Feta, Ham, and Spring Onion Muffins

I don't know if you've noticed, but this blog has been lacking some sweet/dessert updates for a while now. I only realized this a few days ago when i had a sudden craving for chocolate (yes, it's the time of the month). Then i remembered the last time i baked something sweet was 3 weeks ago, when i tried to make cupcakes and ended up with a tub of majorly FAILED buttercream frosting. So for an entire week, i had to finish eating 18 ugly cupcakes (with the buttercream scraped off) all by myself. And even though Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cupcake is heavenly delicious, after day two, eating them felt more like a chore than a treat. So you can say that ever since then, I started making more savory stuff like flapjacks for snacks and actual dinner meals. In a way, it's more economical for me to make real food since they can serve both as a blog update and a good source of daily nutrition. I guess this is how my blog copes with tight budgets-- make more filling meals and give up self indulgent desserts!

Here's a recipe for one of the snacks that I made a few weeks ago: Muffins with Feta cheese, ham, and spring onions. I made the mistake of baking them in muffin cups (didn't want to get my pan too dirty) cuz they were impossible to peel off! And the paper liners probably interfered with the baking process as they were still a little moist on the inside (or that could just be the extra liquid from the cheese and spring onions). JLo and I still enjoyed them though, we ate 10 muffins in one sitting and called it a meal... leaving 2 for me to take to class the next day. So BOO for overly moist muffins, but YAY for budget success!

Feta, Ham, and Spring Onion Muffins

derived from tasteofhome.com

makes 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup spring onions, choppped
• 1/2 cup sliced ham, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt [picture 1].
2. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and butter [picture 2]; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened [picture 3].
3. Fold in the feta cheese, ham, and chives [picture 4, 5].
4. Fill each greased muffin pan with batter, two-thirds full [picture 6].
5. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
6. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers.

Feta, Ham, and Spring Onion Muffins

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Today marks the first day of snowfall in POZ this year. I was completely unaware of it until i finally opened my curtains as i was about to head out around 3pm. It would've been a nice surprise if my curtains opened up to a picturesque view of powdered trees and buried rooftops... but thanks to daylight saving and the premature weather, all i got was gloomy skies, wet sidewalks, and frosted grass. To make it worse, POZ becomes pitch dark after 4:30 pm-- which means there is not enough sunlight for the average person who wakes up at noon during her week off from school, arghhh!!! So with the depressing 13 hour darkness in POZ, the only thing i can do right now is to remind myself of the better things in life with a cupcake update. This is one of Martha Stewart's recipes from her cupcake book that i've been wanting to buy since forever. I actually made these Tiramisu cupcakes twice... once for my brothers' birthday, and the 2nd time for JenJens'. But unfortunately, i made the same mistake of under-basting them with coffee syrup on both occasions. The cake should be soaked to the core with coffee but all I got was a thin line at the top :( There would've been prettier pictures to show had i spent a little more time brushing up the entire half cup of syrup. But despite my little setback, the cupcakes still tasted great. I mean, for goodness sake, it's Tiramisu baked into a cupcake! There's just not much you can do to screw up a heavenly match like that. Enjoy!

Tiramisu Cupcakes

from Martha Stewart

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
  [or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract]
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
• 3 large whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar [i used a little more than 1/2 cup]
• Coffee-Marsala Syrup [recipe below]
  *or 1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
• Mascarpone frosting [recipe below]
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt [picture 1]. Set aside.
3. Heat milk and vanilla-bean podand seeds (or vanilla extract) in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, set aside and let stand 15 minutes [picture 2]. If using vanilla pods, Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.
4. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes [picture 3]. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.
5. Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches [picture 4].
6. Stir 1/2 cup batter into the milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined [picture 5].
7. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full [picture 6].
8. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.
9. With a fork, poke holes all over the cupcakes so the syrup can be absorbed [picture 7].
10. To finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup (or Bailey's); repeat until all syrup has been used [picture 8]. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes.
11. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes [picture 11]; refrigerate up to overnight in airtight containers.
12. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving [picture 12].

