just something random and usel

choc guinness cupcake with baileys buttercream

This time's attempt at cupcakes has once again proven that I am not a cupcake person.
I made these with mind of my dearest friends who are somewhat alcoholics (what a wonderful friend I am). I couldn't even finish my own cupcake :/

Well the feedback was that the Baileys couldn't be tasted because of the stout present in the cupcake itself. Oh well I don't think I'm ever baking cupcakes again because

1. my family does not appreciate them

2. its such a pain to bake, ESPECIALLY them frosting - ugh!!

I'm also lazy to the point to pipe the buttercream onto the cupcake so I just anyhow-ly used a knife and plop everything onto the cupcakes. I have absolutely 0 talent in beautifying things. 

Not going to share the recipe here because I'm not very happy about it (I threw away the rest :S) but the photos look somewhat ok and I needed to blog something before I stop blogging completely :/ 

I followed the recipe from here (made a few changes on the buttercream here and there)

This week I'm making a pizza from scratch!  

P/S: Do you guys know where I can get pepperoni from in Singapore?

Macaron au Chocolat*

I have finally figured out what went wrong from the previous 2 times I tried my hands on these. This time, the batter was watery but it still came out ok-ish. So darn proud. And all the work was done by yours truly (I spent at least 30 minutes trying to sift the ground almonds because they weren't fine enough ugh)

My batter made about 30+ shells and I only used half the ingredients stated in the original recipe, and thank God, because my family does not appreciate such sweet desserts. About 5 of the shells were undercooked so it came out crumbly but the rest were actually fine. Didn't make any jam/buttercream/ganache because I was worried it'd fail and I'll just waste my time so I used Nutella instead! The result is just that its overwhelmingly sweet but all's good still. 

The recipe I followed was adapted from here, and she has a really good video on Macaron FAQ + troubleshooting so you should watch it if you're going to try it out! I think her recipe will yield at least 60 shells - so that's about 30 complete macarons and that is a lot unless you're intending to give out to your friends. 

Recipe (adapted from HowToCookThat)

This yields about 10-20 macarons (depending on the size you piped out)

Ingredients:

2 large (or 3 small) egg whites

35g caster sugar

100g icing sugar

58g almond meal (ground almonds)

15g cocoa powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 150ºc.

Sift the almond meal, icing sugar and cocoa powder to remove lumps.

Using a standing mixer/electric whisk, whisk the caster sugar and egg whites until stiff and glossy - if you turn the bowl upside down, it won't fall off.

Sift the icing sugar mixture into the egg whites mixture, and start folding.

Be careful not to undermix or overmix - the end mixture should be smooth and not runny, when you pull up your spatula it should make 'ribbons'.

Pipe your ready mixture onto trays lined with non-stick baking paper, then firmly bang your trays on the table to prevent cracking at the top (although some of mine did crack oops).

Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes, the bottom of your macaron should be firm to the touch and doesn't sink in. 

Now I'll just go to the fridge and sneak a few more while I attempt to nurse my impending sore throat. This is the time where one can use the term - #YOLO

P/S: I've been playing around w photoshop for my photos on the blog and I like how they turn out - whadya think? Trying to get the hang of food photography!

*Directly translated into French via Google so if its wrong its not really my fault

Aye aye baker

First and foremost, I just want to say that I haven't been such a great student at all.

It's tests week ala you-should-try-to-use-this-chance-to-pull-your-GPA-up time but all I've been doing (besides waking up 6 hours earlier to study for a paper - you go gurl) is roaming on the Internet finding useless recipes that I won't end up using.

Secondly, have I mentioned that I've decided to get an oven?

With my own money?

So proud of me.

Of course the amount I have right now can only get me a 3/4 of a better quality oven but my original plan was to split it half-half with my mom anyway.

Looking forward to 10am on Thursday when my final paper ends. Then hurrah it's my freedooooooom...for a few days before I go back to slugging over my laptop rushing out reports for submissions :( 

Now that I'm going to go out in a few to buy an oven (never thought I'd be oven-shopping) I have successfully accumulated so many recipes in my 'Recipe' bookmark, I already have a few in mind to bake this week (in the midst of studying for my marketing paper - so screwed) as long as the oven comes ASAP.

The few in mind includes:

Earl grey tea loaf (or english breakfast because that's what I have on hand anyway)

Chocolate/banana muffins (umf craving for some rn)

Macarons (Failed twice :|)

The product of my endless scrolling on YouTube and Google.

I foresee my Instagram with endless amount of photos.

Also, my friends are very much in luck for I hath cupcakes in mind as well.

Now let me go sit in a corner and think about how I should be studying.

P/S: Forcing my mom to bake a pandan cake because I haven't had her cakes in 5 years.