Spicy Chicken Pizza

 

 I love pizzas. All that melty cheese, flavourful toppings... mmmm! <3 I'm more of a deep pan girl rather than a thin crust one, but to each, his (or her) own, right? Of course, there are probably as many toppings as there are people. This particular one is my current favourite at the moment. It's adapted from the Best Ever Chicken Cookbook. I was very swayed by the awesomely tasty looking picture there. Plus, I had recently discovered that I really liked red peppers (thanks to this pasta recipe) so I was quite keen to try this. I cancelled out the shiitake mushrooms and fresh coriander that it called for though, since I'm not quite a fan of those. Anyway, here we go!

What you need:

2 tablespoons oil

200g chicken breast fillets, cut into cubes

3 spring onions, sliced

1 fresh red chilli, chopped finely

1 red pepper (capsicum), seeds removed and cut into thin strips

1 small pizza base (about 10 inches diameter)

1 tablespoon chilli oil (I just mixed in 1 teaspoon of chilli powder in 1 tablespoon of oil =P)

Cheese, and lots of it!

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C.
2. Heat the oil in a wok. Add in the chicken cubes and all the vegetables and stir fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes until the chicken is firm but still slightly pink within. Season well. Pour off any excess oil and set aside to cool.
3. Brush the pizza base with the chilli oil. Spoon over the chicken mixture and spread evenly over the base.
4. Sprinkle grated cheese over the topping. (I like to use pizza cheese which has a mix of Cheddar, Mozzarella and Parmesan. Yum!) Bake for 15-20 minutes until crisp and golden. Serve immediately.
   

 

Wow! Just look at those vibrant colours, would you? Fresh red pepper, delicious golden cheese... splashes of green spring onion, here and there.... just beautiful! If I had fresh basil handy, I would happily throw it in as well. But my basil plant died a very sad death, so oh well... here I am, basil-less. So never mind basil...

This can be, of course, as spicy as you like it. Red peppers are barely spicy, and I used one of those large red chillies that you can barely feel the heat of... so mine was only mildly spicy, mainly because of the chilli powder I seasoned the chicken with and the chilli oil brushed on the pizza base. Don't forget the chilli oil. I didn't add it one time, and for some reason... the pizza was lacking a little something. So go for the oil. =)

But of course, if you want it to be super spicy, go crazy with the chilli powder and feel free to use a spicier type of fresh chilli. They're all good. I had a pizza using a scotch bonnet with Hamizah once. Didn't dare eat the pieces at all, yet the pizza was super spicy. It all depends on what you use.

 

Anyway, the reception to this particular combination of pizza topping was good, very good. One of my sisters eats only honey garlic chicken a la  Pizza Hut almost exclusively, but the rest of them liked it well enough. Babah and I particularly loved it. Unfortunately, the second time round I made it, I forgot about the chilli oil, making everything a bit bland, so that was a bit of an anti-climax. But never mind, I'll remember next time. =)

The only thing I didn't quite like about it was the pizza base. Oh, it was acceptable - we used the pre-made ones you can get from Supasave. It's kind of cool that they sell the bigger ones now though. But although its "acceptable" bread, I just *adore* Pizza Hut's pizza base. So flavoursome, so fluffy... I know. They're a pizza chain, it's what they do. Plus, I've never been very successful at making bread. I once came across a recipe that claims to almost replicate Pizza Hut's fluffy crust, as it used two types of leavening agents - yeast AND baking powder... I never got to try it, no idea if I even have a copy of it still. It's just too troublesome to make your own, especially if you don't know if it will be a success or not. Ah well. I shall stick with Supasave's pizza base, I guess...

On another note, this topping would incidentally make a very delicious sandwich filling. Try it!

Quote of the day: My favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food.

Crispy Chilli Beef with Broccoli

As I've mentioned a couple of times before, my favorite food magazine while in the UK is EasyCook magazine from BBC. It may not be gourmet cuisine, but the recipes in there are easy and very student-friendly. Of course, doesn't mean you have to be a student to enjoy them. I am particularly fond of food which is cooked simply yet are so very tasty. Cucur ayam and spicy oven fried chicken are particular favorites. As are our chocolate chip cookies, which are sooooo easy to make!

Anyway, this particular recipe is adapted from one in the Summer 2008 issue of Easycook, an oldie but I never got to try many of the dishes while I was there, as I was just too busy. This is quite similar to Ibu's prawns with broccoli but using beef and made more spicy. =) Here we go!

