Sugarcane Chai Tea Cupcakes

Would you like to play in the Bake Happy Kitchen with me?

Yeah, play. Nothing serious. Just you and me, an oven and a recipe.

I'll let you do the mise en place if you let me choose what we'll bake today.

So, is that a yes? I'll even let you operate my cherished (as old as me) hand held mixer while I sift the flour and spices.

No? How about we watch Xian Lim in My Binondo Girl while baking? 

What? Still a no? Yeah, that might distract you (not me).

How about if I tell you, we will be baking with Chai Tea?

Can I see a gentle nod there? Yes! 

I got it from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Her recipe is paired with a Condensed Milk Icing, I decided (I mean.. we) we decided to pair it with another flavor. Sugarcane buttercream sounds interesting don't you think?

So shall we start?

Chai-Tea Cupcakes

adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

350 F / makes 18 (or so - I forgot to count) cupcakes

3/4 cup milk

2 bags chai tea

1 bag black tea (such as Ceylon)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon course salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground crdamom
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of freshly grated nutment
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature

(1) Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Bring milk to a simmer over medium heat.  Remove from heat; add tea bags, and let steep, covered, 15 minutes. Remove tea bags, squeezing the bags over the pan, and discard.  Allow milk to cool completely.

(2) Whisk together both flours, baking powder, salt, pepper and spices.

(3) With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy.

(4) Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as needed.  Reduce speed to low. 

(5) Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of tea-infused milk, and beating until just combined after each.

(6) Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.  

(7) Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops spring back when lightly touched and are pale golden, 15-18 minutes.  

(8) Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.  Cupcakes can be frozen up to 1 month in airtight containers.

Sugarcane Buttercream Frosting


I used Italian Buttercream as base. The rule is for every 2 cups of Italian Buttercream, mix in 1/4 cup sugarcane juice. 


Italian Meringue Buttercream
from MarthaStewart.com



Ingredients


1 1/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and 2/3 cup water to a boil. Continue boiling until syrup reaches 238 degrees on a candy thermometer (soft-ball stage).

Meanwhile, place egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on low speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat on medium-high speed until stiff but not dry; do not overbeat.

With mixer running, add syrup to whites in a stream, beating on high speed until no longer steaming, about 3 minutes. Add butter bit by bit, beating until spreadable, 3 to 5 minutes; beat in vanilla. If icing curdles, keep beating until smooth.

Aren't you glad you spent sometime in my kitchen? Erm... now who will wash the dishes in the sink? :)

Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop

Want to take a peek into one of my baking cookbooks? Here is one of my favorites. 

Miette is a compilation of recipes from the pastry shop of the same name owned by pastry chef Meg Ray. If the shop is charming the book is definitely even more. The pastries featured seem to be waiting for the readers' go signal to jump right off the pages. 

I love the book's scalloped edges, definitely adds to the charm.

Here are some recipes on the book, Pastry Cream and Fresh Fruit Tart.

Want some Tomboy Cake? It looks so pretty! I am so making this. As in right now. Stat!

Look, a cupcake, finally I saw one! :)

How about some Lime Meringue Tart?

Look at these chunky looking cookie doughs! Hi there!

What I like about this baking cookbook is that Meg took time to explain cake making basics that even novice bakers could understand. 

She lists essential baking tools to help us bakers recreate the charming cakes right in our very own kitchens. 

She even illustrated some how she decorated some of the cakes, step by step. For someone (a.k.a. me) who is a very visual person, it is a treat to see a recipe book with step by step pictures instead of the usual one picture per recipe (and sometimes even none, which is a sad thing, at least for me anyway).

Charming, stylish and denitely a keeper, this is one book which will have a special place in my shelf. 




Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop

Hardcover, 224 pages ; Chronicle Books 

P1,149 at National Bookstore

Baking Supplies Store - SweetCraft Baking and Confectionery Supplies

Okay, here's the deal. You and me. Let's take the day off from the kitchen and visit one of the baking supplies stores I frequently visit. 

Just a friendly warning before we come in: this place will empty your pockets really fast. Don't say I didn't warn you. Shall we?


SweetCraft is located in Boni Avenue, Mandaluyong. It's so near Makati, I can afford to go there everyday (okay at least every weekends) without having to brave traffic. I love this store because it's clean, aisles are well stocked, and the staff are very friendly. 

You can find all kinds of flour here - wheat flour, cake flour, bread flour, all purpose flour. You name it and most probably they got it. 

No time to make cupcake toppers? Here they have an assortment of royal icing cupcake toppers with different themes.  Oh look, dragees in different colors too!!!

Did I mention they have lots of sprinkles? Not yet? Take a look.

This is where I bought my Hello Kitty Cookie Cutter from this post. Too bad they don't have it in stock. But Mickey, Minnie, Winnie and Tigger are waving and saying hello!

Look at those pans! 

Here are some fondant cutters and all things related to cake decorating.

