The Sugar Bar » vanilla

French Madeleines: O! petite gâteaux à la Madeleine

diva — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 09:21:55 +0000

There are some things in life that must be enjoyed as a pair (like cookies and cream, bangers and mash, bread and butter, salt and vinegar, etc.). Madeleines fall into that category.

Not to be eaten without a cuppa coffee or tea, it would be almost criminal in my book to eat a madeleine just like that. Moreover, the best and freshest madeleines, according to French food expert Patricia Wells, are dry and have an almost dusty taste when eaten on its own. Its flavours, however, come to life when soaked in tea. I am not sure about how ‘dry’ madeleines are supposed to be but I have always enjoyed madeleines from a local boulangerie which were fairly moist. If they were at all mistaken to be dry (because I don’t think they ever quite were), they were just a tad difficult to swallow from being quite so dense.

Of course, some things are just best savoured in their place of origin. I had some lovely madeleines in Paris and I doubt my own come close but these were wonderfully buttery, fragrant and light. A real treat to the senses, especially with a fresh pot of tea livened up with a dash of milk. Indeed, the taste of a madeleine becomes vivid only when dipped in a cuppa tea, seducing you with its almost caramel/toffee-ish flavour. And is it wrong that I especially love squishing madeleine crumbs soaked in tea between the roof of my mouth and tongue?

These babies make such an awesome and cute tea treat. I’m looking forward to making a few more batches in the weeks to come as gifts for friends. And with the many variations of madeleines, in terms of flavour, out there, I’m truly eager to get going in the kitchen again.

I ain’t a perfectionist and wasn’t looking to recreate the perfect French Madeleine. Hence, I’ve chosen a recipe that includes baking powder. About the buerre noisette, otherwise known as nut or browned butter, I couldn’t be bothered. Don’t judge me, please. But hey, I got ‘em sexy humps didn’t I (see picture above)? My sis C, who wandered into the kitchen at time of baking, commented that it was like cultivating nipples in the oven. Yes it was cute to see them grow and peak, but also slightly weird to observe in the space of 10 minutes 10 portions of eggy batter become miniscule golden brown mountains.

I’ve used a recipe from the very talented Evan via her patisserie blog Bossacafez. I’ve added some tips in my directions below as well.

French Madeleines
(Recipe from Bossacafez, matcha powder omitted)
Ingredients

Preheat oven to 200d Celsius.

Grease madeleine mold with butter, dust with flour and tap out the excess. Freeze the madeleine mold before baking.

Sift together cake flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla. Mix well.

Fold flour mixture into egg mixture followed by melted butter. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure that the butter is mixed in, leaving no oily residue on the sides.

Cover bowl with cling film and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours or overnight.

When ready, pour batter into mold using a pouring cup/jug. You may also use a spoon to fill the mold although a jug is a little less fussy. Fill the mold to fill 2/3 or 3/4 of the shell-shaped fill. Do not spread the batter out in the molds once poured in.

(I kept overfilling mine and this prevents your madeleines from growing a nice proud hump. Some bakers have recommended measuring the exact amount required to fill each shell-shaped mold perfectly but David Lebovitz on his blog here says it’s fine to eyeball it. Practice makes perfect I suppose!)

Bake in preheated oven for 10-13 mins, until puffed and golden around the edges.

After each batch, clean the pan with a kitchen towel then bake the rest. The pan should be fairly greased from the butter in the batter, requiring no second greasing of the pan.

Remove baked madeleines immediately onto a cooling rack. You can tilt them out onto it. I used a pair of chopsticks and gently picked them out of the mold. They slide out and off quite easily if you’ve greased and floured your pans well. They are quite soft and delicate when just out of the oven so I recommend using a cold plate or cooling rack with fine grids as they can leave marks on the shell shapes of your madeleines.

Once cool to handle, dust with icing sugar then eat to your hearts desire but don’t forget to dip (very ladylike, please no dunking they’re not bloody OREOs!) in a cup of tea. Whether you have milk in your tea or not, that shall be left to your own discretion.

Chestnut & Adzuki Bean Black/White Chocolate Truffles

diva — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:45:19 +0000

You know, ninjas are like fairies. You don’t see them. But they exist, mostly in the shadows and the cracks between their underworld and ours. Somewhere between my bed and the wall that its pressed up against, a ninja lives in that shadowy crack. No idea why he/she’s spying on me but I’m happy tucking myself deep under the duvet, watching Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape in India and feeding this ninja of the dark (who’s tucked in somewhere as well under my bed probably) some of these truffles. My alter ego? A figment of my imagination? Or just plain excuse to make these black/white babies for me to eat? The latter seems most likely and I totally agree. I am a bit of nutter and I love chatting crap like this. Call me overworked, imaginative or plain crazy. I really don’t mind. I’ve got truffles.

