What's the difference between a muffin and a cupcake?

Photo credit - Oops, I got it somewhere from Google Images. Apologies for not attributing to the proper source.

After my last post on a Banana Yoghurt Coconut Cupcake, a friend called and said it looks lovely but she wanted to know the difference between a muffin and a cupcake. I've asked this question before and was told a cupcake is essentially a cake, which doesn't enlighten quite enough, so I'm posing this question again. 

I searched the internet again, and these are some of the responses I found:

1. A muffin is just a confused cupcake.

2. A muffin is an ugly cupcake.

3. A cupcake is a muffin with a fancy hat.

4. A muffin is a healthier cupcake.

5. Muffin is to bread what cupcake is to cake.

6. I called my wife "Cupcake" when she was younger. Now I call her "Muffin".

7. If you throw a muffin onto the wall, you will hear "Thud". If you throw a cupcake, you hear "Pouf"

8. Muffins are heavier and denser. Cupcakes are lighter and fluffier.

9. A muffin is a quick bread.

10. A cupcake is a cake that is cupped.

11. Ingredients are similar but mixing method is different. With muffins, you prepare all the dry ingredients separately from all the wet, then mix. For cupcakes, you do the butter-sugar mixing method and work towards a cake batter.

I remain confused. Anyone out there can provide a definitive, absolute answer that clears all doubts?

Banana Yoghurt Coconut Cupcakes

This is a quick way to get rid of some longstanding ingredients in the fridge and pantry. My super-ripened bananas with skin that had already turned completely black and the frozen shredded coconut that's been in there for a month. 15 minutes prep time and 20 minutes oven time. A lovely afternoon snack for everyone at home.

Lovely and easy recipe to come back to - it yields 12 very moist cupcakes. Sorry, I like my cupcakes topless so no pretty frosting to woo you with.

Er...we wiped them all clean before I could even start this blogpost!

Recipe
Dry Ingredients
13/4 cup plain flour, sieved
1/2 tsp baking powder, sieved
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup and they're fine)
2/3 cup shredded coconut (leave some to roast as toppings - this I forgot to do)

Wet ingredients
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
Mashed bananas (I used 3 medium sized ones)
1/2 cup sour cream (I used Greek yoghurt)

The Dark Knight Rises - Very Dark Espresso-Molasses-Kahlua Cake

I've really pushed the limit this time on sugar reduction - this cake is only 125g sugar. That is only a third of the recommended recipe and the least I've ever used on a cake, I believe. Highly suitable for diabetics. It tastes bitter! But I love it!!

I've always enjoyed a top crumble but this one really takes the cake with a major crevice. Any tips from anyone out there on how to minimise this?

Recipe from Always Order Desserts
1 stick (125g) Unsalted Butter, softened
11/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed (I used only 1/2 cup, and admittedly, it can be increased to 3/4 cup)
2 Tbsp Molasses
1 Large Egg, room temperature
1 cup Strong Black Coffee, room temperature
1/4 cup Kahlua
11/2 cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Dutch Cocoa Powder
1/2 Baking Powder
1/4 Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
In an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, molasses and egg until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the coffee and kahlua until combined.
In a separate bowl, sieve and whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, soda and salt.
Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well blended.
Pour batter into pan and bake for about 65 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
As mine is a way reduced sugar version, I sprinkled icing sugar on top and served with a sweet caramel sauce.

See my other Jewish Chocolate Cake.

Marcus Wareing's Banana Bread Pudding - Very Rich, Very Brit, Very Olympic!!

With the gigantic bananas from my dear friend, I decided this would be a good time to test Marcus Wareing's Banana Bread Pudding. MW, as you may know, is an English celebrity chef who has a strong love-hate relationship with Gordon Ramsay.

I found the method very interesting and unlike any other pudding I've made, including the one from Jamie Oliver, or the basic banana tea bread I made. Definitely want to make this again.

Heavily caramelised bananas and toffee syrup!

