Thanksgiving Pumpkin Cupcakes

Happy Thanksgiving. Have a beautiful day with your families and friends, give Thanks to God and anyone who contributes to your life :) Make them cupcakes with piped flowers ❤

Pumpkin Cupcakes

For the cupcakes

240g self-raising flour
240g light muscovado sugar
4 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
140g sultanas
½ tsp salt
3 large eggs , beaten
160g butter , melted
zest 2 oranges
2 tbsp orange juice
425g pumpkin puree

For the cream cheese frosting

200g pack cream cheese
100g butter, softened at room temperature
400g icing sugar , sifted
zest 1 orange

Makes 12 cupcakes

Method

For the cupcakes

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C and line 12-cups muffin tin with muffin cases.
2. Put the flour, sugar, spice, bicarbonate of soda, sultanas and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine.
3. Beat the eggs into the melted butter, stir in the orange zest and juice, then mix with the dry ingredients till combined.
4. Stir in the pumpkin.
5. Fill the muffin cups with the batter evenly and bake for about 45-55 mins or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the cream cheese frosting

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy, gradually add the icing sugar and beat until well combined.
2. Stir in the cream cheese.
3. Spoon the cream cheese frosting into a piping bag with the nozzle you like.


I coloured 3 tablespoons of frosting yellow as the stigma of the flower, and coloured the rest in light peach colour, piped with a petal nozzle for this peony flower effect.

Matcha Green Tea Marble Cake 抹茶マーブルパウンドケーキ

Looking at the calendar, not long till the festive season to come and not long till I go home for Christmas - it is time to start doing some Christmas shopping too! I love all the sparkling Christmas lights, decoration, markets, carnivals, presents, dinners and parties :-D

I picked up a few large platters of nice sushi on the way home after shopping, umm... I felt like something was missing after dinner..nice dinner needs to be completed by nice dessert :-P Good that I have this Matcha Green Tea Marble Cake in mind to match the theme ♫ this recipe can be adapted to make chocolate marble cake. It is soft and I like to serve it warm.

Matcha Green Tea Marble Cake

For the vanilla mix

100g butter, softened at room temperature
100g caster sugar
2 free-range eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla essence
100g self-raising flour

For the matcha green tea mix (can be substituted by cocoa powder for chocolate mix)

100g butter, softened at room temperature
100g caster sugar
2 free-range eggs, at room temperature
70g self-raising flour
30g matcha green tea powder (can be substituted by cocoa powder)
30g matcha green tea chocolate, melted (optional, can be substituted by dark/milk chocolate)

A 23 x 13-cm loaf tin, greased.

Method:

For the vanilla mix

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the tins.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a bowl until pale for at least 5 mins.
3. Add and mix in the eggs gradually and stir in vanilla extract.
4. Sift the flour into the mixture and stir until well-combined. Set aside.

For the matcha green tea mix

1. In another clean bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a bowl until pale for at least 5 mins.
2. Add melted chocolate to the mix, and beat in the eggs gradually.
3. Sift the flour and matcha green tea powder (or cocoa powder) into the mixture and stir until well-combined.


4. Spread the green tea (or chocolate) mix into the tin first with a spoon, then spread the vanilla mix on top.
5. With a teaspoon, fold through bit by bit, then run a fork through for marbling effect.
6. Bake for 50 mins to 60 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes and come out clean.
7. Leave it on a wire rack to cool or serve warm.

Vanilla Cheesecake

It becomes so dark in the afternoon and makes me feel like time for the shops to close and time to go home...I end up having plenty of time in the evening reading cookbooks, baking, enjoying my tea and updating my blog :-O

I was looking at some cookbooks, I wanted to make (have) some cheesecake :) as i have all ingredients  ready at home.

I was making some rose and jasmine buds tea, I thought I could add some dried flower tea buds for presentation, they look so pretty ❤❤

Vanilla Cheesecake

Ingredients

For the crust

160g crusted digestive biscuits or oats cookies (I used Hob Nob Cookies)
45g melted butter
15g maple syrup

For the cheesecake filling

150g butter melted, plus extra to grease the tin
750g low-fat cream cheese
160g sugar
4 large eggs
3 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

Utensils

8-inch baking tin

Method

1. Grease the baking tin with butter.
2. Mix the crusted cookies/biscuits with the melted butter and maple syrup.
3. Press the mixture into the bottom of the tin and frost for 5 minutes in the freezer.
4. Preheat oven to 210C.
5. Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth.
6. Add eggs, melted sugar gradually, sift and stir in the flour.
7. Mix in the vanilla bean paste until well incorporated.
8. Pour the mixture into the tin, bake at 210C for 35-40 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes and come out clean.
9. Leave them on wire rack to cool.
10. Chill for 3 hours minimum before serving.

Victoria Sponge Ruffle Cake

As you can see I have changed the header and footer of the website a bit, this is the other design I have been thinking of, I am quite bad in coding...it does take me quite a while to figure some of the codes out, no idea how people can code a whole website or some electronic trading systems :-P

Back to my area, I made this Victoria Sponge Cake a few weeks ago to practise my piping skills :) I have quite a lot of nozzles at home, this large petal one is one of my favourites, which helps create this sweet ruffle effect.

The same nozzle can also do a large rose.