The week has passed quite slow with horrible weather for most of it. Although today’s ridiculously sunny, bright and worm it feels like the world’s played a hoax upon us. But I’m not complaining. In fact, I totally rejoiced, ditched the essay that is begging to be written before I get chucked out of college, and ventured into the kitchen to make these.

I blame Catty. Oh my dear, in a good way. She made the scrummiest matcha & lemon truffles for Easter and was so generous to pass me some to taste. I was really stingy with myself, rationing it carefully and only caring to nibble it. Talk about waste of effort. They were gone by the next morning. I found myself mourning its bittersweet flavours so quick, I might’ve given myself heartburn (heartache?) pining away for it.

So of course I had to have more truffles about the house.

Now I’m wondering why I didn’t just begin the post that way. More respectable and, sane of course. Why on earth did I resort to pseudo mythmaking and one about a non-existence ninja-who-lives-in-the-shadows-of-my-bedroom? Not so sure. I think I munched on one too many squares of chocolate whilst waiting for these to set. The caffeine fried away my logic and the cocoa butter greased everything up in my brain, it turned to a squishy mess. No use to me at all.

I was inspired mostly by Japanese wagashi and more specifically, Minamoto Kitchoan’s Miyabiguruma. Of course, mine is nothing close and hardly as refined. Geez, it’s got Shreddies in there for crying out loud! But you can’t blame me for trying to recreate those flavours at home with what I had on hand. Not sure they looked very pretty but they were good. It really helps that I’m on a Shreddies craze as well. In my breakfast cereal, having it dry as a snack and now in chocolate truffles. I think I’m going slightly overboard. Who knows what I’ll be adding it to next. I fear to think it.

The concept to these truffles is similar to these Oreo truffles or Lemon Lime cream ones. Yes so they’re supposed to be pretty sweets. Pre-dipping in candy coating, however, my flatmate very eagerly exclaimed, ‘Oh you’re making meatballs!’. Uh oh. They really do look like meatballs, don’t they.

Types of anko:
(to make things easy, this is taken from Wikipedia)

Tsubuan (粒餡)

Tsubushian (潰し餡)

Koshian (漉し餡)

Sarashian (晒し餡)

If you prefer to make your own anko, you can use this recipe here. I’ve never been too successful making my own because I’m too impatient to wait for it to soak overnight, and cook for hours til it’s soft enough to mash or pass through a sieve. So feel free to use canned anko. I’ve chosen a half mashed half whole bean anko from Meiji.

When it comes to truffles, I always use candy melts or coating chocolate, aka confectioner’s coating or bark. If you’re wondering whether this is chocolate, yes it is! But it’s chocolate for lazy bums like me. No tempering – only melt, mix, use, set. Its easier to control than regular chocolate, sets quick streak-free at room temperature, tastes great and doesn’t melt upon touching which I find happens a lot when using regular chocolate (which requires you sometimes to cool it in the fridge and then you get nasty sweating after when you take them out). Candy melts come in many colours. No fuss over what kind of colours to use (if you decide to use them) and whether oil, paste or powder or au naturel vegetable/fruit juice/dyes will affect it. I’ve used candy melts in Midnight Black and because I ran out of white melts, I’ve used Green & Blacks vanilla white chocolate.

I’m feeling a bit zen with the black and white colour combination. Time to whip out my teapot, sencha and ponder over something deep. Who knows, my shadow ninja might decide to join me for a cuppa.

Makes about 12-15 eyeball-sized truffles. (I would’ve said ping pong-sized but aren’t eyeballs a little smaller and heck, sounds more fun. No?)

Chestnut & Adzuki Bean Black/White Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients

There isn’t really a recipe for this is there? It’s just banging ingredients together.

In a bowl, mash together crushed Shreddies and enough anko to get a cement-like consistency. You don’t want it too dry or it won’t hold together. But you need it wet enough to be able to seal itself around the chestnut. Play around with it until you feel confident of it holding up.

Take a chestnut and about 1/2 to 1 tbs of crushed Shreddies and anko mixture, press into it and start to carefully seal the chestnut into it. Gently press to smoothen out the surface like you would a rice ball, then lightly roll between palms to form balls. If the surface starts to gloss and smoothen itself out, that’s perfect. Repeat for the other chestnuts. Place on a plate covered with grease-proof parchment. Place in refrigerator to let the chestnut balls set a bit for about 3-4 minutes.

