Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever

I realize that is the most audacious title you might ever see on this blog, but I assure you I wasn't the first to make the claim, nor will I be the last. Trust me on this one, would I ever lie to you?

It being Saturday, and my cousin having celebrated his 25th birthday last night (yay, Happy birthday, Azamlove!), I slept in a little this morning... that is to say, I finally staggered out of my room in a bathrobe around 10 in the morning, croaking for coffee. Only I found my two youngest siblings, Adam and Elle, sitting right outside and the first thing they asked me was, "Are you going to bake today?"

Followed with a very quick, "Can it be something with chocolate?"

So me being the amazing big sister that I am, sat down on the sofa and waved at one of them to bring me a cup of coffee, and at the other to bring my laptop. Summoning Charm, they've learnt to understand what Accio means. lol it's not really that bad, they jump at the chance... sort of like house elves. OKAY, enough with the HP references, I promise (not really). I looked through food gawker (ohmistars, how did I live before that website?) for ultimate chocolate and the first one that popped up was this from Dawn over at First Look, Then Cook blog. She got the recipe of Cook's Illustrated, one that I have no access to, and have no interest in filling up a registration form for...

It looked a lot more complicated (in that it involved more steps than melt, mix, and bake) than I usually like for Saturday "morning" baking, but since I had some time before my afternoon appointment... it was doable.

I barely made it to my appointment in time, and had to wait til I came home to take some pictures in fading light. There are SO many steps to this recipe, but nothing overly difficult, and the end result is so rewarding that you hardly care about the mess you made of the kitchen.

You're probably wondering when I'm going to get on with the recipe now, right? Okay okay, let's go:

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache filling, and Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream. 
Yield: 12 medium sized cupcakes

Ganache Filling:

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and pop it in the microwave at full power for roughly 20-30 seconds, whisk until it's smooth, then cool in the fridge until ready for use

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup hot coffee
• 3/4 cup bread flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line the cupcake trays
2. Combine the chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in a small bowl, pour the scalding hot, bitter coffee over it and whisk until smooth, then pop the bowl in the fridge until you're ready to use it
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda (lol I typed sofa first), then set aside
4. In the large mixing bowl of your electric mixer, whisk the vegetable oil, eggs, vinegar, vanilla and the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth
5. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until fully incorporated
6. The batter is quite runny, so you can actually just pour into your cupcake pans if you have steady hands. I used a cupcake filler thingy that I got for Christmas, but still made a mess. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way up
7. Take out the chocolate ganache and scoop up tsp sized balls, drop a ball onto the top of each cupcake, then bake for 15-20 minutes. When it's done, allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before moving them onto a cooling rack

Frosting:

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• Pinch table salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-tablespoon pieces
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Heat a pot of simmering water, and in a heatproof bowl over the water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water) whisk the egg whites and sugar until all graininess from the sugar is gone (this also means the eggs are cooked)
2. Transfer the mixture to your grease-free (wipe down with some lemon juice and dry thoroughly before use) mixing bowl, and using the whisk attachment on medium speed, whisk the mixture until soft peaks form. This is the meringue component of the frosting
3. Add the butter one cube at a time, whisking away as it goes, and don't worry if it looks horrible, it'll get better when all the butter is added. You may have to whisk for a while to get a pretty consistency. I usually have to stop the mixer after the butter is all added, scoop the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula and then let it whisk again before it starts resembling something edible
4. When you've achieved the desired consistency, add the chocolate and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and creamy
5. Transfer into a piping bag with a tip of your choice (I like Wilton's 1A or 1M tips for cupcakes), or just cut out a small hole at the end and pipe over your cooled cupcakes
6. Enjoy immediately!

I loved these cupcakes, though truth be told, I only managed to get one bite before it was taken away from me. The moment I snapped the pictures, the cupcakes were taken away and now I have nothing to show for my morning of hard work! This is one of the few times that something I've baked has disappeared so fast, which is an indication of how amazeballs this recipe is. 

If you have a free weekend morning, I recommend you whip up these cupcakes. SMB frosting is so crazy sexy and tastes so beautiful, I'll never be able to go back to regular buttercream. The ganache filling is a lovely surprise too, especially when the cupcakes are still warm and gooey. These are certain to impress your friends and family, so if you do give them a shot, I wish you all the best! 

