at Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Pumpkin Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting for Early Thanksgiving

Didn't notice that Thanksgiving is just few days away. Made this pumpkin cupcake two weeks back when I impulsively bought half of a pumpkin from the supermarket. Even since then, it had been sitting in the fridge because I had no idea what to do with it. Pumpkin soup, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cupcake, pumpkin pie... too many ideas = no idea :/

At the end, I resorted for this simple pumpkin cupcake because the man in my house doesn't like anything too cheesy or too complicated. Basically he doesn't like sweet dessert *Booo....*

Pumpkin Cupcake (recipe adapted from Sweetopia.net and Martha Stewart)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin purée
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup butter (melted)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, into a medium bowl.
3. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and melted butter. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined.
4. Divide the batter among the muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover)

150g cream cheese, at room temperature
40g butter, at room temperature
70g icing sugar, sifted

*I omitted the lemon juice and lemon zest

Method:

1. Beat cream cheese and butter till light and creamy.
2. Add in icing sugar and mix well on low speed.

at Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I just received the green light to share this recipe last night. An affirmation from my mom and aunty that this cake is delicious! Until mom felt so reluctant to finish it and tried to keep it for the longest time she possibly could. Don't be silly, I can make this again and again mom  ;)

Whenever my parents are visiting, I will bake something for them to bring back. Knowing my mom, grandma and aunty (yeah we all kinda live together :D), they would prefer something simple and non-sugary. So I chose to try this recipe out since I still have some cream cheese left. 

One mistake which I'd made is letting the butter in the room temperature for too long. Resulting to an extremely soft butter. When I start mixing the butter and cream cheese together, the mixture still looked okay. But when I added in other ingredients and continuously mixing the batter, it split! I'd experienced this once when I was making buttercream last time, but I didn't know the reason. This time I got smarter and googled it. Found out that butter shouldn't be left in room temperature for too long. When it is too soft, the moment we whisk it together with other ingredients, it will start melting and split. To test whether the butter is soft enough to work with, just place a finger on it. If it leaves a soft mark, then it is ready. 

The texture of my cake still need some improvements. It looks more 'coarse' than it is supposed to. Other than the overly soften butter, another reason could be the sugar. I use granulated sugar instead of castor sugar. I shall improve on that and try another time.

Ingredients (*Recipe from The Little Teochew)

- 195g all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 150g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 140g package cream cheese, room temperature
- 200g castor sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Zest of a lemon or orange


Method (with slight adaptations)
1. Preheat oven to 175°C and place rack in center of oven. 
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, in three additions, beating well after each addition. Continue beating on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and beat until incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. I use non-stick mini loaf pans for this recipe to avoid the hassle of greasing/ lining the pans. The amount of batter is just nice to fill 4 mini loaf pans.
5. Bake for about 50 mins. Do check at the 30 min-mark for over-browning. Since I was using mini loaf pans, it took less than 50 mins for them to cook.
6. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely. (The cake is cooled in the pan first for about 20 minutes so the cake has time to set. The cake may collapse if you try to remove it from the pan too soon.)
7. This cake will keep several days at room temperature and one week when refrigerated. Can also be frozen.

*Note: According to Ju (from The Little Teochew) and other readers who had tried this recipe, the top of the cake will crack after baking. But mine wasn't cracking at all. Is it a good sign? Maybe lol.