What you need:
300g beef, sliced thin then cut into strips (I marinated them in a bit of salt and chilli powder for a couple of hours first)
3 tablespoons cornflour
Vegetable oil, for deepfrying

Small head of broccoli, cut into florets
2 cloves of garlic, sliced - didn't have time!
5 cm piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped - didn't have time!
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes, or 1 dried chlli chopped finely
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
Pinch of sugar
1/2 bunch of spring onions, sliced diagonally - forgot to put this in, oopsie

Salt and chilli powder, to season

What you do:

1. Toss the beef strips in the cornflour. Heat a 2cm depth of oil in a wok or deep frying pan until very hot.
2. Fry the beef in batches until dark and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
3. Pour off most of the oil and stir-fry the broccoli, garlic, ginger and chilli flakes for one minute.
4. Mix together the soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar, then add to the vegetables. Cook for 2 minutes.
5. Toss in the beef and spring onions. Serve immediately, with steamed white rice or noodles.
   

I'll be honest with you here... I don't like broccoli. The main reason I wanted to make this was because the picture in the magazine looked sooooo good and while I am in Brunei... well, my family loves broccoli so it's a good chance to try it out. Unfortunately, I was running a bit late when preparing this and didn't have time to be too fancy. (The pictures are in fact taken using my phone, so apologies if they look poor in quality. There were starving people clamouring for food! =P)

The original recipe actually seasoned the beef with soy sauce and (a lot of!) caster sugar, but I decided to use mostly oyster sauce instead. Also, I probably didn't fry the beef until it got crispy enough - just till it was cooked. Not only that, I had also fried it in advance so by the time lunch rolled around, they had already lost their crispness.

But! But... despite all that, this dish was soooo tasty! I even ate the broccoli - and actually liked it! I can't tell you how many times I've tried to eat broccoli and never liked it. This was the first time I actually wanted to eat more of it. Even one of my favorite pasta dishes - Farfalle with Chicken, Broccoli and Peppers - hasn't managed to convince me. But after having this dish, I actually ate the broccoli happily when I cooked the pasta dish sometime after. Pretty amazing, let me tell you. Ibu and Babah should be happy, haha.

But enough about the broccoli... what about the beef? That, too, was oh-so-delicious! Granted, they could have been crisper. I shall fry them more next time I make this. But the oyster sauce was a great substitution, I think. Am not sure what soy sauce + sugar would taste like (why not just use kecap manis?) but I've always liked oyster sauce, so I loved this. And so did the rest of my family. =D I think though, next time I might fry some fresh chilli together with the garlic and ginger. Maybe even add more chilli powder/flakes to the pan. I didn't think it was spicy enough, but had to tone it down somewhat for one of my sisters. In any case, this is an easy delicious recipe and I am plonking it under the recommended label. =) Hope you will enjoy it too!

Quote of the day: Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef.

Confetti Lollipop Cookies

Thank you for those of you who voted in the previous poll. About half the people wanted a post everyday, haha, but as that will be fairly difficult for me to do, I shall be going with the next largest vote - twice a week. I've been doing that for some time now anyway. Look out for a new post every Wednesday and Saturday morning. =) Of course, the easiest way to be updated is by subscribing to the blog updates - either by using the Atom feed link in your favorite RSS reader program, or simply by "following" this blog using Google Friend Connect. Now, let's get to the food.

While making the previous post's Custard Melting Moments, we looked through the blog a bit, as I had never come across it before. When Izzah saw the post for these Lollipop Cookies, she was all like, "Ooooooh! Lawa! (Pretty!)" But then we made the melting moments and forgot all about them....

Or so I thought. Until a couple of days ago, when she asked me if I wanted to bake something again. Should've known... That's right... she wanted to make the Lollipop Cookies, complete with the lollipop stick and wrappings! Hehe. Well, I do love cute food, so why not yeah? Plus they looked easy enough... So. Here we go!

