Low Fat Yogurt Cupcakes

Low fat yogurt cupcakes, does this sound healthy to you? It sure did for me.. looking for something not too sweet but yet sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth and I found this from fellow blogger. The cake uses yogurt with very little butter, so no worry about trans fat. Adding yogurt to increase the calcium content, it is just perfect for me, since my doctor advise me to take at least 16oz of milk a day just to make sure I have enough daily calcium intake.
The cake is very light and soft right from the oven. Not too sweet. Since I have about 1/4 cup of chocolate chip left from my previous baking ( not sure when, but must be long time ago), thought just mix it in to kick it up a notch. This recipe enough to prepare 9 cup cakes, instead of using mixture, I whisked everything with hand therefore I did not follow exactly the method used from the original recipe. Next time I would double the recipe for ease mixing the ingredients with electric mixture.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 whole egg
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter (approx 45 g)
• 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Handful of chocolate chips ( optional)
  

Method:

• Preheat oven to 355F.
  
• Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
  
• Whisk whole egg and set aside.
  
• Beat the butter until soften, gradually add sugar and beat until soften and mixed well.
  
• Dribble eggs in slowly and continue beating for a minute.
  
• Add yogurt and mix well then add the flour to the mixture. Continue beat for another 2 minutes.
• Add in choc chip and mix well.
  
• Scoop into lined muffin tins about 3/4 cup full.
  
• Bake for about 17-20 minutes and a tester inserted comes out clean.

** Bake about 9 cupcakes

I do notice the cake get a bit dense on the next day, wonder why? Keen to share any good cupcake recipes that will produce a light and airy cake that last for a couple days?

Another Success?

8 more weeks to go before baby #2 arrive, I guess it's time for me reduce my cooking and baking but stay relax, eat more and get more sleep. I was suppose to gain 1lb each week in my 3rd trimester but I have been loosing weight due to my illness in the past 2 weeks. Not a good sign :( Before I quit I want give my egg tart one more try.
So what do you think of the outcome? A success? well.. Hubby thinks that I still need to work on the crust a little more. I agreed with him but I still call this a success for a second trial. Not bad at all. To be frank, I was so surprise how this turn out as you know my first egg tart was a disaster.
The custard filling was very soft and moist just like the store bought, don't you think? This recipe is certainly a keeper. I am thinking for my next trial, I might swap the water and fresh milk amount to get a creamier custard filling.

Amelia, Just want to Thank You for your wonderful recipe and instruction. You are me hero haa..

Pastry Ingredients:

• 360 g flour
• 188 g butter
  
• cold water 3 tbsp
• 1 1/2 egg yolk
• 6 tbsp icing sugar
• 2 tbsp custard powder

Method:

• Sieve the flour,custard powder, icing sugar together.
• Cut the butter into small cube and use your finger tips to mix till resemble bread crumbs.
• Beat the yolk lightly and mix into the flour mixture and add cold water.
• Knead lightly till the dough is from and pliable. Do not over knead the dough.
• Roll out the dough press lightly into the egg tart mold.
• Prick lightly with a fork and bake 320F for 8-10 minutes and remove from the oven.
  

Custard filling Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• 16 tbsp water
• 8 tbsp fresh milk
• 150 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 tsp custard powder.

Method:

• Mix the water,milk, sugar and boil lightly till sugar melt.
• Beat the egg lightly with a fork, add custard powder and mix well.
• Pour 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture and stir well to temper the egg.
• Then pour the entire milk mixture into the egg and mix well.
• Sieve the egg mixture to remove any lumps before used.
• Fill the pastry with custard and baked for 25 to 30 minutes at 320F until the custard is set. ( Adjust temp according to oven)

*** about 15 egg tarts

Pandan Sponge Cake

I love pandan cake and have wanted try make pandan chiffon cake forever but just never get the chance to do it. Originally I was planning to bake a pandan layer cake for my birthday but plan changed, didn’t really get to bake anything but end up with a mini store bought cake to share with my family. Still tempting to try the panda layer cake until I found this simple recipe from KC forum.