In small bowls, melt candy coating separately, following the directions written on the bag (it will differ slightly depending on their make but will normally require a 1 minute melt-time in microwave; mix; 10 second blasts and mixing until the coating is completely melted and smooth).

Drop chestnut balls in candy coating, coat and drop onto flat surface lined with grease-proof parchment. Garnish with a tiny sprinkling of sesame seeds of the opposite colour. Allow to set for about 2 minutes or so. Done.

Oatmeal Cherry & Walnut Cookies and Dolly Mixture Fairy Cakes

diva — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:56:48 +0000

Two Easters ago, I baked a feast. I went so crazy there were cakes, muffins and cookies everywhere: on the tabletops, in the bedroom, in the freezer, in the fridge. It was gloriously nightmarish. A thoroughly obsessively psychotically sick affair.

Last Easter, I believe things were a little more toned down. Moderation was key.

This year, we went for a nice balance of things. Don’t they say good things come in pairs? Two’s a nice number. Well-rounded and more acceptable. In that case, this Easter, we’ve got cookies and cakes. No more than that. No more, no less. I thought we were quite clever.

On Tuesday, we had a nice little wander through the Oxford Covered Market. There’s a cake shop in there which I’ll blog a little later on about. Truly inspiring cakes and sugarcraft. And they make personalized easter eggs made to order too! In fact, H and I had our Easter eggs from there last year. They were yum. And almost too pretty to eat. It’s shops like that that make you feel like you’ve gotta bake. You leave wanting to make something of your very own, to get creative and start challenging yourself in the kitchen. I don’t suppose we really did challenge ourselves but we sure had good fun in the kitchen that day.

Little fairy cakes topped with dolly mixture (we’ve so gotta love these sweets…so mildly flavoured and pretty to look at) for Easter cakes and a twist on the usual oatmeal raisin cookie which gives you something to talk about as well if you’ve got guests coming round for tea. I haven’t posted a recipe for the Fairy Cakes as H actually remembers this basic recipe by heart. It’s simply margarine, vanilla, flour, eggs, sugar all skillfully beaten by hand then baked at 175d Celsius until ready. Cooled, then frosted with a mix of icing sugar and water. Voila. Top them with sweets or decoration of choice. Cute as a button.

When it comes to eating cookies, dunking in a glass of cold milk is second nature. Or sometimes just eating it sans milk is pretty okay too. Dunking in hot coffee or tea seems unthinkable to me. I’ve seen my mum do it and it leaves rings of buttery-surfaced coffee in the cup. I’ve seen my mates do it and it just all looks a little drippy, a little messy. This time I tried it with this oatmeal cookie and I have a strange feeling my cookie-eating ways have been forever altered. Or at least, when it comes to oatmeal cookies. You’ve gotta dunk them in something warm. Leave the cold milk for the chocolate chip cousin. Oatmeal cookies have so gotta be dipped in a hot coffee or tea. A momentary experience of sweet bliss, as comforting as a spoonful of warm honey-laced porridge. So good.

Happy Easter everyone! Hoping the Easter bunny sends out much sugary love to all. Will post up some of my little Oxford visit here soon.

Oatmeal Cherry & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients

Preheat oven to 175d Celsius.

Cream butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, then beat.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add oats to this and mix. Add to wet mixture of creamed butter and sugar. Mix until it is just incorporated.

Fold in cherries and walnuts. Do not overmix.

Form into 1-2 tbs balls or simply drop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18mins or until just golden brown.

Cooking it for longer gets these cookies a darker shade and they turn into nice crunchy cookies when kept. Cooking for 15mins leaves it nice and chewy in the middle so cook according to your preference. Leave to cool on sheets for a minute before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Christmas Fussin’: Pretty Ribbons and Cranberry, White Chocolate & Walnut Cookies

diva — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:34:26 +0000

Kid Diva’s back in the nest. And joy to the reunion with her oven, finally. Living without one was not only upsetting me, it was making me almost allergic to the thought of surviving without one. The things I could normally roast and bake had been reduced so drastically it wasn’t a surprise that I found myself relying more on cereal and rabbit food than ever!

The past month has been very hectic too, what with balancing a Masters and part-time retail work at American Apparel, there really wasn’t much time left to do any sort of fancy cooking. It was simple, easy-peasy, bang bang type of cooking. And sometimes, there wasn’t even any cooking involved except for re-heating or microwave blasting the damn thing. I can’t tell you more how glad I am to be home for Christmas, to smell dinner cooking at half 7, to be able to flip through my recipe books very (and I stress that word ‘very’) leisurely whilst planning some sweet treat to bake the next day. I admit I am procrastinating and not giving my essays the appropriate amount of attention and care as I do my cookbooks, but it’s all worth it after being forced into oven abstinence the past few months.