What you need:
185g softened butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 cup 100's and 1000's (the little round rainbow-coloured sprinkles)

What you do:

1. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and beat until well-incorporated.
2. Sift in the flour and salt, and add in the 100's and 1000's. Stir with a wooden spoon until well-mixed.
3. Place dough on a large piece of clingfilm and use the film to roll and wrap into a 30cm log.
4. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 2 hours, or until firm. (Since we didn't have the time, we stuck it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. It was still a little soft in the middle, but never mind...)
5. Remove the plastic wrap and cut into 1 cm rounds. Stick a non-coloured popsicle stick into the cookie, until halfway up the cookie round.
6. Place well-apart on a lined cookie sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 180 C for 15 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the baking.
7. Cool on tray for 5 minutes, before allowing to cool completely on a cooling rack. If desired, wrap with cellophane and ribbon. =)
   

Since we didn't look at the recipe in advance (ahem, bad bad) we didn't realise that it required a two hour cooling in the fridge. But we decided to stick it in the freezer and see what will happen. =P Cutting the dough into slices was easy enough, but once they started defrosting, it got kind of difficult to stick the lollipop stick into them. Oh well, we managed in the end, but not after mangling the biscuits a little, haha. It is easy enough to shape back into rounds. =) And didn't they turn out gorgeous??

The 100's and 1000's make the cookies look ever so pretty! I don't quite like the colour combinations of the sprinklables we can find in Brunei, but never mind. Beggars can't be choosers. :) They look good here anyhow, only you can't quite see the blue-coloured ones. But yes... that is such a minor niggle...

One of the worries that we had was how good this would taste. After the extra-sweet Custard Melting Moments, I decided to add some salt. Apart from that, we more or less kept to the original recipe. Oh, except that we also made ours a little browner than hers, we baked them for slighly longer. Partly because at 12 minutes, they looked really underdone. But also partly because we like our cookies crunchy anyway. =)

Once the cookies were baked and cooled, the next task was to wrap them all up, all ready to give to my sisters' school friends. This was easier than I had expected. Just cut up large squares of plastic wrappers and wrap them around the cookies, securing the bottom with ribbon or wire. The result - beautiful!

And the reaction? "Awwwwwwwwww! They're so cute!" =D They look mighty adorable, don't you think? Something teenaged girls would definitely appreciate, haha. And don't worry! They loved the biscuit as well. It sort of tastes like a crunchy-er shortbread. Even Hanisah liked them. Which is rare, let me assure you. =P They were very sweet though, despite not having that much sugar (compared to some of the other recipes I've tried). Am not sure how this would turn out if you reduce the amount of sugar, but bear in mind that the texture would definitely be changed.

If you don't feel like doing all that effort, you don't have to make the lollipops of course. Just drop tablespoonfuls of dough on the tray and bake away. =) But I think it was definitely worth the effort. Maybe for a child's party?

Quote of the day: Life is an onion and one cries while peeling it.

Custard Melting Moments with Raspberry Filling

My sister and I tend to do a lot of "I'm bored, let's make something" baking. We usually try to drag our *other* sister to bake with us, but she fobs us off with excuses such as, "I'm cleaning my room now!" or "I really really have to take a shower. I feel icky!" or "Sakit kepala....". Never fails. Ah well, never mind. We've given up on taking her along on our baking adventures, especially since she hardly ever eats what we make, as she feels they're strange combinations of her favorite foods. Another thing we don't get, but never mind. =) She doesn't mind bringing them to school, where they never fail to get rave reviews, so that's okay. Hehe.

Anyway, our last few baked goodies have all been inspired by various ingredients we have in our pantry that are dangerously close to their expiration date. So it's good that we do random baking. This one is no exception. We've been trying to finish our custard powder since forever (by making custard, yum!) but when we found *another* packet in the fridge... well, something drastic had to be done. In a happy coincidence, we also managed to use some of the berries from the leftover frozen summer berries that we used for the cupcakes as well as the summer berry shortbread. So that's all well and good. Here we go!

(Oh, the melting moments recipe is adapted from a food blog called Eat First, Diet Later while the raspberry filling is adapted from this recipe here.)

What you need:
For the biscuits:
250g softened butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup custard powder
1 cup plain flour

For the filling:
1/4 cup butter (about 30g) - we were all out of butter!! Gasp! Since we had a can of Crisco (vegetable shortening) though, we decided to use that instead.
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 - 1/2 cup icing sugar, according to taste - we used 1/2 cup
6 frozen raspberries, thawed

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 160 C. (It mentions that if you're using a fan-forced oven, you should decrease it to 140 C. We were using the fan-forced mode of our oven, but 140 C didn't cook the biscuits properly. I would stick to 160 C. Our second batch cooked at 160 C turned out perfectly.) Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
   
2. Beat butter, vanilla extract and sifted icing sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Sift and stir in the flour and custard powder in two batches. Mix until well combined.
4. At this point, because we found the dough was still too sticky, we piped it onto the baking sheet instead of rolling it into balls by hand, as per the original recipe.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and firm up on the tray for 5 minutes, before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
6. Meanwhile, to prepare the filling, beat the butter in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla (and a couple teaspoons of cold water, if using vegetable shortening, as we did) and beat to combine. Sift in icing sugar and beat well to combine. Add in the raspberries and beat until well combined and smooth.
7. To assemble, spread the flat side of the biscuit with the filling and sandwich with another biscuit. Continue until all the filling is used up.
   

