chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting

I don't really need a good excuse to bake cupcakes. Heck, I don't need an excuse full stop. I will happily oblige and provide cupcakes for anyone that requests I bring them to any shindig. The Biggest Morning Tea was no different.

What's the Biggest Morning Tea? Only one of Australia's most well-loved fundraising events, that's what. It's a great fundraiser for the Cancer Council. Apparently a first for the company I work for this year (in terms of participation), the inaugural Biggest Morning Tea was scheduled for Friday 27 May 2011. My colleagues are really organised. So organised in fact that we discussed what we were going to bring for the Morning Tea the week before. Hands down, it was unanimous. I was to bring chocolate cupcakes.

This suited me fine because I LOVE chocolate cupcakes. What's not to love? I am a firm believer that the best kind of cupcakes are the simple ones. Don't get me wrong, I love all the different kinds of cupcakes and flavours you can get these days that are frosted sky high and decorated to the nines. They certainly are beautiful to look at but my only criticism is I find them too sickly sweet for my palate and end up not enjoying the sensorial experience a cupcake should bring. Instead I find myself keeling over thinking I shouldn't have eaten that amount of sugar in such a short space of time, especially when I can feel my teeth 'hurting'. I believe that there's something really beautiful in the simplicity of a good chocolate cupcake made with high quality ingredients. I think that's key - you have to use a high-quality cocoa powder and chocolate (dark chocolate if possible!) to create the most scrumptious chocolate cupcake.

 I've tried a couple of different chocolate cupcake recipes; some with great results and others, not so great results. This one is a good one. They're easy to make, with minimal preparation and are absolutely scrumptious with good quality dark chocolate topped with my super quick and easy chocolate icing!

Also, I have been doing some reading online and have found that people are really worried about cupcakes with cracked tops. As you can see from above, mine cracked and I don't really care. It doesn't really affect the taste of the cupcake but, I will make chocolate cupcakes again I'm sure, so when I crack the mystery of cracked tops I'll be sure to blog about it! But for now, I am content with hastily covering them up with yummy chocolate icing and coloured sprinkles.

chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing

 

preparation time | 15 minutes

cooking time | 20 minutes

makes | 12 cupcakes with a muffin top, 16 smaller ones

chocolate cupcakes

100g dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup (250ml) water

125g butter, softened

1 cup (210g) brown sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

1/4 cup (30g) cocoa powder

chocolate icing

2 tablespoons butter at room temperature

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1 cup icing sugar mixture

1 tablespoon boiling water

1 tablespoon milk

1| Preheat your oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced). Line the muffin / cupcake tray with pretty paper cases.

2| Place the chocolate and water into a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring for about 5 minutes or so or until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is nice and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

3| Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, always beating well after each egg to make sure all are combined well. Sift the flours and cocoa and fold into the mixture, alternating in thirds with the chocolate liquid mixture, ending with the flour/cocoa mixture (so, you should mix flour, then a bit of liquid, flour, liquid and finish with flour).

4| Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared cases (about 2/3 full so you don't get that muffin top look). Place into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

5| To make the icing, place the butter, cocoa and icing sugar mixture into a small bowl. Pour 1 tablespoon of water. Whisk together the mixture until it forms a paste. Add in a little bit of milk (just a little bit!) at a time, until the mixture is spreadable. If you like heat up the milk a bit so it's easier to mix. If you want a sweeter icing, add in a bit more icing sugar mixture. If it's too thick, add in a bit more liquid and if it's too runny, add in more sugar (for those that love their icing sweet) or a bit more cocoa powder.

6| Ice and decorate your cupcakes any which way you wish!

hump day afternoon dee-light

This week is all about report writing. Meeting deadlines. Delivering insight. Which can be hard for someone like me. Someone that gets easily distracted, procrastinates and needs a little extra thinking time to write about brands and their personalities. I digress.

