Pandan Graduation Cupcakes

The sad moment when most of your friends start to graduate and you are still doing your degree. Even though it is a sad moment, I made it a happy moment by getting out my creative skills and creating graduation cupcakes, with an all time favourite flavour of pandan.

Pandan Cupcakes (recipe guided by muchamunch)
Makes 12 standard cupcakes

Ingredients

125g butter (softened)

1/2 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

3 tbsp milk

1-2tsp of pandan essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

2. Using an electric or hand held mixer, combine sugar and butter until pale.

3. Add one egg and combine. Add additional egg once the first is well combined.

4. Add in pandan essence, and combine. 5. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

6. Add half the flour mixture, and half the milk into the green mixture, mix well.
7. Once combined, add the remaining flour and milk. The mixture should be nice and smooth.

8. Spoon mixture 2/3 in cupcake cases, and bake for 20 minutes.

NOTE**: I used 2 teaspoons in my attempt, but I found that it turned out too green for my liking. Since I have only made this once, I am not sure what colour it would turn out when using 1 teaspoon.

Buttercream Frosting

75g butter (softened) 

1 1/4 cups of icing sugar (sifted)

1tsp vanilla bean paste

2 tsp milk

1. Using an electric mixture, mix the butter until it becomes pale (almost white)
2. Gradually add in sifted icing sugar (one heaped spoon at a time), and continue adding spoonfuls once each previous spoon is combined.

3. Add milk 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency. Do not add too much.
4. Add in vanilla bean paste and combine.

NOTE** The addition of milk changes the consistency of the buttercream, so depending on how stiff or runny you would like the icing, depends on how much milk you add. If you feel that the icing is to your desired consistency without milk, then don't add it.

Graduation Hats

Materials:

Mini peanut reese's cups 

Melting chocolate (milk or dark)

Lindt chocolate block (milk or dark) - 10 individual pieces

Writing icing - any colour of choice.

White fondant/hard icing

Toothpicks

NOTES:

- Which ever chocolate you  use, ensure you get matching chocolates. i.e. milk melting chocolate, with milk lindt chocolate or vice versa.

- For the lindt chocolate, I used the thin flat block (blue packet) not the red packet.

- If you dont want to use block chocolate, you can melt chocolate and place in a piping bag and draw our your own squares to desired size.

- Miniature reese's cups can be found at costco or any speciality stores

Method

1. Melt 100g melting chocolate. (I used the microwave)
2. Carefully remove foil wrapper on mini reese's chocolate cup, and poke with a toothpick.

3. Dip into melted chocolate, and place on wax proof paper and remove toothpick.

4. Refrigerate until hardened (15 minutes). 

5. Neatly cut the lindt chocolate block into individual pieces.

6. Once reese's cups are hardened, place on cupcake (bottom side up).
7. Add a little bit of melted chocolate on top, and place lindt block on top (writing side down).

8. Leave to set.

9. Using writing icing,  add a tassel from the centre of the lindt block and drag to one side and leave to hang.

10. Using the fondant or hard icing, roll out small graduations scrolls.

11. Add little bow detail using writing icing.

As you can see, my bottom part was coated in dark chocolate, and I placed a milk chocolate lindt piece on top, and it looks funny. So I strongly advise using same coloured chocolate.

I made two cupcakes blank and using black writing icing to say Congrats Graduates. I wish all the graduates the best of luck, and hope they enjoyed the cupcakes!

Good food, good times!

V Cupcakes recipe

A fellow co worker of mine was leaving, and she loves drinking V. So as my parting gift, I thought I would make her V cupcakes. The V can also mean vegan, as the cupcake recipe itself does not use any animal products. However, I did top the cupcakes with a buttercream frosting, which isn't vegan.

Recipe guided by http://www.bakingmakesthingsbetter.com/2010/09/sugar-rush.html

(Makes 9-12 cupcakes, depending on the cupcake liners you use)

Ingredients:

1 cup ‘V’ energy drink
3/4 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cup plain flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Combine sugar and oil by mixing together - should still be able to see sugar crystals.

3. Add 'V', vanilla essence, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix together quickly.

4. Sift in flour and combine, the mixture will appear white.

5. Fill each cupcake case 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly brown.

NOTES:

*If you don't want to use V, you can substitute it with any flavoured drink of your liking - including soft drinks or juice.

Buttercream Frosting

125g butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups icing sugar (sifted)

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1 tablespoon of V

Method:

1. Using an electric mixer (stand or hand), mix the butter until it turns white.

2. Slowly add the icing sugar, and combing well before each addition.

3. Once all combined, stir in vanilla and V (ensuring the mixture doesn't become too runny). If it does, add a bit more icing sugar.

Please excuse my piping skills, there was some air pockets in the piping bag which caused some screw ups in the icing.

Good food, good times!

