Lemon Curd Cupcakes!

To use up leftover lemon curd and sour cream, I found this lovely lemon curd cupcake recipe online. There are three different lemon ingredients in this recipe - lemon curd, lemon zest and lemon juice. Other ingredients are butter, eggs, plain flour and golden caster sugar.

Another helping of lemon curd is also stirred into whipped double cream to make the icing for the cupcakes. The two dark cupcakes in the corner of the picture are actually lemon curd cupcakes glazed with a chocolate and cream mix that I thought might go well together. However, the Husband has tried the lemon curd cupcake with chocolate glaze and said it does taste rather strange together.

I will keep you posted about taste tomorrow!

Banana Cake with Pecan Crumble Crunch!

With leftover bananas from the Office, I found this banana cake recipe with a twist. I usually find banana cake recipes quite boring as they are all the same. However, in this recipe, it includes chopped pecans as well as a pecan crumble crunch topping which I hope would give the banana cake a different look and taste.

The Husband has been the first taster and pronounced it as 'good banana cake!'

Guinness Cake!

During the week, the Office was visited by quite a number of overseas colleagues. This recipe was given by a colleague who had heard about my baking adventures.

The Husband decided that it was a challenge that has to be taken up and since the colleague would still be in the office on Friday, I was duly informed that the Husband would go and buy the required Guinness, cream and brown sugar after work for me to bake the cake. :)

This cake actually took some time as the flour needed to be sifted 3X and mixing 200ml of Guinness with 55g of cocoa powder into a smooth paste also took longer than expected. This cake turned out really moist and chocolatey with a hint of Guinness. There was an option to finish the cake off with a dusting of icing sugar or a chocolate cream glaze. To glaze the cake in time for work on Friday, I had to wake up early to get it done.

Luckily, all the work is not in vain as the Husband has pronounced the cake 'one of his Top 5s'! Other cakes that have the same accolade are the lemon blueberry cake, lemon blueberry cake with coconut crumble topping and the chocolate brownie cake.

The colleague who gave me the recipe said it was very good and that my cake has a stronger 'Guinness' kick! The cake was finished in a day.

Triple Chocolate Raspberry Brownies!

Still on the berry trail, I wanted to bake something with raspberries and dark chocolate. Surprisingly, most recipes call for white chocolate and raspberries but I was determined to find something for my combination.

I found this lovely chocolate and raspberry brownie recipe online that called for all three types of chocolate! 300g of dark chocolate was melted with 150g of butter before being mixed with quite a lot of sugar, 4 eggs, flour and then 175g white chocolate chunks, 100g milk chocolate chunks and 150g raspberries!

This brownie has been well-received by the Office and the Husband has also described it as 'interesting in a good way' with the raspberries as a lovely surprise among the chocolate!

If you look at the picture closely, you can spot the white chocolate and the raspberries!

Pyramid of Baking Ingredients!

The Husband and I go supermarket shopping every Sunday morning and today was no exception. However, with Christmas round the corner (and yes, I know it is only October!), lots of baking ingredients were already on sale. Flour and sugar were both 1/3 off while glace cherries were half price. Hence, I took the opportunity to stock up.

When we got home, I left the Husband to do the unpacking and came back to the kitchen to find the pyramid he has built. It made me laugh which is why I married him!

He explained that the 'hole' in the middle of the tower is meant to be good feng shui, for the dragon to go through!

Simple Coffee Cake!

It has been a funny week when I kept forgetting stuff.

Last Wednesday was the boss' birthday and for some reason, I thought it was Thursday so I only thought of baking him a cake on Wednesday night. The Husband thought he would appreciate it even if it was belated, so I set to work baking a simple coffee cake.

This cake is a lovely sponge sandwich cake with coffee beaten into both the cake itself and into the icing. It smelled really lovely and melted dark chocolate was drizzled over the top.

The Office has been most complimentary about this unexpected baking mid-week!