The Sugar Bar

I don’t quite get the names of these cupcakes (I’m thinking they’re called self-frosting cause the Nutella cooks on the top and becomes some kind of frosting) but they’re well popular and seeing how many foodies rave about these Donna Hay cupcakes, my interest was piqued. My sister Abs was eager to try them too since one of her mates had made them a while ago and from her blog, the cupcakes were 100% food porn and gloriously Nutella-y. Who could turn those down? And how could I say no to Abs who was having major Nutella/sugar/cupcakes craving issues?

The cupcakes were definitely pretty to look at being all swirly and cute. Definitely had the taste factor going on but it was pretty obvious these cupcakes were buttery to the max. A lot of fat to flour makes these cupcakes uber rich but I loved that they didn’t have that eggy smell and taste of my all-time favourite Magnolia cupcake recipe. I really love Magnolia recipes but sometimes the egg scent is a little overpowering. These Nutella cupcakes were scrumptious. However, left in an airtight container overnight, the cupcakes got very greasy and the cupcake liners were completely soaked through. Not exactly a pretty sight and totally did nothing to quell the guilt of eating a cupcake! Would certainly recommend eating them all warm when they’re baked fresh and fairly non-grease-oozey. Might’ve been the awful summer heat that ruined these cupcakes a little for me, although the rest of the family didn’t really seem to mind. So, might’ve just been me! 

Nevertheless, these cupcakes were still a joy to have around. Simple to make, rather rustic looking; they were perfect for pudding to close a meal or a teatime snack.

Self-frosting Nutella Cupcakes
(Recipe from Baking Bites)
Ingredients

 140g butter, softened
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
Nutella

Preheat oven to 160d Celsius.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Whisk to combine.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 2 mins. Add the eggs one at a time and beat til fully incorporated. Add vanilla and mix in.

Mix in the flour mixture until no flour remains. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full then add about 2 tsp Nutella on top and swirl with a toothpick. Alternatively, fill the cupcake liners 1/2 full with cupcake batter, drop in a tsp of Nutella, fill with a little more batter til 2/3 full and swirl the tops with a dollop of Nutella!

Bake for 20mins. Thereafter, let cool completely on a wire rack.
Recipe yields a dozen cupcakes.

•••

I had a nice surprise yesterday from zurin of Cherry on a Cake. It was very sweet of her to pass on a blog award – Iheartyourblog – and considering I’ve been awfully crabby lately, this did much to turn my day around! Although it seems quite self-indulgent to bang on about myself just cause I’ve received an award, this one actually demands that you answer a few questions, add one to the list and then pass it on. Fun. So getting to it…

What is your current obsession?
Imagawayaki (今川焼き). You don’t find these awesome anko-filled cakes in England so I’m making sure that I eat as many as these as I can whilst on my summer hols.

What are you wearing today?
It’s blob-style lounging day so I’m in a scruffy red American Eagle tee and a ripped up pair of denim shorts. Not exciting. Did I mention I haven’t brushed my hair either?

What’s for dinner?
Cranberry & rosemary crusted lamb rack with roast potatoes, vegetables and beans.

What’s the last thing you bought?
Heckloads of Korean face masks, a bag of wine gums, Diet Coke, a loaf of bread and some muesli bars. Wow. Now that that’s written out, is that all I need to exist?

What are you listening to right now?
Attempting to splice the lush sounds of Belleruche and Erykah Badu with punk rock sounds of Anna Tsuchiya.

What do you think about the person who tagged you?
Zurin is the lovely owner of Cherry on a Cake. Her blog is awesome and makes me think of homely comforts and coffees by a warm hearth. She visits my sorry excuse of a blog now and again with encouraging comments so that makes me love her all the more! Check out her triple chocolate layer cheesecake. It’s an art piece and will make you teary just by looking at it!

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world where would it be?
That’s a hard one since I want to travel all over the world at some point and never settle down. I get the travel itch if I stay at some place for too long. But if I could, I’d like a place to come home to somewhere in the French countryside with lots of Victorian furniture or in Kyoto away from city bustle.

What are your must-haves for summer?
Bikinis, bikinis, bikinis. Denim shorts, Abercrombie tops or some shirts, Raybans, flip flops, ice cream and ice lollies and not to forget…crates of cold beer!