I may not be able to fit as many recipes as I intend to attempt into the remaining few days I’m home for Christmas, and I’m constantly reminding myself that the reason for this is the heffer of an essay I have to tackle next. Yes, I’ve just about finished the 1st one I kept bitching about on Twitter and now have to haul ass on the next. Wish I could laze away another day doing nothing (except baking) but that’s really not likely at all. And it’s a real shame since returning to London means living without an oven for another 9 months – that’s madness. Pure torture. I don’t know how I’m going to cope. Might have to eat myself to death as a way to console my aching heart.

I find that I have recently crashed into a state of poverty which is a really awful time of the year to realize your purse has become as dry and unfertile as the Sahara desert. Fortunately, all my Christmas presents have been sorted out and I managed to (with help from the Mama) purchase some Christmassy ingredients for a bit of baking this week. So not very much left to worry about I suppose in terms of spending (she says). But before I start waxing lyrical about this babe of a recipe I found scribbled in a very old recipe book of mine, let me share with you this bit of shopping I thoroughly enjoyed today – RIBBON SHOPPING. Might have overshot my tiny miserly budget I set out for ribbons today. I’m still waiting for guilt to set in but it seems it’s gonna take a few more years for it to hit me.

Pretty, chic, Laura Ashley-type ribbons in lovely pastels (my favourite is duck egg and mint green) are quite hard to find. I often purchase mine online from that Cakes Cookies & Craft Shop I talk about quite a lot. Although they’ve got quite a range of plain ribbons advertised on their retail shop, it’s pretty much a race against other eager customers as the colours I want are always sold out. Purchasing by the metre pisses me off too as I hate having to estimate how much I’m going to use or how large my ribbons tied will look like, etc. For Pete’s sake I’m just buying ribbons not attempting to plan a conspiracy act against the Senate or something like that. Just give me my ribbons! Moreover, it’s even more difficult to find ribbons in pretty but not garish, childish patterns. After reading about a fantastic cheap ribbon find in Singapore via Evan’s blog Bossacafez, I knew I’d finally struck gold. When Evan posted a post Really Cheap Ribbons II, I snapped, threw caution to the wind and nicely asked Mum for a lift to Arab Street to check out this ribbon treasure chest.

I wasn’t disappointed. Polka dots? Oui. I love ‘em. Duck egg shades? Awesome, bung it in my basket. Mint green and contrasting baby pink dots? Holy smokes, isn’t that simply adorable? Yep. Gotta have it. Ladybugs? Geeez, you’re killing me, mate. Chocolate brown ribbons, mocha coloured ones, milky latte types, fuschia strips with white lace edges, cut-out-heart ones for the soppy lovesick ones, baby pink/blues with milk bottle patterns for baby showers, etc. They’ve got it all! After deliberating for quite some time, I managed to come round to 5 rolls, paid and left grinning from ear to ear.

Happy days.

Don’t you like how sometimes you purchase things you know you don’t need at the moment, but like an investment, you’re buying for the future? Some people think that’s foolish and so self-indulgent. I, on the other hand, would like to argue (in defense of us eager shoppers) and say we’re stocking up for the winter. In times of need, when you just can’t bloody find any ribbon about the house, or need an emergency gift for a friend, may be in desperate need to put your hair up on a hot day when all hair ties have decided to go missing or rip at the very last second which counts the most, you’ve got ribbon.

How comforting does that phrase : ‘You’ve got ribbon’ sound? Surely you agree!

And on to moi Christmas cookies. I know cranberry, white chocolate and walnut combo can be pretty normal, unexciting and predictable at this time of the year but surely a little stereotyping, a little cliché at Christmas time is totally forgivable? I love this combination of flavours (even if I dislike white chocolate. It’s weird but with raspberries or cranberries, I’d eat the white crap) and cranberry white chocolate was a duo I fell in love with in high school. Funnily enough, I liked it so much it was what inspired me to start baking and make truckloads of cranberry white chocolate cookies to last me a lifetime. Besides I thought it was pretty apt to return to my beloved oven with a favourite recipe of mine – and at that, one which I’d left to drown in the back of a very old recipe book forgotten behind newer, fancier celebrity chef cookbooks.

These cookies may not look great. They’re not as chunky, as fat, as voluptuous as I’d like them to be but I’m sure I’m to blame for that. Nevertheless, I think they taste great. A little on the sweet side so might have to reduce the amount of white chocolate buttons used in this but the flavours meshed together brilliantly and the cookies turned out nice and chewy in the middle and perfectly crunchy on the outer edges. I used cheap vanilla essence and that wasn’t as delightful as it would’ve been with a better quality vanilla extract but not complaining since they still quite scrumptious, evidence thanks to my elder sister A.

