Babe in the City - KL

Apologies for the long silence... have been traveling for a short while for work then the lazy bones strike! hehehe... I know I'm sooo late to post this up in tribute to Arthur Guinness Day on 27 September 2012 but what the heck!

I have always wanted to make this combination of an adult chocolate cake aka my christened Chocolate Velvet Cake which is essentially a Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake layered with peanut butter, banana slices, more chocolate and to finish off with some crunch by way of almond pralines. Managed to achieved this and it tasted so good that it got thumbs of approval from Capt'n Hook who doesn't fancy chocolate cakes.

The cake recipe can be found in my old post of Chocolate Guinness Cake. And here are the recipes for the other 3 elements:

Peanut Butter Frosting

160 g icing sugar
280 g smooth peanut butter
80 g butter
80 ml whipping cream

Beat icing sugar, peanut butter and butter until light and fluffy. Add in whipping cream and beat further for another 3 minutes or so until it's light.


Chocolate Ganache

150 g dark chocolate couverture, roughly chopped
180 g whipping cream

Melt chocolate and cream over low heat until glossy. Refrigerate to cool.


Almond Praline

80 g (1/3 cup) whole almonds
115 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
60 ml (1/4 cup) water

Place almonds on baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. Cool down.

Place sugar and water in saucepan over medium heat until dissolved. Increase heat and cook until golden. Turn off the heat and add in almonds. Quickly pour onto lined tray. Once cooled, break praline into pieces.

To assemble, I've sliced my cake into two discs. Placed the bottom part back inside the loose based cake tin. Slater on Peanut Butter Frosting followed by sliced bananas. Drizzle over Chocolate Ganache thickly before placing the top part of cake. Carefully spread Peanut Butter Frosting all over on top before spreading out the Chocolate Ganache. Sprinkle on Almond Praline. Chill for a couple of hours. Remove from fridge for about 10 minutes before slicing to serve. Yummy!

Enjoy and "yam seng" (cheers)!

Thanks to the Munkey, the Chocolate Guinness Cake is christened with a new name - Black Velvet! It's very apt as it is really dark and moist cake.



I've turned the recipe into cupcakes, just need to reduce the baking time to about 20 mins for the large Soufflé cups or 15 mins for the small Soufflé cups. Happy baking!

p/s: The white cups you see in the pic are known as Soufflé cups when I searched for the proper name but I think it's known as muffin cups here.

Did I tell you guys that my boiboi loves to read my cook books?? At times he will dictate tell me to make those stuff for him. Sometimes he will help me in the kitchen by reading to me the ingredients and amount needed. Well, I think its better this way rather than having him messing stirring up in the kitchen hahaha... Anyway, these cupcakes which graced the cover of 500 Cupcakes & Muffins caught the attention of my boiboi ever since I've gotten this book. I've promised him the longest time ever to make these and I finally did.

These cupcakes needless to say is soft with a gooey centre but mine did not flow out cos I've slightly overbaked them. They still tasted good nevertheless.

Chocolate Mud Cake

300g plain choc chips
300g unsalted butter
5 eggs
115g caster sugar
115g self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder for dusting

Preheat oven to 160C. Place 12 paper case in muffin tray.

In a medium bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, melt choc and butter together, stirring well. Leave to cool a little.

Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick. Fold the flour into the egg mixture. Stir in melted choc and butter.

Spoon batter into paper cases and bake for 20 mins (my oven required less than this, so keep a watch over your oven).

The cupcakes will be soft and gooey in texture and appearance. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 mins, then remove cupcakes and serve swiftly, dusted with cocoa powder.

Ref: 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing)

Technorati Tags: cupcake + chocolate

The weekend before I got admitted to hospital, I made a batch of Chocolate & Raisin Oatmeal Cookies from another of my fave book under Page One Publishing, 500 Chocolate Delights by Lauren Floodgate. I got a jar for Yozora but they all got eaten up by hubby whilst I was in the hospital. Will make up with Yozora with another batch soon *promised* as she gave me some of her delish Banana Oatmeal Cookies yesterday. They're of the soft kind and tasted special cos it has a wonderful banana aroma that I loved.

