Strawberries & Cream muffins

It's past midnight, I retreated into my room after watching the late night news with my parents more than two hours ago. I've taken a shower, changed into my "Proud to be well adjusted" t-shirt I got from a chiropractor's convention in Las Vegas (long story, not for this entry) and sleep shorts, I have read a chapter of Crazy Rich Asians (get a copy if you haven't already)... and I can't sleep.

I keep thinking. My brain won't quit talking to me. The images keep speeding at me. Voices, memories, thoughts, hypothetical conversations with myself, questions I don't want answered, recipes, more recipes, cake decorating ideas, and oh my God, before you know it... I'm in the kitchen again, I've put the apron on (I only ever wear an apron when I'm baking in my pajamas, cos I don't want to get sugar in my bed), the oven is preheating and I'm flipping through my "Keep Calm and Carry On" red notebook of recipes.

Late night baking. It's surprisingly quite a normal thing to do for young professionals who love baking. It's also an excellent method of quieting the mind to ready yourself for bed. I've talked about the benefits of baking in approaching anxiety issues before... this time it's no different. I can't sleep cos I'm afraid, so I bake and worry about getting the measurements just-so instead of thinking about all the stuff I can't change.

Late last night, I decided to make breakfast muffins as I wanted to wake up to something positive. After a quick look in the fridge, I decided the strawberries I bought a few days ago would definitely go bad in the next two days, so the recipe just HAD to be strawberry based. No bananas, or else I would have made brown butter strawberry banana bread (an old late night baking favourite of mine), but the pantry told me I have an excess of white chocolate. Then I knew just the muffin I wanted to have my morning latte with.

Strawberries & Cream Muffins
Yield: 12 5.5oz muffins

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare your muffin tin or muffin liners (I used 5.5oz standalone cups)
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk the cream, oil, egg, and vanilla until incorporated
4. Pour the cream mixture over the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until thoroughly combined
5. Add the chopped strawberries and white chocolate chips (leaving roughly 1/4 cup of each to sprinkle on top of the muffins later) and fold into the batter
6. Scoop up the batter into the prepared muffin tins or liners, top each muffin with some more strawberries and white chocolate chips, then transfer into the preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 165°C/fan-forced and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops appear golden and a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean (depending on the size of your muffins). Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely

Clean up, wash up, go to sleep, then wake up 4 hours later when your alarm clock goes off and enjoy a fresh muffin, reheated quickly if you like, and a cup of brewed coffee. This happens to me at least twice a week, nobody in my house ever says anything about it, but they'll quietly watch me over breakfast as I set up my little studio and snap pictures of my late night baking spoils.

Berry Passionate Pavlova

Berry Passionate Pavlova & the long stretch of desserts

The last few days have been amazing for me as an aspiring baker; I did my first full on dessert table order for a friend I made over the internet (yay, internet buddies!). She rang me around a month ago to say that she was throwing an engagement party for 60-odd guests and whether I could do a dessert table for her. So me being the over-achieving consultant that I am, said yes immediately! Only to think of the time it would take to actually execute (lol execute, I really am a bloody consultant, aren't I?) the items in the order much later.

Regardless of the fact that I am under resourced (hahahaha funny, it's really just me and my amazing Kakak who helps me separate egg whites and line my baking pans... yikes...), it was so much fun! A wonderful experience, and one that I am really looking forward to do again. Except this time, I may be more realistic and not bite off more than I can chew. 

the lovely couple & an incomplete shot of the dessert table

The dessert table that the lovely bride-to-be requested included the following items:

1. 1 small two-tiered cake (beetroot chocolate with my new favourite cream cheese frosting)
2. 3 6-inch cakes (vanilla cake with strawberry champagne filling, hummingbird cake, strawberry cake)
3. 24 mini tiered cakes (chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream)
4. 24 mini pavlovas (strawberry pavlova with freshly whipped cream, and a passionfruit syrup topping)
5. 24 cupcakes (earl grey tea cakes with aforementioned new favourite cream cheese frosting)
6. A tray of chocolate brownies (the recipe of which I have yet to share)

Out of these items, I have chosen to share the recipe for the Berry Passionate Pavlova with you lot (yay!). It's really simple to make, and just takes a little bit more effort and time than I usually prefer. I do hope you give it a shot, or if you're too lazy and live/work around the Kuala Lumpur area, then please do drop me a comment and I'll swing by with a box of these lovelies for you. Heeeheee shameless plugging. 

