pbb muffins

(is pb cheating on J?!)

I keep telling myself every other day that I should probably stop baking up a storm so frequently (seeing that what I bake are overly sweet and probably will cause me to go into a cardiac arrest faster than eating macs every other week)

But... I just can't resist baking muffins!? They're so fuss-free and I can bake a lot in one batch and eat it as breakfast for the rest of my week (that's if they lasted that long at home)

I wasn't even intending to bake this weekend at all but my itchy hands (and mouth) bought a bunch of bananas after driving lessons the other day and so my very itchy hands ended up baking these and something else (which involves chocolate chips too!)

My photos never come out looking all that great because I can't be bothered to find 'props' to lay around. I mean, come on, when you're drenched in sweat (thank god for the fan in the kitchen) and still have so much washing up to do, all you'd want to do is to savour your end product, feel good and proud then clean up the mess that you just created.

Plus I think I'm not so good with working with light either. I'm the best at creating big messes.

Now I have about 20 over muffins sitting in the kitchen waiting for someone to devour it (me) and feeling guilty about not preparing for my assessment tomorrow. It just irks me that I've got to be dressed formally tomorrow and trust me, I don't work well with walking in heels all day.

This recipe called for 2 bananas but because I was left with 3 bananas (my family ate them all) for 2 different recipes (the other calling for 3!!!) so I just split the mashed bananas into two.

These muffins are moist, but can make you feel reaaaaaaal thirsty because of the peanut butter, but I'd say, overall it's all good! I didn't follow the recipe with exact measurements because I was left with a tiny bit of peanut butter and I just used up whatever I had.

Recipe:
(Makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:
120ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
100g granulated sugar
2 bananas (ripe & mashed)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter (I'm sure chunky PB will work as well too)
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 200ºc 
1. Mix your flour, baking powder and salt together, then set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, peanut butter and bananas together.
3. Combine (dump) dry ingredients (from step 1) together with the mixture, be careful not to overmix
4. Divide your batter into your muffin tins and bake for 15-18 mins (mine was in the oven for 18 minutes), until a skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy and voila! So easy!

(Might make a cream cheese chocolate cake sometime - so much cream cheese in the fridge waiting to rot) 

i just can't get you out of my head

Music that has been on my playlist this month (really obsessed with the first song!)

I was intending to put up a recipe today until I realised I followed it wrongly (I woke up a little tad late and was rushing to finish it before I went to church) so it was ruined totally therefore theres nothing for me to eat (and take instagram worthy photos of))

Since I havent shared music for a while, here it is and I'm having so much trouble trying to prepare for my impromptu speech assessment on monday: I don't feel nervous for it but at the same time my inner brain is freaking the f*** out. Ugh?!

Hopefully I'll wake up in time tomorrow morning to bake something good then think back about my life and dig around for political issues around the internet. I have zero idea about anything politics related and I'd be screwed if I were to be so lucky to get a political question.

Enjoy the music!! 

sourpussies

note: i am actually eating this while typing this post (its so good i dont think i'd want to share it with anyone) (✿◠‿◠)

what is that? burnt ice cream cone on a cupcake???? what????

well it happens to look like a good ice cream cone sitting on a cupcake. 

a lemon flavored cupcake at that.

with a secret filling inside.

whaaaaaa-?!

i love how they look slightly like roses 

i'm onto my second one right now as i'm typing this post and for some reason the recipe for the cupcake itself only made 10 (or lesser if i had put more batter into each liner) and my dad ate 1 away before i could finish whisking my meringue (in the standing mixer of course) 

the recipe's lemon filling & meringue came out to be too much so i have a great leftover of lemon curd in the fridge and a plastic bag full of meringue in the dustbin （ ；´Д｀）

note to self: always tweak twerk recipes accordingly. 

My family obviously isn't lover of sweet things (yet I am hence its both a blessing and tragedy at the same time for me) and I have been trying to get my hands on this recipe since the very first day my baking adventure began 

If you do follow me on instagram you'd have probably seen like thousands a few photos of my experiences with lemon meringue tart & cake.

