Nutella Cupcake

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Nutella seems to be everyone's favourite. Besides those  who  are  really conscious of the ingredients present, most people have at least a bottle of Nutella in their kitchen. I'm no exception. Recently, there was some promotion in our supermarket, my sister got me two large tubs. So I decided to use it to bake Nutella Cupcakes as shared by Rumbling Tummy.

As it turned out, it was really a easy to make, and tasty to eat cupcakes. My children loved it and even my helper who brought it to share during her weekly gathering said her friends loved them too!
Recipe for Nutella Cupcakes, adapted from Rumbling Tummy.
(Makes approx. 19 regular cupcakes)

Ingredients:
280g Liv unsalted butter, softened
160g Caster sugar
6 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
200g Plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp Salt
4 tsp Baking powder
Nutella

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare cupcake paper cups.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light.
3. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. (as you add the eggs, it might curdle, use high speed to mix it)
4. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
5. Fill each paper cups with batter. They should be ¾ full. (this cake rises quite a lot.)
6. Top each cake with 1½ tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a skewer, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the Nutella.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or till the top is browned.
8. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

Nutella Cake

This post is sponsored by Liv butter. Try Liv today!

When I saw Annie's Nutella Cake, I was sold! Totally sold! I love Nutella. I love hazelnuts and chocolate. This is a combination made in heaven! Since I need to bake a cake for Mother's Day. This will be it.

Recipe for Nutella Chocolate Cake/Torta Alla Gianduja, modified from Annielicious.
(Source : Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess book)
Makes a 9" cake

Ingredient:
For the Cake
8 Small eggs, separated (if large eggs use 6)
Pinch of Salt
125g Liv Unsalted butter, soften
400g Nutella
1 tbsp Frangelico, Rum or Water (I used Barcardi Gold Rum)
125g Ground Hazelnut
100g Dark Chocolate, 66% cacao, melted

For the decoration
100g Whole Toasted Hazelnuts
250g Chocolate Ganache
1 tbsp Rum

Method:

1. Toast hazelnuts in a preheated oven of 160C for approximately 10mins, or until it's slightly brown, or when you smell the fragrance of the hazelnuts. Let it cool completely before using. You may want to consider to make this a day ahead.
2. Grind 125g of the cooled hazelnuts. Set aside. 
3. Melt the chocolate using double boiling method, to allow it to melt over gently under indirect heat. Once chocolate begins to melt, stir it gently with plastic spatula. When almost all of the chocolate is melted, lift up the bowl from the saucepan and set it on the counter. Stir continuously until it is shiny, smooth and completely melted. Set aside and leave it cool before use.
4. Prepare a 9 inch (springform) tin, greased and lined. I used a 9" removable base tin.
5. In a bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, and then add the rum, egg yolks and ground hazelnuts.
6. Fold in the cooled melted chocolate, and set aside.
7. In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff, but not dry. 
8. Then using a spatula, scoop a large dollop of egg white into the chocolate mixture. Fold the egg whites into the mixture by a third at a time. Mix well.
9. Pour into the prepared tin and bake it in the preheated fan oven of 160C for 40-45 mins or until the cake centre is not wobbly.
10. Let the cake cool on a rack completely before you un-mould them carefully. This was supposed to be a damp cake, but mine was a little dry.

For decoration:

1. Mix in the rum into the chocolate ganache.
2. Ice the top of the cake with chocolate ganache.
3. Decorate it with the toasted hazelnuts.
4. Let it rest in the fridge before serving.
5. Cake keeps well in the fridge.

Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte

It was the big FOUR for my elder sister. She celebrated her birthday on the first Sunday of the new year. We helped with some of the planning. It was my honour to bake a birthday cake for her celebration. We discussed about the cake which she would like to have. Finally, we confirmed on dark chocolate truffle torte as she is a chocolate fanatic, but dislikes normal flour cakes!

Since she was inviting friends and family members, she needed a cake that is enough to feed about 30 persons. I proposed to make a 2-tier cake for her and she was agreeable. The largest cake that could fit into my oven was 10". So I made a 10" and 8" round cakes for her, and topped them with lots of strawberries and blueberries.

At her request to have one more dessert for her catering food, I decided to make mini Nutella Cupcakes and have them displayed in my 3-tier trays. I also made a mini-tag for it. Some of her friends actually thought that the cupcakes came with the caterer! *grin*

 

Back to the dark, rich chocolate torte. I've made this torte before and I really like it. It is very smooth. It's like the cake version of nama chocolates. You can find the original recipe from Rose Levy here, and a recipe with slight modification from Taste Goblet Blog. The original recipe makes a 8", approx. 1.5" high cake. Actually, a 10" cake is enough to serve about 20-25 persons as the cake is really rich.

For the 10" cake, I doubled the recipe, and made a 2" high cake. This is how I made it.