Berry Passionate Pavlova

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp strawberry extract (I used a clear extract, then coloured with a drop of Wilton's Dusky Pink gel colouring)

1. Preheat the oven to 150C, and line a few baking trays with parchment paper
2. Beat egg whites in a free standing mixer using the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form, start at the lowest speed and gradually (but rather quickly) increase the speed to medium-high. This should take around 5 - 8 minutes, depending on the humidity of the room you're in
3. Then slowly add in the sugar, I like to allow it to trickle into the bowl while it's mixing 
4. Once the sugar is incorporated, add the cornflour, beat for a bit more, then add the vinegar... beat a bit more
5. Then finally add the strawberry extract and colouring / OR you could just not and have plain meringue pavlovas
6. To make mini bite-sized pavlovas, transfer the meringue mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto the baking trays. I used a Wilton 1M tip to create a rose effect, however you may also just do dollops in a bag or with a spoon (whatever is easiest for you, you don't need to go out and buy tools and tips if you don't have them). 
7. Pop them in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes. Start watching them around 35 minutes cos the smaller they are, the faster they bake, and you want to retain a marshmallowy centre with a crisp outer shell. At this point, what I do is just tap the sides with the back of a butter knife to see if they are hard and crisp. If they are, then I like to take them out at that point

WOW long winded instructions, lol but these are REALLY surprisingly darned easy to make
Then once the meringues have cooled, you may choose to enjoy them as is or top with freshly whipped cream and fruits. I chose to drizzle some passionfruit syrup over it that I had leftover from previous recipes.

Enjoy!
xx Nabs

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

On a very good day, it is an hour's commute for me to get to work from where I live so very firmly in the suburbs. On a very bad day, like yesterday, it may take two and a half hours of replaying every feel-good song I have on my iPod, and a full Starbucks tumblr for me to get to the office. That was my personal hell, shared with thousands of others, also stuck in similar vehicles on three lanes for over 50 kilometres.

Things I typically do when driving on my own include plotting what to bake and cook when I get home, mentally inventorying my pantry to see if I need to  make a stop at the grocery store (most times I don't need to, but do anyway), telling myself I need to improve my lighting for nighttime food photography, typing up future blog posts in my mind (such as this one), sing along to 90s hits, try to call into the radio stations, create elaborately heart-wrenching conversations in my mind with the guy I'm currently gaga over, call my family members and ask them what they're doing, read a chapter or two of whatever book I have handy (this week it's A Woman in Black, bless thin books), and trust me, the list goes on.

Forget driving and texting, I've got bigger things on my mind.

When stuck in situations like I was yesterday (read above; bad traffic, growing urban population, people suck, etc), I feel like I HAVE to bake or cook, or generally tinker in the kitchen. It's either that, or bug my siblings half to death with my rolling over them, begging for love and attention. Baking is my number one method of relieving stress and heartache, it's something bigger than me, you know? *sounds like a hippie* It's not about the eating of cookies, cupcakes or the such (usually, when I stress eat, it's pasta based), it's more of the method and being in this other world where I am the queen of the kitchen, and nobody can touch me.

Last night, I came home with a reusable bag of fresh ingredients, and still clad in my confining corporate clothes, I went to work on these happy little bundles of love: Strawberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I just took a whack at it really, googled a recipe real quick and found this one on Baking Bites. Only thing is, I may have overdone it with the beating in of strawberries...

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp white clover honey
• 2 cups freeze-dried strawberries, chopped into 1cm cubes
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your cookie trays.
2. Sift into a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a larger bowl, beat using your electric mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time 
4. Stir in vanilla and honey, beat until just incorporated 
5. Add the strawberries and chocolate chunks
6. Drop onto your baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden around the edges and the top springs back when pressed lightly with a finger. Cool for 5 minutes of the tray before removing onto a cooling rack

Guaranteed to have your entire house smelling of love and cookies! I love using freeze-dried strawberries as the flavour is so much stronger, and it's more sweet than tangy like fresh strawberries. I don't know, you can probably give fresh ones a shot if you've got plump and sweet ones in season. 

Much love, 

Nabs

Brown Butter Strawberry Banana Bread

The Banana Bread/Quick Bread obsession continues with this delightful recipe I found on Joy's blog, a combination of all the good things in the world:

• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Butter

Love in a pan. Right there. Anyway, I came home from work slightly early-ish that day (which means I came home on time, yay me!) and was hunting for banana bread that I had baked previously, only it was all gone (again). It is at moments like these that I am thankful I have a prepared pantry (read: impulsive grocery shopper), and also that I'm slightly crazy and always keep a few bananas hidden in a mixing bowl in the top shelf (or else the people in my house would never let it just get all soft and spotted! Stop eating bananas, GEEZ).

Strawberries and bananas are like peanut butter and jelly, they were paired up through some strategic arranged marriage decades ago, and it seems the rest of the world has just gone with it. Why question a good thing, right?

This combo also happens to make my favourite breakfast smoothie, with the addition of vanilla frozen yoghurt, soy milk, weetabix or muesli and a little bit of ice.

