Catch us tomorrow: Channel 106 1030pm Hypp TV #Blogshop

Dear Cuppycatcake readers,

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, been hellaya busy with lots of things on top of baking of course. 

Anyway, among of the BIGGEST update/move/step of my little cakeymajingy:

Thanx to EC Inspirasi Channel for giving us a slot on BlogShop!

A little background: EC Inspirasi is a channel (channel 106) on Hypp TV, and i'm sure all UnifFi subscribers are aware of Hypp TV. HyppTV is a pay TV service containing varietiy of content (entertainment, sports etc) 

and delivered  through the high speed internet broadband, UniFi. 

Tune in to channel 106, Hypp TV

tomorrow, Wednesday 7th November 2012 1030pm!

So what are you waiting for? Key in your reminder. NOW!!

Will update more on this slot soon.

p/s: I am preparing many many updates soon with variety of recipes! 

Mint Choc Chip Cake

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Mine is either strawberry or mint chocolate chip! I cant get enough of those. To me, Baskin Robbin's is still the best, coz they are very generous with the choc chips (or rather pieces of chocolates) and its not too milky as some other brands.

The first time I lay my eyes on this cake was on raspberricupcakes. It was one of her top recipe. I couldn't get my mind of it, but the idea of making it was put on hold for a couple of months, as I thought not many are keen to minty flavor.

Awan was turning 26, and we planned a small iftar celebration. I decided to do small version of this greeny yummy cake. The best thing bout this cake is you can alter the minty taste according to your preference. Swipe those fingers while the buttercream is zapping in the mixer till you are satisfied.

For the chocolate cake, I used glorioustreats' perfectly chocolate cupcake recipe:

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk (sometimes I substitute this with buttermilk!)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)

1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 175*C
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for one minute or until just combine
4. Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
5. Divide the batter into 3 9inch tin (or 2, whatever your heart desire).
6. Bake the cake until your cake tester comes out clean.
7. Cool before frosting.

Note: The above measurement will give you HUGE/TALL cake. I halved the recipe to get the size above.

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream
1 cup of butter
1 cup of vegetable shortening
Icing sugar
3 teaspoon peppermint flavor (or according to your preference)
Green coloring
1 cup chopped chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and shortening until fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar until you reach you desired level of sweetness (I usually put in 3/4 cup)
3. Add in the peppermint flavor.
4. Add in few drops of green coloring until it is evenly incorporated.
5. Add in chopped choc chips. Tadaaaaa

Fill and frost the cake with the mint choc chip buttercream. My choc chip was not thoroughly crushed, so I get bumpy-ish frosting, which makes it even more tempting..haha...

Good luck!!

Chocolate Chocolate Cookie

First entry on cookies! It was all a crave. That's why I made these cookies. Especially after reading few entries from The Baker Chick and Sweet Peony. I can literally smell chocolate just by looking at the pictures!

Its not the typical u-gotta-roll-and-use-cookie-cutter-etcetc. But, the whole process takes longer as you need to chill the dough before you bake it (gotta bake them chilled). You know you usually put in nuts or choc chips in your cookies? This one is lil different, you include DIY cookie crumble that you have to make few hours earlier (a day earlier would be better).

The first time I made this, had no patience in arranging the dough far apart, and I made HUGEEEEEEE round dough, when baked, all my cookies looked like they went into a packed bus, squeezing for space and some became a bit oval shaped. Haha. Next batch I arranged them properly and each got enough space to grow big. Its huge!

Put one into my mouth, couldn't stop eating. It was the best chocolate cookie I ever tasted (so far). So chocolatey, perfect combination of sweet and salty (from the crumble). Made another batch for Eid, smaller size, everything was gone within few days. (Am surprised it lasted that long, as BIL usually hide some away).

My girlfriends couldn't stop eating it, and some nearly get into a catfight for the last piece! Felt guilty for not bringing it more. I even had some request for Eid orders, but fasting is just tiring on top of other orders as well, so I am making a pack soon so you can purchase these babies in small containers! (Soon, soon ;))

The recipe was from a book called Momofuku Milk Bar and some baker bloggers will make the same recipe and give reviews on it. You can see who made this in some post here. The original post on the recipe was from Bake your Day.

for the chocolate crumb:

(you will need this for the dough, reccomended to do this one day before and refrigerate)
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. kosher salt
6 Tbs. butter, melted

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees Celcius.
2. Combine the flour, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.
3. Add the melted butter and mix on low until small clusters begin to form.
4. Spread the clusters on a parchment. Bake for 20 minutes, breaking up the pieces as needed. The crumbs should still be slightly moist to the touch, they will harden as they cool.
5. Allow the crumbs to cool completely before using (or eating!) Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week at room temperature, or up to 1 month in the fridge.