Verdict:

Love it! Love it! Love it! I enjoy the method of creating the toffee syrup and pouring it over the banana mixture before baking. It is truly differentiating from most of the banana bread recipes I've come across. Texture is moist and sweetness comes from overripe bananas and the caramelisation process. And this with reduced sugar! Awesome.

This is my tribute to all the impressive Brits - Bradley Wiggins who won the Tour de France just 2 weeks back and Andy Murray who came in third in Wimbledon. To Chariots of Fire and Mr Bean, the greatest detective on earth Sherlock Holmes, Dr Who, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Queen and her Jubilee Year, the gorgeous Kate Middleton, the sharp-tongued Simon Cowell, the hidden gem in Susan Boyle, to Great Britain during this Olympic season! I miss the river Thames and I miss my friends in London. Now enjoy that puddin'!

Very moist inside. Warning: also very rich! 

Here's the adapted recipe:

200g Unsalted Butter, divide into 50g + 150g

120g Brown Sugar (original recipe is 200g, but with ripe bananas, 120g is more than enough)

3 Tbsp Golden Syrup

125ml Thick Cream

150g Plain Flour, sieved

1 tsp Baking Powder, sieved with flour

3 Overripe Bananas, mashed (I used about 480g)

3 Large Eggs, beaten

Method:

1. Preheat oven with fan option to 180C. Lightly oil a 9" pan.

2. Make toffee syrup by doing the following: melt 50g butter under low heat, add 50g sugar and stir. When melted and well incorporated, add syrup and thick cream and stir continuously with a wooden spoon. Simmer for about one minute then remove from heat.

3. With a hand mixer, beat remaining butter and sugar till creamy and light. 

4. Mix mashed bananas and beaten eggs together, then add to the butter mixture. 

5. Gently fold in sieved flour and baking powder to butter and banana mixture.

6. Pour 1/3 of toffee syrup to bottom of pan, then add half of banana mixture. Pour another 1/3 of toffee syrup on top, then add the remaining banana mixture. Pour remaining toffee syrup on top of full batter.

7. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. If it comes out wet and soggy, drop temperature to 110C and bake for another half hour. You will see it bubbling in the oven. Enjoy the heavy caramelisation process taking place right in front of you.

8. Remove cake from oven and leave it to cool at room temperature. Toffee will help harden cake in 10-15 minutes if it came out of the oven slightly wobbly.

9. Slice a small piece with a serrated knife and serve with frozen berries or a dollop of cream and a lovely cup of English tea. It's very rich, so don't serve big slices. 

Some tips:

1. It's ok to have a few chunks when you mash your bananas, if you are a banana lover!

2. The berries provide the occasional juicy burst which pairs well with the richness of the pudding.

3. You need a big pot of tea to go with this!

Pandan Chiffon Cake - In Pursuit of the Perfect One

Some recipes call for 200g in a chiffon.
This one has less than 100g of sugar in this chiffon cake and psst! the kids didn't notice.
See, it's possible to have your cake and eat it too.

Today is my 15th attempt at a pandan chiffon cake. I looked back at the early attempts - the pictures look hideous and I had proudly blogged about them being my first ones! The most hideous and bragful one is here! Naive and ignorant as a little birdling boasting to eagles already soaring majestically in the skies! Too cute. And too embarrassing. I'm not deleting those posts, no matter how tempting.

There are a zillion different recipes on the internet on pandan chiffon and I was such a confused kid for the past months trying to make sense of them all. I finally settled on the recipe from Kitchen Tigress where she also produced a video on her method. It amused me to see her spreadsheet comparing all the different recipes from well known bakeries. Her site is now my go-to for pandan chiffon cakes. Thank you, KT.

The various liquids used: (L-R) Egg whites, egg yolk, canola oil, fresh coconut milk and fresh pandan juice. Coconut milk and pandan juice extraction are most laborious. For pandan, blend the leaves to get pulp that you then squeeze by hand to get the juice. Leave it for an hour and discard water that's split from the juice and use only the darker green. There are easier alternatives like buying the packet coconut milk and using just a drop of pandan extract or artificial colouring but they're not for me.