Mum: You’re baking tonight? Right now?
Me: Nah. Gonna head upstairs and do some work first (in my head, really I’m going to be blogging and twittering). I’ll bake a little later tonight. I’ll make another loaf cake tomorrow (after our Christmas eve roast dinner) for the family gathering on Christmas day.
A, my elder sister: You’re certainly attacking the oven with a vengeance, huh.
Me: Yea.
A: These cookies are delicious. Your best I think.
Me: They’re a little too sweet, no?
C, my younger sister: Yea! They’re so sweet.
A: Where? If you tell me where it’s sweet, maybe. But I don’t think they are. They’re good.

Feel really good about that vote of confidence. It’s always so rewarding to see the people you love enjoy the things you make. Okie dokie, I must be off to get working on these essays even more before I tackle my carrot cake for tomorrow’s dessert. Went to bed at 4am this morning trying to tie up all my arguments and have a feeling that it will be done again tonight so that I can both enjoy my holiday and meet my uni deadline.

To all those furiously baking and working away like Silas Marner in their kitchen dens, I salute you all. Happy Christmas! I can’t wait to catch up on all that Christmas food blogging soon.

Cranberry, White Chocolate & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients

Preheat oven to 150dC.

Beat sugars and butter together til light and creamy. Mix in egg, vanilla and baking soda. Sift in flour, add salt and mix into batter. Fold in chocolate chips, cranberries and walnuts.

Drop rounded tablespoonful of batter onto parchment-lined cookie trays and bake 2″ apart. Careful as these cookies will spread a bit and some of mine stuck together. If it does, use a small butter knife or spatula to separate and reshape cookies.

Bake 18-20 mins or until pale golden brown. Leave to cool about 2-3mins on the tray before transferring to cool completely on a wire rack. These cookies will firm and crunch up as they cool.

Cupcake von Tease: Hummingbird Bakery Teaser

diva — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:16:27 +0000

(*Cupcake teaser only. Real feature next week!)

I’ve been thinking, dreaming, sleepwalking cupcakes all week.

Every day I’m saying to myself “All I want is a cupcake!”. When the sun has set and dinner is polished off the plate, all I’m thinking is “I need a cupcake!”

No doubt my favourite motto in general is “When you’re feeling blue, have cake (or a cupcake if you prefer smaller portions)!” I mean there are quite a few signs showing here, aren’t there?

And when I went for my first job trial at LUSH, this is the new season product that I purchased – Let Them Eat Cake lipbalm which smells of cinnamon, orange peel, vanilla and black treacle. Simply gorgeous and smells a little bit like Christmas. It’s hard not to bite my lips or eat the balm off it. Unfortunately (and also thankfully), the balm is taste-free. Other than its wonderful scent, its main function is to condition and moisturize your lips!

I was in Harrods a couple of days ago. I was literally in the area and wasn’t intending to go shopping at all in Harrods. Honest, I promise! I was there in this house of ridiculously ostentatious goods simply to use their bathroom as the bladder was giving me the ‘Red Alert’ sign. I couldn’t have possibly survived the tube journey home across London in such a state. Strangely enough I got lost very quickly attempting to maneuver myself out of the building only to find myself in the Food Hall. Surprise surprise. And which counter was I standing directly in front of? Lola’s Cupcakes! Another sign!

In such a situation, who would ignore all the signs and deny themselves one of the simple pleasures of life – the enjoyment of a little harmless, albeit naughty, indulgence in the semblance of a sugary cupcake? I’ve never known myself to utterly resist my fate to the end so I gave in. After I left the university library today, I hopped – hang on, no, I descended into the Inferno-like underground at Russell Square – and zipped my way to Hummingbird Bakery in South Kensington. I may have spoilt my appetite a little (Mummy always said no sweets before dinner!) and feel a tad bit sick from all the sugar and creamy goodness of the icing, but I do not regret it one bit.

The last time I visited Hummingbird was a little over 2 years. And at that time, I really wasn’t impressed at all. We’d visited the shop on Portobello Road and my sister and I each had bought a mini cupcake, mine obviously being the Red Velvet which is my prized and most treasured flavour. A mini cupcake was about 95p for one with the red velvet costing 20p more. They were definitely small but we were blown away, not in a positive way, by the sugary-ness of it all. It was small and had simply no other taste than vanilla and sugar. There wasn’t any fancy packaging at the time either and we were served our cupcakes over the counter in a little square bit of tissue paper. We weren’t impressed. In fact, we had to chuck about 3/4 of the generous icing dolloped and shaped onto the cupcake just so as not to choke and spasm out on the sugar overload. Nevertheless, it was a busy Saturday and we managed to find something else to amuse ourselves with and other yummy stuff to munch on amongst the many stalls in Portobello Market.