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Hamilton Island please. I’d love to have a quick barbie on the beach whilst soaking up the sun and sea. Also would like to meet Ben Southall, tell him what a lucky prick he is and attempt to steal his job from right under his feet.

Which language do you want to learn?
Would like to continue to Intermediate French…it’s just so cool. Or if we’re starting from scratch, then German.

Who do you want to meet right now?
Tom Jones. After his Glastonbury performance, I’m convinced he’s the legend of all legends.

What is your favourite colour?
All greens: matcha green, forest green, etc. except flourescent lime-ish green. 
And royal blue.

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?
You’d think I’d say all those precious dresses I’ve got kept in dress-protectors or my dirty beige cardigan from All Saints. But nah, it’s a rich emerald green velvet blazer with gold satin lining from GUESS. Definitely bling and hardly fitting of my usual style but it’s gorgeous and never fails to make me feel like a celebrity.

What is your dream job?
Personal shopper by day, owner of one of the fanciest bars in town by night, best-friend of a pastry chef or cake artisan for life for free cakes and pastries. Heh heh.

What is your favourite magazine?
Really depends on my mood since I read different magazines when the moment strikes. I like Vogue and Dazed&Confused, as always; but Noise for creative, eccentric photography; Glamour to appease my cosmetics cravings and The Economist for when I’m feeling curious.

If you had a 100 dollars now what would you spend it on?
An awesome birthday gift for my Mum’s 51st.

What do you consider a fashion faux pas?
Denim shorts, heels and bare legs. Unless you’re trying to pull hill-billy fashion (no offense), then by all means, knock yourself out.

Who are your style icons?
Audrey Hepburn, Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie.

Describe your personal style.
I used to be nuts about following trends until I discovered what worked for me and what didn’t. I like mixing classic ones with the odd punk/rock piece. I just can’t do sophisticated chic without my inner rocker.

What are your favourite movies?
300, Fearless, Sakuran, Spirited Away, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead.

Give us 3 styling tips that always work for you.
I think it varies from person to person but a) I’m always without my Burt’s Bees lipbalm, nothing like cracked, windburned lips to impress. b) Always go with 1 or 2 out of these 3 if you choose to accessorize: earrings, necklace, bracelets – overkill is highly undesirable in my humble opinion. c) Style over comfort when it comes to shoes. No pain, no gain. You can always have the best foot massage and pedicure afterwards.

Coffee or tea?
Am a tea person through and through but I like the odd black coffee now and again (and on days when I simply cannot keep my eyes open).

What do you do when you are feeling low or depressed?
I need time for myself so I go out for fresh air, with Guns n’ Roses playing on my iPod, stroll about and then crash at a café and mope over a good long black coffee.

What is the meaning of your name?
Davina means beloved; my Chinese name Xin Yi means joyous, tender romance.

Which other blogs do you love visiting?
Some art blogs, and fellow foodies like Manggy’s No Special Effects (very drool-worthy), Marc’s No Recipes (very informative with awesome recipes) and Tartelette, amongst other equally amazing blogs.

Favourite desserts/sweet?
Desserts? No favourite. I heart everything. But maybe I love tiramisu, macarons, opera cake and and my gramma’s taro paste a little more than the others.

Favourite season?
No need to ask – AUTUMN.

Which is your dream destination?
Top favourites so far are Paris and Tokyo. But would love to visit Egypt, South Africa and some deserted island away from civilization at some point. Total relaxation…aaaah.

Which is your favourite international cuisine?
Japanese.

Your favourite kitchen tool?
The wooden spoon. Unpretentious and versatile.

Which kitchen tool or equipment have you wanted for a long time?
An ice cream maker.

Which restaurant would you like to dine in?
Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck for starters.

Zurin’s question: What’s your favourite place in the house?
The patio by the koi pond. It’s well relaxing to sit out there, feet up, with a cold drink, watching the leaves fall from the trees in the wind, listening to the sound of water from the pond. Like a little bit of Zen in my own home.

Now to my question:

What’s the worst or most skin-crawling thing you’ve ever tasted?

Done. The rules of the award are pretty simple. Answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you do not like with a question of your own invention and add one of your own at the end. I haven’t replaced any as none of them bothered me. Tag 8 or 10 other people. And of course, link back to the lovely person who gave you the award, not forgetting to leave a comment to those you have given the award to.