Here's a summary of the various tips I gleaned from different sources:

1. Separate eggs when they are fresh from the fridge, but beat them only at room temperature. (Joy of Baking)

2. Instead of folding, use a spatula to make rapid vertical lines from top to bottom of bowl when mixing egg white mixture to egg yolk mixture. (Very old aunty from the neighbourhood)

3. Use a chopstick to go round the edges of the mixed batter just before it goes into the oven to remove airpockets (KT)

4. Cover top with a tray 15 minutes into baking to prevent a burnt top. (KT)

5. Bake another 6 minutes or so even after a skewer comes out clean. (KT)

6. When cooling cake, elevate the inverted tube pan instead of just inverting it on a table top. Prop it up on a bottle for better air circulation. (Joy of Baking)

Meanwhile, my kids are loving all my chiffon, thankfully. Psst, did I tell you I reduced the sugar and they did not notice?

My Ode to the Macaron Myth, those Glam Morons

One of the few zillion macaron pictures taken off the internet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this one is probably going to upset some people and maybe even lose some of the already few subscribers I have. TOO BAD!

Dear macarons, you are grossly over-rated, over-priced and I don't like the way you're stacked so pretentiously at posh hotel lobbies and traditional-bakeries-now-called-boutiques. And I detest that you have taken over the place of my favourite herbed breads.

How is it people have not realised that, at six hundred grams of sugar per batch, you are the shortest cut to wide hips and diabetes. The only thing more than the sugar are the exclamation marks people use when they describe you. You are as fake as the gaudy colours you purportedly boast about, always trying to get as much attention as you can, and exuding such an upperty air about you as you become so ubiquitous. My darling, when you part your bright, luscious lips, you ooze of sweetness, and you try so damn hard to melt weak, fluttering hearts.

Things between us don't have to get this bad if not for your scheming, deceptive nature. There's something deeply disturbing about how you've deceived the whole world into loving you when in fact you are worth nothing. I have major trust issues if you continue to be so pretentious.

You make food bloggers think it would be such a baker's challenge to figure you out, and anyone who has successfully made a batch run out to the blogosphere to boast about how awesome you look. At your core, you're hollow and nothing but 4-day stale and dehydrated egg whites.

Youths spend their meagre pocket money on you and you've deviously creeped in to become the defacto prized possession for every birthday gift. They even Instagram the box you come in. Under my intense interrogation, a few pastry chefs have confessed to me how cheap you really are. You are such a waste of time, money and life.

If you feel I'm emblematic of anal people who can't enjoy their food without doing a calorie count, so be it. I don't care for your fillings. Plus, I bet they'll want me to write a similar post on your poorer cupcake cousins. What an idea.

Did I say it also irritates me that your "feet" are also called your "crown"? So you don't even understand your own body parts, how can I even think that you would comprehend the least bit about the importance of being true to yourself? Come to think of it - your name, your name. Macaron, macaroon, macaroni, macerena...I'll settle with Glam Morons.

You, Monsier Macaron Moron, have forgotten where you came from. You were a lovely cookie! I don't know how else to break this to you but right now, you are nothing but empty food and there is NO NEED for you to have to exist. Start being proud of your heritage, and since you choose to look like an UFO, do me a favour and fly back to your humble beginnings. Then maybe, just maybe, I may start to like you.

P/S: Sorry this has to come on Bastille Day. I love France and I love Sous Vide and I love to Confit.

P/P/S: Hmm...the last food I talked to directly was My Spanish Seabass.

Sticky Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake - The Mark of Zorro

My sugar-reduced lemon and poppy seed cake - it's worth failing that drug test for.