If i'm going to continue spending >$5 on such things might as well make my own (and i get to eat more) for about the same amount of $. Duh

I would've made a lemon meringue tart/cake but as you all know, my family isnt v supportive of my fat-ass desserts baking stint (my mom complains its fattening and sweet and i do agree) so i made cupcakes in case no one at home eats them i'll just give it to my friends (supportive guinea pigs they are - i like) 

look at those secret lemon curd filling (its so sour but i love it!!!!!!!!)

pardon for the iphone quality (im still on an iphone 4 - bleh) but i totally forgot to take a photo of them 

recipe: 

lemon curd:
62.5g sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch (corn flour)
60ml water
2 egg yolks
1/2 tbsp lemon zest
60ml lemon juice
11g unsalted butter (cubed)

1. Mix sugar, cornstarch & water in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat, whisking frequently as the mixture begins to thicken
2. When the mixture starts to simmer and turn translucent, whisk in the egg yolks, zest, lemon juice, then lastly, the butter
3. Bring the mixture to a brisk simmer while whisking constantly and remove from heat
4. Transfer to a small bowl for it to cool till lukewarm (30 mins), then cover & refrigerate until cooled
(all these steps happened fairly quickly for me though so no vigorous whisking activity needed)

lemon flavored cupcake: (this yields about 9-11 cupcakes)
120g flour (all purpose/plain)
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
113g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice

- Preheat your oven to 175ºc
1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, then set aside
2. Cream butter and sugar until its light & fluffy
3. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon zest & juice and lastly, the flour. Mix until just combined (dont overmix)
4. Scoop it into your muffin trays with cupcake liners
5. Bake for 20-22 minutes (until your skewer comes out clean or those little annoying bits stick to your skewers)
6. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer onto a cooling rack

meringue:
60ml water
100g sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil over med-high heat. Once it begins to boil, turn it down to low heat and cook for 4 minutes, then set aside
2. Beat (I don't support domestic violence but when it comes to egg whites its necessary evil) egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar then beat it until soft peaks form
3. While your mixer is still running, slowly add the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. Add the vanilla and beat it until the meringue is very thick and shiny

final steps to achieving those delicious tiny yellowish things as seen above:

1. preheat your oven to 200ºc (i recommend using the top heating element above would be enough)
2. use a tiny spoon or knife to cut out a small hole in the center of the cupcakes (don't cut it in too deep!)
3. spoon 'em lemon curd into the well you just created
4. spoon/pipe (pipe if you want it to look like ice cream) the meringue on top of the cupcake
5. bake the ready cupcakes until the meringues become brown (i put them in for about 5 minutes)

I wouldn't encourage you to bake anything involving meringue if you don't have an electric whisk or freestanding mixer because beating that shit out of the egg whites would take you at least half your life to get to the 'soft peak' level (or i'm just really bad with beating eggs via manual labor)

have a nice day salivating over these while i try not to give into temptation to grabbing another cupcake

downdates

my attempts to keep up with this blog while trying to sustain my humongous pile of undone schoolwork and projects is really futile 

1. i am really lazy to take out the camera to take photos of anything i bake/cook lately unless its instagram because....i really dislike my camera as of now and i dont like posting iphone photos on my precious blog

2. BESIDEs i tend to bake in the middle of the night (night therapy - because nobody disturbs me) so the lighting is horrible for photos (yay to natural lighting)

3. i promise i'll come up with something this coming week as i just submitted 3 reports altogether for the past week and i am only left with one to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

look at this i mean how does one not feel proud (after all that sleeping-at-4am-trying-to-rush-a-report saga) and the title makes everything sound 100x more chim than it is (but it IS chim)

4. although i must say that i'm going to disappear again soon after because i've got exams and internship immediately after - my lyfe

5. trying to adapt to wearing makeup (it melts off before i leave the house god damn it) frequently because i've got a photoshoot coming up (wha-?) and my face isn't very cooperative

6. OH - i've started driving lessons too and today was the fourth lesson and my instructor let me drive on the main road at 60km/h wOoO so proud because the previous 3 lessons i was so bad at it i think i nearly got into like a few accidents lmao 

i baked choc chip scones + red velvet cupcakes the past few weeks of hiatus on the blog and i think you guys should just follow me on instagram for the time being.

not to worry tho i'm makin lemon meringue cupcakes tomorrow (because i miss the lemon meringue cake from marmalade pantry so bad) 

hopefully there'll be a post up tomorrow night :)