Coffee-Marsala Syrup

• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh strong coffee (or espresso)
• 1 ounce (30 mL) marsala wine
• 1/4 cup sugar
  

1. Stir coffee, marsala, and sugar together until dissolved. Let cool.
   
   

Mascarpone Frosting

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces (230 grams) mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy).
2. In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and powdered sugar until smooth.
3. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Strawberry Mousse and Brownie Cupcakes

I'm in desperate need of motivation to get myself back into the kitchen. Don't know what's gotten into me these days, but cooking/baking just seems like the last thing i want to do. I've been on my elongated Easter break for a while now and the only produce that came out of the oven were these Strawberry Mousse and Brownie Cupcakes. Sigh, i was actually looking forward to trying out some of my highly anticipated recipes during my break... i guess that's not happening anytime soon :( DANG IT. And to make myself sound even more lazy, these cupcakes are actually made from a combination of 2 of my past recipes: brownies + strawberry mousse XD. Lalalala~ So anyways, JLo and I only had one cupcake each this time (as a taste test), and the rest were packaged and specially delivered to JLo's classmate, Anders. We promised him a home-cooked meal about a month ago but our plans were never carried out due to my *)%($ FREAKIN' PHARMACOLOGY (*@&%*@ finals. And since my brain is still recuperating from that traumatic experience, I made the dessert first to carry out the 1st part of our promised dinner. Gahhhh... i feel bad for being so lazy... sorry, Anders! But your chili casserole will come soon :) Hopefully posting this up will motivate me to finish what I've started.

Strawberry Mousse and Brownie Cupcakes
makes 7 - 8 cupcakes
INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
• Strawberry mousse [see recipe below]
  
  
• BROWNIES:
• 1/2 cup butter, melted (i used less)
• 1 cup sugar (i used less)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  

DIRECTIONS:

BROWNIES:

1. Stir butter, sugar, and vanilla together [picture 1].
2. Add eggs and beat well[picture 3].
3. Separately, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt together[picture 2].
4. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Stir well [picture 4, 5].
5. Fill cupcake cups with brownie batter (they should be 2/3 - 3/4 full) [picture 6].
6. Bake 30 minutes until knife comes out clean [picture 7].
7. After the cupcakes have cooled, use a knife and cut a hole into the cupcakes. Fill each hole with chopped strawberries [picture 8].
8. Spoon enough strawberry mousse to cover each cupcake hole [picture 9], refrigerate.
9. Reserve remaining mousse in a piping bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes until it has slightly solidified. Using the piping bag, decorate the cupcake in any way you'd like, be creative! Don't forget to add a berry on top ;) [picture 10].

=========/=========/=========/=========/=========

Strawberry Mousse
This recipe makes only a small amount of mousse that should be enough to fill and decorate the cupcakes.
INGREDIENTS:

• 100g fresh strawberries
• 1/2 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 50 mL milk
• 1.5 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

1. Blend and puree 100g of fresh strawberries. [picture 1]
2. In a saucepan, mix the sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla. [picture 2]
3. Pour the strawberry puree (around 75 mL) into the egg mixture. Mix well. [picture 3]
4. In another saucepan, add the gelatin and milk and heat until gelatin has dissolved. Pour it into the strawberry mixture and continue heating until everything comes together. [picture 4]
5. Remove the mixture from the heat and place the saucepan in cold water until it reaches room temperature.
6. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Pour it into the strawberry mixture. [picture 5]
7. Fold until blended thoroughly. [picture 6]

Special Delivery:
Strawberry Mousse and Brownie Cupcakes

S'more Cupcakes

These were the other cupcakes that I made during semester break. I made them again a few weeks ago but that batch came out pretty ugly... so no pics of cottage cheese cupcakes to show :P. I was surprised when most of the people i gave them to never had S'mores before so i thought I'd take a minute to explain what they are. S'mores are a traditional campfire snack: you roast the marshmallows until soft and toasty and sandwich them between graham crackers with a chocolate bar. The marshmallows melts the chocolate, turning everything into a big gooey mess... it's great :D. Check out the huge campfires we used to have back in Paraguay! I miss my childhood :'( So don't get discouraged by the complicated recipe, it'll all worth your while after taking the first bite through the multiple layers of graham crackers, cake, chocolate fudge, and marshmallows! *omnomnomnom* ... Okay, back to my pharmacology flashcards now, frickidy freak!

