Happy Cupcakes!

Doesn't Cookie Monster look happy?? :) His fondant eyes were made with choc balls and white fondant. His happy mouth with half a choc round and his fluffy fur with desiccated coconut colored with blue coloring and a bit of water. Like his shocked expression above? Ran out of chocolate rounds so I used an upside down choc chip :)

Rainbows make me happy too :) 

Oh and funny faces - this is N's creation with Kashi's cereal. 

And finally my snowball cupcakes with colored balls just for fun :)

Chocolate cupcakes with some buttercream on them.

Dunk them in a bowl of desiccated coconut and walah! Yummy happy cupcakes :)

Pretty Fondant Cupcakes

Ta-dah! My first attempt at making fondant cupcakes. Made them for my ol friend from school days - for her daughter's 7th birthday. I didn't realize how much time it takes to mold 25 cupcakes, until I molded 25 cupcakes! But I had fun making them. For an amateur like me the following tools were indispensable.

My stainless steel rolling pin with 1/8" washers on either side. I have tried in the past to roll fondant "free-hand" and unless you have precision of a machine(or have years of fondant rolling experience - which I don't!), I dare say it is nearly impossible to get it the same thickness every time - much less for 25 cupcakes! So yes, the tools do make a difference - especially for amateurs like me :) Those purple babies helped me roll out the fondant perfectly even every time before I cut out the shapes.

The washers came in a small pack for RM2 at Bake With Yen. The pink washers are half the thickness of the purple ones - to make more delicate shapes like leaves/flowers. I had seen them before and always wondered what they were used for. So for those of you who had the same question - now you know :) 

Alphabet cutters were a steal too! RM5.50 only for the whole alphabet at Chang Tung! You can probably guess how the other cutters were used. 

Cupcakes. Pretty. Birthdays. Satisfied! 

Simple Pretty Cupcakes Technique

Aren't these pretty? 

And so simple to do... 

Use a star tip and pipe small stars with your usual buttercream frosting all over the cupcake. Make a mistake? Just pipe cover your mistake! Top with a slice of fruit, and wa lah! Irresistible pretty cupcakes that will impress your tea guests. Thanks TC for the great idea!

 I will definitely be using this technique again ;)

Indulgence - Chocolate Walnut Cupcakes

This certainly looks like indulgence, doesn't it? Well, you betcha! Chocolate walnut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting with a a touch of orange peel. All I can say is YUM YUM YUM! Made these for my sister's birthday. I used the never-fail chocolate cake recipe I learnt from an American colleague of mine when I did a stint of teaching. Super easy, super delicious! Don't even need to use a mixer (for the cake that is)

American Chocolate Cake Recipe

1. Melt 6oz(170g) butter.

2. Mix in 1/2 cup cocoa powder. Leave to cool.

3. Sift 2 cups flour, 2 tsp bicarbonate soda & 2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp. of salt

4. Add 2 cups of sugar (I used 3/4 cup brown sugar to reduce the sweet)

5. Add in 2 beaten eggs and mix

6. Add 2 cups of boiling water and then butter & cocoa mixture. Stir like a crazy person :) Don't worry about the lumps, they will soon disappear. (I added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts at the end)

7. Pour into cupcake liners (makes about 20 cupcakes) or into greased cake tin

8. Bake at 170C for 18 mins (45 mins for normal cake) until firm in the centre

9. Cool them on a wire rack and FROST and decorate!

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

1. Cream 4 oz butter and 8 oz cream cheese till fluffy

2. Add 1 tsp. vanilla essence and gradually add 2 cups of sifted icing sugar (to taste and consistency)

3. Add zest of one orange, mix it in

4. FROST!

and indulge... :)