I heart many amazing foodblogs out there and there are so many foodbloggers who I aspire to be like in terms of their knowledge of ingredients, culinary skill and photography expertise. Here, I’d like to pass on to 4 newly discovered blogs (sorry I’m not exactly following the rules now am I?) which I absolutely adore. And can I just say their owners are super talented foodies I totally look up to?? I heart their blogs!

Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella
Carolyn of FoodGal
Noobcook
Cakebrain of Cake on the Brain

Because I don’t like to beat around the bush, let me get straight to the point and admit to my flaws. Shortcoming #1 (which we already know anyway): I am well lazy. Shortcoming #2: I was and am not built for the heat. General summer heat messes with my mind and takes away from my concentration. In fact, some suspect I’m a vampire since I’m often caught flinching from the sun’s glare and cussing away profusely if I’m out without my Raybans. The irony of my existence is that I enjoy sunbathing if (and only if) I am, in my head, officially on holiday. Gosh, I’m a psychological mess aren’t I? Conclusive shortcoming #3: laziness + heat-frustration and confusion = hard tortoise-shell muffins which surprisingly still tasted SO DAMN FINE and SMELT like a piece of MATCHA HEAVEN. I am in absolute awe of people who can bake breads, sugarcraft cakes and pastry in this heat and I suppose I’m starting to feel the inferiority settling in in comparison to these awesome kitchen beings. I need someone to discover or invent a heat immunity pills for temperature-sensitive losers like yours truly.

So what really happened? These recipes are perfectly fine (and thank you to the foodbloggers who posted em up!) and taste positively scrumptious; except Diva decided to preheat the oven to 190d Celsius rather than 180d Celsius for what reason, only the heavens know. Note to self, if oven is too hot, muffins will form a hard crust and will look weird! Nevertheless, the smooth top crust in contrast to the general moist springiness of the muffin reminded me of imagawayaki (今川焼き) – a kind of anko-filled Japanese cake often found at fairs and festivals. The muffins tasted delicious and I still can’t get over how good these smell. Let the muffins sit for a day and the matcha perfume intensifies threefold. Beautiful. The intense oven heat might’ve drawn out quite a bit of the muffins’ moisture but when warmed through a little before eating, these muffins retain a kind of gelatinous sort of moisture which is very pleasant. The heat also releases even more of the green tea fragrance. I can’t fault this recipe at all! It’s good. Despite my muddleheadedness which butchered the final result, the muffins still held through which shows what a trooper of a recipe this is.

I might have messed up the muffins but I cannot wait to make another trip to the store for more matcha and give it another go, should I dare allow myself the risk of preheating the oven personally. Might actually need someone with an eye for detail and mathematical exactness to keep a good watch on the temperature knob. Imagining the fruits of a successful bake session is making me disgustingly drool-ish. If these babies already taste this good messed-up, I can’t say how mind-blowing the real McCoy would be. I would probably require the muffins to be blended in a food processor, put through a fine sieve or liquified then slapped into my system daily like a drug through a drip. Considering that my drip would be a lovely pale matcha green colour too, man! I would be the coolest druggy of all times. (boys and girls – that is really not a good thing alright. heed my words.)

And then, I drive off a veering cliff on the straight road to matcha heaven to announce another unfortunate accident of mine. Well, it wasn’t so much an accident but a deliberate act of laziness. Ack. Yes, lightning strike me down now. I’d go willingly, repenting. Remind me to never make adzuki bean paste again. Or if I do, to at least be prepared to spend at least an hour in front of the stove slaving away in the heat and over the heat of the hob. I can now understand why some people prefer getting the dastard thing in cans from the supermarket. There will be no cutting corners by reducing the amount of water used to cook the beans – this will only result in fairly crunchy bean paste lacking the smooth mushiness of real adzuki bean paste (or anko) which in my opinion, should resemble something like smooth cement. Smooth like creamy buttery mashed potatoes, with a fair amount of substance (and chunks) that it is still able to hold its shape if you stir, whack and spread it about with a spatula or butter knife.