Much love, Nabs

Wilton's baked doughnuts with cinnamon sugar glaze

I had my aunt round for tea a few days ago and was messing about in the kitchen with all my baking utensils and decorative plates when I realized (quite belatedly) that there was a recipe on the packaging of the doughnut pan! Well, duh, Nabiya, it was right next to the pricetag... Which, I'm sure I looked at when I bought the damned thing.

I won't even pretend to have a reason for baking these days, as I seem to take selfish pleasure in doing it. It is oddly relaxing, my solitary place, and seems to make people around me happy (discounting the handful who whinge about their calorie-intake, yet still continue to eat the goodies). In this past year, I've found so much comfort in baking, and I suddenly feel like I have something to be passionate about. It feels damned great to find one's calling.

I digress, nobody cares about my strange love affair with desserts, let's get on with the recipe:

Wilton's baked doughnuts recipe
Yield: approximately 12

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, grease your doughnut pan and set aside
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt
3. Add the eggs, vanilla, buttermilk and melted butter and beat until just incorporated (I did the whole thing by hand, you may choose to use an electric mixer if you wish)
4. Pour all the batter into a piping bag for ease of filling the pan, cut a hole around the circumference of your pinky fingertip, and fill the doughnut pan 2/3 of the way up
5. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back up when lightly pressed with a finger
6. Cool for 3 minutes in the pan then pop them out to cool on a wire rack

Cinnamon sugar glaze

• 2 tbsp fine granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 2 tbsp butter, melted

1. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl
2. In a separate, flat bottomed bowl, melt the butter
3. Dip the doughnuts in the butter, then roll around in the cinnamon sugar
4. Serve immediately if possible as baked doughnuts are SO good when warm and fresh from the oven

My family quite enjoyed these, and I'm getting a craving for one from just typing up this post! If you get yourself a doughnut pan, I insist that you give these a shot. I made minor tweaks, as I have no cake flour and I added vanilla as I dislike the eggy taste you sometimes get.

Happy Friday, friends, and enjoy your baking weekend!

Much love, Nabs

Ladies Who Lunch: Mama Zee's Birthday

I consider myself lucky that I have an amazing mother. She is strong, smart, beautiful, intuitive, possesses far more talent in her pinky finger than I do in my entire body, and so full of love that she has shared so generously with everyone around us. My mother really is the best.

Most people are blessed with great mothers, but in our very close-knit circle of friends and extended family, we are exceptionally lucky in that we have a wonderful team of mothers. Best friends for most (if not all, actually) of our (the children's) lives, they have raised us as a group, poured their love on us, shared wisdom wrought from their own lives, listened to our boy troubles, endured our rants, and basically have just been there.

Today one of them celebrates a birthday, and in true Team Mama fashion, they organised a long lunch this afternoon (midweek public holiday, yay!), pooled together for an extravagant present (this year, Portmeirion is all the rage among the group), and sat over good food, laughing, sharing stories and taking every opportunity to scandalise Nisa, Kaly, her hapless boyfriend, and myself with innuendo and downright disturbing comments.

Mama Zee, being one of my six mothers, obviously deserves to get a homemade birthday cake! No bakery cake for any of my mamas, no way. I may not be able to afford to buy a Portmeirion teacup (or even a saucer), but this I can definitely do.

After my friend, Amy's hen night karaoke session last night (I know, you're thinking... where is that blog post?), I hauled myself home, washed my face and found that I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was a cake for Mama Zee! I knew there was no way in hell I'd be able to wake up early enough to do it, and I had actually planned on just baking the cake layers ahead of time, then frosting in the morning... but when I finally did crawl back into bed, the clock read 5.30am.

It was well worth it though. I decided to tackle Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the first time (3am decisions, they make sense sometimes) considering The Mothers have always harangued me for my too-sweet buttercream. It was surprisingly easier than anticipated, and wowweee at that silky-smooth texture and lack of sickening sweetness! Can't believe it took me this long to try it, and now that I have, I think I may have to stick with it...

I used my favourite white cake recipe, which I then divided into four bowls (roughly 1 1/2 cups per bowl) and coloured in increasing shades of pink (a teeeeeeeny tiny drop of Wilton Pink colouring gel in the first bowl, one drop in the second, 2 drops in the third, and 3 drops in the fourth). I baked the cakes in 6-inch round pans, all at once for 25-30 minutes, then popped them in the freezer (triple cling-wrapped) for half an hour.

With leftover blackberries from my Upside-down Blackberry Buttermilk cake, I whipped up a Blackberry Coulis for filling the layers. I've got some coulis leftovers now... watch this space to see what I do with it.