These biscuits are so bright and funky looking! Hehe. The custard powder made it a gorgeous bright yellow while the pink filling looks so pretty. I had specifically selected the raspberries out of the berry mix as I had wanted it to be pinkish in colour, not purplish... and look how it turned out! Beautiful! The texture, like-wise, is also gorgeous. Very tender, these are definitely called melting moments for a reason. When you bite into a filled biscuit, the contrast in texture is really good - first you get the crunchy biscuit, then the creamy filling, but then since the biscuit is so tender, it practically melts in your mouth. Mmmmm!

We had earlier wondered if we should flatten the biscuits before baking, but decided not to. Lo and behold, after baking, the biscuits were flat anyway. I think, if you refrigerated the dough for about 20-30 minutes after shaping but before baking, it might hold its shape better in the oven. That was what was suggested in a similar recipe in one of our books anyway. And the piped biscuits there looked like they retained their shape nicely. I might do that one day, if we ever make these again. =)

One last note about the recipe, if you do not wish to use custard powder, you can substitute with cornflour which should retain the texture of the biscuits. You would of course lose the yellow-ness and the delicious custard taste, but it's up to you. :) Now... on to the taste test!

We decided to leave half of the biscuits unfilled, so we halved the recipe of the filling. If you want to fill all the biscuits, you would need to double it, bear that in mind. The unfilled biscuit, though deliciously tender, was a bit dry and slightly bland for me. Since it is meant to have a filling, I think, the biscuit dough is not that sweet so that it wouldn't be cloyingly sweet when combined with the filling.

Actually, I found the filled bicuits to be a bit on the sweet side for me. I had purposely added a lot of raspberries so as to make it slightly sour, but it was still too sweet. I think, in halving the recipe, I messed up the calculation for the sugar and added more than what was needed. =P Another popular combination for melting moments filling seems to be lemon. Just add lemon juice in place of the raspberries, in that case.

But despite the sweetness, I still think these managed to be rather popular. I had served these to a group of friends (you know who you are ;) ) and they didn't comment much on it... but by the end, there was none left so I assume they liked it. =) By popular consensus though, these definitely taste better with the filling.

I think though, what I would do next time, would be to add in a pinch of salt to the biscuit dough... and perhaps to the filling as well. All I could taste was the sweetness, and I found that too overpowering. I know though, that some people don't like salt with their cookies, so that would be highly optional. =) Oh, and also, I had filled the biscuits a few hours in advance (and kept them in the fridge after) and the biscuits did not soften, so I assume you would be able to fill this in advance without worrying about whether they would disintegrate.

Quote of the day: There is something in the red of a raspberry pie that looks as good to a man as the red in a sheep looks to a wolf.

Mediterranean Chicken Skewers

Together with Bobby Chin's BBQ chicken wings that we made for our BBQ (see previous post), we had also marinated more chicken wings in a different marinade as well as the requisite sausages and lambchops. Oh, and some prawns for the rest of them. =P In addition to all that food, I had also prepared a chicken recipe adapted from the Best Ever Chicken book (printed by Parragon), which is a relic from my Bristol days where I had to cook a different dish almost every night for dinner (and blogged about it everyday too! Amazing...).

The reason for this was because Babah doesn't really like BBQ chicken, as he feels that few BBQ wings are cooked properly all the way to the inside without burning the outside. It does take a bit of skill, I admit. To counter all that, I selected a chicken kebab recipe from the book. Since the chicken is boneless and in small chunks, it should cook rather quickly, right? So, here we go!

What you need:
4 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons chilli powder, or to taste
2 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped - omitted, didn't have any with me
1 long thin eggplant
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 red capsicum (bell pepper), cut into 2-inch squares
salt and black pepper

What you do:

1. In a small bowl, mix the oil with the lemon juice, garlic, chilli powder and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the chicken pieces and leave to marinate at least 3 hours, or overnight.
   
