Caramel Cake and Cupcakes almost like Estrel's

There's a time that I've been addicted to Estrel's Caramel Cake.  The cake looks simple but pretty and the taste is just light that before I knew it, I almost ate the half portion of the cake.  Now that I somehow know how to bake and have some tools to fluff an eggwhite, I made it for the first time for my bro's birthday.  I thought it was a total failure but after an hour, the caramel-y and yolky "frosting" sinked into the chiffon cake and it's so yummy I made another batch of mini cakes and cupcakes after a week.  All thanks to Heart of Mary for the recipe, please visit her site for the complete recipe and decoration of the cake.

VANILLA CHIFFON CAKE (recipe suitable for an 8” round, 3” high pan)

Ingredients:
(a) part one of the chiffon
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons white sugar

(b) part two of the chiffon
¼ cup corn/canola oil
4 egg yolks, from extra large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup water
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
(c) part three of the chiffon

4 eggwhites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons white sugar

How to:
1.  Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2.  In a large bowl, combine (a) well. Add in (b). Beat with electric mixer or by hand until smooth and well blended.
3.  In a separate bowl, beat eggwhites and cream of tartar on high speed until frothy. Gradually add in the sugar  and beat until stiff peaks are formed.
4.  Gradually and gently fold in egg whites into egg yolk mixture
5.  Pour batter into an ungreased 8” round, 3” high pan or to two cupcake pans. 
6.  Bake for about 50 minutes 8" pan or 15 to 20 minutes for cupcakes or until top springs back when lightly touched.
7.  Invert pan into wire rack immediately and cool completely before frosting.

I ran out of the caramel frosting, so I just put buttercream (which for me is just for decoration, it doesn't really have a special kick to it) on the other cupcakes instead.  And since I'm no expert in decorating cake, my minicakes have a messy but still decent look (like me).

CARAMEL ICING (enough to frost and fill 8” round cake)

Ingredients:
2 eggyolks
3/8 cup sugar, divided into 2 tbsp and 1/4 cup
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons full cream milk, divided into 1/4 cup and 1 1/4 cup
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

How to:
1.  In a small bowl, whisk the eggyolks with 2 tbsp sugar.
2.  Add 1/4 cup of milk and cornstarch.  Mix well and set aside.
3.  In a heavy saucepan; over low to medium heat, caramelized 1/4 cup sugar.
4.  When sugar is completely melted and already in a golden brown color, add boiling water.  Bring back to a boil making sure all the caramel is incorporated into the water by continously stirring.
5.  Carefully add the 1 1/4 cups of milk.  Heat mixture until it starts to boil.
6.  Without turning off the heat, pour a little of the caramel mixture into the eggyolk mixture to temper the eggs.  Mix until smooth.
7.  Pour the eggyolk mixture to the caramel mixture in the saucepan.
8.  Mix until icing reaches a thick but still pourable consistency.
9.  Off the fire, add the butter and extract.
10.  Let it cool just a little bit before pouring onto the cake.

Enjoy! And do check out Heart of Mary.

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Yema Cupcake with Pastillas De Leche more like Milky Cupcake to me

photo by my brother

I thought that this cupcake will be wicked:  yema (which is yolky and sweet) with pastillas de leche (which is milky and sweet) combine together?  Sounds wicked and ant friendly to me!  But it's the first time that one of my siblings commented that frosting is needed for the cupcake to have it's taste (he's not a fan of frosting) in short this actually has a very light sweetness that the frosting is needed for the cupcake to have it's own identity (and if you are following me on instagram, this is not the cake/cupcake that I've posted lately...that one is super yummy).

I got the Yema Cupcake with Pastillas De Leche Frosting a.k.a. Cielitos from Adora's Box blog.  The cupcake is supposed to be my resurgence after my defeat with a bun which totally failed (my siblings/guinea pigs thought it was hopia/mooncake) and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies which is too salty and  sweet (and I haven't found the perfect recipe, all seems to be the same sets of ingredients and amount with the one I based my cookies).