The cake is quite moist, soft and spongy. This is perfect to share with your friend who are lactose intolerance because it doesn't content any butter or milk. However, it has a very high contain of eggs. 8 eggs or more for the cake in this size. Don't think this something you want to eat everyday for health reason :)

This recipe is very simple and straight forward. The only downside is you have to use Sponge Cake Mix which I don’t think you can get it anyway in US. I brought the cake mix from Malaysia last Nov and I am so glad that I did.

Ingredients:

• 435g sponge cake mix
• 400g eggs ( about 8 eggs)
• 100g coconut milk
• 2 tsp sponge gel (ovalette)
• 1 tsp pandan paste
• PAM to coat the cake pan

Method:

• Preheat oven to 360F
• Grease a aluminum foil or parchment paper lined 10" cake pan with PAM
• Using a cake mixer, beat all the ingredients together on low for 1 minute.
• Turn to high and beat for another 12 minutes till cake mix is foam-like and very very thick.
• Pour into cake pan.
• Put the cake pan on a baking tray filled with about 1 cm of water. (This is the baine marie; culinary technical terms)
• Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes to an hour
• After cake is done, do not remove the cake from the oven immediately but leave the oven door slightly ajar and allow cooling for 15 to 20 mins before remove from the oven.

Wake up with Light and Fluffy Pancakes

The All You Can Eat Pancakes promotion is going on at IHOP right now and I was considering going there for breakfast during the weekend. After some deep thought, I started to wonder how many pancakes can I eat at 1 time? Is it really a good deal? After all, I don't want to make myself look like a giant pancakes when leaving the restaurant. So I decided to whip up a small batch of pancakes at home for myself and my family of course, just to satisfy my craving and dream.

This recipe was adapted from Florence, Since I don't any buttermilk at home, i uses 2% fresh milk and while i am typing, i just realized i forgot to add the oil to my batter. Oh well.. it still taste good in my opinion without the oil.

Ingredients: (Click here for the original version)

• 120g self-rising flour
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 25g sugar
• 190ml 2% milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 4 tbsp oil
  
• PAM to coat the pan
• Blueberries for topping ( optional)

Method:

• Mixed all ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk until the batter is smooth
• Used a non-stick pan, spray a thin layer of PAM on a medium heat
• Pour in desired amount of batter or i used 1/4 size cup over the pan and let it cook pancakes until the bubbles appear on it. You can add any topping or fruit at this point before turning the pancakes over
  
• Turn the pancakes over and cook until brown
  
• I serve mine with Apricot syrup and butter. Yum Yum..
  

This is my kiddie version for Aidan. 1/2 size smaller then the adult version, no syrup but with fresh blueberries and a touch of butter. He love it so much that he actually finish 4 of the pancakes and still asking for MORE!

Yogurt Cake with Lemon

While I was browsing to find out what to bring to my friend's potluck lunch last week, I came across this yogurt cake in a few blogs with different flavor and modified recipes. After reading the comments on the blog on how easy it is to back this cake, I decided this will be my cake of week for my party. The first cake I baked, come out flat, actually the cake sink in the middle when it get cold. I get very disappointment, wonder why and what causes it and whether i should try another one or is it ok to bring the cake to potluck? I spend the whole afternoon thinking about it and decided to bake cake number 2. I once read that the cake sink in the middle might due to the over temperature is too low. I am pretty sure I have the temperature set correctly however, the oven that I had is not convection oven. I suspect the temperature in my oven are not uniform. So this time in stead of placing the batter in the middle of the over, I place it on the 2nd top level. The 2nd cake come out so much better, well at least not sink in the middle. The cake is rather dense as oppose to soft :( I think it's time to get a new oven for myself. I wonder if that the reason why all my cake come out quite dense while i am expecting a soft moist cake??