I suppose that memory has stuck very much with me and I always write off Hummingbird as a sorry and melancholic wish to be like NYC’s Magnolia Bakery. I think I might have to change my tune now, however.

My mate and I are planning to make a little tea trip down to the cupcakery café some time next week but curious me simply couldn’t just wait til next week. Besides, I wanted so badly to post up a cupcake teaser on the blog so I decided to pop in and take-away 2 cupcakes. The one with the green vanilla icing is a chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing (£1.55/cupcake for takeaway). Just like the Magnolia cupcakes, they have a pretty selection of coloured icing ranging from pink, blue, green to yellow topped with different types of sugar sprinkles. The cupcakes in the window are iced with shocking pink frosting and sprinkled with gold dust. They were a looker! And definitely made the cupcakery easy to spot.

But what about my all-time favourite and truly adored Red Velvet (£1.85/cupcake for takeaway), which is also the star of the show – Cupcake von Tease? Did it still taste disappointingly sweet and unexciting or had Hummingbird totally upped its game in the last 2 years?

Verdict? They certainly did! And I loved this cupcake so much I gobbled it down real quick. The cream cheese icing was just perfect and I found myself licking up every bit of it, even the bits that got away along the cupcake liners. It wasn’t too sweet and you could certainly taste the smooth cream cheese. The cupcake itself was a gorgeous red colour with a wonderful cupcake texture. Flavour-wise, it was rich, lush and accented with chocolate and vanilla. Red velvets aren’t heavily chocolatey and this one wasn’t either but it had a deeper savoury-ness I found absolutely delightful and contrasted the cream cheese sweetness of the icing perfectly. Nothing was chucked and definitely not disappointing to me at all. In fact, I was so pleased with my cupcake I’m determined to take-away another box of them to share on my next trip down to Hummingbird. So damn, I should’ve warned you about these cupcake spoilers huh? Time to getchaself some cupcakes people.

Nevertheless, here’s a bit of a teaser for the next feature on the Hummingbird Bakery! Or a cupcake strip-tease if you like. Apologies for totally disregarding the chocolate cupcake but I truly love the red velvet and thought something red, such a vibrant bold colour, would be more of a tease when stripped. Funny? I hope!

Like my hot red nails too? Yea. All for the true and very dedicated cause of the Red Velvet. Whey.

Okie dokie. End of teaser. Hope you enjoyed it. I know I sure did enjoy stripping the red velvet and then eating the damn thing in less than 4mins. I mean eating it from frosting to sexy cupcake bottom! I stopped all I was doing, didn’t speak to anyone, didn’t breathe, didn’t look at anything else but focussed all eyes and mouth on the cupcake. All good!! Mmmm. If you want more cupcake tease, please stay tuned to The Sugar Bar for Diva’s proper visit to the Hummingbird Bakery!

Pear and Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

diva — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:49:53 +0000

The pear is a particularly humble fruit often forgotten in my house or outshone by the more appealing apple,the milkshake-worthy banana, the stunning golden kiwi or the refreshing watermelon. If it were a game of ball, the pear would be the last to be picked onto the team. It may be its delicate flavour, subtle sweetness and generally modest but spotty complexion that causes it to be overlooked, to fade into the background of other more colourful, juicy, sweet and tangy fruit. Nevertheless, I have a special fondness for this bottom-heavy fruit, especially the conference and packham variety; I love them on its own, in salads or poached and served with cream or custard. They’re quite the versatile fruit and cooking them releases its delicate honeyed flavour all the more.

The last upside-down cake I made (years ago, geez) was a recipe from Bill Granger and I remember using heckloads of maple syrup in it. I’d used bananas in the base and so the cake was pretty rich and intensely sweet. Mindblowingly so in fact. I believe the post-cake sugar high lasted for bout half an hour or so, which isn’t quite a good thing for sugar-maniacs like me. But this recipe – Bill Granger’s Banana Maple Upside Down Cake from Bill’s Open Kitchen – is still gorgeous if you aren’t too calorie or sugar-conscious. Instead of using this same Granger recipe, however, I wanted a recipe that wouldn’t have too many flavours working in the syrupy base so as not to overpower the pears. I found one from Ottolenghi and was really excited to give it a go since many have raved about Ottolenghi. Because I have yet to taste their gorgeous food for myself, I simply cannot wait to be in London next year to taste Ottolenghi amongst other equally, if not more, amazing restaurants like Maze, Nobu and dans le noir?. Reckon I should start organizing a list of restaurants to visit with my future flatmate (if she’s nice and amiable!). Someone pass me my diary please…Diva’s got an important restaurant visit-list to note down! Figures I’ll have to work doubly hard to earn a wage that’ll support my shopping, my desire for shoes and that insatiable hunger for yum yummy food.