Sky Diving Themed Birthday Cake

The design of the cake was inspired by: http://www.kraftykakes.co.uk/Images/Picnik%20collage%20skydiving%20cake%20shrunk.jpg

This cake was made for my friends 21st birthday. He originally wanted a churro cake, but after attempting such a task, I knew it would fail. So with the element of surprise, I decided to make a sky diving themed cake (as we went sky diving for his birthday), and to continue with the theme, I made it with 7 layers (the colours of the rainbow). I have always wanted try making a rainbow cake, and this was the perfect occasion. 

Here are a few tips and things I learnt:

1. This was the first cake I have ever made using fondant, and from this experience I now know not to apply too much oil on the fondant or the fondant will crack when travelling.

2. Next time, double the recipe so I can cut bits off to make the layers more even and consistent.

3. Make and use butter cream on the day of cake preparation. If you do make it prior, refrigerate, and when you want to use it, re-whip the mixture using an electric mixer until it returns back to the normal consistency. (quite a tedious task)

4. Buy a cake base that is the size of the cake, and another for the cake to sit on, so the base of the fondant has a cleaner cut.

5. I only have 2 cake tins, so after each time, I quickly cleaned the cake tin, dried, and re greased.

6. Bake cakes a day before you plan to ice them, just so they are stable and easy to work with.

Rainbow Cake Recipe

Recipe guided by: http://www.marthastewart.com/256688/rainbow-cake

**NOTE: I used 20cm cake tins

3 cups plain flour, sifted

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

226g unsalted butter, softened

2 cups caster sugar

5 egg whites, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

Colours

Colouring paste (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet)

Baking cocoa

Food colouring (blue and red)

Toothpicks

Method

1. In a large bowl and using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together butter and sugar until combined.

2. Gradually at the egg whites and mix until well combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

4. Add flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture. Alternating between the 2, ending with the milk until all combined.

5. Add vanilla extract and stir with a spatula.

6. Divide the batter into seven bowls (roughly a cup of batter in each bowl)

7. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

8. Add colouring to each bowl, until desired effect. Here is how I got my colours.

Red: Add a teaspoon of cocoa and a few drops of red food colouring.
Orange: Using the toothpick, dab some of the orange colouring paste, and add to batter.

Yellow: Same as orange, but with yellow colouring paste

Green: I had two shades of green colouring paste, so I used a few dabs of both until I got the colour I wanted.
Blue: Add a teaspoon of cocoa, dabs of blue colouring paste and few drops of blue food colouring.

Indigo: This was quite a fluke, but it was composed of cocoa, blue and red food colouring. (I advise to combine blue and red food colouring in a separate bowl and testing a few bits of batter with the colour produced to see if you obtained the right colour)

Violet: Same as orange, except with violet colouring paste.

9. Transfer each colour into an individual cake pan of same size (or in batches like I did).

10. Bake for 13-15 minutes until a skewer comes out cleanly.

11. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Butter cream

454g unsalted butter, softened

6 cups of icing sugar, sifted

7-10 tablespoons of milk
**NOTE: This was just the right amount to fill my layers.

Method

1. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, mix the butter with 2 cups of sugar.

2. Once combined, slowly add more of the icing sugar until all has combined.

3. Add milk by tablespoons full, and continue mixing until desired consistency is achieved.

Sorry but I have no photo of my butter cream, but consistency should look similar to cream cheese icing, just slightly thicker.

Chocolate Ganache

500g thickened cream

350g milk chocolate

150g dark chocolate

Method

1. In a saucepan on medium to high, heat the thickened cream until just boiled.

2.Take saucepan off heat, and add chocolate ensuring all chocolate has melted. (If necessary put back on heat, but ensure chocolate doesn't burn)

3. Pour in a bowl and set aside.

Assembling the cake

1. Line cake board with pieces of baking paper (a tip I got from my sister in law), and a dollop of the ganache so the cake sticks and doesn't move.

2. Lay the first layer of the cake (violet) and brush off any crumbs. Top with butter cream. Continue this process until the last layer (red) is placed. 

**NOTE: During the layer process, try to make the cake as even and levelled as possible.

3. Pour about half the chocolate ganache on top of the cake and run along the edge of cake to create a crumb later, and fill in any craters where there is no butter cream. Refrigerate.

4. Using the rest of the ganache, create another coat on the cake, ensuring it is smooth and levelled. Refrigerate.

5. Gently remove the pieces of grease proof paper.
**TIP: Run a knife under and along the ganache, so that when you pull away the paper no ganache gets taken with it.

6. Place fondant over cake, and decorate as desired.

Using fondant

- Knead the fondant on a clean bench top, using corn flour. (Make sure you don't over work it, or then it becomes to warm and hard to work with)

- Roll out the fondant to about 3mm.

- Wrap the fondant loosely around the rolling pin, and place on top of cake.

- Using your hands, lightly pat the fondant against the cake, smoothing around the edges.

- Trim the fondant.

- To remove the corn flour, slightly spray the cake with oil.

- Once fondant is on the cake DO NOT REFRIGERATE! 

- Keep cake and any fondant in a cool dry place away from any sunlight or fluorescent light.

Decorations

Good food, good times!