Oreo Surprise Cupcake with Oreo Buttercream

 Gotta love those dainty silicon teacups!

Bought them cuties in Adelaide in April and they're just the prettiest things! So convenient, from oven-to-table application. Which reminds me that I need to use them more often, creatively (jot that down to my list of 23,785 things to bake).

Surprise! another Oreo at the bottom! :)


Oreo Surprise Cupcakes with Oreo Buttercream
Makes 18 cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 TBS vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup self-raising flour
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup milk
18 pcs Oreo cookies halves, with cream fillings attached (place at the bottom of cupcake liner)

Buttercream:
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups icing sugar
6 TBS Oreo cookies, finely crushed
9 Oreo cookies, cut in half for toppers

Preheat oven to 175 Celcius, line pan with cupcake liners. Twist Oreos in half and set aside the extra cookies for the frosting.

Place Oreo cookies halves in the cupcake liners, with cream fillings facing up.

Beat butter and sugar until light & fluffy. Add eggs one by one. Add vanilla and baking powder. Mix the flours in a separate bowl. Alternately add the flour and milk to the batter, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.

Fill cupcake liners with batter. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan before transfer to cooling rack.

In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter on medium-high speed until light & fluffy for 2-3 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and add sugar 1/2 cup at a time until thoroughly mixed. Add butter, Oreo crumbs and mix well.

Frost cupcakes as desired. Top cupcake with half Oreos and ENJOY!

French Vanilla Macarons with Vanilla Creme

the ambiance is a bit solemn, just like the weather (bummer)

This is my first attempt at making macarons after extensive (I think!) online researches which included BraveTart; I found it very informative and honest, which I really like cause I'm such a newbie at western dessert. I followed the recipe to the T..and very happy with the results although half of them cracked (well I end up with almost 30 good macs..took me & hubby a few days to finish!). Recipe here BraveTart..oh, I made this 2 weeks ago..before the first cyclone hit HK (yes so far we had 3 already..exciting times heh)

cute pinky morsels...

Hubby is watching "Raging Bull" while waiting for his wholemeal french loaf baking in the oven , look at how young De Niro was..I can barely concentrate while writing this post..

Damn they tasted really good! love the chewy texture in my mouth. Powder food coloring is the real deal. I used liquid pink rose and it didn't turn out as pastel pink as I hoped. A few days later I bought some powder colors for my Rainbow Cake and my oh my, while cyclone Vicente was out there uprooting a few trees in front of my house, it didn't bother me cause I had the prettiest Rainbow Cake in my kitchen!

my pretty pink macs

Onde Onde (Pandan Balls with Palm Sugar Fillings)

I can't live without coconut and pandan. This is one of my all time fave classic Malay desserts.

Onde-Onde or Buah Melaka (Pandan Balls in Palm Sugar Fillings)...I still remember this is the first Malay dessert my mom taught me..and I had such wonderful time making them..it was really fun even as a 7-year old kid...it's pretty quick and how can you not like those cute green balls with fragrant fresh coconut shavings?

Best served immediately. Refrigeration is not recommended; the balls will harden due to glutinous rice flour content. And try to use freshly grated coconut for maximum authentic flavour (texture and flavour are waaayyyyy better!), the dry dessicated coconut just won't cut it.

Onde Onde (Pandan Balls with Palm Sugar Fillings)

(makes app. 30 balls)

Ingredients:                                                                                                   

200gm glutinous rice flour

1 tablespoon flour

Half teaspoon green coloring

8 pcs Pandan leaves- blend and sift to get half cup of Pandan extract

100g palm sugar- cut into 0.5cm cubes                             

85g desiccated coconut- steamed

Pinch of salt

You can use dessicated coconut, but I'm a stubborn girl! :)

Instruction:

1.       Mix the steamed desiccated coconut with a pinch of salt. Spread the steamed coconut on a big plate. Set aside (This is the Rolling Station)

2.       Mix glutinous rice flour, flour and green coloring with the pandan extract until smooth and form a dough

3.       Form a small ball in your palm (about 2cm in diameter), press to flatten, add the cubed palm sugar and roll in between your palms to form a ball (ensure no leaks)

4.       Bring water to boil in a pot

5.       Carefully place the pandan balls in the boiling water, reduce heat to medium/low

Have everything ready so you can eat it ASAP!

6.       Scoop out any pandan balls emerge on surface of boiling water and spread the balls on the plate with desiccated coconut (The Rolling Station)

7.       Shake/rolls the balls on the plate to ensure even coating of coconut

8.       Ready to serve!

I was spoiled with fresh grated coconut back in Malaysia. Wanted to create the Onde Onde with fresh coconut in HK, and guess what??? Very rarely shops sells it here and bloody expensive!

I used an old socks to wrap the head of the axe and cracked open the coconut!