I am a person that is much more focused in the morning. I am, without a doubt, a morning person. I must admit, since moving to Melbourne I have become much less of a morning person but I think I've got my morning mojo back. My brain works really well until it hits about 3.00pm or 3.30pm, depending on the day. As soon as the clock strikes 3, it's like my brain tries to tell me "Camilla, I can't go on anymore...must eat chocolate to function further..."

Most days I avoid the temptation of chocolate, instead reaching for a pastry or biscuit. I'm not sure which is worse! It's the sugar I tell you... need. sugar. to sustain.

Again, I digress! Once it hits 3.00pm that's when you'll usually find me also reaching for my headphones and plugging in... to some music! So if like me, you're finding yourself somewhat lethargic mid week, using food as a means of procrastination or just in need of a midday / mid-week boogie, Little Red's Rock It does the trick nicely I say.

Happy hump day!

a night with ben folds

What. A. Night.

Before Friday night, I was a fan. Not a massive fan but I definitely had an appreciation for his music. After seeing Ben Folds live, I walked away with such admiration for this man. Ben Folds recorded doesn't do him justice. His voice live is amazing, he's a literary genius and genuinely funny. A great showman. Polished, yet relaxed and the best bit of the night - he and his band came back on for an encore! Now, you don't see big artists doing that much these days.

Also can I just say how AMAZING the Palais is? It was the perfect place for a gig like Ben Folds. Not so much for the Wombats I heard (how can you dance in your seat?!) 

So I leave you with a video of Ben Fold's version of Ke$ha's Sleazy. An amazing cover, if not totally random.

P.S. I have the utmost respect for Kate Miller-Heidke, who supported Ben Folds on his tour. She is one amazing talent from Brisbane (Brisbane represent!!) The things she can do with her voice - and oh, what a voice. Such control! She truly performs with such a simplistic style and grace yet very much holds her own on the stage. So I leave you, finally, with the most funniest song Kate did on the night - a song about old flames on Facebook. Good to see she's keeping up with social media.

hump day afternoon dee-light

And it's Wednesday again (I know right?!)

Last weekend I was looking through my limited CD collection that I brought with me when I moved to Melbourne. Most of it is "old music" - music from the 90's or early 00's. Feeling all ghetto, I wanted some old R'n'B. Not that new stuff they call R'n'B on the radio now. More electronic than melodic. I wanted some smooth tunes or fat bass lines, like old Usher, Boyz II Men, Bone Thugs & Harmony, heck 98 Degrees (do they count as R'n'B??)

I was ecstatic when I came across Usher's 2004 album Confessions in my CD collection. Who doesn't love singing along to Confessions, Burn (probably my favourite track on the album) and dancing along to Caught Up and of course, probably the most well-known song on the album - Yeah!

What I love about R'n'B from the 90's and 00's is that it is totally acceptable for middle class white or asian folk (actually anyone other than African Americans) to pretend to be all ghetto. It's ok to throw your hands up and go Yeah! and sing about shortys, boos, bootys, yell out rowl (yes, according to Ludacris, it is a word) and generally act like you probably never would normally. And can I just point out Taio Cruz, who likes to say his name in the beginning of almost every song on his album, you're not the first. Usher did it too. Way back when it was still fresh.

Happy hump day!

an honourable mention

The last time I took part in a singing Eisteddfod was when I was 12. I remember I competed in the Under 13s solo. I sang 'Doing What Comes Naturally' from Annie Got Your Gun. My singing teacher and I even choreographed a routine. I had so much fun but at the same time felt a lot of pressure. Tonight,, at the Boorondara Eisteddfod, it was no different. Ok so we didn't have any choreography to remember but I think everyone felt a lot of pressure. Singing in an adult choir, particularly in one where people like to sing for fun and are not used to being on stage can be quite challenging and of course, daunting. While I'm no pro to performing, I just remember that it's a bit of fun. Let's face it. We're not performing brain surgery. No one will die (maybe of embarrassment though) if we sing a few wrong notes. It's not a life or death situation. I don't mean to be dismissive, but I've performed enough to not get my knickers in a knot. Unfortunately I think for some, nerves got the better of them. We started off a bit shaky and off-key in Sign your Name but kicked arse in Drive my Car. Despite the shaky start, we did get an honourable mention at the end of the night. Winning.