Armed with my poppy seeds from a friend, I was eagerly on the lookout for a lemon poppy seed recipe and behold, this one popped up from Technicolor Kitchen. There's nothing really sticky about it but the lemon freshness comes through strongly, so it's a good recipe for lemon-lovers. It has a secret ingredient too - rolled oats, an ingredient that helps maintain moisture in cakes. Plus you get more fibre in your dessert. Rolled oat as you remember is the main ingredient in granolas and muesli. I should blog about the birscher muesli that I make regularly for breakfast.

Wash lemons thoroughly and grate only the yellow skin

Before baking. Think my batter is a bit too wet. 

50 minutes later at 180C. Looks like Zorro left his mark on my cake!

Recipe adapted from Technicolor Kitchen

Mine is a sugar-reduced version.

Ingredients (Serves 16)

Granulated sugar 224g (I used 150g and it's perfectly fine)

Unsalted butter 127g, softened

Canola oil 100ml

Finely grated zest 3 lemons

3 large eggs (I used 4 small ones)

Vanilla extract 1 tsp (I used 2 vanilla pods)

Hot water 60ml

All purpose flour 250g

Baking powder 2 tsp

Pinch of salt

Rolled oats, finely ground 75g

Poppy seeds, 3 Tbsp

To make the Syrup:

Granulated sugar 150g (I used half and it's still good)

Lemon juice 100ml

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a 20cm square cake pan.

Beat sugar with butter, oil and lemon zest until pale and fluffy. 

Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Whisk hot water into egg mixture until smooth, then fold in sifted ingredients, the oats and poppy seeds.

Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 min or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. 

As soon as cake is out of oven, make the syrup. Heat sugar with the lemon juice until dissolved, poke a skewer deep into the cake dozens of times, then spoon all the syrup over the top. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. 

Word of the Week: Poppy Seeds

I have been trying to get my hands on Poppy Seeds for more than a year. Today, thanks to a dear friend from Perth, I got more than 200g of this precious ingredient! It is a prohibited item in Singapore - silly as it sounds - because these oil seeds come from the opium Poppy. But these dried seeds are primarily for culinary uses, as a spice, a thickener, a garnish, or a condiment. They are used in many baked goods and desserts. You need more than 3,300 seeds to make one gram! Here's more of what's said about poppy seeds on this packaging.

Next post: Sticky Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake

Bamboo Charcoal Bread - My Black Beauty. Almost a success. Almost a disaster.

My Black Beauty baked on Black Friday

Ta-da! My virgin bamboo charcoal bread. What a coincidence that I made this on Black Friday. Yes, the universe conspires with your passion. I remember making guacamole on the last National Guacamole Day, completely by chance. 

I first wrote about bamboo charcoal here. I also ate bamboo charcoal crepe at the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore. After researching several sites on this interesting ingredient, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a go on a basic soft butter loaf recipe. 

It has detox and many other health benefits.

I added 2 tsp of charcoal powder to my regular mix 

Have you seen grey flour before??

Stark black before proofing

Dark grey after 2nd proof

I decided to throw in some pecan and walnut for added colour and crunch.

Is this gorgeous or what? Do you think Rebecca Black will like this? Or maybe King Kong?

I'm going to cut them into cubes and steam them and see how gastronomically adventurous my guests are tonight. I am having my next Living Room talk tonight - which will also be my next post!

The Morning After
My black bread got nicknamed the Chewing Gum Bread 'cos it turned out to be rather chewy in the middle! In all the blogs I read on baking with Bamboo Charcoal powder, no one mentioned these  important observations which I have now made:

1. Recipes that say "bake till golden brown" is not applicable to black breads since you can't see any change in colour. Which means you have to be sure of the baking timing. In my case, my bread was actually not completely baked yet after 12 minutes but I had no way of knowing till I cut it. As it turns out, the inside was too chewy for a bread texture. So while the taste was good, the colour and texture felt odd.

2. The charcoal powder may stain your cloth or utensil, or at best, it's not easily washed off. So, do be careful when handling it.

