Duncan Hines Red Velvet Mix #CheatBake

Soooo.... how are y'all doin'? 

Yeeeahhh...It has been a while. More like 3 months and 9 days but hey, who's counting? 

Well jokes aside, it was a very hectic semester. I usually bake at least once during the semester but did not get the time to. So, when exams were over, I just had to bake something. My aunt came down to Singapore about 2 months ago and I asked her to get me a red velvet cupcake mix. I don't know what it is about me and red velvet - I am just so keen to find out more about this not-that-mysterious-over-hyped cake. Yes, I know I can do it from scratch and it does taste better but I am lazy time to time (fine, all the time) and I want to make something with a bit of satisfaction and tiny bit of hard work thus I use cake mix. Don't judge.  

Duncan Hines - Apparently a stranger recommended it to my aunt in the store. Thank you stranger. 

This cake mix is different from many others I have used before. It includes frosting! Well, let me talk about the frosting later. 

Pastry Bag included! 

Okay - this cake mix is crazy bright red. I have made red velvet many times before and I have never been able to get the perfect red that this red velvet cupcake mix does. It's crazy! The moment I added in the water, it was like as if it was the Plague of Blood and Moses dipped his staff into the bowl and turned it into blood. Perhaps that comparison was a tad extreme, but you get my point: It was really red. 

Oil, Eggs and Water - Yup...alot of hardwork...

I thought I should be innovative and change up the recipe a bit. I added these Hershey's Chocolate buttons into the cupcake mix. I know...It's like as if I have learnt how to stop time. 

Pardon the blurriness, getting used to mah new Samsung Galaxy S4 !

Well here are the baked results:

                                    

I have learnt a very important lesson from this cake mix. Never use powdered frosting mix. The cake was not bad - I would say it was moist and fluffy. The frosting, however, was bad. I'd rather make my cream cheese frosting the next time when I am not lazy and have $6 to buy 227g of Philadelphia's Cream Cheese block. Regardless, I still piped the cream cheese frosting and also added some sprinkles for some. 

My dear cousin's 'artistic' piping skills

My other cousin's piping - well, she doesn't know when to let go, clearly. #poopcake

My piping. Sigh. Of course, the picture must turn out blurry. 

SPRINKLESSSS

This brings me to the end of this baking entry.

Apart from my baking entry, what can I say about my life? It has been good. Although I had a pretty hectic semester, it was not so bad (and people say I am not open about my life more! Ha!)

Well adios! Hopefully I will squeeze in a couple more baking/cooking entries before school starts in January 2014.

Good Night(:

Can I Marry This Muffin Man?

This is an overdue post!! Been such a long time...right..I mean..yeah...okay. 

This is a shoutout to my amazing internship buddies who passed me these amazing muffins on my last day.
They were super duper good. I will just let the pictures speak :                                    
           

I know...it just makes you want to cry. What a beauty.

                                     

With Chocolate Rice

Banana Walnut... AMAZE BALLS

Cheese...wait for it

Pumpkin...this should be the way vegetables should be served

Blueberries in NTUC: 6-7 SGD...In a muffin? $1.50ish WHAT UP MUFFIN MAN.

THIS IS THE BOMB OMGOMGOMGOMG EAT THIS OMG JUST EAT IT AHHH

Yeah...my mum asked me what I was doing. Told her "Foodography"..Get it? No? Okay. 

You can find these babies here:
Chocolat and Spice
1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, Singapore 082001

Alright. I am done. School has started. Totally loving it...haha not. God knows when I will cook/bake next!

Till then, Good Night !

Red Velvet Cupcakes [Successful ones!!!]

Good evening dear ... online readers (is that what you guys are called? I have no idea.)

I am finishing up my very first internship this Thursday and decided to bake some cupcakes for my colleagues before I leave. Thus, I made Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Before I dive into the details about the recipe, let me just say that this is probably my 4th or 5th time baking red velvet cupcakes. Each time I tried to make these, they either came out super dry or super dense or flavorless and EACH failed attempt left me depressed and pensive about my life. That's right - I used the word "pensive" which goes to show the scars these cupcakes have left me. 