I must say though that tonight, the competition was fierce. There was a great mix of all male, all female and of course, mixed choirs. The most enthralling, ethereal and magical performance for me was an all male group that performed Shenandoah - most possibly one of my favourite pieces of all time. The most unusual song performed was Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil. A classic but acapella style? Interesting. The coolest part of that song was the Asian beat boxer. Boo to the Chorister though that was also singing with her choir. I didn't know that was allowed! They tied for first place. And what do you know? A quick search on You Tube tells me the winning choir have loaded a video of them performing Beds are Burning last year.

 
And on that note, all choirs did really well and it was a fun night. Can't wait to do it all again.

portuguese custard tarts

Now, I’ve made these before without a hitch. In fact, they were really straightforward, no issues whatsoever. Granted, I made them in Brisbane, in my mum’s awesome kitchen filled with everything you possibly need (plus, her oven is truly amazing. I’m so glad my parents decided to renovate our family home and that my mum gave herself the kitchen she’s always dreamed of). And then, having craved egg tarts for weeks gave in to temptation and decided I would make them again.

Talk about a disaster. Wait, let’s rewind. Ok so I started off ok, separated the eggs, whisked in the sugar, starch flour and milk and the mixture was starting to boil. All going according to plan, just as it should. But after constant stirring, I was wondering why the boiling mixture wasn’t getting any thicker. (Poor) instinct told me, no matter, I’ll just add in some more starch flour. Fail. That just made the once smooth mixture lumpy and gross. Having been raised never to waste food, I added in a half a cup of rice, a dash of ground cinnamon and nutmeg, thinking that I could make a rice pudding. After 10 minutes the delicious aroma wafted through the kitchen but the mixture looked like vomit. I kid you not. The rice wasn’t cooking and more and more of the mixture was sticking to the bottom of the pan. I kept putting a bit more milk during the 10 minutes but I think that made it worse. The liquid I was adding kept evaporating. Epic fail.

I’d had enough. I scraped as much as I could out of the pan and into the bin. I hate wasting ingredients but I knew it was a lost cause. To make things worse, I had this pan with a lot of milk, egg, sugar, starch flour and rice stuck to the bottom. Good thing I remembered something my mum taught me – if you have a non-stick pan with a lot of food stuck to the bottom, to make it easier to clean, add some water to the pan and place on the stove. Cook it off (until it boils) and use a wooden spoon or some sort of sturdy scraper and the stuck food will come off. Voila it worked!

So what was the cause of the epic fail? I had put in two teaspoons of starch flour, rather than 2 tablespoons of it. Yep, a simple mistake like that has dire consequences.

Right. Take two.

A much better result! I admit, I did deviate from the original recipe but that’s only because I didn’t want to brave the cold and decided to just make do with what was in my pantry. This time around I used 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg instead of 3 egg yolks, raw sugar instead of caster sugar and soy milk (Soy Milky by Vitasoy) rather than cream and milk. I quite like making these tarts with soy milk – the custard is still nice and creamy but it tricks our mind into thinking we’re doing something good for us. Plus, it also means that our lactose intolerant friends can enjoy a nice egg tart too. 

Now, I’ve also been reading other blogs where people are having issues with getting the nice brown colour on top. I haven’t had that issue. That’s probably because usually, I’m prone to burning things. I like to put the oven on fan forced at about 200C. If it’s burning too quickly, you can always turn down the temperature. Now, when they come out of the oven, the tarts will puff up a bit and then they'll deflate. Don't worry, it won't change how good they'll taste!