I wouldn't be putting the recipe here since I didn't alter the ingredients and method or research for an alternative recipe, I'll just try to explain the texture and taste of this cupcake.  The "cake" itself is so dense like a pound cake but it's not yolky or sweet like yema, it's more on the milky side and it's almost bland that it's a must to put a lot of frosting.

The frosting on the other side do taste like the pastillas de leche, milky with just the right amount of sweetness.  Combined these two together and you will get a Milky Cupcake.

p.s. I still suck at cake decorating and putting frosting

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Sinful Square Cookies

Who said that cookies should be circle???  No one right?  Perfect excuse for me sthen since my cookies became square/UFO (unidentified flat object) and that explains the square  in the name.  Sinful because this cookies have butter and sugar (usual), chocolate chips (still normal) and chocolate-hazelnut spread!!! (original recipe calls for Nutella but found a cheaper alternative for experiment)  Plus to add some more flavor and kick, salt is needed to this recipe).

Warning!  Picture below are...not the usual cookies that you usually in bakery counters but they are really good good good.

my precious~

I got this recipe from The Fat Kid Inside by Erwan (my sincere apologies Mr. Heussaff for not diligently following your recipe).  To be honest I didn't give my full attention when I watched the video, I'm focused reading the ingredients that maybe I missed an important part that can make my cookies perfect (so watch the video, okay?).  But aside from the shape everything is great and mind you I don't have any poper baking background plus I did everything manually so I'm positive that anyone with a happy mind can make these Browned Butter Sea Salt Nutella Cookie (the original Name).  So how good are these cookies?  Let's just say that a cookie monster attacked my cookies, seconds after I put them in a rack.  Just look at the picture below as an evidence.

Browned Butter Sea Salt Nutella Cookie by Erwan Heussaff
text in * are mine

Ingredients:
2 1/3 cup of sieved flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4tsp of salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/4cup white sugar
1 egg
1 yolk
1 tbsb of sour cream
1 cup of mixed milk and dark chocolate chips (*more chocolate chips than milk)
Nutella (*I used Goya)
Sea Salt Flakes (*I used regular iodized rock salt)

Procedure:
Mix together, 2 1/3 cup of sieved flour,1 tsp baking soda, 1/4tsp of salt.
Brown 1 cup of salted butter (or why not maple or bacon butter????) on low heat, you’ll see the butter get brown as you tend to it with a spoon.

Combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4cup white sugar, 1 egg, 1 yolk, 1 tbsb of sour cream.  Put in mixer. Mix.
Add brown butter.
Fold in Dry mix.
Mix in 1 cup of mixed milk and dark chocolate chips.
Put in the fridge for about 30mins - 1hour.  (*or longer)

(*the messy part) Form some balls with your hand about 2 inches thick.  Flatten them out, put a tbsp of nutella in the middle and fold the ball over again.  Place on parchment paper.  Bake at 350 fahrenheit for 15mins or until desired texture is achieved. Shorter times for chewy gooey cookies. Full time for nice hard cookies. When done, cool them on a rack with some sea salt flakes on top.

I prefer to bake the cookies for a full a5 minutes since it has more cookie texture but still chewy on the inside because of the chocolate spread the chocolates.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading. Till then. Bye!

Naked Cupcake #2: Another Choco

I know, I know the photo below is not appetizing but believe me, these cupcakes the I made are chocolatey thanks to Bake Happy!  Ohh just in case you're wondering why I call my cupcakes naked, well simply because I can't make any decent frosting but I'll try to look for good tricks on how to make some basics and maybe in the future my cupcakes will no longer me naked.

Basic Chocolate Cupcake

To be honest, I thought that my chocolate cupcakes are a total failure, tasting 5 minutes after baking.  But after around 3 hours, they become really moist.  Also found out that a cake flour really makes a difference:  no after taste and cupcakes are fluffier!

