Saturday, May 27, 2006

French Toasts & Cupcakes

Woke up to a lazy Saturday morning. Been out late the night before and had a killer "Espresso Kahlua" cocktail. Usually, consuming caffeine late at night have no effect on me but I will usually be wide awake pretty early the next morning.
Which was why I woke up at 7am (can't sleep no more despite the fact that I don't have to work today) and decided to make breakfast for the family.
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Classic Cinnamon French Toasts served with sprinkles of sugar - yum!

After breakfast, I had some time to kill before going to my usual Saturday gym class. Inspired by recent cupcakes-baking frenzy that I have seen on some of my favourite blogs, I decided to try a cupcake recipe that I have been wanting to try for quite some time. This recipe is said to be from Magnolia, the famous NY bakery most known for its cupcakes. People are known to queue for it the same way how we would queue for say, our favourite rojak sold from a van. Was it any good? Judging on how the kids savoured them, I have to say they must be pretty good! I did get more than a few licks of the buttercream frosting when I was preparing them and I have to say they are pretty addictive! But stay away if you can't tolerate sweetness though.
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"Magnolia's Cupcakes with Creamy & Addictive Frosting"
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The next day, I was left with some un-used buttercream so I made another batch of cup-cakes. This time I made them in mini sizes and used Nigella Lawson's fairy cakes recipe. Very easy and very nice!
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Mini orange cupcakes frosted with strawberry-flavoured buttercream.
Recipe for 9 or 10 mini muffins (based on recipe by Nigella Lawson)
Ingredient:
60g soft unsalted butter
60g sugar
1 egg

60g self-raising flour
1/4t orange oil
1-2T milk

Sift flour in a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients except the milk. Mix with mixer until smooth. Drizzle in milk a little-by-little until batter is of pouring consistency. Pour into lined muffin tins till about 80% full. Bake in pre-heated oven (175c) for 10 mins or until top is golden brown and skewer comes out clean when tested on cakes. Cool completely on rack and frost.

4 comments:

boo_licious said...

Hmmmm, I made Magnolia's cupcakes long long ago but was not impressed. Maybe I shld try it again.

Yr cupcakes look so much nicer than mine.

myCoffee said...

Thanks! Give it a try again. Will definitely cure any sugar craving.

Goody Egg said...

Hi,
This recipe has been on my "to try" list too. You did not mention about the cupcake itself, is it moist or dry, dense or fluffy? I've heard negative comments on this recipe ( too dry ), what do u think?

Regards, Kium

myCoffee said...

Hi Kium,
Haven't made these in awhile. But as far as I could remember, they were good. Not dry. If you find it too dry, you can just tweak the recipe a little. Try adding a little more liquid or reducing the baking time or baking temperature in your oven. Remember, each oven varies. Hope this helps!