The Chocolate & Raisin Oatmeal Cookies are of the soft and chewy type... healthy too since the recipe needed less than 3 tbsp of oil and only one egg. As usual, my count of chocolate chips, raisins and hazelnuts (kar liew - something additional to the recipe) were extraordinary more than stated in the recipe made these cookies tasted, errrmmm, well fantabulous! If you love soft and chewy cookies, this recipe is definitely for you to keep, well don't just keep, bake a batch or two or more!

Chocolate & Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

(A)
85g plain flour, sifted
40g self-raising flour, sifted
28g porridge oats
2 tsp baking powder
55g light brown sugar
55g caster sugar

1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp sunflower oil
40g raisins
85g plain chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 190C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine ingredients A. In a separate bowl, beat together egg and vanilla. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined (I've used a spatula to mix, easy peasy, something I learnt from watching Sugar).

Slowly add in the oil to the mixture, beating well between each addition, until the mixture start to comes away from the sides of the bowl - you may not need to use all the oil (I think I've used 2.5 tbsp of oil only.)

Stir in raisins and chocolate chips (and the nuts if using). Divide cookie dough into 12 - 15 portions and roll into balls. Place balls well spaced apart and flatten the dough slightly with the back of the spoon. (I did this by scooping and dropping the dough with 2 spoons. Worked just as well.)

Bake for 12 - 15 mins until pale golden. Store in air-tight container for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 3 months.

Ref: 500 Chocolate Delights by Lauren Floodgate

Technorati Tags: cookies

Remember my hot date with Paprika? The one I received a hot-off the oven, yummilicious chocolate cupcake from her??? Anyway, I did get the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins not long after and yes I've tried that recipe earlier but failed tremendously. I followed the recipe and my cupcakes came out tasting like cocoa powder instead of fudgey and goey. I've over baked them as I followed the recipe to the T!

I got round to make them again and this time I only baked them for about 12 mins. They came out perfectly chocolatey, fudgey and moist! No doubt they don't contain eggs or sugar but don't think of them as healthy alternative as the amount of butter and condensed milk used are very high. The usage of cola is of no help either hehehe. This time, I've used vanilla coke so I omitted vanilla essence. Strangely I did not taste the coke this time as compared to the last one when I made with the usual flavour. Other than cola, you can practically uses anything sparkling like water or apple juice. Just experiment there a bit. Also, remember to leave them to cool in the muffin tray for 5 mins before removing else the cake will leave the casing.

All my taste bunnies gave thumbs up except for one who is not a chocolate lover. My boiboi had a whale of time licking the batter off the beater, the only time I allowed him to since this doesn't contain eggs. He always ask to lick the batter which I won't let him as most cake batters contains raw eggs. I think he watched too much telly!

Egg-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

225g unsalted butter, softened
400g tin condensed milk
225g self raising flour
115g Dutch-process cocoa powder (I've used the normal ones)
2 tsp baking powder
100 g plain chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla essence
340ml cherry cola

Preheat oven to 175C. Place 12 baking cases into muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, cream butter with electric whisk until light and fluffy about 2-3 mins. Add condensed milk and beat until combined. Sieve flour, cocoa and baking powder into wet mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, vanilla and cola.

Spoon batter into cases. Bake for 20 mins. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 mins. Then remove cupcakes and cook on rack.

Store in airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.

Ref: 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing)

Technorati Tags: cupcake + chocolate

Don't these babies looked terrific?? Best of all they're low fat! Indulge...


As I went through the recipe again and again, I noticed there isn't any addition of chocolate chips in there despite the title of the muffin. Hence, I adapted the recipe, adding this and removing that. The texture is little dense but since they're muffin, I guess that was how they were supposed to be like. For myself, I prefer cupcakes' texture as they're lighter and fluffier, nevertheless, these muffins were well received by the recipients or maybe they were polite?

Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Muffins

For muffins:
300g plain flour
25g caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 lightly beaten eggs
115 ml sunflower oil
175 ml low fat milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 handfuls of chocolate chips

For icing:
2 tbsp margerine, softened
175g icing sugar, sieved
30g cocoa powder
4 tbsp low fat milk
A handful of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease 12-cup muffin tin. In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and cocoa with a spoon. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, milk and vanilla with electric whisk (I used manual which worked as well) and beat till combined. Add flour mixture and stir till just combined before adding chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Spoon batter into prepared tin. Bake for 20 mins. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 mins. Then remove muffins and cool on a rack.

In actual fact, I've used the small muffin paper cups which yielded 18-20 muffins (sorry can't recall). They looked terribly cute in them!

For icing, combine all ingredients except milk. Add the milk slowly, beating with electric whisk to make a firm but spreadable mixture. Add in chocolate chips. Spoon the icing onto the cooled muffins.

Adapted from the 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing)

Technorati Tags: cupcake + muffin

*AHEM* Another easy peasy recipe but sinfully delicious chocolate cake. The whisky gave this fudgy cake a wonderful aroma and best of all it's the simplest method ever - cook ingredients in a saucepan then dunk in the dry ingredients. Bake in oven, voila! This recipe is from The Australian Women 's Weekly - Food We Love.

Mississippi Mud Cake

Serving size: Serves 10 or more
Cooking time: More than 1 hour
Can be made 3 days ahead. Storage: Covered, in refrigerator. Freeze: Suitable. Microwave: Chocolate mixture suitable.


INGREDIENTS

250g cold unsalted butter, chopped
150g dark chocolate, chopped
440g (2 cups) caster sugar
250ml (1 cup) hot water
80ml (1/3 cup) whisky
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
225g (1½ cups) plain flour
35g (¼ cup) self-raising flour
25g (¼ cup) cocoa powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten


METHOD

Grease 23cm square slab pan, line base with baking paper. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, water, whisky and coffee powder in medium pan; stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Transfer mixture to large bowl; cool. Stir in sifted flours and cocoa, then eggs; pour mixture into prepared pan.

Bake at 160°C for 1¼ hours. Stand cake 30 minutes; turn onto wire rack to cool. Serve dusted with sifted icing sugar.

Ref: The Australian Women 's Weekly - Food We Love. Original recipe can be found here.

Based on my baking experience, 2 cups sugar is way too sweet, hence I've used 1 1/2 cup sugar which I still think a bit too sweet for myself. Might reduce further but then again must depend on the type of chocolate used. Best to balance the bitter dark chocolate according to liking. I could definitely smell the whisky but the guinea pigs said they can't smell nor taste any liquor!!! So might need to reduce the water and increase the whisky.

Technorati Tags: chocolate + cake

I'm gonna end the week here with another sugar high Friday. Made this version using Donna Hay's recipe from Modern Classics Book 2 which turned out beautifully. It's moist and the chocolate smelt and tasted great. Can't believed I've made a second one right after I chucked my first into the oven! The chocolatey smell that wafted from the oven propelled me to made my second immediately haha... best part, I don't even need to wash up the utensils first since this is not a delicate cake anyway.



Pardon for the lack of real posting especially on makan places cos I don't have much time to compose them in great length. Maybe next week... till then, have a nice weekend.

Technorati Tags: donna hay + brownie

So far I've never came across anyone who doesn't like Chocolate Chip Cookies unless you tell me you're one of the unique ones heh. I was stock taking my larder and found a bag of Hershey's chocolate chips and different bags of nuts inside. Oh my... I've gotten these to make the cookies for Chinese New Year but never got round to do it. Hence the sudden enthusiast to bake some chocolate chip cookies. It's not my first time baking them but it's my first using Donna Hay's recipe found in page 16 of Modern Classic Book 2.

I've made up the cookie dough without adding any chocolate chips and separated them into a few bowls to make a few variations of Chocolate Chip Cookies. I've omitted the dessicated coconut and it turned out fine. I've also varied the cookies sizes, from as large as my palm to bite size pieces. Feel free to experiment.