My younger sister C thought my bean paste looked pretty dubious. I mean, that girl is obsessed with red bean paste, so she really knows what it should look like. But younger sisters can be really adorable in their supportiveness. Bless her. Mothers, on the other hand, being mothers are the champion advocates of tough love. They are the best and worst critics to have around. But they are always right, annoyingly so. Apart from the texture which was found wanting, the bean paste had a lovely dark purplish-brown sultriness, tasted good (partly because it was homemade as well) and really brought something to the muffins. I recommend filling up the muffins with as much paste as possible as it really makes it. Another thing, mum’s tip: soak the adzuki beans overnight. This will soften it up loads and prime it well for use the next day.

Matcha Muffins
Ingredients
(Recipe from Fresh from the oven)

2 cups plain flour
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp matcha
about 1/2 cup adzuki bean paste or canned paste

Preheat oven to 180d Celsius.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and matcha in a large bowl. Form a well in the middle and add egg, milk and melted butter into it. Mix until just incorporated. Batter may be lumpy.

Spoon into muffin cups about 1/2 full, add a tbs of adzuki paste into middle and cover with more batter until 2/3 full. You may add more paste on the top in drops if you like.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Makes 6 regular-sized muffins.

Sweet Adzuki Bean Paste
Ingredients
(Recipe from Apple Pie, Patis, & Paté)

1 cup adzuki beans, preferably soaked in water overnight
1/2 cup caster sugar
pinch of salt

Drain water and wash the beans. Place in a large saucepan of water and bring to the boil over high heat. Now drain, and discard the water. Add about 3 cups of water to pan and bring to boil over high heat once again. Reduce the heat, and let simmer covered. Simmer for about 45mins to over an hour, or until soft and most of the water has been absorbed. Add warm water to pan during simmering if needed to prevent the adzuki beans from scorching.

When the beans are soft enough (I find that you must ensure the beans are moist enough as well), add sugar and stir in to heat through until glossy. Mash with a potato-masher or fork if needed, leaving some chunks and half-chunks through the paste. Season with pinch of salt and mix well.

This yields about 2 cups of paste.

Got muffins?

I bet most of you agree the Americans sure know their pancakes and muffins. Cakespy recently posted up a showdown between the muffin and cupcake. For more questions and her awesome debate (and pictures) of this epic facedown, check out her site through the link above.

On days where I’m plagued with melancholic notions of ladylike etiquette and wishful thinking of being in a historic age with pretty dresses and handmade embroidered fabrics, I think cupcakes. On days when I’m utterly annoyed with such pretentiousness and really prefer the fuss-free and just down-to-earth contents of life, give me muffins. Either way, I have to say I love them both with equal passion and adoration. It’s just all an issue of balance between my emotions and tastebuds. O yes, and state of mind. Damn that I’m a libra and need all this yin yang, balance and peace shizzle.

When it comes to muffins, I need them explosive.

Explosive, volcanic, man-sized, Texas-sized all the way. I don’t know why. It seems like a prerequisite to me, otherwise I just won’t fancy eating it. In more ways than one, I believe this will be why boys may find me repulsive or probably just overcome with fear or competitiveness. Jokes. Honestly, if you’re gonna have a muffin, I order you to have a enormous one with alright then, a (I here say it quite reluctantly) petite cup of tea to wash it down.

My rules for consuming muffins:

1. it has to be at least a medium-sized muffin

2. you must have a hot, comforting cup of tea or coffee to accompany it

3. don’t bother with forks and plates unless you’re eating it straight out of the oven hot

4. don’t talk; just eat, will ya?

5. occasional moans of pleasure allowed

Well then, are you quite so particular with muffin-eating too?

This recipe yields 6 power muffins.

American Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk (or you can use a substitute of milk and lemon juice)
1 cup/punnet blueberries, tossed lightly in flour

Preheat oven to 200d Celsius.
Line muffin tray with paper cups.

Beat butter till creamy. Add the sugar and lightly beat it together. Add a beaten egg to the milk and gently mix into the creamed sugar and butter. Add the next egg.
In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
Carefully mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, make sure not to overmix. You want the batter lumpy and it’s alright to see bits of flour. Fold in the blueberries and spoon generously into muffin cups.

Place tray in middle rack of oven. Reduce oven temperature to 190d Celsius. Bake for 25-30min.
At the mark of the last 5 minutes, reduce oven temperature again to 180d Celsius.

Voila. Fluffy muffins with a lovely crunchy crust top. Ultimate.