Chocolate Christmas cupcakes

Viennese kisses

There was a time, a long time ago now actually, when I use to bake cookies almost on a daily basis - it has been years since I have done that. Baking these made me relive my childhood memories of when I first started baking and baked everything in the first cook book I ever owned - a book dedicated to hundreds of cookie recipes, these are also from there.

I decided these would be a nice little treat alongside cupcakes that I gave my friends today in little goodie bags as part of their Christmas present. Having such a high butter content, these little delectable goodies melt in your mouth. I purposely piped them quite small, about 1.5cm because my first batch, I actually piped way too big and they turned out to be large cookies - these ones above, are little bit sized cookies you can just pop into your mouth.

red velvets

I thought I'd finally give these a go, since everyone I know seems to be baking them. I like how they have a little back story to them - the chemical reaction of the cocoa powder with acidic properties of the buttermilk and white vinegar create the cupcake's red colour, and hence the name. Nowadays we tend to add extra food colouring to this to get that nice, delectable, bright red colour  ( this recipe used 20ml's of colouring!) 

Gotta thank my friend who recommended this recipe to me from the cake mistress ;

Cupcake recipe:

60 g Unsalted Butter, room temp
150 g Caster Sugar
1 large Egg, lightly beaten
10 g Cocoa Powder
20 ml Red Food colouring, gel/paste
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
120 ml Buttermilk
150 g Plain flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Bicarb Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon White wine Vinegar

Cream cheese frosting:

300 g Icing sugar, sifted
50 g Unsalted butter, room temp
125 g Cream Cheese, slightly softened

Cheers to the cake mistress for the fab recipe! 

For the full recipe and method : http://thecakemistress.com/blog/freerecipes/cupcakes-muffins/red-velvet-cupcakes/

Gotta thank my brother for lending me his Canon 40D so I could take these awesome pictures!

macaron maniac

If you're one of my close friends or family, you would know that I'm currently obsessed with baking macarons. The first time I attempted to make them, boy I was  pumped with excitement, only to fail, and so was my second, third and fourth time and who knows how many times I tried after that. The mixture was too runny or too thick, feet didn't form, the shells cracked, they discoloured... oh the heart ache. 

But after a lot of blood, sweat and tears ( and a lot of determination might I add), I came across a legendary recipe I found on the internet which simply just worked. 

Recipe:

For the Macarons

120g egg whites, divided

35g sugar

150g finely ground almonds

150g confectioners sugar

For the sugar syrup:

150g sugar & 50g water

The recipe and method can be found at the original site ;

http://www.myfoodgeek.com/2007/06/08/almost-foolproof-macarons/

 -B