I’m really pleased with this recipe. I admit it’s a lot of work since you’ve got to poach the pears, make the caramel topping from scratch and basically make sure nothing burns and that you don’t burn yourself, but the results were fantastic. The recipe uses cranberries which I thought would be quite a wonderful marriage with pears, giving it a sweetness boost and a light touch of tanginess. The cake batter incorporates lemon and orange zest amidst spices like ground star anise, cinnamon and nutmeg. The ground almonds also gave it a lovely fluffy texture. Any recipe that uses ground almonds I love. Something about ground almonds that gives all baked goods a special x-factor. So anyway, this is sort of an autumnal cake which I found delightful especially since September is finally here and we’ve gotta say goodbye to summer. I might add a little more cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter in the future as I quite like a bit more spice in cakes like these. The pears which were poached in lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar and spices tasted wonderful with the caramel topping and cranberries soaked in the pear poaching water. Together with the cake, served warm, it was lush! I loved the lemoniness and laces of orange together with the cinnamon-sweetness of the pears and cranberries. I’m not that great at describing how good food tastes to me but honestly, this was good. Moist, very tasty and not overly sweet such that you couldn’t even taste the pear.

Gorgeous.

One problem I had with the recipe, aside from all my kitchen accidents which I’ll get to in a bit, was the baking time. The recipe states that you bake it for 35 mins but I had to bake mine in the oven for nearly 50 mins. I’m not too sure why that was and I have a nagging suspicion that my oven wasn’t preheated long enough to get to the right temperature for baking the cake and thus, required a longer cooking time than advised in the recipe. Any ideas?

I chose not to glaze the cake with jam a little watered down in a saucepan as I felt the caramel topping was sufficient and the cake moist and pretty enough. Like I’d mentioned before, I wanted to keep the recipe simple so I’d stay true to the pears. Any other jam, apricot, strawberry or marmalade would just be unhelpful.

Right, so some of you might be wondering about those kitchen accidents and if you’ve kept up with me on Twitter, you’d have some idea of the silly things I’d done to myself. I guess today’s just one of those days where hand-eye coordination totally fails you. On days like that, I usually ruin everything and by the end of the day, I feel exhausted and emotionally drained. Ie., I feel like a failure. The upside down cake gave me hope but the process of making it was utterly chaotic. Whilst preparing the lemon zest, I’d grated my thumb into the zest as well. Quite a mess I created with the blood streaked across the white sink. Yes. My kitchen’s got a white, dark brown and silver theme to it. All the table tops are marble white and mum loves to keep it absolutely spotless. She’s anal. And I’m OCD-ed. Great. Picture me freaking out and washing away all the blood, picking out the bad zest and all – don’t worry. It didn’t really get onto the lemon but totally irked me out.

So what happened next? Yes, there’s more. The caramel was a successful event. As I stirred the butter into the melted sugar, the itchy-fingered bit of me suddenly stuck a finger into the beautifully browning (and still, bubbling) mixture. Yep. I burnt my finger through and through. It’s now red, sore and still throbbing. To top it off with the cherry on the icing, I’ve got a bulbous white blister on the tip of my finger that really gets in the way of typing, washing my hair, etc.

Wally brain in the kitchen. Stay away.

I’d like to stop here and end your pain. I mean, seriously, you can hurl me some verbal abuse and I wouldn’t mind. Haha. Getting my cake out of the oven was interesting as well. As I’d placed my cake tin on a cookie tray to prevent any accidental spillage, I had to get the cake out of the oven with oven mitts by grabbing the cookie tray and pulling it out. I gather my brain had executed complete shutdown or just decided a simple act like this didn’t require complex thinking – I turned 90 degrees to my left without moving my right arm away from the oven and seared the flesh of my upper right arm with the cookie tray. WOW. The skin’s kinda like welded down where I’ve burned it. A burn line of about 1.5 inches. If anyone asks, I’ll just say I was in a fight or something. My life’s way cooler than ‘Whoops. I burned myself with a cookie tray.’ Oh no. I can already imagine the looks on their faces when they find out the truth. Scarred for life I am, pun not intended.