Here's the 2nd cake I made:

The recipe is from Orangette.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup canola oil

For the glaze:

• Juice from 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate. At first, it will look like a horrible, oily mess, but keep stirring, and it will come together into a smooth batter. Pour and scrape the batter into a buttered 9-inch round cake pan (after buttering, I sometimes line the bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and then I butter that too).
• Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.
• Cool cake on a rack for about 20 minutes; then turn it out of the pan to cool completely.
• When the cake is thoroughly cooled, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.
• Serve.

Banana Nut Muffin from Tyler Florence

I love banana but I am not crazy about it. In fact I prefer banana bread, banana muffin, banana fritter and fried banana over just the plain banana fruit. Aidan loves banana, so we usually bought some banana home from our Costco shopping. One thing that I hate about banana is they tend to get ripe all together at the same time unless I brought it from the regular store where I can choose to have different ripeness for each smaller bunch of banana. So this is another day where I have some left over banana in my fridge turning black. Saw the beautiful muffin pictures from rasa Malaysia, I decided to wipe up the banana muffin again, YES again but this time I am trying the recipe from one of my favorite food network star Tyler Florence except I used replace pecan with walnut.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 overripe bananas
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnut, chopped
  

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
• Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture.
• With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes.
• Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.
• Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.
• Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. \Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.
• Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
• Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out.
• Serve warm or at room temperature.

Coffee Cupcakes

I need to prepare a cake or 8 cupcakes for my last week cake decorating class, while I was searching for unique recipes for cupcakes, i came across this Vietnamese Coffee Cupcakes recipes from Cupcake by Chockylit. Coffee Cupcakes sound interesting, since I don't have the Vietnamese coffee equipment at home and i do have a big tin of Foldger that we trying to finish up before long, i modify the original recipe by replacing the Vietnamese coffee with Foldger. This is my modified recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup Splenda
• 2large eggs, room temperature
• 1-3/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 3/8 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp coffee grounds

Method:

• Beat butter until soft, about 30 seconds.
• Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
• Measure out coffee and milk together.
• Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
• Add about one third the coffee/milk mixture and beat until combined.
• Repeat above, alternating flour and coffee and ending with the flour mixture.
• Fold in the teaspoon of coffee grounds.
• Scoop into cupcake papers about half to three-quarters full
• Bake for 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Make 12 cupakes.

This cake has a super intense coffee flavor which is delicious, but the downside of the cake is the texture is quite dense compare to the regular cupcake. The cake get dried out if you don't finish it soon enough or keep it too long in the fridge.

Banana Muffin

What do you do if you have some ripe banana sitting in your kitchen? Found to recipe from my favourite food blog. A steam banana cake or banana muffin. So hubby think that steam banana cake sound a little wierd so we decide to try lily's banana muffin this time.

Ingredients:

• 75g/3oz vegetable oil
• 250g/9oz self-raising flour or 250 g all-purpose flour + 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 115g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp banana essence
• 3 medium, ripe bananas
• 2 large eggs
• 125ml/4fl oz milk
• Walnuts

Method:

• Heat the oven to 375F
• Mash the bananas well. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large bowl, add caster sugar and stir through.
• With a fork, beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, banana essence, oil and milk in a second bowl. Add the mashed banana and stir through.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg mixture, fold in with a biggest spatula (don't over mix) until it is a lumpy paste.
• Grease the moulds well with a little extra oil or butter and using an icecream scoop, spoon in the mixture until almost full. Top each one with some walnut.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins come away from the side of the pan when touched. Rest the muffin tray on a wire rack for five minutes then remove the muffins and leave on the rack for another five minutes before serving.