3. You won't know when it's gone stale just by looking at it.

So, my overall verdict on this baking feat? Almost a success, almost a disaster.

'Magic' Steamed Banana Cake

A dear and thoughtful friend bought me the Magic Steamed Cake cookbook by Alex Goh, a supposedly famous baker with more than 30 years of experience in the baking industry. I stared at my overly ripe Del Monte bananas and thought it's time to try out a steamed banana cake. The closest I've come to making is a banana bread which I always love. I can't imagine a steamed cake of any form or flavor can be too alluring so I harbored low hopes of this being a killer recipe for me.

As it turns out, there was no aroma coming out of my oven during the steaming process unlike a baked banana bread which emits a strong aroma around the house, and just whets the appetite. The cake also does not look fancy at all. And despite using so much more banana than the recipe calls for, it still was not banana-ish enough for me.

So why is it, I could not stop eating this plain Jane?? It's still too sweet even after cutting down on the sugar but I found myself going back for more! The texture is not as dense as it looks. Maybe there really is some magic to this after all.

Looks more like a sultana fruit cake. 

By the way, I have to tell you the story of this plate. It's from the Shangri-la in Shanghai! No, I didn't technically steal it. Tsk, tsk, how could you think that of me, a woman of high integrity! I had ordered room service so I could work through an urgent proposal - those good old corporate days. Plus I was put in a gorgeous suite and I wanted to indulge in some decadence despite the hectic schedule.

I couldn't help but notice how pretty the plate was in the food I had ordered and took the opportunity to ask the service staff turning down the room if I could buy it. Seeing how much I adored the plate, she said to me like a partner-in-crime - Keep it! I didn't need very much persuasion at all and I wasn't going to argue on the technicalities of what constitutes stealing. She even offered me some newspapers to wrap my loot! Bless this elderly Shanghainese lady who has a radical concept of delighting customers. I think of her everytime I use this plate. And can I just add, we need more service staff like her in this world of restrictions and boundaries.


Recipe
3 eggs
160g sugar (I used 110g. Note to self: adjust further to 90g in next attempt)
250g bananas (I used 3 Del Monte bananas which weighed about 370g as I want the sweetness to come from the fruit rather than from sugar. Also I love a strong banana taste in my cake. The more ripe the bananas, the sweeter the taste.)
1/4 tsp salt
50g milk
240g flour (I used plain flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
90g corn oil (I used canola)
180g sultana (I soaked these before using. Seems like a lot and this will give added sweetness so sugar can be considerably reduced.)

Method
1. Whip eggs and sugar until thick. Mash bananas with salt, then add the 2 mixtures. Whip till thick.
2. Add milk and combine well.
3. Add flour, baking powder and soda and mix well.
4. Add oil, mix well. Add sultanas and mix well.
5. Pour into greased and floured cake mould. (Doesn't really matter what size or shape.) Steam for 20 minutes.

Her father's Warm Apple Cake

I mentioned last week that I got this recipe from an American chef in the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore. She named it, My father's Warm Apple Cake. A quick look around the kitchen and I realised I have all the ingredients in the recipe. I like recipes like that - no special ingredients to buy, just things you can find around the house.

The method is also fairly straightforward - mix all the dry ingredients. Then mix all the wet together and bake it. No sieving, no melting, no proofing, no frosting (unless you prefer). Serve with a dollop of vanilla ice cream you get at the stores.

Recipe and method below.

I was told it's usual and expected for oil cakes to dome like mine here. I actually enjoy seeing the top crumble.