The sugar rose cake topper was made by flowerpaste :) presentation matters a lot, thatz why I  am so addicted to sugarflowers ;)

Victoria Sponge Ruffle Cake

For the Sponge

200g butter, softened at room temperature
200g caster sugar
4 free-range eggs, at room temperature
3 tsp vanilla essence
200g self-raising flour
3 x 6 inches round sandwich tins

For the Buttercream Filling 

(you will need to made 1.5 portion of this buttercream to get enough amount for piping the ruffles)
250g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
250g icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
a few drops food colouring
3 tbsp good quality raspberry jam

Method:

For the Sponge

1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease and line greaseproof paper into the tins.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a bowl until pale for at least 5 mins.
3. Add and mix in the eggs gradually and stir in the milk and vanilla extract.
4. Sift the flour into the mixture and stir until well-combined.
5. Spoon and divide the mixture into 3 tins evenly by weighting out the amount.
6. Bake 20 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes and come out clean.
7. Leave them on wire rack to cool.

For the Buttercream Filling

1. Beat the butter by adding the icing sugar gradually in a large bowl until soft.
2. Add the milk, vanilla essence and food colouring, whisk until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

To assemble

1. Spread the butter cream over the sponge, top it with jam and sandwich the second sponge on top, and repeat.
2. Place the last sponge on the top and cover the whole cake with a thin layer of buttercream.
3. Spoon the remaining buttercream mixture into a piping bag with a petal nozzle, pipe onto the side of the cake in strips of zigzag motion for the ruffle effect.
4. Serve and enjoy :)

Super Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog and Pacman Cupcakes

Winnie from WLFF asked me if I could sponsor cupcakes for a 80s retro game themed charity event, it helps to raise funds for charity to build new schools in Nigeria. She approached me after seeing the PS3 cake and thought I could helping making some cupcakes with Super Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog and Pacman etc to match the 80s theme for 150+ guests. I also realized she is a friend of Azzy and Omar's, and it was for a charity event, I took on this large order.

Thinking of the popular flavours like Red Velvet, Vanilla Marshmallow, Oreo Chocolate, Banana and Carrot Cupcakes would be nice for guests to have different variety to choose from. I also took the colour scheme into account because I wanted Mario, Sonic, Pacman and friends to look good on cupcakes :)

I do think my time management skill is quite good, I managed to go out a few nights and still had enough time to hand-make the cupcake toppers during the week with sugarpaste. Which one do you like most?

Super Mario and friends look the best on Vanilla Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting.

Sonic the Hedgehog and friends on Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.

Pacman and friends are best on Chocolate Cupcakes with Oreo Frosting!

I left Carrot Cupcakes and Red Velvet Cupcakes without any toppers as I think some people might prefer a simple cupcake to eat. I totally broke my record making 100+ cupcakes! 

Delivering them was another massive challenge!! Putting them nicely in big boxes and carrying them carefully were under our own control, but bumps on the road were not :,-( will definitely ask the driver to drive very slowly next time.

I walked into the venue and was amazed by all the details and effort Winnie and her friends put in to set up the place. It was truly a 80s themed event with all the retro old school computer and board games classics like Sega, Pacman, Super Mario Bros, Twister, Giant Jenga. There were also table football, pool tables, darts, DJs, photoshooting corner etc, and a very eye-catching huge display of confectionery table for my cupcakes ❤

It was a great success of the event & my cupcakes (^o^)♫  Very well done to Winnie and her friends and Cherie Kelly ;-P 

Halloween Bake Off & Cake

We had Halloween Bake Off at work on Monday, I wasnt sure if I could enter because I was very busy with the PS3 cake on Sunday, I however always want to support the committee team who organised it, so I decided to make a strawberry fraisier which I saw from the Great British Bake Off, I was very glad the cake went well :-D

Halloween Bake Off at work last year was the reason I suddenly started baking. Before that, I only bake a few times a year, cooking is more of my strength, I do make nice dinner almost every other day. We have "Come Dine with Me" cooking competition every 4-6 months at work (yes our social committee always organize very fun events for us), I usually bring in roast dinner because they are easy to make and serve well for a lot of people. We started having Bake Off for Halloween last year, I had no plan to enter as I didnt even own a hand-held whisk back at that time, I was just anticipating tasting a lot of different cakes :-P

Guess what, a few weeks before the Bake Off  we had a townhall meeting with our department head talking about all the achievements of the year, he also mentioned about the social committee and all the events we had, he added unexpectedly.. "Kelly you have been winning Come Dine With Me, we are looking forward to your cake in Halloween Bake Off" in front of 300 people!!...

How could I turn it down? I was then baking everyday for the rest of 2 whole weeks before the Bake Off, my record was making 9 whole cakes in 2 evenings! 50% failed 50% alright, I felt sorry for my friends who volunteered to be my genuine pigs :-P (they were so scared of cakes after tasting for 2 weeks lol very funny memories) I nailed down a few cakes for them to pick for the competition, they said Carrot Cake would be too boring, Tarte Tatin would like a breakfast, Green Tea Cheesecake would not be popular, Pear Charlotte would need the mousse filling to be improved...

I made Pear Charlotte again and took it work, finger crossed the mousse did come out perfectly fine on the day :-D competition went well too :) Baking has become an addictive hobby since then, skills and taste definitely improved a lot, no more sad faces eating my cakes, all are now happy faces ♫

A lot of people thought I made the little pumpkins for this year's cake, I really didnt have enough time, i bought them as marshmallow and drew the faces:

I like Halloween (minus Hurricane Sandy this year), I like the atmosphere especially when everyone dresses up, clubs/pubs/streets/tube everywhere is full of ghosts ;)