Blackberry Coulis

• 250g fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup water

1. In a saucepan, bring the blackberries, sugar and water to a boil. Simmer until the fruit is mushy then stir in the vanilla
2. Remove from heat, allow it to cool then pour it all into a blender and whizz to a puree
3. Strain the puree through a sieve, then slather your cake layers with the goop

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 180g butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Whisk the egg whites and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved in a heatproof bowl over a bain-marie
2. Transfer to your mixing bowl, and with your whisk attachment, whisk the mixture at medium speed for about 4-5 minutes until soft peaks form (hello, meringue!). Add the vanilla.
3. At this point, slowly add butter into the mixture, by tablespoon-fulls. Continue until all the butter is in, and just whip until the point where when you run a spatula through it... it comes up looking beautifully smooth

If you have a stand mixer, I suggest you step away during that last step of the swiss meringue process. It looks terrifying, and you'll be tempted to "fix" it, as it seems as if the mixture is curdling. But don't you worry, darlings, it's meant to be that way. It will improve upon extended whipping. My tiny batch took roughly 5-8 minutes to finally arrive at a consistency I was happy with.

 

And what a beautiful taste the frosting produces! For the first time, my frosting has not overwhelmed the flavours of my cake, and as The Mothers enjoyed the cake quite a bit... I like to think I did it right this time. No complaints of "Nabiya! This is soooo sweet!" or "A moment on the lips..." and you know how it goes.

Anyway, happy birthday, Mama Zee, hope you enjoyed the lunch and love you loads!

xx Nabs

Rocky Road Brownies

Here in Malaysia, the first quarter of the calendar year is usually fraught with public holidays and long weekends. For the first major one of this year - Chinese New Year weekend - I went on a beach island getaway with two girlfriends, one of whom I haven't met since I was six!

Even though it was only three nights, we switched hotels three times (long story) and went through such a vast range of experiences that it felt like we were there for a week. Amazing weekend though, despite hitting a snag or two, but it was long overdue... for all of us, I think.

gosh, I love instagram

Now that I'm back at work, wearing closed-toed shoes once again and actual underwear as underwear, I've been craving something chocolatey and rich to fill the void of sitting on a beach, sea-salt hair and daytime boozing. Wooo run-on sentence.

the view from my deck chair

What's more chocolatey and rich than soggy brownies? LOL okay, so they're not supposed to be as moist as they turned out for my first batch (pictured here), but that's my fault for following the recipe to the T and taking it out before my oven had had its way with the batter. I should know by now that my oven is not as warm and takes a little longer to bake... Let's just get on with it:

Rocky road brownies
recipe from Joy the Baker

• 1 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 175g butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp brewed coffee
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional
• 2 cups mini marshmallows

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, butter and flour your 10x10 pan
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a double boiler, allow the butter, cocoa and 2 tbsp of brewed coffee to simmer, stir through the congealed mess it will become until you get a smooth and runny consistency
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Stir the butter and cocoa mix into the egg mix slowly (don't lick the spatula from the cocoa mix, it tastes naaasteee!), beating on low-medium the whole time
5. Gradually stir in the flour mixture. Fold in the chopped walnuts
6. Pour into prepared pan, scatter some chocolate chips on top if you want to, and bake for 20-25 minutes
7. Take the brownies out, set your oven to grill/broiler, and pour the marshmallows on top of the brownies
8. Pop the pan back into the oven, on a higher shelf closer to the grill, and watch it for 2 minutes or so. When the marshmallows have browned (as you can see, I jumped the gun AGAIN and pulled them out too soon) pull the pan out and allow to cool on a wire rack
9. Use a sharp knife with hot water handy to soak the knife in between cuts, otherwise you'll have a huge mess on your hands when cutting through this
10. Enjoy with a glass of milk. Seriously. 

Very, very, moist brownies. However, the brownies themselves aren't very sweet, and I quite like the strong cocoa flavour. The marshmallows are great, especially when still warm, but I think I can do without next time. 

Cheers,

Nabs

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

I am currently in the holiday state of mind, ready to slip on my flip-flops, bikini, slap on the suntan oil and spend the day on the sand with a good book and a frilly looking cocktail. Here on the Equator, we're lucky enough to have constant holiday weather, but I'll do you one better: we're headed to the beautiful North Island of New Zealand next week for a family holiday!

It'll be my first time there, and I'm not entirely sure what kind of clothes I need to pack... for warm weather, chilly weather or just beach clothes. Guess a cardigan or two wont harm me.