Serves 15

Dorayaki (Japanese Red Bean Cake)

Have you ever watch the Japaneses animation called Doraemon? Dorayaki is Doraemon favorite’s food. I never had Dorayaki until I came to the US. Since then I am addicted to the cake. You can find this cake from most of the Korean or Japanese groceries store but I think they are quite pricey. I found this recipe from the web and decided to give it a try and they turns out great. They are very easy to make but need a lot of patient when making the pan cake.
Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 8 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp milk
• 2 tsp Honey
• 180g self rising flour
• 400g Anko (Sweet red bean) or enough for the filling

Method:

• Beat eggs in a bowl and whisk it with a hand whisk, then slowly add in sugar and continue whisk very well or until the mixture turn pale
• Add milk and honey in the egg mixture
• Add sifted flour in the egg mixture gradually until the mixture becomes a smooth
• Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let it stand for 30 minutes
• Heat a non stick pan in medium low heat.
• Pour a scoop of the batter in the pan to make it a small pancake. (I used 1 tbsp size scoop)
• Heat a frying pan and lightly oil it. Pour a scoop of the batter in the pan and make a small pancake.
• Turn over when bubbles appear on the surface (about 3 minutes) and cook the 2nd side for 40 sec to 1 minute max.
• The pan cake should have 1 side with coffee color and another side with pale brown color
• Place the cake on the wire rack and let it cool.
• To assemble the cake, look for 2 pieces with about the same shape and side.
• Place 1 scoop of anko (sweet red bean) on the pale yellow side and cover with another cake with the same side

Makes 14 sandwiches.

If you never heard about Doraemon, you might want to enjoy the video of Doraemon Episode 1 below:

Nutella Frosted Cupcakes

I love cup cake. They are so cute and I think they are perfect for kids' birthday party. As plan for my son's 1st birthday party this August, I decided to bake some cupcakes as his birthday cake. I have never bake cup cakes before, with my baking skill, I think it is probably a good idea to practice now.

Here it goes.. My first cup cake creation Nutella Frosted Cupcakes from BakingBites


The cup cakes looks overflow to me. According to the recipe, I should able to make 12 cup cakes from this measurement, and here it goes 12 overflow cupcakes :( I am quite disappointed with the look of the cake but the cake does taste good. The cake is very Soft and light, very rich buttery flavor with a touch of nutty flavor. Yummmm no wonder for those who tried this recipe gave it a thumbs up.

I guess it's going to be a Cupcakes Summer for me this year. Stay tune for more Cupcakes adventure.

Malaysian Style Steam Sponge Cake (Ma Lai Kao)

Malaysian steam sponge cake is one my favorite dim sum. I have to order it every time we went for a dim sum brunch. But here in USA, you can find all different kind of Ma Lai Kao, depends on which dim sum restaurant you went. Most of them taste like a regular steam sponge cake rather than the Malaysian style.

I found this steam cake from Kuali that taste pretty close to Malaysia Ma Lai Kao that I made last week and would like to share.



Ingredients:

• 150g self raising flour (if use all purpose flour add 3/4 tsp baking powder and 1/8 tsp salt)
• 1/2 tbsp custard powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 50g margarine
• 137.5g soft brown sugar
• 70g canola oil
• 2.5 eggs
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3/8 tsp vanilla essence
• Some walnut ( Use melon seed you can you get)
  

Method:

• Sift flour and custard powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.
• In a mixer bowl, cream margarine, sugar and oil until light and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
• Stir in honey and essence. Add in sifted flour mixture to blend into a smooth batter.
• Pour batter into greased pan and sprinkle over some walnut. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 30 minutes or until it's done.
• Use a toothpick to check when the cake is done. The toothpick should come out clear.

Portuguese Tart – Splenda Version

I saw this recipe from chowtimes few weeks back and couldn’t resist myself to try it. They look delicious and simple to make. You can get the original recipes with the step by step instructions from chowtimes. Here’s my modified version of the recipes with Splenda.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup of Splenda
• 1 cup self Raising flour
• 14 oz of condensed milk
• 2 cups of 2% milk

I wish I could try the real deal somewhere so I know what to expect but overall I like it especially fresh from the oven.
There must be something wrong with my dated oven. Some looks perfect, some looks a little burn. I need a new Oven!