Have a break, have a cup cake !! :D

CLASSIC YELLOW CUPCAKES

Adopted From Bake Fresh
Ingredients:
Flour 1 cup
Baking Powder ¾ tsp
Salt 1/8 tsp
Milk ½ cup
Butter 1/3 cup
Castor Sugar ½ cup + 1 tbsp
Vanilla Essence ½ tsp
Egg 1

Method:

Beat butter till fluffy.

Add sugar until well combined and creamy.

Add in vanilla and beat.

Add in egg and beat well. 

Sieve flour, salt and baking powder.

Add in sifted flour alternately with milk while beating.

Divide the batter into 12 standard size muffin pans lined with cup cake cases filling about 3/4 full.

Bake in preheated oven at no.3 for 30-45 minutes until golden brown.

Cool them completely before frosting them with your favourite flavor and design.

more photos can be found here

Lessons Learnt:

1. Be very careful while filling the cups, over or under filling will result in spilling or not of proper height cakes. As you can see below i learnt the hard way ;)

2. Bake at the specified temperature to avoid over baking of base, if used a high temperature the base will burn leaving the top uncooked.

Happy Baking :)

Spring Cup Cakes!

After the success of my marshmallow fondant i cant stop trying different things with it - its so much fun to work with!!

My very first Fondant Care Bear - inspiration from Bakerella :D

Oven Temperature

Ok so when i started baking, one of the things that annoyed me most was understanding the temperatures.....different people use different ovens hence confusion! So i decided to kill the issue for once and all....during my serach i came across this Blissful chart and now i am a happy baker :)

This is an approximate conversion chart between gas mark and electric ovens. This information was copied from the rec.food.cooking FAQ.

This chart should be accurate enough for all your cooking needs, though keep in mind the temperatures will vary between different types, brands, sizes of ovens, in addition to your locations altitude, temperature, humidity, etc.

Soft & Sweet Apple Cake

In my Life...i have NEVER baked anything which doesnt have chocolate in it AND has fruit!!! :D
yesterday my mom-in-law mentioned that she has never tried any of my baking attempts....cause she doesnt like chocolate !! :( so just for her i decided to try my hands on my very first Apple Cake ....so this is for you Ammi! hope you like it!!
 
Adopted From Bake Fresh

Ingredients:
Apples 4-5

Butter 2 tbsp

Sugar 2 tbsp

Lemon 1 tbsp

For Cake:
Flour 1 cup
Sugar 3/4
Eggs 2
Canola Oil 1/2 cup
Baking Powder 1 tsp
Vanilla 1 tsp
Demerara Sugar 2-3 tbsp

Method:

1. Peel, core and thickly slice apples.

2. Squeeze lemon juice on it and mix.

3. Melt butter, add in apples and sugar.

4. Cook for 5 minutes until bubbly.

5. Place all cake ingredients in a bowl and beat it at low speed until combined.

6. Mix in half of the apples.

7. Pour it on a greased 9x4 inches rectangular pan or 9 inch round pan.

8. Spread rest of the apple mixture and sprinkle demerara sugar on it.

9. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 1 hour at gas mark 4 until golden brown and crisp crust is formed.

Lessons Learnt:
1. Brown sugar caramelizes very quickly and can turn black if over baked.
2. During baking the apples become very soft and their moisture dampens the cake. Hence remove form pan immediately after taking it out of the oven, else it becomes fragile and breaks easily.
3. Do not over cook the apples in butter to avoid their getting mushy when baked.


My Touch:
Instead of demerara, I used regular brown sugar. One because its easily available and second cause it was cheaper :)


Happy Baking :)