Recipe can be found here.  The recipe that Aikko share from her blog Bake Happy is for a cake but I made mine into cupcakes (I do not have a pan for a cake).

Moist Chocolate Cake

recipe from Bake Happy

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (all purpose flour is okay, but you can find cake flour, it would be better)

1 ½ cup sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ cup water

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure

1. In a bowl, mix mayonnaise and sugar until smooth

2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. It's up to you if you'd like to sift or dry whisk. Just make sure all four ingredients are well mixed.  (I used the dry whisk method)

3. Add a third of the flour mixture to the mayonnaise mixture

4. Add 1/2 of the water required. Now don't be discouraged if it looks sloppy once the water is added. It'll come together.

5. Repeat #3 and #4 until the flour mixture and water has been added to the mayonnaise mixture. Add the vanilla extract last.

6. Pour into a well greased pan and bake at 350F for 40-50 mins for cakes and 12-15 minutes for cupcakes. Make sure to tap the pans used to let the air out before baking.

Yields 12 medium size and 6 small size of cupcakes.  I added some chocolate bits on the smaller ones to make them more chocolatey~  And don't worry about the mayo ^_*

Thanks for reading. Till then. Bye!

Cake Pops!

Oh sweets, they make my heart melt and I wanted to create them with my own hands.  I started baking some cupcakes and it's...well okay except for the color since I used brown sugar instead of white.  Anyway, I have a lot leftover butter frosting and so I decide to make cake pops.

White Cake Pops with chocolate drizzle for texture

Here's what I used for the cake pops
1 whole chiffon cake (store bought ~teehee~)
1 cup butter frosting (for binding the cake)
4 cups chocolate chips + 4 tablespoons of canola oil for coating

Using my hands, I crushed the cake into small pieces.  Added the frosting then mixed making sure that every bit of the cake is coated.  Take around 2 tablespoon of the cake then form into balls.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (for better taste, cover the cake balls).

For the coating, I just mixed the chocolate chips and oil then pop it into the microwave for 45 seconds.

Next, assemble:  I can't find any plastic sticks so I used bamboo skewers instead (but I think this is not really necessary).  Dip the stick to the melted chocolate before inserting it to the cake ball then dip the whole cake ball and poof you have a cake pop!  Just remove the excess coating by tilting left and right then let it dry.  It's up to you if you want to add designs and embellishment.

cute or creepy?

The pink particles are chocolate + cheese.  Yep, I experimented a little J

Thanks for reading.  Till then.  Bye!

I'm Back

I'm back!  I know nobody misses me but I'm back, chocnut!  Reasons for the absence?  Disappearance of a computer to use and haggardness for daily posting.  I want to do blogging on a daily basis but my chubby body can't do it.  Oh well, here's what I've been up to lately.

top photo from A Beautiful Mess
bottom photo from The Fat Kid Inside

I love sweets; cakes and pastries, so I'm trying to bake some goodies for myself and my family and started with vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting then cakepops.  A little modification to the  ingredients and some more tool and the two will be perfect.  As per the cooking, well my chef brother is currently not present in the house so I'll do a lot of the cooking, I'm looking some recipes in The Fat Kid Inside and Ang Sarap.

top photo from A Beautiful Mess
bottom photo from Twinings

Tea, a substitute to my coffee since coffee can't maker me sleep (I love coffee but I guess the feeling is not mutual).  It's weird at first when I drink a hot cup of tea since I'm used to cold Milk Tea and Iced Tea but I begun to love it and is now looking for different kinds of tea.

Because of the planner, I'm now spending a little more just to get a stamp.  One more to go and freedom,i mean planner will be mine. Since I'm avoiding to drink coffee (as much as possible), I tried Double Chocolate which is super chocolatey but have to drop the whip cream next time and Matcha Green Tea Swirl which I think many will not like at first.  It's like eating grass with milk but I still like it! Yummy!