Anyway, enough rambling, let's just get on to the good stuff:

Brown Butter Strawberry Banana Bread

from Joythebaker

• 170g unsalted butter, melted and browned to just over 1/2 cup of butter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (or plain yoghurt, or even sour cream if you must)
• 1 1/4 cup mashed banana (3 medium sized bananas)
• 1/2 cup diced strawberries, plus 1 strawberry thinly sliced for decorating

1. Preheat to 180C, grease your 9x5 inch loaf pan
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, it'll start to crackle as it heats. When the crackling subsides, it'll start to brown. Swirl the pan, and when the butter browns and begins to smell amaaazing, remove the pan from the stove and transfer the butter to a small bowl. Set aside to cool
3. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
4. In another bowl, whisk eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. Whisk in the mashed bananas, and the cooled browned butter
5. Add all the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and FOLD together (seriously, there's no need to beat with your kitchenaid here, just get the flour wet and just combined)
6. Fold in the strawberries
7. Pour into the prepared pan and top with the strawberry slices. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour (I took mine out slightly early, so it's got a very cakey texture. Try an hour, you want it to be dry, crumbly, bready)
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for another 15 minutes before turning the loaf onto the cooling rack to cool completely

x Nabiya

Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Before we begin, let me just warn you that this entry may be a tad image heavy, despite the fact that by the time I got to photographing the cupcakes there were only two left... they were so cute, and the lighting was working so well for me that I got totally carried away!

Anyhoo, as mentioned previously, I made my first cake sale last weekend, and along with a strawberry cake, my friend also wanted some cupcakes. At first I didn't think I would have the time to manage the cupcakes, but decided to try for it anyway. I whipped up my go-to chocolate cake recipe, and popped them in the oven while I was frosting the cake.

While the cake sat in the chiller and the cupcakes baked, I managed to shower, get dressed and put on make up before running back to the kitchen to finish the job.

I honestly didn't think I'd make it, but thankfully had enough left over cream cheese frosting from the cake to frost a few of the cupcakes. I only made some miiiinor adjustments.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting recipe:

• 8oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 strawberries, pureed and sieved of seeds
• 3 - 4 cups powdered sugar (or until you achieve the taste and consistency you want)

1. Whisk butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes on medium speed
2. Mix in the strawberry puree
3. Beat the sugar in half a cup at a time for 3-4 minutes each addition
4. *Optional: Add a drop of pink colouring gel

This was also the first time I just applied frosting with a spatula as opposed to piping, and it was daunting! With decorating tips, you KNOW they'll turn out pretty, and yet with this method... there's the chance that they'll look messy, lazy and half-hearted.

I think this method makes for really cute cupcakes, though... Am thinking of making a large batch with different flavours and colours! Cute! Maybe a Hogwarts houses themed batch!

x Nabs

Fruit Trifle

If I had to choose one pudding to be my mother's signature, it would probably be her fruit trifle. It's her favourite to eat, and also to make, and for as long as I can remember whenever we have dinner parties, there would be a trifle waiting in the fridge.

Last Sunday, we had a group of close family friends over at the house for dinner (coincidentally, one of whom happens to be my personal Martha Stewart - Aunty Rosa), and in addition to the strawberry cakes (Yes, plural!) I had baked the previous night, mum wanted me to take a shot at preparing the fruit trifle.

Now, you have no idea what kind of pressure this put on me. This is her special dish! The fruit trifle is the one dessert that she loves above all else! And yet, me being me, I couldn't leave a recipe well enough alone, and had to switch things up.

So I set out to make a fruit trifle, only with completely different components. The only thing I maintained was mum's custard recipe (which is lush), which is daunting as hell, because not only have I never built a trifle before, but it was also my first time making a custard. GARH.

Contrary to the picture of our cast of characters posted above, I didn't use all-purpose flour (it's only there for how cute the package looks). The recipe calls for cornflour instead. Read on, my friends!

Mum's Custard

• 4 cups of milk
• 5 heaped tbsp cornflour
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• pinch of salt (optional)

1. Heat up 3 1/2 cup of milk in a saucepan and bring slowly almost to the boil
2. While milk is heating, add remaining 1/2 cup milk gradualy to the cornflour, then stir in the beaten eggs
3. When milk is hot, pour a dash into the cornflour mixture to temper the eggs, stir constantly
4. Pour the entire mixture into the saucepan and cook slowly, stirring constantly to avoid lumps, until the mixture thickens (this should take 3-5 minutes)
5. Add sugar and vanilla (I prefer to add the vanilla with the eggs in step 2), cook a moment longer
6. Pour over the sponge cake, biscuits, or whatever you wish to pour your custard on

*If you wish to use the custard as a pouring sauce to accompany another dish, halve the quantities given above, and use only 2 level tablespoons of cornflour

So I layered finger biscuits at the bottom of my bowls (I made 2 trifles). In the first bowl, I poured the custard directly over the biscuits, and in the second set I layered my sliced fruits over the biscuits and then poured the custard over. This is entirely up to you. For this round, I chose to include strawberries, blueberries and mango. Mum usually prefers peaches, pineapples and mango.

In addition to the fruits, biscuits and custard, I also prepared raspberry jelly. I just used some instant gelatin for this, follow the instructions on the box and then pour it at any stage of the trifle layering process. Mum prefers to use cherry flavoured jelly, but I've got a weakness for raspberry (not only does it taste beautiful, the colour is also so much more attractive).

When you're done with the layering, let the trifles cool to room temperate for about 10 minutes before popping them in the fridge. When it's ready to serve, you may add a final layer of whipped cream on top if you so desire (I definitely do desire).

Great pudding for hot weather, and is ridiculously easy to assemble, so this is definitely one for the fridge door.

x Nabs