for the cookie dough: 1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup glucose
1 egg
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 ounces 55% chocolate, melted
1 1/4 cups bread flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cup chocolate crumb

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, and glucose and cream together on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the egg, vanilla, and melted chocolate, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes.
2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (Do not walk away from the machine during this step, or you will risk overmixing the dough.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. With the mixer still on low speed, add the chocolate crumbs and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
4. Using a 2 3/4-ounce ice cream scoop (or a 1/3-cup measuring cup), portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. *you can also make smaller size dough, which will require lesser baking time.
5. Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies from room temperature–they will not bake properly.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius.
7. Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. If after 18 minutes, the cookies still seem doughy in the center, give them another 1 minute in the oven, but not more. *if you make smaller size, bake for around 12-15 minutes. I burnt some of mine (the smaller size batch), but it was still yummy if you like burnt-like cookies.
8. Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or an airtight container for storage. At room temp, the cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.

**Bake Your Day Notes:I baked my cookies for exactly 18 minutes and they came out perfectly but watch in the last few minutes so that you don’t overbake them.

I followed the recipe exactly as written for these and we adored them. I wouldn’t change anything for the next time that I make them.

There you go. Good luck!

xoxo

The Fancy Pants Cheesecake

Nabilah had been craving for this cake since the first time I told her about it. She tried her hardest to find an event so that she can have the cake. Months. It took her months, till it was her baby sister's birthday!

The recipe is from Kate Shirazi, got her book as my birthday gift (Thank you Yong!).The original recipe had banana as its middle layer.Nabilah suggested to have something choclatey in the centre (she and her baby sister and some (un)lucky friends of thiers got to be my test mouse). Eventually, another birthday of a dear friend was due. Another experiment! yeay! I decided to dig into my  the fridge, and found some crunchie! Used crunchie to substitute the banana.

And I got to taste this one! I rarely eat the cakes that I made, but gurrrrlllll, this is good. Sweet, creamy, perfect for a quick fix for your sweet tooth. Not to mention the maltessers! Yummssss.

Recipe follows (with lil modification of Kate's version):

1/2 cup of original digestive biscuits (or hobnobs/graham crackers)

1/2 cup of oreo crunch (or any choc hobnonbs/graham crackers/digestive)
1/4 cup butter-melted
3/4 cup whipped cream
250gram cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100gram maltessers

Centre Layer

You can choose any fruits or any candy bar as you wish.
For banana, I used 1 1/2 - 2 large size banana, slice them up and pour lemon juice on top of it to avoid them from browning.
For crunchie, I used 1 1/2 bar, crushed to small pieces.

1. Line and butter a 7inch springform tin, bottom and side.
2. Crush digestive and oreo (using your hand or mixer or just stomp it with your roller pin in a plastic bag).
3. Combine digestive and oreo with melted butter.
4. Pressed the cookie mix at the bottom of the tin with the back of a spoon so it'll be really pressed. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Whip the the whipped cream with an electric mixer (top speed) until soft peak forms.
6. Meanwhile give your cream cheese a gentle beating until it is smooth (spreadable form is the best).
7. Fold in the cream cheese to the whipped cream or you can just mix the cream cheese into the whipped cream mixture until just combine.
8. Insert vanilla extract. 
9. Take half of the cheese mixture and spread evenly on top of the cookie base.
10. Spread the centre layer (crunchie, banana or anything you wish).
11. Spread the other half of the cheese mixture on top of the centre layer.
12. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours (best overnight).
13. Arrange the maltessers as you wish.

*Double the recipe for a 9inch tin!

Voila! Easy ay?  You can try having them with strawberries, mango etc. You can even substitue the maltessers to some other candy or choc!

Have fun dolls!

Laters. xoxo.

Strawberry Vanilla Crumble Pie

Remember the strawberry madness week? Well this was another dish that I made during that week. It was ........ *dreaming face*.

Just look at that bubbly strawberry juice dripping out of the pan! And the smell of the kitchen when you open the oven to check on it, make you wanna eat it as soon as it comes out!

Drizzled a slice with some choc ganache. oimicorasonnn. *drool*

Another recipe from Whisk Kid, she just makes me salivate everytime I look at her post, and run to the store and get all the ingredients. Another easy one, have fun trying!

