life’s a peach

When Life decides to bequeath unto you gastronomical complications, and you purge practically everything you acquaint your stomach with, all thanks to the evil monster of a gastric flu and his minions, you could either admit defeat and stick to porridge, or go on the attack and bake a lil something.

I chose the latter. My choice of ammunition? Peach cupcakes.

End of Round 1: Zhul – 1                    Gastric flu – 0

It’s my first time baking a fruit cupcake, and one with absolutely no chocolate traces involved, so I definitely had my doubts and trepidations. But the end product was satisfactory;– not too sweet, and the ground almonds gave it a somewhat crunchy texture. The next time round though, I probably should dress it up more, with a streusel topping, perhaps?

But after all’s said and done, I found myself only capable of downing one cupcake, which tasted pretty bland to me [no thanks to all the medicine]

End of Round 2: Zhul – 1                    Gastric flu – 1 

thereafter concomitantly followed by a couple of visits to the washroom.

End of Round 3: Zhul – 1                    Gastric flu – 2

Overall winner: Gastric flu.

of itchy hands and yummy fingers

Look’s like the rainy season’s here again, with the seemingly endless downpour from yesternight till now. And the cold weather’s a good excuse to be all snuggled up in bed with a good book in one hand, a cup of warm Milo in another, while a plate of freshly-baked small bites awaits you on the table, yes?

And so today was my first attempt at baking viennese fingers, just enough to satisfy a late afternoon craving.

 

Aesthetics-wise, the swirls weren’t perfect, since I’ve yet to get my hands on proper piping bag/nozzles. Taste-wise, they turned out yuMMy, not too sweet, but perhaps I ought to have left them in the oven longer, to get them crispier. Will definitely try them again next time, and in a larger quantity, since this only gives 20. 

100g butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
chocolate for melting

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Cream butter and sugar, until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolks and vanilla essence.
3. Fold in flour to the mixture.
4. Pipe the mixture into wavy lengths onto greased tray.
5. Bake 180C for approximately 12mins, or until light brown.
6. Dip half of the biscuit into melted chocolate, and sprinkle with sugar or other decorations as desired.

of swirls and curves

I was looking through old photos, and came across this one below; the first time I baked Nutella swirl cupcakes for the beshtest.

And so the next hour saw me baking my own rendition of the aforementioned cupcakes. Not much difference, actually. Just that I made two batches; one for chocolate-lovers like myself, and another for those who aren’t. Instead of placing the Nutella on top of the batter and swirling it around with a toothpick, I decided to pipe it thinly onto the batter, and for the chocolate-lover version, I added a surprise semi-sweet chocolate chunk inside each cupcake.

Here’s the basic recipe for Nutella swirl cupcakes:

180g butter
180g self-raising flour
180g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Cream butter with sugar, until pale.
3. Add in eggs, one at a time, & blend well.
4. Add in vanilla essence.
5. Fold in flour.
6. Spoon the batter to fill 3/4 of the cups.
7. Scoop 1/2 tsp Nutella onto batter, & swirl with a toothpick.
8. Bake 160C for 20mins.

Verdict: This is one of those simpler recipes where it’s easy to remember the quantity needed for each ingredient. The basic cupcake is a fail-proof recipe, and the only difficulty would probably be to challenge that perfectionist in you to make the loveliest swirl you possibly can.