The best part about going to New Zealand, though? I get to meet with Kirstie and Tegan, two friends I've known for a very long time from SnitchSeeker, and I'm contemplating bringing my ratty old SS t-shirt just to make it easier for them to spot me in a crowd. We'll see how these visits go, I'm so excited!

The other thing I thought of when I heard we'd be going away for a week was: Ohmigosh, I can't leave my blog for a week! I'd lose any readership I had managed to gain in the past few months! lol yes, it is a very real worry for me. So I've figured out a solution... you'll see.

Anyway, let's continue with the festive themed treats, today I bring you the very simple, and yet sinfully sweet and pretty Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies. I used a recipe from Paula Deen, with very small tweaks (maybe cos I don't read instructions well and was too lazy to buy ingredients).

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp buttermilk
• 2 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp red colouring

For the cream cheese frosting:

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 110g butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a larger bowl, beat the sugar and butter together with an electric mixer until fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time
4. Add buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and colouring and beat until incorporated
5. Once the wet mixture is fully combined, add the flour  mixture and beat until incorporated (gotta find another word for combined, incorporated...) 
6. Drop the dough onto the cookie sheet in teaspoonful amounts, or if you have a small ice-cream scoop that's even better. Space the dough roughly 2 inches away from each other cos trust me, babeh, these will spreaaad.
7. Bake for 10 minutes, or until fully baked through, and allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing to the cooling rack to allow it to cool completely. Is the word cool starting to sound funny to you? 
8. For the frosting: beat cream cheese and sugar together until fluffy (use a hand mixer), then add vanilla, beat for a bit more, then add the sugar 1/2 a cup at a time. 
9. Once the cookies have cooled, spread the cream cheese frosting between them and ENJOY! 

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I got my 10 year old brother and 11 year old sister to do the last step for me, while I sat in a corner giving orders and re-reading Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. Santa and her elves, that's right. Should've given them bells, too. Drat. 

These are cute, tasty and fun to make. Though, I made the mistake of putting the completed sandwiches in the fridge, so here's a tip: make the frosting ahead of time and refrigerate so it firms up and you won't need to put the whole sandwiches in. I've got so much left over frosting, that I'm good for another 3 batches of cookies I think. Whoops, now you all know what you're getting for Christmas! 

Much love,

Nabs

Gingerbread Men

Run, run, as fast as you can,

You can't catch me,

I'm the gingerbread man!

I don't know how, why or when the Gingerbread man became associated to Christmas, but it's a tradition that I can definitely appreciate, considering I'm mad for ginger (gingersnaps, ginger beer, Weasleys, etc). I was familiar with the fairytale while growing up and I have to say, it always disturbed me that this old lady made a child out of food... Talk about filling the void...

On that note, while baking these yesterday, I realised that my younger siblings probably didn't know the story. Which I blame entirely on the internet, tv and video games, by the way. Children these days don't get the same exposure we used to get as close as ten years ago, they don't need to read an entire encyclopedia to find one bit of information because they can just google something. There goes general knowledge.

As I rolled out the dough and employed Adam and Elyza to cut out the cookies for me, I told them the very disturbing story. I made sure to enhance the story's impact on them by telling the classic 1875 version... where Gingy (let's go with it) cries out "I'm quarter gone! I'm half gone! I'm three quarters gone!" made worse by biting off the cookie limbs during the retelling, relishing the twin looks of horror on their faces.

Elyza has more heart than me though, she always bites off the heads first... it's more humane.

Classic Gingerbread Recipe

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp ground ginger (to taste)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup unsulphured molasses (I used the mild flavoured kind)

1. In a large bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices
2. In a separate bowl, beat the butter on medium speed with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy
3. Add the sugar, beat until incorporated then add the egg
4. When the butter mixture is lighter, add the molasses and beat for 3-5 minutes
5. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating until incorporated
6. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours) or ready to bake
7. Preheat oven to 180C and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper
8. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to around 1/4 inch thickness and use the cookie cutter of your choice, transferring the cut outs onto your cookie sheets with an offset spatula
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or edges begin to brown
10. If desired, press currants, gum drops or other candies into the candies while they're still soft (within 1 minute of removing from the oven) and then allow to cool on a wire rack

