Red Velvet Cake Balls

I've been meaning to try making cake balls/cake pops for a long time now, but don't seem to have any cake leftovers. Recently i baked some red/pink velvet for my office's pot luck, and managed to have some cake leftovers, and decided to freeze them purposely for this project. :)

Red Velvet Cake Balls inspired by Bakerella
Preparation time: 30 minutes (minus the chilling time)
Baking time : None :)
Yields: almost 100 small balls (I used a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon to measure the cake balls)

All you need is a recipe of red velvet cake, a recipe of cream cheese frosting and chocolates for cover. Easy Peasy recipe. Lets start!

First, crush the cake into fine crumbles. If you have a mixer, just blitz it for a few minutes. I just used my hands (which are covered with plastic gloves. IMPORTANT).

Next, add the chilled cream cheese frosting into the cake crumbles, and mix well.

Then, roll the cake mixture into balls, size is according to your liking.

Next, chill the cake balls for at least 2 hours.

For the outer cover, melt dark/milk chocolate bars using double boiler method. Dip the balls into the melted chocolates, and decorate with tiny hearts or sprinkles. Chill again at least for 2 hours.

Taddaa!!. Ready for consuming :)

Taste: I used milk choc to cover the cake balls, so it turn up to be a bit too sweet for me. Next time, I'll use dark choc. Otherwise, it's goooood :)

Pink Velvet Cuppies

 Selamat Hari Raya!

I'm in still in my raya mood, eventhough I had to get back to work on the 6th day of Raya..Booo. Well. at least I had a great time celebrating Eid with my family. Hope it was great for everyone else too :)
Anyway, it has been a week after my Eid holidays, and my office planned a Pot Luck for Eid. I'm not much of a cook, so I opted to bring desserts.

I used the same recipe as the Red Velvet Cake, but since I'm out of red food colouring, I used pink food colouring instead, hence the name, Pink Velvet cuppies. I doubled the recipe and managed to get about 35 pcs of medium size cuppies (2.5" souffle cups)

Since the the recipe for the cake you can get it from here, I just want to share the recipe for the frosting. It claims to be a pipeable cream cheese frosting and it is easy to make.

Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from ThePinkWhisk

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Yields enough frosting to cover about 32 cupcakes

Ingredients:
70 g of butter,soften
250 g cream cheese, cold
200 g icing sugar, sifted (use less if you don't like it too sweet)

Steps:
1. Cream butter and a tablespoon of icing sugar until fluffy and light.

2. Add the cold cream cheese, and mix well. Make sure you don't overbeat the cream cheese, since it will turn runny if beaten too long.

3. Tadaaaaa!

I personally love this recipe, and planned to make swirls as topping for the cuppies, but since my piping skills are crappy, i just spread the frosting with a spatula and decorate with sugar hearts. 

Pack and ready to go!

Here are a few photos from the pot luck. I had fun, and am very very full afterward. 

Food Galore!

Pink Velvet in action! These were gone in a jiffy :P

Me and my colleagues

Till next time,
Happy trying!

Love,
eL

Sardine Puffs

 Salam,
I know I've been lacking in updating this blog, some things came up, and I couldn't find the time to bake anything.

Anyway, we are going into the last week of Ramadhan. Oh my, time sure do fly really fast. I managed to break fast a few times back home in Kota Seriemas, and at my FMIL's house in Kulim. This weekend is actually the first weekend I spend in Kg Wai for Ramadhan.

I've been meaning to bake chocolate tarts today, however, I'm out of flour, so I'll end up making these sardine puffs. This recipe is my own, and I used a ready made puff pastry. It is so easy, and so fast to make too :)

Sardine Puffs

Difficulty level: Super Easy
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Yields : 10 puffs

Ingredients:

1 whole large onion - chopped
1 clove of garlic - chooped
1 red chilli (put more if you like it spicier) - chopped
2 can of Sardines
1 tbsp lime juice
salt to season
1 packet of ready made puff pastry

Steps:
1. Saute the chopped onion, garlic and red chilli until it turned soft and brown.