Howeverrrr, my cousin once made a red velvet cake and although she didn't have the right colouring, the cake turned out moist and wonderful. Therefore, I decided to take a leap of faith last week and tried that recipe to make 40 red velvet cupcakes for my office. 

[This recipe was inspired by Divas Can Cook: http://divascancook.com/2009/11/the-best-red-velvet-cake-recipe-easy-homemade-moist-with-southern-flair.html]

As usual, I always place my ingredients in the picture to make it look ... like I'm baking which may not need so much of proof, now that I think about it. Hmm. 

I have always found making red velvet cupcakes is sort of a chemistry experiment. This is probably because there is not much technique involved except for dumping and mixing in the ingredients AND (for those who didn't know) the red colour in this velvet cake is due to the chemical reaction between the vinegar and the buttermilk which brings out this reddish brown chemical compound called anthocyanin in cocoa powder.*exit nerd mode*

 Just a tip, I have read numerous recipes where if you use Dutch processed cocoa powder, the red colour is brighter. You could try that if you want but I didn't because I am broke. (Ain't no body got time for that !)

Just in case you didn't know how to weigh flour :D

Like I said, this recipe is like a chemistry experiment so I highly advise you to measure out all your ingredients before carrying out this recipe. Also - please, PLEASE stick closely to the recipe. I will tell you why in a while.

Don't worry. It's colouring. I know. You didn't care. I'm just pretending you did.

Someone get a plaster - STAT! Haha. Just kidding. It's not funny. I know. I just..well, never mind. Anyways, I have a small container of Wilton's Red Red gel colouring. This recipe required 1-2 fl.oz and gel colouring is really really concentrated so I mixed in about 1/8 tsp with 1-2 tbsp of water before adding it into the mix.

This is before adding the dry ingredients - it's so RED! (Batch #1)

After adding the dry ingredients ... it became brown :( 

After I added in the dry ingredients, the mix became a tad brown. I am kind of an obsessive freak so I added a bit more colouring but please keep in mind that if you add a lot, the taste of the colouring will be overpowering in the cake.

Before...(duh

After... 

Alright this is batch #1. I used olive oil, halved the salt amount, cane sugar and added a bit more colouring to this. The cupcakes came out flat. There was no normal tiny hill a cupcake usually gets. It was moist and flavourful but there was no hill. However, in batch 2...

Batch #2 - After the dry ingredients were added

As you can see from the picture above, it's a bit more brown. This is because I added lesser colouring, 1 tsp salt (just as the recipe mentioned), grape seed oil (ran out of olive oil) and caster sugar (ran out of cane sugar). I added 350 g of caster sugar in this as compared to 450 g of cane before. I googled and 1 cup of sugar is apparently 225 grams but I found the previous batter a tad too sweet so I reduced the amount of sugar in the next batch. I usually prefer to weigh my ingredients instead of measuring it out by cups. I think it's more accurate and accuracy is super duper important in baking. It's almost like chemistry except you can eat your result.

Batch #1 cupcakes are on the right and Batch #2 cupcakes are on the greyish black pans. There is a difference. Fo' sho'!

Both the cupcakes turned out really well but if I had to choose, I would go with Batch #1. I thought they were more moist and flavourful compared to Batch #2. It could be the oil and sugar ratio that causes the very moist texture. Who knows but my colleagues liked both so it's really up to you how you want your cupcakes to be like.

Of course, for every red velvet cake/cupcake, there has to be a cream cheese frosting. You can't make red velvet cupcakes without this sweet, fluffy frosting. I was pretty tired from baking the cupcakes so I didn't take much pictures of the frosting except for the one below.

Do note that there are 2 cream cheese frosting recipes you can find on Divas Can Cook website. Either is fine but I preferred the Light Cream Cheese Frosting (http://divascancook.com/2012/02/light-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe.html) because it wasn't too sweet and the frosting was quite aerated which I liked a lot.

So flufffyyyyyyy!!!!