Pie Crust
6 Tablespoon (85g) butter

2 Tablespoon (30g) shortening

1 cup (142g) flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoon cold water, more if needed

1. Cube the butter and place it and the shortening in the freezer for fifteen minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add the frozen butter and shortening, and press with your fingers (or a pastry blender or a fork or a pair of knives. Its easier with forks!) until it is the texture of coarse meal. Add the water a little at a time and mix/knead just until incorporated.
3. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate (not freezer okay) at least 30 minutes. (Tip: You can start on your crumble while waiting for this).
4. After 30 minutes, place the dough on the counter to soften for 5 minutes. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough until it is large enough to fit in a 9" pie tin - about 11-12" in diameter. As you roll, check often to see that the dough is not sticking to the counter and apply more flour as needed.
5. Roll the dough around your rolling pin and lay it in the pie tin. Form a decorative boarder, if you wish. Place in freezer.

Crumble (which was adapted from Nicole at Sweet Peony)

1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup (71g)  flour

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

4 Tablespoon (60g) butter, frozen and cubed

1/4 cup (25g) oats

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and press until the texture of coarse crumbs. Place in freezer briefly while you prepare the pie filling.

Strawberry Vanilla Pie Filling

3/8 cup (74g) sugar

Scrapings of one vanilla bean/ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup (35g) flour

2 Tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

500 grams strawberries (or around that..I used like 450, the other 50 grams went to my tummy..)

1. Preheat the oven to 175degrees Celsius.
2. Combine the sugar and vanilla in a bowl. (if using vanilla bean - press with fingers to incorporate)
3. Stir in the flour, cornstarch and salt.
4. When well-mixed, add the berries and toss to coat. Pour into frozen crust.
5. Top with crumble. Bake until you see juices bubbling through the crumble in the center, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Don't you just wanna eat that???DON'T YOU?

Tiramisu

My friends, they are like, my tester mouse. You know the ones that are used in the lab? But so far, they get to test eat yummy cakes. Not fair also. One day I should do a really bad one, like putting salt instead of sugar and get my camera ready!

I've never liked tiramisu before, because I dont really like coffee, until I know Starbucks and Coffee Bean (the fancy expensive stuff hehe), then it all begun. But weird, I would never buy myself a slice of tiramisu, maybe because of the bad 1st time experience.

Oh well, its another birthday celebration for 2 of the boys (gosh, i just realize that i actually have a lot of people's birthday I can experiments on..weee!), and one of them happened to mentioned his love for tiramisu, and the search for the perfect recipe begins.

Birthday boys with their cake.

My test mousies. See told ya. Happy faces eating cake. But I shayang these dweebs to the bits!

And it is not that hard to make too! Like stir stir stir, layer layer, dip dip, done! The recipe that I tried had the yolks to be cooked and chilled, but most other recipe doesnt require for it to be cooked. Its a matter of preference in the end. I've yet to try a cake version of tiramisu, this is the triffle version, the one that used lady fingers biscuits. And it is yummehhh! I had a lick of some spills, and I just had to swipe my fingers to the remaining leftovers from the bowl, this one is shoooo guuuud.

See, you only need these. I got my whipped cream zapping up in the mixer there.

This recipe is from Allrecipe, with slight adaptation (I excluded the Rum heehee) but I halved it as my bowl was only 8inch x 8inch.Ifyou have a big/deep bowl, by all means use the full measurement ya!

6 egg yolks

3/4 cup white sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound (about 500 grams) mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature

2 packages ladyfinger cookies

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour.
2. In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form.
3. In a seperate bowl, whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.
4. Pour the coffee into a small bowl. Dip ladyfingers in the coffee and arrange in a bottom of a 7x11inch dish
5. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with cocoa. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set. Its best to refrigerate it overnight. You can also shave some semi sweet chocolate and sprinkle sprinkle!

Good luck!

Apple Raspberry Jam Tart

Something that you can do when you are bored, and so happened that there's an apple left and you dont feel like eating it. Lol. What am I talking about, bored and go bake ha? Like it's that easy.

But it is! It is not that hard prepare this whole thing. And I tell you, it's so nice, to eat it hot or cold, during a rainy day, with a cup of strawberry (or just the usual lipton) tea on the side. I saw this on Whisk Kid, and, as usual, straight away went and get my self a Granny Smith Apple (if you cant find one, just get the usual green apple is enough) and yeah, i bought just ONE apple. You dont want it to go to waste if you buy extra for your what-if mind, for e.g. "what if one is not enough?" or "I'll just eat it if there's balance". Just try not to waste unless you are sure that you are going to eat it.

This was my first tart/pie base attempt, I've never made big tarts other than the traditional Eid/Raya Tart Nenas. I find it a bit hard to roll the crust and transferring it to the pan, maybe because I dont have a proper rolling board that's why it sticks and breaks, but..nonetheless, as long as its good to eat, who cares how it looks lika right? This is the only hard part making this precious ohsoyummmm tart. Other than that, close one eye u can do wannnn.

