Hanim Cooks!

Brownie Cupcake With Peanut Butter Frosting.

I was in the mood to bake and I want to eat chocolate and peanut butter. So I made this. No story behind it, not sure what triggered the craving too. Maybe Resse’s Peanut Butter Cups. Very dense and chocolaty with a hint of saltiness from the peanut butter, just the way I like it.

Ingredients

Brownie

1/3 cup butter
1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate buttons
85 g unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
250 g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature
1/2 chopped salted peanuts, optional

Method

Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius. Line 10 medium size cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Sieve flour, set aside. Combine butter, 1/2 cup chocolate buttons and unsweetened chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water (or double boiler if you have one). Stir until mixture melts smoothly. 

Remove from heat, transfer it onto a large mixing bowl. Whisk in brown and caster sugar into the mixture, then whisk in 1 egg at a time while whisking. Mix vanilla essence, flour, salt and remaining chocolate buttons.

Divide batter among prepared cupcake cups. Fill about 3/4 of the cup. Bake cupcakes about 30 minutes or until the toothpick inserted come out with moist crumbs attached. Transfer cupcakes onto rack and let cool completely.

To make the frosting, whisk all the ingredients except chopped peanuts using an electric mixer. You can either use a frosting bag to create effects or just slather it on with a spoon or knife and smooth the edges. Drizzle chopped peanuts onto cupcakes.

I go crazy over cupcake cups collection. 

(via thecakebar)

What is up with Red Velvet Cake?

Undoubtedly, red velvet cake is STILL one of the favourite flavour. So really, what’s the deal? What is it about this cake that it has garnered so much attention, especially this past couple of years?

Beats me.

What I do know is that historically, red velvet cake derived from many different recipes, dated bake in the 19^th centuries. It appeared in several recipe books, though it is not the actual red velvet cake that we eat now. The predecessors of the red velvet cake is essentially a simple butter-based cake, blended together with whipped egg whites and ground almonds for texture – far cry from the ruby red cake we are familiar with. Somewhere along then and now, the recipe has been tweaked, most significantly by the addition of dissolved boiling water and soda (now known as baking soda), before being added to a batter that contained sour milk (what I imagine is the buttermilk).

Renowned food writers has commented that from then on, cocoa was incorporated into the cake and with the combination of buttermilk, which leaves a reddish hue due to the reaction of the cocoa pigments with the acid present in the buttermilk. Theoretically, a combination of this apparently creates the reddish hue. In practice, far from the truth.

From what I’ve read, there are many rumours surrounding the origins of the red velvet cake. The most popular (but unsubstantiated) was that Waldorf Astoria sold the recipe to an unsuspecting customer for $100 (bear in mind in those days, that is a lot of money for a recipe), which the customer then distribute it freely in retaliation of having to pay for the recipe. That was how the red velvet became popular.

From then onwards, the recipes for red velvet cake appeared across United States in major newspapers, especially in the 60’s. Somehow red food colouring was introduced as part of the recipe, along with the existing buttermilk and cocoa powder. Though famous, red velvet cake seemed to be more more prominent in the southern of United States.

According to Wikipedia, a resurgence in the popularity of this cake is partly attributed to the 1989 film, Steel Magnolias, in which the groom’s cake (a southern tradition) is a red velvet cake made in the shape of an armadillo. More recently, it was selected by Jessica Simpson as her wedding cake when she weds Nick Lachey back in 2002 (now divorced). Since then it has been featured in… Well… Everywhere.

So having that said, I tweaked my version of the red velvet cake. Since I’m promoting a phenomenon, why not combine another phenomenon into this recipe while I’m at it - the cupcake. So here you go, the Red Velvet Cupcake.

If I may be so bold, please DO NOT add any sprinkles on the cupcake. It is tacky.

Cookie Monster Cupcake.

I promised Bianca that I’ll bake this with her. Just not sure if I can because I’m not really good at decorating cakes!

I will give it a try though..