Right. But the cake was good so I’m a happy chappy. Off to go reap the rewards of my efforts today. If you’re looking for that recipe, check it out over at Ottolenghi’s website. They’ve got loads of other cool recipes as well.

Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes & a Blog Award

diva — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:52:49 +0000

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

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

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

diva — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:56:07 +0000

Bangles and dinosaurs.

I said the strangest thing to a friend yesterday: ‘Remember that when we were fighting dinosaurs in the past, we didn’t need bangles then.’ Everyone knows I’m a little mental, a little quirky in the head but that completely threw K off a little and I’m not surprised. Even I was a little taken aback by my little out of the blue statement. I blame it on post-exam traumatic disorder.

Our final year ended yesterday at 5pm after our last undergraduate exam. We hit town for some food and ice cream and did a quick shop for some much-needed holiday stuff – you know the whole shebang. I also had a quick look for something pink as two of my mates are throwing a belated 21st birthday party tonight and the theme? You guessed it – pink. Pretty hard for someone like me who refuses to own any sort of pink clothing unless it’s close to fuschia or purple. I had to count my blessings as well that it wasn’t, by some odd stroke of bad luck, Barbie themed. I’d rather have someone shove bamboo under my nails then turn up as a Barbie. Unless of course my life depended on it, then I’d change my tune. What a fickle schmickle I am.

Right. So we left town with nothing pink. I had a back-up plan, obviously. Hairdresser pink nails and loud pink-verging-on-fuschia lipstick. Can’t go wrong there now can I? So where is the relation to dinosaurs and bangles then? Well, in Accessorize I picked up a très cute pink bangle with gold sakura decorations. Pink? Yea it was cute. Sakura? That’s so my thing. K, my Barbie shopping devil, was totally for getting it. Unfortunately, we left town without that particular bangle (I refuse!) and K was chatting about it on the walk home to which, I replied that we didn’t really need bangles. That bangle was a want, not a need. If prehistoric women didn’t need them, I guess I don’t either.

So the equation goes something like this:

Dinosaurs = no bangles –> ∴ Present day = no bangles

My pink costume may not compare to the Barbie-inspired get-ups of my fellow friends (it’s about 2 hours to party-commencing time and I’m starting to get a little worried now actually) but I’m hoping the birthday cupcakes will steal the show. Or at least, please – fingers crossed-, impress the people they’re meant for. It has been a very long while since I was in the kitchen for more than 10 mins and it was fab to get back in the zone again today. I may have gotten a little fuzzy and curdled my cream cheese frosting (gosh, it’s always a hit and miss with this one. If you have the same problems, scroll to the bottom of the post for the link to Joy the Baker’s Cream Cheese Frosting 101), but you can’t beat the therapeutic feeling of beating butter or icing a cupcake. Heaven! Apparently, sifting icing sugar into a bowl was rather hypnotic for some as well. Interesting. I didn’t quite realize I wasn’t just quirky and odd, I apparently have magical powers as well. I am soooo liking this.

I see the light (beyond the curdled cream cheese frosting). I anti-bacterialized the sink, soaked the tea towels in hot, soapy water and in the process, pretty much poached my poor hands as well. I am ready to reclaim the kitchen as my holy arena! Blast kitchen slime. Bless lime juice and dusty clouds of powdered sugar. Blast the Wyndham Lewis & Ezra Pound who murdered brain cells and bless the new day of eggs, flour and baking powder. Carpe diem. So much freedom now that we have finished. A week to our Salou, Spain holiday so bless St. Tropez and fruit cocktails. Summer-time fun is the best!

So anyway, it is off to prep for some 21st birthday bashing. Hope all of you are well. It looks like it is time to wow some friends with Vanilla cupcakes. Woop woop.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients

For the vanilla cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350dF.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
Beat the butter on high til it whitens.
Add caster sugar and beat on high til light and fluffy for about 3 mins.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with milk and vanilla, ending with flour as the last addition. Combine to incorporate but do not overmix.

Line cupcake trays with liners and fill to only 2/3 full.
Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 mins.

For the vanilla cream cheese frosting:

Beat butter at medium speed until it whitens and is creamy.
Add cream cheese and beat. Add the vanilla and 3 cups of icing sugar to start. Beat at low speed until light and fluffy. Add the rest of the sugar, if you like, to your preferred consistency and sweetness.

*Note: I find cream cheese frosting a real pain. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I get it so wrong. The final result being a curdled, separated mess. Frustrating and annoying, there have been times I have just thrown spoons of frosting down on the floor, thrown a little tantrum and cried. For the best tips and proper (when I say proper I mean relatively fail-safe, the more careful method really) directions to make them, I recommend going to Joy the Baker‘s site for her Cream Cheese Frosting 101.