Whisk-Kid had it with strawberry preserve, but i had my raspberry preserve (raspeberry jam that you spread on your bread tu), so I used that instead.

Pie Crust
8 tablespoons (118 grams) butter, cut into cubes and chilled (after cutting it, just put it inside the freezer for a while)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoon water, cold

Filling
1 apple

Lemon juice

Cinnamon

Raspberry preserves

Cream

Sugar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Add the butter, then cut in using two forks, a pastry blender, or your hands. Continue working in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal (Just press the butter and mix it with the floor mixture).
2. Add just enough cold water to bring the dough together and knead a few times to ensure that the flour is evenly moistened. Press into a 1" thick disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to two days.
3. While waiting for the dough to chill, cut the apple in half and remove the core. Slice thinly and keep the pieces together so that when you are done you can just press the apple in order to fan out the slices. Sprinkle with lemon juice and set aside (to avoid from browning).
4. When ready to roll, dust your counter with flour. Remove the dough from the fridge and let rest on the counter for 10-15 minutes to allow to warm slightly and become more workable.  Divide in half and roll into two rectangles, or just make it into one large base.
5. Set the oven to 225 degrees celcius.  Spread the center of the pastry with a thin layer of raspberry preserve and arrange the apple.  Sprinkle with cinnamon. 
6. Fold the edges over the pastry over the fruit, brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar.  Place the prepared tarts in the freezer (or fridge if you don't have the space) while you wait for the oven to continue heating (Like 10 minutes). 
7. Bake for about 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 175degrees celcius and bake until the pastry is golden.
8. Remove from the oven and brush with additional jam while still hot.  Cool on a rack.

Click here to view Whisk Kid's version.

I found out that that the taste got better and better the longer you refrigerate it.

Till then, toodles!

Double Strawberry Summer Cake

It was strawberry madness week. And dearest friend's birthday was around the corner.

PERFECT. For another try-out.

(My friends are my guinea pigs and will always get my squinting eyes when they take the first bite. Haha. Kesian betul)

Yenyway, I went online, searching for some strawberry-ish recipes, and I came across to a few, shortcakes, crepes, cheesecakes etc etc. 

But I need something simple and fast, as I did not have much time to prepare and was tired from travelling the day before.

And...I decided on the one found on raspberricupcakes, and when I first read it, I didn't notice that it was the same recipe for strawberry summer cake! She add a lil twist to it by having it in 2 layers and had icing surrounding it. Easy peasy nay?

Inspired by Steph, I too put my own lil twist on it.

Just split the batter into 2, and bake em' in a 8inch cake tin. 

Spread the strawberries equally between the two tins, you don't have to arrange it nicely though, as it will be layered.

Filled it with some raspberry buttercream (yummmm).

And top it with the ever delish dark choc ganache.

Voila.

Happy Birthday Mont.

(pic credit to Naim)

Click here for raspberricupcakes version.

Click here for the post on strawberry summer cake to get the recipe.

xoxo.

post #3 TWTUPKAMI and SOOQ

Heya yaaa!!

Sorry for the late update, here's what happened during TwtupKami @Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil on
9th June 2012.

New Cuppies:

Choc Chip with Dark Choc Ganache

Choc with Oreo Cream Cheese

Lemon Raspberry Buttercream

Lemon with Lemony Cream Cheese

Event highlight!!

We were so delighted and honored as Mr.Prime Minister had the chance to visit our booth! He took a bite of our red velvet! Funny story, the tester we had, took him a while to take the small pieces we cut, and yeah, moi got to experience the celebrity moment of having the cameraSS snapping click click click around me..heee..(let me have the limelight for a moment here altho i know they are taking Mr. Prime Minister's pictures).

And he said 'Sedap'!!! Weeee....

More pictures of the event.

We also brought people's favorite -Red Velvet in a Jar

Friends who came to support. There were more of them, but the camera just went missing when they were at our booth *wink*. Nevertheless, thank you Pai, Elyna, Paie, Danny, Sita, Leman and the rest who came! (Sorry if i missed out your name, but trust me, your support are my strenght :))

Crazy neighbours who just cant stop getting those Red Velvet in a Jar, lol. Also, Sheeda of Goddess Affair!

My pulse, my spine, my heart. These were the ones keeping me alive during the event! I owe you big time lovelovelove!

All of the above new flavored cuppies are available for orders! You can also have em as cakes.

Till then, toddles!

xoxo