Foodie Friday: Rainbow Cupcakes

I made Rainbow Cupcakes for a friend's Hippie Sixties (here and here) themed party last February. Had a few people asking me how I do it. Its actually simple and easy but time consuming if you're used to pouring cupcake batter all in one go.

My easy way of making rainbow cupcakes is using your favourite cupcake recipe (or any other cupcake recipe the you already have) and adding the food colouring of your choice. My favourite and very simple cupcake recipes are these Yellow Cupcakes and Sour Cream Lemon Cupcakes.

After making the cupcake batter I divided it into 5 bowls. I then added the colours of my choice: yellow, red, purple, green and blue. Don't add too much food colouring cos it might change the taste of your cupcakes. Stir well so that no streak of plain batter remains.

Add a teaspoon (or tablespoon if your cupcake is bigger) of each coloured batter into the cupcake cups. Its up to you which colour you want to start. Mine was purple followed by blue, green, yellow and red. Don't spread out the batter as the colours might combine. Just spoon one on top of the other and let it spread on its own. If you don't feel like layering one colour at a time cos it's time consuming just fill cupcake cups with different colours like the second picture below. 

Bake the cupcakes according to the instructions of the recipe you used. Its up to you if you want to put frosting. I like to leave out the frosting to show how colourful it is. Enjoy! =)

Have  a great weekend everyone!

Belated Foodie Friday: French Silk Pie

Haven't been in a blogging mood for the past one week but was pretty excited to blog on Friday. Unfortunately, Blogger was down yesterday so had to write yesterday's post today.

We celebrated Wafa's Birthday last Sunday. So I decided to do another experiment, as in try a new recipe. Searched high and low on what to make and finally decided on Strawberry Cream Pie. But after realizing I didn't have cream cheese and was on a budget I decided to search for a recipe that didn't require cream cheese. So I found the recipe for this awesome French Silk Pie!

Honestly I had trouble making it and I had to try twice. Nobody is perfect, right? The first time I tried, after adding the third egg the mixture started to separate and I had to throw it out. Thankfully the second time seem to be how it was suppose to look like. But of course I was nervous because I had to wait at least 4 hours for the pie to set and taste it. I made a few tweaks not because I'm an expert but because I had to make do with whatever I had. 

Part 1 : The Crust

The recipe for the French Silk Pie (click here for the recipe & instructions) required making the pie crust out of flour. I haven't tried that before. So I decided to make a shortcut and made digestive biscuit pie crust instead. I like this way better because I love how it crumbles when you bite it. Just like eating cheesecake. The recipe for the digestive biscuits crust actually uses graham crackers but since I couldn't find any here so digestive biscuits was a great substitute. And since I was running short on butter I used margarine instead. 

Firstly, I crushed the digestive biscuits into pieces and added the sugar

 Then I added the melted margarine

Then I pressed it to my pie dish and baked it for about 10 minutes

Part 2 : The Filling

While waiting for the pie crust to cool I started to make the filling. As I said before I failed the first time I tried making it so that was sort of a setback. But in the end everything worked out fine. Yayyyy!

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

I only had unsalted butter so I added about 1/4 teaspoon salt

Then I added the melted chocolate and vanilla. I used dark chocolate.

After that I added the eggs one at a time and beat it for 5 minutes each. 

I ended up using 2 eggs instead of 3. 

 I poured the filling into the pie crust and let it cool in the fridge for half a day. 

Simple right? 

Here's the end result!

 I decorated with whipped cream and strawberries! Yummm!

 'Sixteen' candles for the Birthday girl. Hehe.

Dig in!

Foodie Friday: Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate

I wouldn't call myself a foodie. Am not the best when it comes to tasting food. Seriously. That's one of the many reasons why I don't cook. I am pretty bad at predicting the amount of sugar or salt needed. Though I have learned a few things from friends for the past few years. But I wouldn't take it up a notch and start experimenting with cooking myself. Not without the help of my friends of course. Hehe.

The one thing I really like and am keen on trying is baking or making dessert of any sort. I guess you can say I have a sweet tooth. A few years ago I started experimenting with baking here in Yogyakarta. One of the reasons is you can never find good cakes and cupcakes for an affordable price here. Even if you do, there's always something missing. I already have a small oven. So why not try experimenting right? 

One of my favourite thing to make is cupcakes. Easy and simple. I even made it during midnight once cos my friends wanted it. For the last 2 weeks, I tried two new recipes and modified a pre-existing recipe.

The first was a Chocolate Mousse. It was my first time and I've never tried whipping cream. I was so happy when I managed to do it! Was sooo nervous about the end result cos you need to refrigerate it for at least 2 hours for the mousse to set. But after the first bite, am not gonna doubt this recipe!

Chocolate Mousse

(taken from Crazy for Chocolate by Periplus)

Prep time: 20 minutes

Makes 4

250g dark chocolate

3 eggs

1/4 caster sugar

1 cup cream, whipped to soft peaks

*This recipe required 2 teaspoons of rum but I changed it to vanilla extract

Instructions (summarized):

1. Melt dark chocolate over simmering water and set aside to cool.

2. Beat eggs & sugar for 5 minutes or until thick, pale and increased in volume

3. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Using a metal spoon, fold melted chocolate & vanilla extract

into egg mixture, then fold the whipped cream

4. Spoon mousse into ramekins or dessert glasses

Refrigerate for 2 hours or until mousse has set

I decorated it with crushed chocolate biscuits and chocolate I melted & poured into heart shaped molds.

The second recipe I tried was Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake. I took the recipe for Sour Cream Pound Cake and changed it a little bit. The basic recipe is the same but I added vanilla extract, lemon juice and chocolate chips. Simple, light and yummy! The kind of cake you eat during tea time.

The third was a Faux-Nutella Swirl Cupcakes. Why I say faux-Nutella is because I didn't have nutella so I used chocolate spread instead. Mind you, Nutella here is quite expensive so I used a cheaper alternative. I got inspired for making this cupcake after reading this recipe. But I decided to use my favourite cupcake recipe which is the Sour Cream Lemon Cupcakes and added the chocolate spread in it. By golly, I now have a new favourite cupcake recipe! The way the chocolate melts in your mouth. Heaven. If I used Nutella I would probably reach cloud nine! Hehe.

After making the basic cupcake and pouring into the mold, add Nutella/chocolate spread

on top of it.

Using a toothpick, start swirling the Nutella/chocolate spread.

Since I used a cheaper alternative it was a bit hard swirling it but

if you use Nutella I think it would have been easier cos

Nutella is soft and smooth.

Budy Jam! My cheaper alternative.

The end result!

See how the chocolate spread kinda melts inside. Yummm!

Nothing beats a hot cup of Milo with freshly baked Faux-Nutella Swirl Cupcakes on a rainy morning!

Enjoy your weekend everyone and don't forget Mother's Day!

Valentine's Day

As everyone is well aware, today is Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. It is  a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards. Truthfully, I like the idea to have a day to remind us of love but love doesn't have to expressed on one day only. We should celebrate love every single day. Being single doesn't mean you have no one love cos you still have your family and friends to share your love with. Someone once said love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion and affection, and the person is right. Human kindness is the best form of love. I'm still waiting for the day I'll fall in love again and not out of love. Just like Dr Seuss says, "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams". =)

Tune on Tuesday: Hope feat. Jason Mraz

Love Love Love - Hope featuring Jason Mraz

I love love love this song

Kinda reminds you what its like to be in love