2 sticks butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dried cranberries

1. Chop chocolate and transfer into the bowl of a standing mixer.

2. Add butter to the chocolate and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until chocolate melts and butter is combined.

3. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Note that when you add the sugar the mixture will separate and look pretty funky. This is ok.

4. Let mixture cool for 10 minutes.

5. Add the vanilla. Beat in an electric mixer for 3 minutes. Mixture will thicken and you should no longer see butter floating on the top.

6. Add one egg at a time, mixing for 10 seconds between each.

7. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into the mixture, return to the electric mixer, and mix until blended.

8. Roughly chop the cranberries. Stir into the batter.

9. Scoop into cupcake cups 2/3s full and transfer to a 375 F oven.

10. Set your timer for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes is up turn the oven down to 350 F.

11. Set your timer for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes is up rotate the pans. (Move the bottom to the top rack and turn front to back.

12. Set your timer for 7 minutes more. When the 7 minutes is up test one of the top-center cupcakes with a toothpick and remove the cupcakes once it comes out clean.

Note: The batter is pretty liquidy and the cranberries very heavy, so they will fall to the bottom. I was pleased with the layering effect, but if you aren’t into that idea I recommend two options. Either dust the cranberries in flour before mixing into the batter or drop some into each individual filled cupcake before baking.

Mint Herb & Coconut Milk Cupcakes.

The 2nd cupcake recipe that I tried. I looooove the combination of coconut and mint. So when I chanced upon this blog and saw the recipe, I thought, I HAVE TO BAKE THIS!

Without much thinking, I went on to get all the ingredients and started baking with highly anticipated good results. The pictures posted on the blog was soooo attractive they gave me an illusion that I was able to come up with something similar, if not as good as the original. But I was so, so wrong. I forgot it's just the 2nd recipe I'm trying, and I thought too highly of myself.

The cakes were too heavy and the frostings way toooooo sweet. Guess I under-beatened it, hence they didn't fluff up as they were supposed to. Too oily and the cakes smell of rotten eggs? Haa! I was too hastened to finish baking and didn't care whether I spent enough time creaming the butter or not. Good and bad. I reckoned this is how you learn when you don't go for bakery classes. You learn from mistakes and critiques. Though it didn't feel good at all to fail, but I really learned.

Otherwise, they still looked okay..

How it all started.

I remembered I used to enjoy baking as a kid. Yea, when I was like 12? My friends would come over and we'll start doing like brownies, cookies or whatever. Then there was no news for the next I-can't-remember-how-many years. No, I wasn't being lazy. I just didn't want to do it. Okays, I was lazy.. heck. I did try to bake some random stuff like once or twice after I started working though. Which, would normally turn out too sweet (again I say I'm not a sweet tooth, totally), or so hard they can kill. Haa! I sort of concluded I'm not baking/cooking material and gave up altogether.

Until beginning of this year, in February. Out of boredom, I googled for cupcake blogs. For what exact reason I can't recall now, but yea.. was cupcake blogs. And the one blog that really caught my attention was Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit. (Okays, I hope I'm linking it right. I know nuts about linking pages!) The obvious reason will be those beautiful pictures of her cupcakes, one would say (and I totally agree). But it was those special, out of the norm ingredients she used for her cupcakes that really intrigued me. While it is still not a common scene for cupcake bakeries/shops popping all over Singapore unlike the States, the cupcakes you find here are mostly basic vanilla or chocolate cakes with plentiful of those I-see-that-diabetes-coming kind of frosting. Who would think of adding spices into those little cakes? And her frostings are mostly cream cheese frostings. Which, like what she mentioned, are more adult. And I like.

So, as much as I wanted to be adventurous and try her interesting recipes, I went for the, I would say, easiest and simpliest old fashioned chocolate cake recipe for a start. And they turned out well! Uber rich chocolatey taste, soft and fluffy (it's so fluffy its killin' me!) and melts in your mouth, I'm serious! And of course, it has now become my No. 1 chocolate cupcake recipe, and the go-to recipe each time I feel like baking some chocolate little ones. What's even better, they're always gone before you even know it each time I bring them to work. They're that gooooooood!

My Baking Journey.

Hellooooo there everyone (if there's anyone)! First entry of the blog... introduction. Same old stuff, but anyways...

Its been awhile since I started intense baking. Okays, my frequent baking. I've been contemplating on whether to start this blog and what da heck to write here. To share or not to share recipes (afterall they're recipes I got from someone/somewhere else, not my own), to discuss on the baking experience, or just write whatever I feel like.

Oh well, let's just play by ear and see what's best as time pass!

First official entry coming up!


Till then...