Butter Cookie

Butter Cookies
makes 2-3 dozen cookies

1 cup or 2 sticks butter
2 ¼ cup sugar
1 egg
3 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp flavor extract (optional, your choice)

Cream the butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl then add the egg and flavor extract, mixing well. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and salt together before adding in small portions to the butter mixture, combining well after each addition.

Divide the dough into portions, roll out each between 2 plastic sheets, till about 5mm thick. Place the rolled out sheets of cookie dough onto a baking tray to be chilled in the fridge, preferably overnight.

Before baking, preheat oven to 350F. Remove cookie dough sheets from the fridge and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Place cut shapes onto a cookie tray lined with silicone sheet or parchment paper, leaving about an inch between each cookie to allow for expansion. Re-roll the scraps of cookie dough into new sheets and chill it before repeating the whole process.

Bake for 8-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies, until the edges start turning brown. Cool the cookies completely before decorating with icing.

Royal Icing

500g icing sugar
3 tbs meringue powder
8-12 tbs water

Sift together the dry ingredients and mix with water. Add more if the consistency is too stiff in order to get a suitable piping consistency. Add more water to get a consistency for flooding the outlines. Use only food colour gel to get the shade desired.

I used a a #2 piping tip for the outlines and a #3 or #4 tip for flooding.

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.

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!

Very Chocolate Cupcake

My godson's mother had tasked me with making cupcakes and the dessert cake for her son's 3rd birthday party. She requested for chocolate and a jungle green theme. She also added that my godchildren have recently discovered the joys of peanut butter.

Not being so adept at icing or frosting jungle animals, I told her I could do the chocolate and peanut butter part. I spent quite a bit of last week experimenting with the various recipes in my collection and the one from Dorie's book wins hands down.

Dorie starts the recipe with an introduction that suggested saving this not very sweet, close crumbed cake for adults as kids may not appreciate it as much. I adapted it slightly and figured that with the sweet frosting that I was going to add on, I couldn't go wrong pleasing both adults and children.


In addition to the chocolate cake, I also used my banana cake recipe since it would go well with both a chocolate and peanut butter frosting. I mixed the cake and frosting recipes to get 4 different combinations for the cupcakes which I then decorated in a variety of designs.

The cupcakes were a hit at the party. I think everyone loved the idea of having an individually decorated cake all for themselves. There was a cotton candy machine at the party and I had a ball of a time fulfilling a childhood fantasy of creating huge puffs of those pink sweets. Here's a shot of the cheeky birthday boy Ryan, flashing a grin with a mouthful of pizza.


Very Chocolate Cupcake
makes 15 cupcakes

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant coffee powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

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 add in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Add the sifted mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions, mixing well. Scrape down the bowl and stir in the melted chocolate with a spatula until incorporated. Scoop into cupcake liners.
Bake in the oven for 22-25 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting
makes about 1 1/2 cups

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 tap salt
2 tbs creme de cacao
1 tbs milk

Cream the butter then sift in the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the creme de cacao and milk then combine well. Add more milk a little at a time to get the desired consistency. Spread or pipe over cooled cupcakes. Decorate as desired

Peanut Butter Frosting
makes about 2 cups

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs milk

Cream the butter and peanut butter to combine then sift in the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the milk and combine well, adding more a little at a time to get the desired consistency. Spread or pipe over cooled cupcakes. Decorate as desired.

Carrot Cake & Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

My mother requested for carrot cake on my father's behalf so I made these cupcakes as an early Father's Day treat.

I adapted the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book. I had tried the original recipe with crystallised ginger before but I wanted it simple this time. When I shredded the carrot, it seemed like a lot but after mixing it in, the chunky stuff seemed to disappear.


Carrot Cake
makes 30 cupcakes

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 eggs

Preheat oven at 350F. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl, toss together the carrot, walnuts, coconut and raisins. In a mixer bowl, beat the sugar and oil to combine. Add the eggs in and continue beating until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture before adding in the chunky ingredients (use a pair of chopsticks at this stage, it helps to separate the clumps of shredded carrot). Scoop into cupcake liners.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool before frosting.


Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
4 cups icing sugar
2 tbs fresh lemon juice

Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add in the icing sugar and finally the lemon juice, combining to get a creamy mixture. Frost cupcakes and refrigerate for an hour to set it.


Verdict: I usually don't eat too much of the stuff I bake, just haven't got the appetite for it once it come out of the oven but I scoffed down 2 of these as soon as it was ready. Its really yummy carrot cake!

Hummingbird Cupcake

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

I couldn't help but wonder about the origin of the name for this cake. I found some answers here but truly, it can be called anything else and it would still be a great cake.

This is usually made with pecans but I substituted it with walnuts. These cupcakes were made with frosting but if I make these without the frosting, I increase the sugar by 1/3 cup.

Hummingbird Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes

3 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup canned pineapple, chopped (100 ml liquid, the rest pineapple)
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven at 350F. Sift all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs then stir in the oil and vanilla. Add this to the dry ingredients and combine before mixing in the pineapple, banana and walnuts. Scoop into cupcake liners.
Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup or 1/2 stick butter
4 cups icing sugar

Beat the cream cheese and butter to combine before adding in the sifted icing sugar. Pipe frosting over the cooled cupcakes and decorate as desired.

My Magnolia Fairy Cake

I was again inspired by the lovely pictures of Nigella's Fairy Cakes in her book and I decided to make them for a childhood friend's birthday dinner tonight. As a doctor, the birthday girl regularly reminds me to lose weight so I decided to cut down on the sugar in the cupcake recipe because the icing on top would more than make up for it.

I tried Nigella's cupcake recipe last night and it was a disaster. After I compared it with the cupcake recipe that I have adapted from Magnolia Bakery, I realised that Nigella's recipe had 1/2 tsp more baking powder and a lot less milk. They had a beautiful mushrooming dome in the oven which promptly fell flat and even sunk when cooled.

Anyway, here's the version I usually rely on. It makes a little more than the usual 12 but I find this helpful just in case a couple of them turn out less than perfect (as in the case today) or it leaves me with 2 more to eat or give away. The recipe can also be easily doubled if I'm baking for a party.

Vanilla Cupcakes
makes 14 cupcakes

1 cup or 125g butter
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups or 150g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract ( just a tad less of you want a milder vanilla flavour)

Preheat the oven at 350F. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs then sifted flour, baking powder and salt. Finally, mix in the milk and vanilla extract. Scoop into cupcake liners, half full to leave room for the icing.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
The cupcakes will shrink a little after cooling.

I had also read in a blog somewhere that icing could be made without egg whites, using just lemon juice or milk to bind the icing sugar. So it was experiment time again. I started small and made 3 batches of the following recipe to ice all the cupcakes I made.

Easy Icing
makes enough to cover 4-5 cupcakes

1 cup icing sugar, sifted
2 tbs milk or lemon juice
colouring or flavouring of choice

Combine all the ingredients just before icing and work fast because a 'skin' forms over the icing surface quite quickly. Decorate with lay ons or sprinkles.


The next time I try this, I will make a more flavourful icing. Maybe with rose or lavender...