Mocha cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting

What inspired me to bake these little cupcakes? Hmm...., after tasting the cupcakes by Plain Vanilla at Yong Siak Street in Tiong Bahru enclave, I wanted to bake cupcakes that's soft, moist and light like theirs. Furthermore, I have vanilla swiss meringue buttercream in my freezer. A very good motivation since I do not need extra effort and time to make the buttercream. Not to forget the chopped peanuts too. Better use them while still fresh and crunchy.

Good Old Coffee Peanut Cake

Feeling nostalgic? I miss those good old traditional little cakes topped with sweet-salty buttercream. These little cakes usually come in a box of 10 and given to relatives as part of an upcoming wedding celebration. The cakes usually come in small rectangular size of different flavors and colors. I remembered my sister, brother and I trying to reach out to our favourites before they ended up in each other's stomach. The decorations were simple - piped buttercream dotted with cherries, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, edible wafer flowers, chopped peanuts or almond flakes. Back then, cakes are a luxury. Just like durians. I remembered my parents would spread out newspaper on the floor before opening up the thorny fruits. All of us would then compete how fast and how many of the pungent fruit we could eat. Imagine having one fruit in the mouth and the other hand holding on to another fruit. It was a luxury my family enjoyed. To finish off the durian feasting, my mom would put salt water on the durian husks for us to drink. It's supposedly to clear the heat in our body system as durians are considered heaty food. We would wash down with mangosteens too if they were available because mangosteens will neutralize the heatiness of the durians. Such wonderful and memorable good old days. Nowadays, I can eat all the durains I want at my own pace as my children and hubby don't fancy this pungent, thorny fruit. Not so exciting anymore ... Food always taste better if we have to fight for it. Don't you agree?

Chocolate Cappuccino Cake

Just in time to bake a cake for hubby's birthday after getting back from a golfing holiday in Hainan Island, China. Great golf courses, food and fun with a bunch of golfing buddies from the club. Weather this year was extremely hot, unexpected. Last year, all of us were unprepared and caught in an unusually cold weather. So we thought we'd better bring warmer clothing. But weather turned out otherwise .....

I can't remember when was the last time I baked a birthday cake for hubby, not to mention mine as our birthdays coincided with travels. I'm determined to bake one this year. Wanted to make a simple and fuss-free one - chocolate and coffee flavor. That's easy - chocolate genoise sponge cake with coffee-flavored fresh cream frosting, something I've not tried before. The closest one was coffee swiss meringue buttercream.

Coffee Walnut Muffins

Coffee Walnut Muffins

Ingredients:

70g plain flour

30g cake four

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

4 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 30ml hot water

1 large egg at room temperature

65g caster sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

45g unsalted butter, melted

50g fresh milk

Handful of lightly toasted walnuts

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven at 200 degree celsius.

Line a 6-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners

Method:

1. Sift the 2 flours, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. In another bigger mixing bowl, beat the egg and caster sugar until creamy. Add in the vanilla extract, cooled coffee mixture, melted butter and fresh milk. Mix well.
3. Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture above. Using a rubber spatula, mix until all the ingredients are just incorporated. Add in some of the walnuts (leave some for decorating the top of muffins) and mix gently. Do not overmix or you will end up with tough muffins.
4. Scoop the dough into each cupcake liner, filling it up to the brim.
5. Sprinkle each muffin with whole walnuts.
6. Bake at 200 degree celsius for the first 5 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180 degree celsius and bake for the next 15 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and leave them to cool on wire racks.

Makes about 5 large muffins