S'more Cupcakes
derived from cupcakeblog.com and misscupcakeface.com
makes 12 cupcakes
INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
  
  
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature [i used 1/3 cup]
  
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar [i used white sugar]
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
  
• Chocolate Fudge Filling [recipe below]
• Marshmallow Frosting [recipe here]
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and 1/4 cup of melted butter [picture 1].
2. Scoop a heaping tablespoon into each cupcake paper, pressing down to cover the bottom[picture 2]. Set aside.
   
3. Beat 1/2 cup of butter on high speed until soft, about 30 seconds.
4. Add in brown sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each [picture 3]. Set aside.
   
6. Mix together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
7. Measure out milk and vanilla together in a separate bowl.
   
8. Add about a fourth of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine [picture 4].
9. Add in about one third of the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined [picture 5].
10. Repeat above, alternating between flour and milk, ending with flour mixture.
11. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter (they should be 2/3 - 3/4 full) [picture 6].
12. Place muffin tins on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for approximately 20-22 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
    
13. Remove cupcakes and let it cool down for 20 - 30 minutes.
    
    
14. After the cupcakes have cooled, use a knife and cut a hole into the cupcakes. Fill with chocolate fudge filling (see recipe below) [picture 7]. (you may put the top back on to prevent marshmallow frosting from seeping in)
    
15. Top each filled cupcake with marshmallow frosting with a greased spatula [picture 8]. [if using homemade marshmallow frosting, remember to frost right after whipping for easy handling. ]
    
16. Decorate with chocolate drizzles and graham cracker crumbs.

S'more Cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge Filling
from misscupcakeface.com
INGREDIENTS:

• 150g semi-sweet chocolate, cut into pieces
• 1/2 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons milk
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a double boiler, mix all ingredients together until fully combined.
2. Allow to cool.
   

Red Velvet Cupcakes

As promised, here's the update on my Red Velvet cupcakes. They didn't turn out to be dramatically red since I didn't have enough food coloring to go around. I was going to make 20 cupcakes and pass them out on Valentine's day... but had to cut the recipe in half since a 1 ounce/2 tablespoon bottle of red food coloring here costs almost 6zl!!! Sigh, i waited 4 years for PiP to start selling food coloring, and when they did, i don't even want to pay for them. Ah well... artificial coloring isn't good for you anyway. So these cupcakes were supposed to be topped with a cream cheese frosting but the Polish cream cheese i used just turned the mixture into liquid. It was already past 10pm so I had to improvise and made buttercream frosting instead... it was yummy nonetheless ;) What makes Red Velvet cakes different from the rest isnt just the color-- buttermilk is used instead of milk, which gives it a slightly tangy aftertaste, yum yum yummmm. I think I'll try making these again without the food coloring and with more cocoa powder...maybe even use strawberry buttermilk! If it turns out alright, it might even become the base of all my future chocolate cakes/cupcakes, woohoo! ...I'm so easily amused.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
from pinchmysalt.com
makes 20-24 cupcakes
INGREDIENTS:

• 2 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 oz. red food coloring (4 tablespoons / two bottles)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar [i used a little less than 1 cup]
  
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature [maślanka in Polish]
  
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside [picture 1].
   
3. In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside [picture 2].
4. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes [picture 3].
   
5. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go [picture 4, 5].
   
6. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula [picture 6, 7, 8].
7. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Yes, it will fizz [picture 9]!
   
8. Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine.
   
9. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake cups with cake batter (they should be 2/3 - 3/4 full). (You may not fill all the cups, I ended up with 20 cupcakes) [picture 10].
   
