Back to Childhood Cupcakes

A couple of Saturdays ago, The Lovely Wife and I were supposed to catch up with two friends - Lynn and Ms Kong Piang - over drinks. My son however had developed a fever so the two ladies asked if it was okay if they popped round instead. When I know that friends are popping over, I always feel that I have to serve something.

A good friend, Naomi, had given us some lovely Cheddar cheese when she had come back to Malaysia recently for a holiday. The cheese was tangy and had a lot of bite that made it really delicious with crackers. That would go down well for the after dinner drinks.

I also decided that I would make some muffins. I know Ms Kong Piang likes my cakes and Lynn is also one of my favourite 'consumers'! I was tempted to just redo what I did on my last post - Walnut Choc Chip Muffins - but decided that I would try something new. I browsed through my cupcake/muffin book and found a recipe for Cookies and Cream cupcakes. This was basically throwing in some crushed Oreos into the batter. Another variation called for substituting the Oreos for Nougat bars. A lamp bulb started to flash in my head and the gear wheels in my brain started to churn as well. What if I used Oreos and Snickers? That would have to taste delicious! Woulnd't it??




So thats what I did. Bought a pack of Oreos and two Snickers bars. Crushed and chopped them up respectively and then threw them into the cake batter. I knew that the cupcakes would be a tad sweet due to the Oreos and Snickers so I put in a disc of dark chocolate in the middle of each cupcake. This would give it a slightly bitterish tinge when bitten into.

Ingredients
250g butter
225g Caster Sugar
225g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp Milk
1 packet Oreo Cookies - crushed
2 snickers bars - shopped
Method
Melt the butter until very soft but not completely liquid. Add in the sugar and beat till light. Add beaten eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder.
Add in Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well. Fold in Oreos and Snickers.
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and top with a Dark Chocolate disk. bake for about 30 minutes or till done in 180°C oven

I made two sizes of cupcakes. Twelve medium sized cupcakes and twelve large ones. I went a bit overboard with the large ones and overfilled them. They rose beautifully but then started to spill out over the sides of the muffin cases. If they had held, or if I had placed the muffin cases into a muffin pan, I would have gotten lovely muffin caps but alas, the cases were too big to fit into the muffin pans and the batter just spilled over...

No use crying over spilled batter.

Nonetheless, the larger cupcakes turned out really nice and cakey with a light, soft crumb. The taste of the Oreos combined nicely with the taste of the Snickers although neither taste was overpowering. The cupcakes were a tad sweet - sweeter than what we are normally used to and this was due to the Oreos and Snickers. The cupcakes were still very delicious nonetheless.

Since the cupcakes seemed to fit into the mould of a dessert, I served up a batch with Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce. Yummy! Very, very delicious and my kids absolutely loved it.



Later that night, I served Lynn and Ms Kong Piang the dessert version and they both agreed that although a tad sweet, it was very nice. Both of them took some home too while the rest was eaten throughout the weekend - either on its own or covered with Ice Cream and doused in Chocolate Sauce!




I call these cupcakes, Back to Childhood cupcakes because with Oreos and Snickers in them each bite kind of transports you back to your favourite indulgences when you were a kid. Every kid will definitely like these cupcakes and every adult that still has some kid left in him will love it too!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Before the christmas spirit dies off, I'd like to share with you one of the favourites in this household - a favourite that is baked all year round that I can't believe I haven't posted about it before!

My son loves Chocolate Chip Muffins. In fact, anytime he is a little peckish, he will look at us pleadingly and ask if her can get a Choc Chip Muffin from the local Coffee Bean. I have to admit that the Coffee Bean Choc Chip Muffin IS really nice and so I had to make my own version.





These muffins are quick, easy and very delicious. It's no wonder that they get eaten up so quickly - maybe gobbled is a better word!

Sometimes, during christmas, I will bake up a batch and give some out to friends and neighbours. Other times, they just get finished up by the kids although we did invite some friends over to share these but only one was able to make it...

This is what I do.

Ingredients

250 g Butter
220 g Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
4 tbsp Milk
1 Tbsp Honey
2 tsp Vanilla
250 g Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
200 g Chocolate Chips

Method
Cream butter and Sugar till light and fluffy
Add beaten eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder
Add in Honey, Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well
Fold in Chocolate Chips ensuring it is well mixed
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and bake for about 20 minutes or till done in 190°C oven

I usually make these to rise just enough to fill the cases but since my son likes the 'muffin caps' of the Coffee Bean muffins, I decided to put in a little extra batter and bake a few in a muffin pan to get those lovely, slightly crisp caps.