You've GOT to make some gingerbread people, trees, reindeer, snowmen and other such Christmas ornaments this last week. To use them as Christmas tree ornaments, use a straw to poke a hole in the cookie cutouts before popping them in the oven (LOL I'm so bad at multitasking, typed office instead of oven at first) then string a ribbon through the cookies after they've cooled.

x Nabs

Christmas Tree Ruffle Cake

Ever since I saw this cake by Amanda (aka iammommy) last year, I've been obsessed with it. I've dreamt of the colours, the ruffles, the sweetness of it all... I just needed to wait another year for Christmas. Do you have any idea how frustrating that is? Yes, you probably do. The only thing is that I'm not sure if I'm fond of the texture differences caused by the cake-ception like the one in this picture. So with a year to think about what I want my cake to look like when I finally do it, I think I surprised even myself with how simple it was to make it over-the-top Christmas-sy!

After many, many ruffle cakes over the past year (Elyza's birthday cake, Lana's engagement cake, personal pick-me-up-cos-the-week-was-so-shite cake, and many ruffled cupcakes) the ruffles just came so much easier this time around. I find that when it matters... my frosting and decorating always falls to pieces. This is definitely because I always try to do it all in one sitting, and by the time it comes to piping, I'm exhausted and my eyesight is wonky from the prolonged contact lenses to flour/sugar exposure.

Last weekend was the perfect opportunity to try this out, because a) I had no work to do, and b) mum put me on house arrest for the weekend because of my back problem. Standing and baking all day probably wasn't the best option due to point b) but I'd run out of TV shows, films and books... and wanted to bake.

I used a Wilton #103 tip for the entire cake, and about 1.5 batches of frosting, though next time I should probably use a little less for the crumb coat. There were just SO many crumbs, though, so I kind of went overboard. The housekeeper gave me a tip for that: less baking soda/powder will yield less crumbs. So next time, I'll just try putting in half of what the recipe says. I did up a classic buttercream, but not one I've posted before, so I'll share it now:

Classic Buttercream Recipe

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup Crisco vegetable shortening, room temperature
• 3-4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp thickened whipping cream
• * Colouring gel, as desired

1. Whip the butter and shortening in a large bowl until fluffy, I find that using a hand mixer as opposed to the stand mixer produces a fluffier and smoother buttercream
2. Add vanilla, whip a bit more to incorporate
3. Gradually add the confectioners sugar, 1/2 cup at a time and beating until fully incorporated each time
4. Depending on the consistency you want to achieve, slowly add the cream. I find that 2 tbsp is perfect, but sometimes depending on other conditions, I may need more or less
5. Pipe! For ruffles, use a petal decorating tip (#104 for a slightly larger, taller cake though I used a #103) and starting at the bottom of the cake, with the bigger opening on the cake side, at almost right angles with the cake, just dash back and forth all the way up. This video might explain it better.

And when you're done, have cleaned up the kitchen and let the cake sit in the chiller for an appropriate amount of time (which basically equals to enough time for you to shower, get dressed and look presentable)... make yourself a cup of coffee (hold the sugar) and cut a slice of cake.

I don't even need an excuse to bake cakes anymore, my parents are no longer surprised, though they make "tsking" sounds whenever they find the fridge packed with desserts. Every day is cake day!

Especially red velvet cake. Look at how seasonal this cake turned out! My mum didn't see me bake this, and when I cut a slice, it was gratifying to hear her gasp. Yay Christmas!

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this one, because I'm sort of still on a bit of a high. Love this one so much that I may just make a few replicas to give away...

Happy holidays!

x Nabs

Green Tea Chocolate Chip cookies

I'm constantly humming Christmas carols, there's always something green or red in my daily outfits, I start re-watching films like The Santa Clause, Love Actually, The Holiday, Home Alone, Elf, and Scrooged. I start reading lists of things that happened in 2011 on the internet, laugh at some of them, wrinkle my nose and sniff at some of my bigger regrets, scoff at the shoddy list of resolutions I made this year. All of this can only mean one thing: December is here!

This time last year I was a new associate in the firm, starting to get my sealegs and also planning a trip with my cousin and a bunch of friends to Langkawi for New Years. It was fun, we made good memories and I would probably definitely do it all over again.

This year, I'm looking at a limited number of leave days I can take... mostly due to the fact that there are three weddings happening next year, one of which involves a 23 hour flight to the other side of the world. I need to save up my leave days, carry some forward and plan this very, very carefully.