I added about 1 - 1.5 cups of icing sugar. The reason was mainly because I hate sifting and was pretty tired so I just sifted that much of icing sugar. Later, I realised I should have added one more cup because I could still taste the sourness of the cream cheese. (Is there such a word...'sourness'? But you know what I mean)

You can see the piping bag appearance above!!

nom nom cupcakes. not so poopy this time. 

I must say piping is easier with the Wilton's decorative tips. I finished piping all 48 cupcakes (this is how many cupcakes I made after 2 batches) in about 15 minutes. Of course I know that the piping tool for cupcakes are normally 1M tip but I don't have it...yet. Till then, these piping bags with the decorative tips are lifesavers.

I know. It's sexy. 

Well that's all for my red velvet cupcakes. I hope people at my office enjoyed it! And I hope you guys try it out because it really is worth the shot. Remember, when you do - you can always give me your cupcake ;)
(sounds wrong.."your cupcake"..oh well)

Good night! до свидания! [Apparently I have readers from Russia - so that's for you guys;) ]

#ThrowBackRecipe Four Tier Chocolate Cake --> *BAM* Poop Cupcakes

Ah...does the new layout look good? I thought the previous layout was weird. I mean what do street lights have to do with this blog? That I need a light in times of darkness? Well, I guess... that is true. Okay. I shall stop here and move on...

I have made this cake 2 years ago. I was watching Masterchef Australia Junior version. This was some sort of a challenge for the kids. HEY! Don't undermine the simplicity of the recipe. Fine. It was easy. Anyways, I remembered it being a hit with my family. This time round, I decided to make them into cupcakes.

(Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.masterchef.com.au/recipes/four-tier-chocolate-layer-cake.htm)

Splash of vanilla extract here and there. 

Les Ingredients (I'm pretty sure that's not French for ingredients)

I just want to say - I went ingredient shopping at Wegmans, this supermarket in US, online and things are cheap. You see that vanilla extract? It costs me $5.10 SGD for 30 ml at Cold Storage. It costs around $5 for 60 ml at Wegman's. FIVE DOLLARS. Cake mixes are about $1.50 - but here, it costs about $4.50!!!! If i could, I would just retire in America and bake the crap out of Wegman's and give it out to people for free. Then, go broke. I am procrastinating...right?

MOVING ON, I pretty much followed the recipe strictly. I don't think I made much variations on this recipe except I added 20 g less of icing sugar for the frosting. I would recommend you not to as well because these babies were pretty moist when they came out...almost like human ones. ( Say what?) Well, I will just let the pictures do the talking since I am so annoying, right? Haha..just kidding..I think...

Opened a new batch of coca powder - it was so soft ...like clouds. Yes. I do believe I can touch clouds. SSHHH - I won't believe you otherwise. *LALALALA*

Before...

Sorry, I had to pierce the cakes thus the marks. 

Wheeeeee - moist!!

Making the cream cheese. Awesome. POSSUM. 

It was so soft and incorporated the right amount of air *sound so professional*

By the way, chocolate cream cheese frosting is good. Like really really rich ...and good. Hence a tip, if you are all sad and depressed because you watched a really sad movie or nobody loves you (I..don't do that..'ahem') - make this frosting. It will make you feel better. In an instant. However, if you are planning to pipe like pretty decorations, I would say cream cheese is the wrong icing. It melts easily. I tried it with my newly bought Wilton decorative piping tools *thanks my dearies who bought it for me* - it did not stay up for a long period of time. If you do want it to, I would recommend buttercream icing although it's a tad sweet. Alternatively, I have heard Swiss Meringue Buttercream works as well and is less sweet but I have yet to try it out. If I do, you will know...because that's what I do...homie. (What?)

I know - Hilarious, right? Especially the top cupcake. 

Let's be honest, it looks like poop but it doesn't taste like one (: wheeeeeee

Yes. I have named the cupcake version of this: "Poop Cupcakes". I think it looks apt? Oh well.

That's all folks. (I miss cartoons. WHY DID I GROW UP?)