It's not only the kids that love these muffins as both The Lovely Wife and I can never stop at one either.


The kids couldn't wait to start eating these muffins but they were very good in letting me take my photos first and even agreed to pose with the muffins in front of the christmas tree!

This batch was polished off very, very quickly and the few that were left over were finished off the next morning for breakfast - by the kids!

Corn Muffins

My son has recently developed a love of corn. He loves Corn on the Cob, buttered corn kernels, basically anything with corn in it. With this in mind, I offered to make him some corn muffins. He wasn't sure whether he would like them but my little princess was game to try - and once she said she was game, my son willingly agreed.



I surfed the web for a recipe for corn muffins and I found a few but decided to try the one at Bakespace.com

The recipe is really quick and easy and produces tasty corn muffins.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 lrg egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup corn oil
8 oz can cream style corn

Method
Combine dry ingredients. Combine all wet ingredients. Combine the two mixures and blend just to eliminate the dry spots. spoon into 12 buttered muffin cups. Bake in 220C degree oven. 15-20 min until they test done.

Serve hot with butter and honey

I had made a stew to serve together with the corn muffins but the kids preferred instead to just devour them - first plain and then with honey! My son really liked these muffins and has learnt that when Daddy offers to make something, never say no. Who knows, it may turn out to be a favourite!

Apple Cinnamon muffins

One of the things that I made for Michael's 8th Birthday was Apple Cinnamon Muffins. I've made these before but never posted about them. Both my children love muffins and cupcakes. To be honest, I dont really know what the difference is between Muffins and Cupcakes. I know that cupcakes usually have icing on them but then a cake without icing is still a cake!

I also know that muffins are generally 'heavier' than cupcakes but really, is there a difference?

Anyway, rather than worry about semantics, I made these muffins simply because they are delicious and the Children love them. A few of The Lovely Wife's friends enjoyed these too a few weeks ago when they came to visit.




This is how I make my Apple Cinnamon Muffins.

Ingredients
250 g Butter
230 g Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
4 tbsp Milk
1 Tbsp Honey
2 tsp Vanilla
250 g Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
3 Large Apples
1 tbsp Cinnamon
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

Method
Pare the apples and cut into small squares
Mix Cinnamon, sugar and Apples together, coating well. Set Aside
Cream butter and Sugar till light and fluffy
Add eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder
Add in Honey, Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well
Fold in Apples ensuring it is well mixed
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and bake in 190°C oven for 20-25 minutes or till done

Very easy to make, very easy to eat and very delicious too - not to mention healthy! The kids had the leftover muffins for breakfast the next day while we also gave some away to some of our guests - who were really all family anyway!

When Mummy is away, Daddy will Play...Choc Orange Cupcakes

This is the final part of the fun I had with the kids - cooking up a storm - while Mummy was away. In the first part of this 'series', I posted about Chocolate Roasted Bananas that we had for dessert. In the second part I shared the main meal which was Scotch Eggs.
This is another dessert that we had after lunch as well as throughout the day. Yes, we certainly did have fun while Mummy was away!

The inspiration from this actually comes from one of the readers of this blog - Angela. She had shared her cupcake recipe with me where the cupcake moulds are half filled with batter, topped with coloured sprinkles and then covered up with more batter. I thought that was rather brilliant and so I decided to make my own version of cupcakes, using my tried and tested Butter Cake recipe but flavoured with some Orange Oil. Then, instead of sprinkles, I put in some delicious Belgioan Dark Chocolate Buttons!
This is what I did.

Ingredients:
230g (8oz) Flour
2 ½ tsp Baking Powder
230g (8oz) Castor Sugar
250g Butter
4 Eggs – lightly beaten
2 tsp Orange Oil
1 Tbsp Honey
4 Tbsp Milk

Method
Cream butter and sugar till light and ivory coloured
Add eggs a little at a time
Fold in flour (sifted twice with baking powder)
Add Milk, Honey and Orange Oil
Quarter fill cupcake moulds. Add in Chocolate Buttons (or any other filling you would like)
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 25 mins till golden and done





The chocolate melted and stayed kind of soft and gooey even when the cake was cooled. It was really nice biting into the orange cupcake and finding the dark, luscious chocolate inside. The kids certainly loved it and The Lovely Wife was rather thrilled as well to find cupcakes when she returned home that evening.