But most of all, I just want to be out of the city when the clock strikes 12. I hate new years eve, hate the expectation that comes with it, and how everyone makes such a bloody big deal of us growing yet another year closer to our death. So whether or not I end up going on holiday with my family, or escaping to a beach island somewhere with a friend, or end up stuck in the city... I'm going to do whatever the hell I wanted to do regardless of whether or not anybody else wants to do it with me.

One of those things might be baking.

Speaking of which, in the spirit of Christmas, I thought to make something green! Green Tea Chocolate Chip cookies, to be exact, inspired by Starbucks Green tea chocolate chip frapp. I figured it would be easy enough to do, and adapted a recipe which I have been dying to try from Smitten Kitchen. I only made minor tweaks, but in future I may add a 1/4 teaspoon of colouring to get a brighter green out of the batter.

Green Tea Chocolate Chip cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Chewy Choc-Chip cookies recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 heaped teaspoons green tea powder (or to taste, add more if you like)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. Sift together the flour, green tea powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the melted butter and sugars at medium speed until well blended
4. Add the egg + egg yolk and vanilla, beat until fluffy then incorporate the milk, continue to beat until ingredients have incorporated
5. Combine the sifted ingredients into the wet mixture in two additions
6. With a spatula, manually stir in the chocolate chips (the original recipe called for 2 cups, but I like a lower cookie to chips ratio)
7. Scoop up teaspoon-fulls of batter and drop them on the cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Try to manipulate them into ball-shapes at least, so they don't go oval on you
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are slightly toasted. Allow to cool on the sheets for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack

I have to say that I'm quite happy with this recipe, and also the way they look with all my Christmas decorations. Can't wait to try another Christmassy recipe!

x Nabs

[note: Photos from a second batch, added a drop of green Wilton colouring gel and an extra tsp of green tea powder]

M&M Cookies

I haven't tried any new cookie recipes in a while, preferring to stick to plain sugar cookies or my favourite: Oatmeal Raisin cookies, but then I saw a picture of M&M cookies recently and decided to give them a shot.

M&M cookies

• 2 cups and 2tbsp of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 sticks salted butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup mini M&Ms

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, line your cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda
3. In your bigger mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed for about 3-5 minutes
4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar (LOL I typed bugger first) mix, beat until fluffy
5. Add the flour mixture a cup at a time, beat until incorporated
6. I didn't do it this time, but in future I might also add 1/2 cup of milk to the batter
7. Fold in the M&Ms with a spatula
8. Drop teaspoonfulls (for small cookies) or tablespoonfulls (large) of dough, 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes. OR until the cookies gets slightly golden around the edges, and pops right back up when pressed lightly with a finger in the middle

Without the milk that I usually add in my cookie batter, these turned out a little tough. I like chewy cookies, so in future will definitely include milk and probably increase the dough to M&M ratio.

x Nabs

Zucchini Bread

Coming back to reality was a lot tougher to do this week than it's been for a while now. Probably due to the fact that I went out two nights in a row, which is a bit of a rarity, at least... since I've been at this job. Friday night was our firm's sports club dinner, which isn't what it sounds like, and things got kind of hectic as I was on the committee for the thing. Although the committee after party was well worth the trouble, and getting a free room at the hotel might have been as good a payment as I could have hoped for.

The Usual Suspects

I realized I'm getting older when it took me a full day to recover from a night out... but still young enough that I woke up from my nap, slapped on a "night out" outfit and went off to the city again. Though I paid for it on Sunday... with a free spa day courtesy of the firm.

Hello, Cutie Pie x

I know, I know, I have no right to complain... as the only reason I'm knackered this morning was my weekend folly. And also because the Zucchini Bread took half an hour longer to bake than expected.

It's been a while since my last update here, not because I haven't been baking but rather due to my being too lazy to resize, watermark and upload photos. So this morning I made the effort to whip out my iPhone and snap a few quick ones before leaving. Yea... it's exhausting work, that. However, I felt this was a recipe worth sharing, one I adapted from two seperate recipes I found online and made some tweaks to.