Good Night.

Café Salivation... say WHAAAAT...

Heyy you..awesome..person whom I do not know. How you doin' ;) 

Fine. I will cut the crap. No...I didn't cook or bake this time but I did EAT. That's right. I am one of those annoying people on a social media platform who all they do is take pictures of food. Am I ashamed? NO. Alright, it is a bit annoying. I have to pull food away from people before they eat it so I can take a snap of it. Should I just stop talking and talk about the food? Sigh. Fine.

Restaurant: Cafe Salivation (100% Veggie Friendly)

Look at the position of the garlic bread. You know the chef was like "Wait..before you go out with this plate, let me put this one horizontal"

I was catching up with some JC friends and while waiting for the rest to show up, some of us ordered appetizers: potato croquettes and garlic bread. The garlic bread was good. I wouldn't say little garlic cloves were dancing around my head when I bit into it. However,(whoa..fancy much..'however'?),the potato croquettes were served piping hot. We dipped our croquettes into the yogurt and ate them. Honestly, the croquette and the yogurt were meant to spend their lives together. Too much? I thought so.

Ravioli stuffed with Spinach. Drenched with cream and cheese. Did I hear an artery pop?

Please go with friends. If you don't have one, make one or share it with the waiters. There is just a lot of cream,cheese and ...cream. And cheese. Luckily, we all shared these dishes. The spinach ravioli was really good but I could only have one. After a while, the cream gets a bit too overpowering.

Nachos. O yeeeaaahhh. 

The nachos was good... the cheese is just omggggg...where do they get it from? I know.. it's a cow but this cow is ... God-sent. Why am I talking about cows? Part of me believes that I have ADHD. Unicorns.

Spinach Lasagna, Part of me is loving this vegetarian diet. Really. More than 2 servings of veggies in 1 meal!

 The tomato sauce they used for both the lasagne and the enchilada had a hint of Indian...spices. It was not too strong but just a hint and it just..complimented the dish so well.

Veggie Enchiladas...I loooove veggiesss wheeee

 The mushroom burger was ..alright. I wouldn't say it was fantastic but what was really good were the fries. Surprising, right? I mean the fries did not taste like those frozen ones. It was like..the fries were carefully sliced from the potato and ... well I think you can taste the love and dedication that was put into this dish. Yes.. too much.

Mushroom Burger

 You can keep your paramgiano reggiano, cheddar, red leicester, mozarella..okay maybe not mozarella, but vat I lowve iz da paneer. Beri good. *Cutting the accent away* The paneer pizza was sooo heavenly. I was not excited to see olives and tomatoes because they are not my favourite toppings but I couldn't give a damn. I have had paneer like in palak paneer and tandoori paneer...but I have not had them melted. That. was. amazing. UH-MAZING. Melted cheese..amazing.. just fantastic. Too good yar. Just too good. Alright, I am done with the accent.

Paneer Pizza

Café Salivation - you got me good. 

 Well, after this, we went to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves, to chilll...They had their new Birthday ice blend and I wanted to try it so badly. Why? There were sprinkles on top. I am not even going to pretend that I love vanilla or crap. You put sprinkles on something - I will eat/drink it.

Birthday Ice Blend, my ass. It's JUST MILK I TELL YA. 

Anyways, I digress. It was bad. I mean I paid $8.10 for the drink and it was crap. I could have bought a bottle of milk...PERHAPS EVEN TWO. 

Ooookay I am done ranting. Wheeee. 

Have a nice day you awesome possums. I love Vampire Diaries by the way. I have become one of those obsessed girls who love vampires. It's embarrassing, I know but I thought I should let you know. Please don't leave. YOU ARE ALL I HAVE. 

Okay I am done. Maybe I do have ADHD. 

Alright. Good night (: 

P.S: Do check Cafe Salivation out here - http://www.cafesalivation.com/ (Head to Farrer Park, and take Exit F, it's a pink signboard. You can't miss it. I am actually imagining that I am whispering this information to you...okay..just being weird... bye!)