10. Place muffin tins on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for approximately 20-22 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Check early and don’t overbake!
11. Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting
from recipezaar.com
[since I'm not a frosting person, i cut this recipe in half and frosted 10 cupcakes with some leftover. If you like LOTS of frosting on your cupcakes, this original recipe should be enough for 12]
INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, or less
  [add one 1/2 a cup at a time, sweeten to taste]
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a bowl combine butter, sugar and salt. Beat till blended.
2. Add the milk and vanilla and beat for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until smooth and creamy. [add more milk to reach desired consistency]

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Espresso Cupcakes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I'm back from my awesome trip to Turkey and London! Though it has been an exhausting 12-day trip, JLo and I have fell absolutely in love with Turkey and we're definitely going back again someday. I can't believe such a beautiful country is still under the tourist radar. If it wasn't for JLo, i would have never thought to go there. Our original plan was to visit Greece; Turkey would be a bonus. But after much research, we came to an unanimous decision that Turkey deserved our full attention... and we were right. Aiyaaaaa... I don't want to go into detail about the trip or else I'm gonna start feeling sorry for myself; sitting here in my room, keeping warm and having no interest in the -8 degrees Celsius Poznanian world outside. Sigh, I wanna go backkkkkkkkk!!! The only time i left this building was probably on new years eve, when i went grocery shopping for the new years eve dinner we were going to have at Jack's apartment. It was a last minute idea, really, so this wasn't going to be another 5 dish Christmas dinner. I made a Caesar salad, lasagna (updated later), and brought over some Chinese dumplings (updated later) JLo and I made the day before. No celebration is complete without a dessert so I wanted to make something simple yet pleasing to the eyes. And there's nothing prettier / easier to make than... CUPCAKES!! Yup, i made Espresso Cupcakes ( JLo only likes coffee desserts) with a mascarpone filling and chocolate ganache top. I wanted to make them with a chocolate icing swirl but I don't think JLo's health savvy friends would be too happy about that... 討厭, 下次吧... So anyways, here's the 1st of many cupcake recipes to come, enjoy!

Espresso Cupcakes
from betty crocker & cupcakeproject
makes 12 cupcakes
INGREDIENTS:

• CUPCAKES:
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso coffee powder (more if using regular coffee)
  
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• FILLING:
• 1/2 container (4 oz, 125 g) of mascarpone cheese
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso coffee powder (more if using regular coffee)
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar

• CHOCOLATE GANACHE
• 100 g (3.5 oz) of dark chocolate broken into small pieces
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
  
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
   
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.
   
3. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and instant espresso into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.
   
4. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine.
   
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine.
   
6. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine.
   
7. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
8. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2 full.
   
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
10. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes [picture 1].
    
    
11. In medium bowl, beat mascarpone cheese, milk, 2 teaspoons espresso powder and the powdered sugar on medium speed until smooth [picture 2].
    
12. Spoon mixture into decorating bag fitted with 1/4-inch writing tip.
13. To fill each cupcake, insert tip of bag into center of cooled cupcake; gently squeeze bag until cupcake expands slightly but does not burst (each cupcake should be filled with about 1 tablespoon filling) [picture 3].
    
    
14. Heat the cream in a double boiler until it just starts to boil [picture 4].
    
15. Pour in the chocolate and stir until all the chocolate is melted and integrated with the cream [picture 5, 6].
    
16. While it is still warm, spread a thin layer of it over the cupcakes. It will harden when it cools.
17. Decorate with white chocolate shavings.

Espresso Cupcakes

Strawberry Marble Muffins

Niieeeehhhh. forget the last post, i still went back to the kitchen afterall. But i will keep this short and hopefully go back to study soon.

I used to make muffins like... every other day until i got sick of baking the same flavors all the time (Coffee Chocolate Coco, Blueberry, and Apple Cinnamon). They're good, but you just dont get any satisfaction making the same things over and over again. I had plans to study last night, i really did, but 手太閒 and............ out came my first strawberry marble muffins! It was worth giving up my precious study time. XD

Strawberry Marble Muffins

• Make 2 batters of normal muffin mix.


• Add strawberry gelatin to one of them and mix well.


• Spoon the white batter and the pink batter into your muffin wells side-by-side.


• Use a knife and cut through the batter to mix the colors.


• Bake for 20 minutes.


• For other variations, use different flavored jello.