2. Slice the eggplant lengthwise into strips 1/4-inch thick. Cut them horizontally about halfway along their length. Wrap the chicken pieces with the eggplant slices, reserving the marinade.
3. Prepare the skewers by alternating the chicken and pepper pieces. Lay the prepared skewers on a platter and sprinkle with the reserved marinade. Prepare the barbecue.
4. Grill the skewers for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the meat is cooked through, turning the skewers occasionally. Serve hot.
   

Initially, Babah was a bit iffy about the addition of the lemon juice. We stirfried a couple of pieces, just to see how it tasted. He seemed unimpressed and requested that I add some chilli powder just to add a bit of a spicy kick. So I did and left to marinate it some more, even though I didn't think it tasted all that bad. =P Also, in the original recipe, you didn't actually marinate the chicken. You just brushed the oil mixture over it while it was cooking, but I felt leery about doing that so I decided to just mix everything (except the veggies) up.

Preparing the chicken skewers was really easy, and fun too! I think the lemon juice tenderised the chicken meat somewhat, as they were skewered really easily. I had bought some metal skewers specifically for this since they looked really pretty and I couldn't resist, hehe. Of course, if you don't want to do this, you can just use satay sticks that have been soaked in water for a bit. Wrapping the chicken pieces with the eggplant made it look really quite slick. Almost professional looking, hehe. ;) Oh, as a side note, in the original recipe, you used half an eggplant and half a zucchini, but since I have no idea what a zucchini is and whether they sold any in Brunei, I just decided to use eggplant. Worked out just fine. :)

Cooking the skewers was also really easy. Since Babah likes his food cooked really really well, these were grilled until just before the eggplants turned too brown. The chicken was nicely browned at this point. The red peppers felt a bit undercooked though, so in future, I think I will either roast the pepper first or use roasted red peppers from a bottle (if I can find them!). I think half-cooked potato cubes would work really well here too. And maybe even a couple of cherry tomatoes. Mmmmm!

And yes, this will definitely be featured in our future BBQs as Babah loved it! Yay! Cooking it over a charcoal fire gave it a slightly different taste than cooking it over the stove and he really really liked it. He thought the veggies were a nice touch too, though I didn't touch them myself, haha. I did like the chicken though. The lemon gave a fresh taste to it, while the chilli powder gave a gentle heat to it. I couldn't particularly taste the garlic, I think I will use blended garlic next time.

And that's that! =) Sorry I don't have any pictures where the chicken was cooked properly - by then, our fingers were finger-lickin' sticky, hehe.

Quote of the day: Meat products should always be thoroughly cooked. You can have any colour providing it's not black.

Bobby Chin's Grilled Chicken Wings

Just a couple small notes: I have an active poll going on at the moment, you can find it right above the post area of this blog. I would really like to know how often you guys would like me to update, so please do vote and tell me. =) Another thing is that I have added a new widget called LinkWithin.You can find this right at the very bottom of each post (after it has finihsed loading completely). It will give you suggestions on similar recipes, so that you will be able to look around the blog some more and maybe find what you want exactly. Very cool, I love this new feature. =D It's rather similar in function to the Similar Recipes widget, but I think it does a better job of suggesting recipes that you really would be interested in. Do check it out. =)

Now... on to the chicken!

The furor over Bobby Chin's visit to Brunei last month has died down somewhat. So this post is somewhat late, but oh well, never mind. After the achingly sweet things I have been posting about recently, perhaps a savoury recipe would be to your liking, hehe.

Anyway, this recipe is based on a recipe in Bobby's book, Wild, Wild East. Looking at the price that it is listed with over there, I realise that I got it rather cheaply. And autographed too. So all is good. =) But anyway, since we had a BBQ recently, I thought it would be a good oppurtunity to try out a recipe from his book. I changed the recipe around a bit though. Bobby marinated his chicken with only lemongrass. Since that didn't feel right to me, I added in more oyster sauce and chilli sauce to the marinade. I also didn't add in the veggies he called for, since I didn't see the point. Apologies for the burnt bits, we're still a bit inexperienced with cooking with a BBQ, hehe. I assure you, the ones at the end of the night looked much nicer. But by that time, my fingers were all sticky from eating, and I didn't really want to take out the camera to take a picture of it. Oh well. Anyway, here we go!