This is the Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies. Oooo... I simple love this because of the hazelnuts. Do use a generous amount of the chips and nuts, just play by your ear on how much to add hahaha... the more the merrier!



The next batch of dough, I've added in chips and walnut!!! Simply irresistable!



This, I've added in the chips and plenty of chopped almonds. Imagine... every bite filled with chocolates and almonds... YUMZZZ!



In another batch of dough, I've added in some cocoa powder, loads of chopped almonds and of course more chips. The cocoa powder lend a remarkable bitter chocolate taste to the cookies and it made the almonds stand out! They looked so pretty, don't they?



Due to my over generousity in the usage of chocolate chips, I ran outta them for my last batch of dough. I can't run out to get extra as BoiBoi was taking his afternoon nap and hubby was not around either. After much rummaging my larder and fridge, I suddenly got creative. Since I've used Snickers bar to make cookies before, why not use Toblerone (I've used the one in beige box which is the milk chocolate one)??? I broke up pieces of them and add them into the dough together with some chopped almonds. The result... fantabulous! The cookies were slightly chewy due to the nougat and honey content in the Toblerone. So technically this is not chocolate chip cookies but let's' just name it Toblerone Cookies hahaha... not very creative huh?



So, those were my variation of chocolate chip cookies. Are you inspired to bake some too?? Or would you rather run off to Famous Amos to grab some to satisfy your cravings??? hehehehe... (sorry if you've wet your keyboard with your own drool :p)

I'm not gonna post the recipe here due to copyright issues but you can find it here. Happy baking!

Technorati Tags: chocolate chip cookies + donna hay

I've made a batch of these for a party recently using this recipe but added in the orange zest and orange juice instead. This I would say tasted much better than the mocha's version. I did not iced them, I scared the hosts will ban me from going to their home again after the kids leave "fingerprints" all over their lovely walls hehehe...


Hmm when I checked my previous batch's photos I don't see them looked like a hill!!! Could be the oven temperature I guess but taste wise still ok if not better. Will experiment with other flavours next time since this cheat's version is SO easy to make.

Watch this space for the vanilla version...

I've updated Cheat's Chocolate Cup Cake with the recipe. Happy trying!

I've baked these just right after the IMBB 13: Cupcakes and Muffins Galore!. Hence, it was too late to submit to the event. Well this was an impromptu thingy that I did whilst my boiboi was having his afternoon nap.

It was a quick and easy recipe. Great for newbie like me heh... I don't have the recipe with me now, will post it up later. The texture was perfect, slightly moist. I varied the toppings with some halves cashew nuts, some chocolate chips and crushed peanuts. However, I just wonder why my nuts sank? Hehehe or maybe I should stick to making an icing for the topping instead??

They looked wonderful, don't they??

BTW, they tasted wonderful too :p

UPDATED (27th May 2005):

Ahhh finally got time to type in the recipe. I've copied it from the net somewhere, sometime back but can't recall where. Hence, can't give credit to the creator of this easy and fast recipe. Whoever you are, THANK YOU!

100g butter (preferably unsalted)
80gm plain flour
20g cocoa
1 level tsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
2 medium sized eggs
2 tbsp liquid*

Preheat oven to 190C. Line patty tins with paper cases.

Remove butter from fridge and leave at room temperature for 10-15 mins until soften (but not until melted or oily).

Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder onto a sheet of paper, twice. Set aside.

Place soften butter, sugar, eggs, liquid and sifted dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Beat with electric hand mixerfor 2 mins or stir manually using balloon whisk (which I did) until smooth for 2-3 mins.

Spoon batter into paper cases. Bake in pre-heated oven for 12-20 mins or until cakes are well risen and the surface springs back lightly when touched with a finger tip.

Transfer cakes onto wire tray. Dust cake lightly with icing sugar if you like just before serving or with a layer of frosting.

* For mocha cupcakes, the liquid should be made up of 2 level tsp instant coffee mixed with 2 tbsp warm water.

* For orange chocolate cupcakes, the liquid should be made up of 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice mixed with 1 tsp grated orange rind.