Zucchini Bread

• 3 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (optional)
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground dried ginger
• Pinch of salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini (use a big grater so it's less watery)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional, I didn't go for it this time around)

1. Preheat oven to 160C, grease your loaf pan - I used aN 8" x 4" pan, however the recipe can be split between two... I just like a taller bread
2. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Set aside
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and vanilla
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet mix in one go, beat on medium speed for a 3 minutes or so, just until fully incorporated
5. The zucchini goes in last, mix either with a spatula or if you're lazy like me, whizz at medium speed on the Kitchenaid
6. Bake for 60 minutes (meant to be, but since I poured it all in one pan, it took 1 hour 30 mins), or until a skewer poked at an angle to the bottom comes out completely clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then pop it out and let the bread cool completely on the cooling rack

Excellent bread! Though I have to figure out a way to tweak the recipe further, need less sugar in it. The combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger powder made for the best smelling thing I've ever produced in that oven. Next time, I may even add the lemon glaze halfway through the baking process to add a little extra zing! Though this will probably be more suited to an afternoon tea party, for breakfast the plain bread is best.

Although I find that not many people are willing to try out zucchini bread... which I don't get. Hope you try it out though.

x Nabs, Queen of The Nile

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

As I was driving home from town earlier today, I came to the scary realization that one of my biggest fears is that I have a brain tumor... but I think it's just bad headaches. And then I end up in hospital where the doctor is nowhere near as good-looking as McDreamy because this is real life.

In conclusion, I watch far too much television, and I should also not drive without the radio on because then I start thinking up weird situations.

I'm a very imaginative person, some (my school teachers, for example) would say I'm a day-dreamer, and thus I tend to come up with far-fetched scenarios, or over-think things (very much in the way Taylor Swift over-thought things in the song Mine) and then before I know it... I'm in the car, sobbing by the side of the highway because I've scared myself with a possibility of a horrible life.

Over the years, I've always looked for distractions, things that could take me away from me so that I can just be, for a little while. In my teenage years, it was SnitchSeeker (it still is, sometimes heh) that provided that escapism, and now I find that baking shuts up my fears better than anything!

It's something to do with the precision of measuring out ingredients, the routine of mixing, melting, baking... the whir of the Kitchenaid works as well as any sleep machine, too, and then... there's the payoff. Chocolatey goodness, cookies, cupcakes, breads, muffins, pies, pastries, anything and everything that is good and guaranteed to cheer me up.

Today, I'm sharing a very simple recipe, a particular favourite of mine that has always been a hit with my baby brother, Adam. As a rather fussy customer, I find his to be one of the highest recommendations. He's also quite cruel, in the way that Simon Cowell can be, when he doesn't like something I've made. Enough rambling! On to the banana chocolate chip muffins!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (or milk)
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, line/grease your muffin tray
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
3. In a medium bowl, mix the banana mash, melted butter, egg and buttermilk
4. Pour the banana mix into the flour mix, and stir until just combined (I simply used a spatula for this entire recipe cos I didn't want to over-mix anything)
5. Stir in the chocolate chips
6. Bake for 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean
7. Pop one into your mouth whole, mere minutes after it's out of the oven, then soldier on as tears stream down your face cos it's too damned hot, but sooooooo good!

Milo Cupcakes with Condensed Milk Frosting

Milo.

I'll drink it hot, I'll drink it cold, I'd eat it in it's powder form, I'd sprinkle it between two pieces of plain sliced bread, I'd do anything with it.

I'm a Milo ho, yo.

Milo is a very popular drink here, it is a chocolate and malt powder, and has become a staple in most households and office buildings. Kids grow up (okay, I'm generalising here, I grew up) drinking this stuff, fully expecting to transition to tea in my late teens, and then eventually starting on coffee. The transition is true enough, but I still enjoy a hot cup of Milo in the mornings sometimes, or ice-Milo when I'm feeling decadent.

So naturally, when I came across the recipe for Milo Cupcakes from Steph, it was only a matter of when. The when came that night, after work. So what if I was knackered and had fallen asleep while I waited for the cupcakes to bake? So what if I'm trying to refrain from sweets and carbs after 7pm?

This recipe yielded one of the fluffiest and lightest textures I've ever achieved in a cupcake, and the flavour is just so spot-on, I basically crave one just typing up this post.

I didn't manage to get many good pictures of the cuppies as I only had time to snap pictures after two days, and these were the only ones left. So, I'll simply have to re-do the recipe soon to take better shots!

Milo Cupcakes with Condensed Milk Frosting

by Steph at Raspberri Cupcakes

• 200g all-purpose flour
• 200g granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
• 100g Milo

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180g sour cream
• 170g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs

Condensed Milk Frosting

• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 300g icing sugar, sifted
• 5 tbsp condensed milk
• a pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C, line cupcake tray
2. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and Milo in a medium sized bowl
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, add in the sugar, beat until fluffy
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
5. Add sour cream and vanilla and beat until just combined
6. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated
7. Fill cupcake liners and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at an angle comes out clean
8. Cool for a minute in the pans, then let them cool completely on a wire rack
9. For the frosting: beat butter and salt until fluffy, add sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add the condensed milk, and beat well.