See? I told you, they are well stocked. Packaging... lots and lots of it!

The two things I noticed they don't have much are piping tips and Americolor gel colors. But that's okay, their well stocked shelves pretty much makes up for it. 



Address: 373 Boni Avenue, Mandaluyong City, Philippines, 1550 Mandaluyong, Philippines
Hours: Mon - Sat: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Email: sales@sweetcraft.net
Phone: (+63 2) 571 8008(+63 2) 571 7858, (+63 2) 532 1595, (+63 2) 532 6289 Fax: (+63 2) 532 6289
Website: http://www.sweetcraft.net
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sweetcraftph
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sweetcraftph

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes

Dear Fate, 

I broke a cake plate today. Please don't hate me. 

Really. There's no rhyme or reason as to why it happened. Sometimes, it just does. That's life. I am sad about it, you know. It was a pretty cake plate, with a curvy base, beautiful cream color, and swirly red side borders - a cake plate every baker is proud to have. So please, no bestowing of bad luck okay? Here's my peace offering, Martha Stewart's Applesauce Spice Cupcakes. Trust me, it's good. 

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes
from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
350ºF / makes 18


Ingredients 
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups unsweetened apple sauce

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.


In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. On a low speed, add applesauce and then the flour mixture, beating until just combined.


Fill each cup 3/4 full with batter. Bake 20 minutes. 

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting


1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar


In a bowl, mix cream cheese with 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup light brown sugar until smooth. Spread cream-cheese frosting on cupcakes. Cupcakes can be refrigerated in airtight containers up to 2 days.

So, Fate? We're good now, right? Sweet.

Happy New Year! {But Half of the Real Title is on the Picture Below}

For Bake Happy Blogger's first post for 2012, I am sharing two very important things. 

Life changing really. Stuff, that if you wouldn't scroll down, you miss half of your life. Just kidding. But please scroll down. Seriously, please.

First, a tutorial. I want to show you how to make Shirt Cupcakes. Like the ones on the picture above. You remember this Valentine post? This is how I made it plus a little something more to spice it up a bit. We're making Statement Shirt Cupcakes. You know, of the things I wish for the world for 2012 and beyond. 

To make statement shirt cupcakes, I used these lettering press that you can assemble to form any word you want. I bought this at Love2Bake in Paranaque. I'm not sure what it's really called so I am calling it the lettering press. 

What we need:

Fondant in white and orange

Square fondant cutter

Small piping tip (any type of tip will do) fondant cutters, one smaller than the other Rolling pin 

Knife

Water and brush

Lettering Press

Here's how:
(1) Roll white fondant thinly and cut out a square using the fondant cutter

(2) Using the small tip, cut a half moon on top of the square fondant.

(3) Using the square cutter, cut out slender rectangles on the sides. By now, we have the basic t-shirt. You can actually do a lot of things with it. Paint a unicorn, a dragon, a peace sign or how about a cake? Or even a cupcake? In this case, I made statement shirts. Here's how.

(4) Roll orange fondant thinly

(5) Press words into the rolled fondant.

(6) Cut the boarders and paste into the shirt.

Second, I'm sharing my 12 for 2012. I know many will make new year resolutions, many will not. But I... well... I'm sharing my partial and unofficial 12 things to look forward to in 2012. Wanna read through my list? 

1. Wear a pink wig - now, where will I wear a pink wig? Let's find out soon.
2. Watch a horror film in 3D inside the cinema - the last horror movie I watched in the theater was Kevin Costner's Dragonfly. I swear, in my books it is a horror movie but Wikipedia insists it's drama movie. What?!
3. Find someone with my exact same real name - Ma gave me a really beautiful name, Marie Lette, now how did my nickname become Aikko? I might tell you the story sometime. 
4. Eat all the escargots I can get hold of - cooked in coconut, I can feast on escargots all day.
5. Learn how to make balloon animals - When you know how to make balloon animals, you know magic.
6. Watch all Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert movies - I know there is only one, but I am begging you to prove me wrong.
7. Organize all my baking cookbooks - I have some under my bed, in the bathroom (but you really don't need to know that), in my closet, some still has the store plastic cover screaming to be opened. Care to organize it with me? 
8. Get to watch that I-know-will-be-awesome Avengers movie
9. Do nothing once in a while - my aunt once told me, "Kay Aikko walang nasasayang na oras" that's because I hate to be idle. I always have something to do, so I look forward to doing nothing once in a while. 
10. Attend a culinary school - I have been putting this off for years!
11. Meet all of you dearest Bake Happy readers - last year, I met Amie. This year, I want to meet all of you. Okay, that might not be physically possible but nothing's impossible, right? 
12. Turning 30 - yeah, the big three oh on April 2. Is it really this year? Oh wait, I have to check, I stopped counting when I turned 21.

What are you looking forward to in 2012? Care to share? :)