Red Velvet Cupcakes (RVCs)

I finally gave in and made Red Velvet Cupcakes (RVCs), despite the fact that RVCs contains lots of red coloring. In actual fact, it was darling Samantha, who kept on asking me to bake this as she was talking about how nice, tasty and great RVCs are.

True enough, RVCs are heavenly. The texture is really moist, soft and light, even though the cream cheese frosting a little bit runny (need to add more icing sugar to harden it next time) and I really need to up my piping skills. Also please only use flour and baking powder, and not self-raising flour, cause self-raising will got give the cupcakes the "puff". The "puff" will make the RVCs prettier.

Thanks Samzie for the encouragements!!!


Red Velvet Cupcakes (Recipe Source: yummylittlecooks)
Approximately 13 cupcakes

Ingredients:
150 gm cake flour (my note: DO NOT use self-raising flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
80 gm unsalted butter, at room temperature
120 gm caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature( or substitute by combine 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, set aside for 5 minutes)
1 tbsp liquid red food coloring (my note: can be reduced to 1 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp white distilled vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C.

Line muffin pan with paper liners.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together in a bowl.

In a jug, stir the red coloring into the buttermilk. Set a side.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg, followed by vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour and buttermilk in 3 additions, starting and ending with flour.Mix until evenly combined.

Combine vinegar and baking soda in a small bowl until it fizzes. Quickly add to the batter and fold through briskly until evenly incorporated.

Divide batter evenly among lined cupcakes and bake for 20 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let cupcakes cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
110 gm cream cheese
35 gm butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted (my note: do not reduce the icing sugar)


Method:
Beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy.

Add in vanilla extract.

Gradually add in icing sugar and bear till creamy.

Guinness Stout Chicken

Stout chicken is what I usually order whenever I dine in one of the local restaurants here. But after flipping through cookbooks and also recipes shared online (I got this recipe from Table for 2..... or more but I've made adjustments here and there), I decided to give it a try. I've got two bottles of Guinness Stout in the pantry, some chicken wings and it was St. Patrick's Day last Saturday!!!

Guinness Stout Chicken
Serving for 2

Ingredients:
5 chicken wings (wings and drummets separated)
1/2 salt
1/2 tbsp Worcester Sauce
150ml Guinness Stout
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
1 clove of garlic
1 cup oil for frying

Method:
Marinate the chicken wing with salt, Worcester Sauce and corn flour for about and hour (you can add 3 tbsp of stout if you want to).

Fry until golden.

Discard the oil and retain about 1 tbsp in wok (well, since I think using the oil used for deep frying is rather unhealthy, I decided to use 1 tbsp of olive oil, instead).

Put in garlic and fry till golden brown, pour in Stout and cook to reduce a bit.

Add in sugar, soy sauce and chicken wings, and further cook until the gravy almost dries up.

Serve hot and enjoy.

Simple Soup Kueh Teow (Kueh Teow Thng)

Someone (me) can’t live without supper. Supper has been a norm since college and a night without supper is like sleeping with my favorite pillow. Anyways, since Hubs decided on a late night exercise regime (last night), so I decided on Soup Kueh Teow (since I have nothing better to do).


Simple Soup Kueh Teow (Kueh Teow Thng)
Serving for 2

 Ingredients:
1 pack kueh teow
1.5liters water
5oz minced pork (I replaced that with minced chicken since I don’t have minced pork at home)
6-10 medium-sized shrimp, shelled
1 teaspoon fish sauce or to taste
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 dashes white pepper powder
Salt to taste

Toppings:
Garlic oil

Method:
Make the garlic oil by stir-frying some minced garlic with oil. Put aside.

Heat up a pot of boiling water and blanch kueh teow until they are cooked. Drain and set aside.

To prepare the soup, stir-frying some minced garlic with oil, add water.

Bring water to boil in a pot. Add the minced pork, fish balls, and shrimp. Stir for a while.

Boil for 1-2 minutes or until the ingredients are cooked. Add the fish sauce, sesame oil, salt and white pepper powder. Turn off the heat.

Divide the rice noodles into two serving bowls. Add the broth, garlic oil, and chopped scallion. Serve immediately.


This kueh teow soup is a great quick cook for lunch, dinner or supper. It’s hearty, filling, and super tasty.

Blooming Friday

Updates on me (yea I used to blog but I was too lazy few years back, but worry not, I am back again).

My favorite pastime, cooking, food, crafts, vacations and my precious pooches (maybe).