Ingredients


Chopped apples 330g (I used 3 Granny Smith and did not even bother to peel them!)
Plain flour 450g (Ran out of plain after measuring out 350g and topped up with self raising flour!)
Sugar 420g (Way too much for my taste. I used 300g. Will try 250g next time round.)
Baking soda 1 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Cinnamon powder 2 tsp
Vanilla extract 2 tsp (I used vanilla pods I bought recently in Bali)
Eggs 135g (I used 3 small eggs)
Canola oil 320g (Ran out of canola and mixed it with EVOO, tsk tsk)
Walnuts & pecans 1 cup

Method (only 2 steps)
1. Using the well method, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

2. Bake in oiled ring mould at 300F/170C for 60 minutes or until golden brown.

How I would do it differently next time round
1. The batter was still wet after 60 min when tested with a wooden stick so I gave it another few minutes. But if you think about it, there is no such thing as an uncooked apple cake since all the ingredients can be eaten as they are! I remember the one I ate at the CIA was super moist. So the next time round, I would not even test with the stick and simply remove it when the time is up or when it turns golden brown. It should taste better. Who would like to try my next improved version warmapplecake2.0 ?

2. The aroma coming out of the oven was supremely divine after 30 minutes of baking. I would time it to the arrival of my guests next time round!

3. I would serve it with a warm vanilla sauce - another level of divinity.

Verdict: forget the usual boring apple crumble or apple pie. Apple cake is da' bomb! Cakes with nuts and fruits are so much more of my favs than those with heavy icing. I guess that's why I have till now not attempted any of those pretty cup cakes, against the wise sagely advice of all the teenagers in my life.

Chocolate muffins for my godsons

It was just less than a year ago that I learned to make my first muffin. It's the easiest thing on earth to bake yet it took me more than 40 years to attempt one. I can't believe that since that day, I've now tried sous vide duck breast and smoked salmon. 

Today, my 2 dear godsons are coming over to spend the afternoon together and I got ready some ammunition in the form of extra-chocolate muffins. I also made a batch of banana and pecan nuts for adults. Anyone in this world can bake a muffin, it's true.

My Kissing Dinner Rolls

These rolls got me more excited than I should be. I mean, it's really just a slab of dough come together. But the aroma, taste and texture were pretty awesome. 

I was not too hopeful that they would turn out to be anything good as I had trouble dealing with a really sticky dough. But when they proofed well and puffed up after just a few minutes in the oven, they got my undivided attention. 

The aroma was amazing and I couldn't stop sniffing at them. I wanted to make calls to every dinner guest to ask them to come over, like right now!

What really won my heart was when I saw these rolls kissing! Aren't they the cutest buns on heaven and earth. Such loving creatures. I must remember to make them on Valentine's!

And my favourite part in baking these - shredding them apart and seeing the soft texture especially when hot!

I got this recipe from ehow.com some time ago and have tested it a few times. It seems the original post has been removed. It's a good thing I copied them down. Here goes.

Caution: You need time and patience and you must not give up if it doesn't succeed at first try. Dough may be difficult to handle - way too sticky!

You will need:

Electric mixer (or be prepared to knead dough by hand)

Damp cloth

Large dry cloth

Baking tray

Baking paper

Ingredients (yields 12 rolls):

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup hot water

1 pack dry yeast (I used 11g instant yeast)

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups plain white flour (I used 1 cup white and 1 cup organic rye flour which has higher protein and fibre, and lower carbo and saturated fats)

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup margarine (I used butter instead. Say no to trans fat!)

Method:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

2. Add in remainder of the ingredients and mix well.

3. Once a ball forms, cover bowl with plastic wrap or damp towel and allow to rise. (Mine didn't form a  nice ball and I had to add another half cup of flour to make it drier. I let it rise till double in volume.)

4. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough. (I used my electric mixer and kneaded for a good 10-12 minutes.)

5. Line baking tray with parchment paper. Divide dough into 12 balls and flatten slightly on baking tray. Cover with cloth. Allow rolls to rise. (I took my dinner and came back to see they have doubled in size. Give them time to rise before you bake them.)

6. Preheat oven to 205 degrees Celsius.

7. Bake for 15-20 min or until light golden brown on top. Tap buns - they should sound hollow and not dense when ready. 

8. Remove from oven and after a few minutes of initial cooling time, wrap rolls in a large dry cloth. This will aid in keeping the crust soft.