Vanilla Daisy Cupcake

I'm usually not a sucker for beautiful pictures in cookbooks but this one has loads of pretty pictures and detailed instructions to inspire and ensure that you can't go wrong. I've adapted Crabapple Bakery's recipe for vanilla cakes and decorated them with gum paste daisies.


I made these for my ex-flatmate's birthday. I still remember the first birthday party of Wendy's that I attended. It was held at one of the hottest nightspots in town and she had booked the entire place for her own private function. Every year since I've known her, she throws a birthday bash for herself. This year's theme is flower power.

Vanilla Cupcakes
makes 30 cupcakes

1 cup or 2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk

Preheat the oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined then the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. Add the sifted mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Scoop into cupcake liners.

Bake for 20-25 minutes and cool before frosting.


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
makes 4-5 cups

1 cup or 2 sticks butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tbs vanilla extract
9-10 cups icing sugar

Cream the butter until pale before adding in the milk and vanilla. Mix in half the sifted icing sugar. Beat until well combined before adding in more to get the right consistency. Spread or pipe over cooled cupcakes and decorate as desired.

Verdict: Everyone thought they were really pretty and said they loved the texture of the cake. I found it too sweet and had to scrape off most of the frosting to enjoy it with the cake.

Lime Coconut Cake

My camera is still being repaired so I apologise for the poor quality of the pictures but I didn't want the lack of great pictures to prevent me from blogging about this great cake I tried.

Lime Coconut Cake
makes an 8-inch cake

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
2/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 1/2 tbs finely grated lime zest

Icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 tsp lime zest
2 tbs lime juice

Preheat the oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together. Add the sifted mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Fold in the coconut and lime zest. Scoop into lined cake pan.
Bake for 40 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cook completely.

To make the icing, combine the sifted icing sugar, lime zest and enough lime juice to make a thick enough icing to drizzle over the cake. Sprinkle with additional desiccated coconut if desired.

Verdict: The cake was moist and slightly buttery. The lime presence would have been stronger if kept overnight but my colleagues polished off the whole thing. It was also suggested that I add rum the next time to the icing, for a more tropical good time!

Orange Poppy Seed Muffin

I dropped my camera and this was the only decent shot I managed on my camera phone. The contrast in picture quality really makes my long for my camera which is now in the hospital undergoing repairs.

I made these simple muffins for some of my dearest colleagues. They're all busy individuals who don't really cook at home so I thought I would provide some convenience at breakfast or snack time.

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins
makes 18 muffins

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup orange marmalade
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbs finely grated orange zest (I used grapefruit)

Preheat the oven at 350F. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and marmalade to combine well. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, stir in the poppy seeds and sugar and make a well. Whisk together the rest of the ingredients and pour into the well. Add the butter and marmalade mixture. Fold gently until just combined, do not overmix. Spoon into muffin liners.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Serve warm with additional marmalade.

Verdict: A nice breakfast treat, especially with milk.

Pumpkin Yumkin

This month's WCC#21 theme is Halloween. Halloween isn't really a big holiday here although the supermarkets stock up on pumpkin, coloured corn and candy for the expatriate community.

I've only ever gone trick or treating once when I was a kid. I went with my cousin who lived in a neighbourhood with many American families. The only reason we went around knocking on doors was for the candy (of course). However, we needed to at least look the part and dress up. The only thing available so last minute was an old orange tablecloth of my aunt's.

So we 'borrowed' it, cut 2 holes to fit out heads through and walked around the estate in our giant poncho. I don't know what we were suppose to be but it must have been rather comical to watch us move in a coordinated direction lest we strangle each other.

Hence I've always associated the colour orange with Halloween. I wonder if my aunt ever found out what we did with her tablecloth.


I'm sure there are a plethora of pumpkin recipes for Halloween and I'm going to add to it. This one is adapted from The Pastry Queen, another of my good reads. The author, Rebecca Rather, describes this recipe which she found among her grandmother's things as a cross between a muffin and a cupcake.

I didn't have a can of pure pumpkin so I used a pumpkin pie mix. Dried dates are also all over the supermarket shelves here since we're in the midst of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Chopping them up was a bit of a pain since they were all so sticky. I wonder if a mezzaluna would have helped... or maybe I should have oiled my knife?


Pumpkin Yumkin
makes 12-15 cupcakes/muffins

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 15oz can pure pumpkin or pumpkin pie mix
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup pecans

Preheat oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla until well combined then add in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the sifted mixture in and mix well before folding in the dates and pecans. Scoop into liners, about 3/4 full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the yumkins are firm to touch. Cool before frosting.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
100g or 3 oz cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp orange juice
1 orange's zest

In a mixer bowl, combine all the ingredients, adding more orange juice to get the desired consistency if needed. Coat the tops of the cooled yumkins.

Verdict: The pumpkin taste was not distinct enough, probably because I didn't use pure pumpkin. However, these yumkins are versatile. Left plain, they're lovely as muffins. Dressed with frosting, they're very pretty cupcakes. But then anything tastes good with cream cheese frosting!

Update (6 Oct): I tried this again with the pure pumpkin and the taste is much better!

Apple Cake

A request for an apple recipe sent me back to my books and I remembered flagging a couple of them in More from Magnolia.

The recipe made quite a lot of batter and since I was bringing these to work, I made these in cupcake size. I topped half the batch with 1 cup of walnuts and the other half with cinnamon sugar (2 tbs sugar + 1 tsp cinnamon).


Apple Cake
makes 36 cupcakes or 2 9-inch layerrs

1 cup or 2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tap vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 apples, chopped

Preheat oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined then add in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the sifted mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Fold in the chopped apple. Scoop into cupcake liners or lined cake pans. Top cupcakes with walnuts or cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 25 minutes if making cupcakes or 40-50 minutes for 9-inch cakes. The original recipe recommends icing the cooled cake layers with Butterscotch Cream Cheese Frosting.


Verdict: The cake is light and fluffy as promised. The taste of the apple was definitely present but not overpowering and it was also nice biting into the soft juicy chunks. Will try it with the Butterscotch Cream Cheese Frosting next time.