2. Add in the sardine fillet, without the tomato sauce. Mashed the sardine fillet with the back of a spoon of a fork.

3. Add in lime juice. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Assembling the puffs
1. Take a piece of puff pastry

2. Spoon in the fillings in the middle

3. Brush the edge of the pastry with egg white
4. Fold into triangle, and pinch the edge together. Take a fork, and press into the edge

5. Transfer into baking tray, and brush the top with egg yolk.

6. Bake at 160C for 20 minutes

Taste: Crispy! However, I think the pastry add some saltiness to the whole puff, so make sure the fillings is not so salty. :)

Happy trying

Love,
eL

Double Choc Chip Muffin

I bake these muffins a few weeks back, but only got around to blog it today, since I'm on medical leave for the week. I love muffins and I love chocolate. Combined the two together, and I'm in bliss :)
This recipe was adapted from Nigella Lawson's choc chip recipe here


Double Choc Muffin
Difficulty level: Easy 
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 25 minutes

Yields: 18 pieces of medium muffins

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 cup milk
90 ml vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence

Steps:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together (Flour+baking powder+baking soda+cocoa powder+choc chip)

2. Mix all the wet ingredients together (Oil+milk+egg+vanilla essence)

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir until combine. DO NOT over-mixed the batter as it will make the muffin dry.

4. Pour into muffin cases and decorate the top with extra chocolate chips and bake for 25 minutes at 160C.

 

5. Tadaaaa!

Taste: Yummy, but I think, next time, I'll substitute the oil with melted butter. I think everything is nicer with butter. hihihihi :D

p/s: I froze my muffins for a week, and it still taste the same. Thaw it out first, then bake for 10 minutes.

Happy trying!

Love,
el

My First Macarons :)

I'm smiling while I'm updating this blog. Beginner's luck :)

I have been trying to make these little monsters for months now, and failing miserably every time. I didn't give up though. I look up different sites and blogs that teach how to do it properly. I tried searching for macarons classes but where I'm at, there is none nearby :(

I bought a digital scale yesterday, and determine to try again. I used this one egg white macarons recipe courtesy to the Macarons Genius, Kak Yani of Kitchen Guardian. Her blog is addictive!! Thank you so much Kak Yani :)

One egg white macarons

Difficulty level: Moderate *depending on your level of patience :P
Preparations time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

30g egg whites *I aged them overnight in the fridge

20g caster sugar

36g ground almond

54g icing sugar *I ground the almond and the icing together, and sifted them twice. 

1/2 tsp powdered pink food coloring

Steps: 

1. In a very clean bowl *I used my new IKEA stainless steel bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy

2. Slowly add in the caster sugar *I add my coloring with the sugar, while whisking the egg white until stiff peaks form. *Obviously, I couldn't take any picture during this step since both of my hands are occupied

caster sugar + pink food coloring

Soft peak

Stiff peak

3. Fold in the almond-icing mixture in three parts, incorporate it well with the egg white. After that, press the batter to the wall of the bowl, to free trapped air until the batter is ribbon-like and glossy. 

almond-icing mixture

4. Pour the batter in a piping bag, and pipe small circle onto the baking tray that has been lined with baking sheet. Try to make the circles the same. I failed at this. hihihihi

5, Tap the baking tray gently on the counter to remove trapped air and leave it to dry. Mine took around 30 minutes

6. Bake for 20 minutes at 150C. The macarons shell should have skirts/feet around 5 minutes of baking. I've waited in front of the oven and jumped around my kitchen when the skirts/feet appear. :D

skirts/feet :)

7. Let it cool on the rack, and peel slowly from the sheet.

8. To assemble the macarons, sandwich two shells with the lemon curd fillings i made a few days ealier.

9. Makan!!

Taste: Crunchy outer and chewy inner, and very sweet. Have to try to make less sweet fillings next time. :)

p/s: My shells are senget-benget and have cracks on some. I think the oven might be a bit too hot. :P