Adapted from Bill Granger’s pasteis de nata recipe

portuguese egg tarts

preparation time | 10 minutes for custard plus cooling time, 15 minutes for tarts

cooking time | 20-25 minutes

makes | 12 tarts

3 egg yolks

110g sugar

2tbsp cornflour or starch flour

230ml cream

170ml milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 sheet of puff pastry

Ground cinnamon

1| Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin / cupcake tray.

2| Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a pan until smooth. Gradually whisk in the cream and milk until smooth.

3| Place the pan over medium heat, and cook, continuously stirring until bubbles appear (come to the boil) and the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Cover the pan with cling film wrap to prevent a skin forming and leave the custard to cool.

4| Preheat the oven to 200°C.

5 | Sprinkle the cinnamon over the pastry sheet. Cut the sheet in half and put one half on top of the other. Set aside for about 5 minutes. Roll up the pastry tightly from the short end and cut the pastry log into 12 x 1cm rounds. Lay each pastry round on to a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll out until each is about 10cm in diameter.

6| Press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry and custard is nice and golden. Leave the tarts in the tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you want to make a healthier version – use 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg, raw sugar instead of white and 400ml of milk (you can use soy milk – tastes just as good!). Adding in a bit of cinnamon to the pastry will also do wonders - sure these may not end up tasting like the original Portuguese tart, but I think you'll find them just as good.

take me back to the summertime

Take me back to the sweet times, the hot nights...

Sing it sister (well technically, Thirsty Merc). Now, I don’t mean to complain (I can hear all that know me well chuckle right now because they know, I do like to get on my soapbox and tell it like it is) but it has been extremely cold in Melbourne. So cold in fact, I am actually dreaming of beautiful balmy weather. Again, very strange because I’m usually not a massive fan of summer. Ok, so there are some good things about summer:

1. I was born in Summer.
2. I love ice cream (actually anything cold and sweet) and it’s perfectly acceptable to eat loads of it in summer, for its cooling effects. 
3. The days are longer and the nights are shorter.
4. Going out is not so much a chore, and requires very little effort.

However, let’s look at the other side of the coin. I don’t enjoy summer because:

1. I sweat like a pig.
2. I don’t do summer clothing very well. Ironic right, given that I was born and raised in the Sunshine State? Sorry, I just do not rock the Billabong and thongs (flip flops) look.
3. I burn/tan really easily and it stays with me for ages. I know, why should I be complaining about this? I’ll tell you why. I don’t like to tan, brown is not beautiful from where I’m from (whacky Asians!) and I still have the horrible t-shirt tan line from last year’s Big Day Out – yes, about 15 months on!

To all my friends that love Summer, I don’t mean to be disrespectful. At times, I behave like I’m not a true Queenslander. I do apologise. I do still very much love pineapple though.

So, whilst having climatised to the much cooler weather in Melbourne, I found it odd that I was dreaming of Summer. I think because lately, not only has it been cold, it has also been wet. Cold + wet weather ≠ pleasant. It’s taken about 4 days for my washing to dry. 4 days! Good thing I have an extensive wardrobe (I knew all that clothes shopping would come in handy one day).

And so to this, I found myself looking through my photos from our South East Asia trip in October 2009. My family and I had an amazing time. We ate to our hearts’ content in Singapore and Malaysia (well, technically everywhere we went), we got up close and personal with elephants and tigers in Thailand and met up with family in Indonesia and Singapore. Oh and the weather. Lush, tropical weather....

Where it's totally acceptable to eat a mountain of shaved ice and syrup, at least once a day. You sweat it all off anyway.

Or get a massage from a baby elephant...

 Or touch some unsuspecting sleeping tigers...

Eat a feast of spicy food (again, you sweat it off)...

Where you feel like you’ve just had a shower, constantly. Where you don’t suffer from dry skin. Where you feel like you need to walk around in as little clothing as possible (I won't scare you all with a photo of that!). Well suffice to say, I quickly snapped out of my summer dream. Don’t get me wrong, a summer tropical holiday is nice, but key word in that sentence: holiday. Perhaps a trip up north during Winter will help me through the colder months...