What you need:
15 chicken wings - I used the wings and the small drumsticks
3 stalks of lemon grass, finely chopped
8 tablespoons oyster sauce
8 tablespoons chilli sauce
2 teaspoon honey

What you do:

1. Place the chicken wings in a bowl with the lemon grass. Add in half of the oyster and chilli sauces and stir to mix well. Cover with cling film and leave to marinate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
2. When ready and the BBQ is all preheated, whisk together the remaining oyster and chilli sauces together with the honey.
3. Drain the wings from the marinade and place them on the barbecue. Cook until just cooked, turning once. (Bobby says 5 minutes on each side, but I dunno... doesn't it take longer?)
4. When almost cooked, brush with more of the oyster sauce mixture.
5. Serve drizzled with the remaining sauce.

I like barbecues... and also picnics. I just generally like having food outdoors. =D There are many versions of BBQ chicken out there, and I have yet to find the perfect one.

Unfortunately, I shall have to give Bobby's recipe a pass. At least, not unless I tweak it considerably. I found the whole thing to taste a bit... generic, for some reason. Yes, I could taste the lemon grass and actually didn't like it all that much. I would either reduce it somewhat, or omit it all together. I also found the sauce to be not as spicy as I like it. Plus, the whole thing tasted rather too much like oyster sauce. I know, big surprise. =P I also don't like my chicken to be too sweet, so I didn't like the honey either. Maybe replace it with tomato sauce, or something.

So anyway, this one was a dud. I have yet to find another recipe in his book that I want to try. I don't see how these were the best BBQ wings he had ever tasted, no offence. I've tasted many which were much more to my taste. Oh well, shall try to make my own mix when the next BBQ comes around, hehe. In the meantime, look forward to the other dish we made that night, Mediterranean Chicken Skewers, coming in just a few days. Check back soon! =)

Quote of the day: Intelligence is something we are born with. BBQ’ing is a skill that must be learned.

Basic Vanilla Cupcakes

As promised, the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes that I used previously - see here and here. The reason I like them better than the ones I used previously from Cupcake Creations is because they make exactly 12 cupcakes with flat tops, which makes them really easy to decorate, if you were in a mind to do so. =) Plus, I love the texture. Not overly airy, yet still light. Beautiful! And the recipe is really easy too. Just plonk everything in.

The recipe is, as mentioned previously, based on the basic cupcake recipe from the Cupcake Magic book. Its a small book, but I love the decorating ideas, though I have yet to try them properly. The chick cupcakes I made here were based on a design in the book though! Hehe. Its got loads more cutesy designs, so do check it out. =) But anyway, I decreased the baking powder by half, as when I used one full teaspoon, I found the texture not to my liking. A half teaspoon gave exactly what I wanted to get. =) Here we go!

What you need:
110g self-raising flour, sifted
110g caster sugar
110g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 160 C. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
2. Put all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until batter is very light and fluffy.
3. Place tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the prepared cases and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden, and firm and springy when you give them a light prod on top.
4. Allow to cool before decorating.
   

To make mocha cupcakes, replace 25g of the flour with 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder, and replace the vanilla with 2 tablespoons of instant coffee granules dissolved in 2 teaspoons of boiling water.

I quite liked the mocha cupcakes as well. The batter tasted overly coffee-ish (and I had already reduced the amount of coffee than in the recipe). But once baked, the cupcakes were chocolatey yet not overly sweet (even with icing) as the coffee helped cut down the sweetness a bit. Really quite good. =)

We also made another batch of cupcakes recently, despite my vow not to make anymore, haha. First was a batch of mini vanilla cupcakes topped with oreo creamcheese icing. That didn't turn out quite as expected, so will be unblogged (and I forgot to take pictures of them too...). They were delicious, just a bit on the plain side, both taste- and decoration-wise.

I also made a batch of normal sized vanilla cupcakes for Izzah to decorate with glace icing. I didn't want any part of the decorating, haha. Partly because I was busy finishing up the Summer Berry Shortbread Crumble at that time. But Izzah did a pretty good job, I think. Don't you agree? They look much better than the previous ones. It was a birthday present for one of her friends, I hope she enjoyed them. =) I am not quite sure how to store glace-icing-iced cupcakes though. Store them in the fridge, the icing gets kind of damp, but am not sure if they will be okay if left outside. If anyone has any advice, it would be much appreciated.

Quote of the day: You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.