Recipe for 10" Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte, adapted from "The Cake Bible"

Ingredients:
908g 70% Chocolates, chopped coarsely (You can use any bittersweet chocolates, like Valrhona, Aalst etc)
454g Unsalted butter
12 Large eggs, (600g withou shells)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Prepare a 10" springform pan, buttered, and bottom lined with buttered parchment or wax paper; outside of pan wrapped with a double layer of heavy-duty foil. A bigger pan to serve as a water bath.
2. Melt chocolates and butter in a large bowl in a microwave. Check and stir every 5secs. Do not over heat the chocolates. Stir until smooth. Leave aside.
3. Whisk the eggs in another large bowl over double boiler until warm to touch.
4. Remove from heat and continue beating until the mixture triples in volume and holds soft peaks.
5. Fold half of the eggs into the chocolate mixture until it is almost incorporated. It is important that you fold the EGGS into the chocolate and not the other way because this keeps the torte light.
6 Fold the remaining half of the eggs into the chocolate-egg mixture until it is just blended and no streaks remain. Use a rubber spatula to finish folding, scraping up the mixture from the bottom to ensure that all the heavier chocolate mixture gets incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into the 10" pan and place in a hot water bath.
8. Bake for 8 mins. Then cover the top of the cake loosely with a large piece of foil and bake another 16 mins. The cake will look barely done, with centre wobbly, but it’s supposed to be that way.
9. Remove cake from oven and from the water bath and leave to cool for an hour in the pan, on a wire rack. Cover tightly and chill overnight.
10. To remove cake from tin, use a torch, hair drier, or a hot damp towel to wipe the sides of the pan. (I used a blow torch.)
11. Run a thin metal spatula around the sides of the torte and release the sides of the springform pan. Place the plastic-wrapped plate on top and invert the torte onto it. Peel off greaseproof paper at the bottom of the torte. Turn it over again onto a serving plate/board.
12.  Decorate as desired. Or topped it with whipping cream before serving. Enjoy!

Note:
~ Bring the cake out of the fridge about half an hour before serving. When it is softer, you will be able to experience the smooth texture that melts in your mouth.
~ Best served with strawberries or raspberries to complement the dark chocolates.
~ You may add 3 tbsp of sugar if you prefer a sweeter torte. Add it to the eggs when you are beating it.

Puff Pastries

Last Sunday, my dear hubby suddenly had craving for chicken puff pies. We went to PH after lunch and when he saw the puff pastry sheet in the freezer, he asked if this needed to add ingredients to get chicken puff pies. I looked at him patiently (even though I wanted to ask him "What do you think?") and said that this is only "THE SHEET", and that preparation of other ingredients is definitely needed. He nodded his head in understanding and placed it back to the freezer.

Over the years, I've grown rather patient in general, and tried to stay composed. I've learnt not to be too impatient or mean, as I believe what goes around comes around. Furthermore, I've "seen through" already and take life in a lighter stride. Why make yourself unhappy with other people's actions/words or reactions. No point. Treat yourself well even if the whole world treats you badly. These are my beliefs.

Anyway, after PH, and having picked up my eldest son from his enrichment class, we proceeded to Thomson Plaza. Guess what did we have for our afternoon snack? It got to be Hans chicken puff pies!! He, Aloysius and myself had chicken puff pies, while my LTS (stands for Little Twin Stars - not Kiki & Lala but Allyson & Anders) had curry chicken puffs! Very garang right? At the age of six already know how to appreciate curries. I think they take after me, as I was quite well-known to eat chilli with rice, and not rice with chilli. Heehee...

So today, while I had time on hand, I embarked on my puff pastry baking. I coaxed my hubby to buy chicken meat for me to bake chicken pies, but he refused. So I used tuna to replace chicken and made Tuna & Mushroom Puff Pastry Pies.


1. Preparation of the pies. Shortcrust base were used.
2. Baking the pies in the oven.
3. These lots were made using the puff pastry as the base and the cover, while the rest were using shortcrusts as base.
4. Baked puff pastry pies.

A mixture of pies of various sizes.


This is the "full" puff pastry pie.


My son was just too eager to have a piece of pie when he came back from school today. He persuaded me to let him have one. Since I made so many, might as well let him be my "taster".


As I had time in the evening, I decided to bake the Nutella Cupcakes again. I found that there was a sales for the extra large Nutella in Fairprice now. It's going for $8.80 for a 750g, comes with a free small Nutella worth $3.70. Without hesitation, I quickly use my Nutella, so that I can buy again and stock up! Heehee... The recipe yields 72 mini cupcakes! Yummy.

Decadent Nutella Cupcakes

This is the fourth and last of the recipe from Joycelyn's Ultimate Chocolate Treats II recipe pack. What I've tried for the past few recipes are just the basic recipes. I've not even tried her variations on those recipes. If to include the variations, then that'll be at least another 10 more recipe to go! Her recipe is really good. I finally attempt on the Nutella Cupcakes successfully.

It's not easy to use Nutella to bake, which I realised when I did tried it some time back. According to her, she tried at least 14 times before getting the recipe right, which is her 15th attempt. How wonderful to create your own recipes! After that, you can proudly claim the recipe to be created by you! I hope to create my own recipes next time...

Back to the Nutella cupcakes, my sister bought two tubs of 750g Nutella for me when I told her I want to make Nutella cupcakes for her. That was really sweet of her. So since she has bought for me, there is no further excuse not to make for her right?


These were what I have made based on the original recipe. The frosting was not meant to cover the whole cupcake, just the centre part only. I did exactly what was in the recipe. It did turned out very good. Unfortunately, I am unable to share the recipe here.

Breads Again!

Lately, I'm into bread baking. I love to eat breads, therefore, I'm exploring the different flavours of breads, hoping that one day, I can bake yummy soft breads for myself and my family.

Using the TZ method again, the bread dough is allowed to proof to double its original size.

Then they are shaped and left it to proof a further 10mins.

After that, I added red bean paste, Nutella and some peanut butter on some of the dough. And let it proof for another one hour.

After one hour, they are brushed with egg and ready to be baked.

These are the breads I baked. The extra huge round one is the Nutella bread.

Recipe is extracted from Angie's Nutella Bread / 汤种榛果巧克力酱面包.
Note: My breads didn't turn out as nice as her. Skills are not up to mark yet! :p