The batter is so light that you have to be sure not to fill too much in the cupcake liners, I filled them up 3/4 of the way as usual, but they all got a bit too big. As you can see in the pictures above, I trimmed a few of them.

Then ate the trimmings. As one does.

x Nabs

Red Velvet Cake Balls

What does one do when one bakes a cake and the cake falls apart when one tips it out of the pan?

Go absolutely batshit cray-cray on the cake and mash it into pieces in a rage. That's what.

And then, one obviously repents, decides to break up the other perfect layer as well and then whip up a batch of cream cheese frosting to make... Cake balls!

I've always wanted to make one of those perfect little cakepops (made so popular by Bakerella) or even just make regular cake truffles, but never had the motivation to do it. Now, with a ruined, perfectly yummy tasting batch of red velvet cake, it seemed like as good a time as any.

The only problem is that I can't find candy melts ANYWHERE! So, to any of my friends in town who knows where to get this stuff that doesn't involve ordering it online, could you please give me a heads up?

Red velvet cake recipe

Cream cheese frosting recipe

1. Break up the cake in a large bowl, mix in the cream cheese frosting with a spatula, use your hands if you must
2. Roll into balls of about 1 1/4 inches diameter (I got lazy halfway through and now have mixed sizes)
3. Refridgerate for at least 1 hour or overnight

Chocolate coating:

• 3oz unsweetened chocolate
• 2oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 1/2 heavy whipping cream

1. Melt all ingredients in a double-boiler
2. Let it cool for a bit, then just roll your cake balls in the chocolate with two forks
3. Drop the ball onto prepared sheet of baking paper
4. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour

My first attempt at making cake balls produced some rather grotesque looking balls, but the taste and texture worked quite well for the kids in my family (and even some aunts!). I'll try to make them look prettier next time, and hopefully be able to find candy melts to use.

Have fun!

x Nabs

Productive Sunday

After about a year of no significant physical exertion, I decided to get off my steadily burgeoning behind and take up my friends on their invitation for their Sunday morning activities. The only problem is that we underestimated our early-20's Saturday night abilities to wear ourselves out. I was woken up on Sunday by my friends nearly knocking my door down, all dressed in their tennis whites (it's merely an expression, none of us wore white) and ready to go.

Mental note: When playing tennis in a tropical climate, past 8 am, book the indoor courts.

After some laughable attempts on the courts, and a quick dip in the pool, we decided to reward ourselves with a heavy lunch: Kanna Curry House banana leaf rice. You have NO idea the degree of satisfaction that I derived from the experience. If suffering in the morning means I get to enjoy carbs in the afternoon, then YES, bring it on!

However, all throughout the day, I kept thinking about the differences of baking with vegetable oil and applesauce. A friend made a comment to me a while back, about substituting vegetable oil with applesauce in every recipe he tries, and I've been wondering about it ever since.

That night, after a very long jam session, I got to baking the exact same recipe, but one with vegetable oil, and the other with applesauce.

Carrot Banana Bread (as seen in this previous post, made with butter)

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil OR 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup ripe mashed bananas (from 3 medium sized bananas)
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat your oven to 180C, and grease your 5"x3" loaf pan
2. Beat the vegetable oil OR applesauce and sugar in a large mixing bowl
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking sofa, salt and cinnamon
5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, alternating with the mashed bananas
6. Stir in the carrots and pecans with a spatula
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes
8. Cool the bread in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove onto the cooling rack and cool completely (I just left it out overnight, covered with kitchen paper)

I have to say that I prefer the texture and weight of the vegetable oil based recipe, even though the difference between the two are SO minute that you would only ever be able to tell the difference if you bake both at a time like I did.

The applesauce doesn't seem to affect the taste of the bread as much as I thought it would, however the weight is just slightly heavier than the other. Maybe I need to leave the bread in a little longer than I normally would to ensure that the batter dries completely.

Anyway, with the butter based recipe, it was a lot lighter, but also produced a more muffin-like texture. It smelled better too.

All in all, however, I'd have to say the vegetable oil makes the best bread. So I'll just go with that recipe from now on. Good to see that all three options provided good bread, though, so you're more than welcome to choose the one you prefer.

x Nabs