Tiramisu Cupcakes

I have to say, this is the first time Tiramisu made an appearance here on Bake Happy. It really didn't tickle my fancy. Nope, not one tiny bit. 

And now I feel the need to explain. 

You: So... how did this post come into existence? [http://bakehappy.blogspot.com/2010/11/re-cake-tiramisu.html]
Me: An alien hacked my blog and posted that one.
You: And this one? [http://bakehappy.blogspot.com/2009/09/pinoy-cupcake-tiramoko.html]
Me: A totally unknown evil twin time traveled to 2009 and made this one.
You: How can you possibly deny making this one? [http://bakehappy.blogspot.com/2008/12/classic-tiramisu.html]
Me:  Okay you got me. I ran out of excuses. 

I love tiramisu (who doesn't?)
Especially in cupcake form. 
Irrisistable.
Totally.

Tiramisu Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart
325F/makes 18 cupcakes

What we need:

For the cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar

For the Coffee-Marsala Syrup
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee
1 ounce Marsala (can be bought at liquor stores)
1/4 cup sugar

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

Here's how:
(1) Sift or dry whisk cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk just until bubbles appear around the edge add in butter until melted. Let milk mixture cool.

(2) Set a mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water. With an electric mixer, mix eggs, yolks, and sugar until just sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth (no grainy texture felt) and warm which is about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. 

(3) With an electric mixer, whisk until mixture is fluffy, thick and is pale yellow. Fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches. 

(4) Stir 1/2 cup of the batter into the milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

(4) Bake until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes at 325F.
(5) To make the Coffee-Marsala Syrup, combine all ingredients together until sugar is dissolved. Brush all cupcakes with the syrup. Let it cool.

(6) To make the frosting, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form. 

(7) In a separate bowl, mix together cream chesse and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture until well combined. Use immediately.

(8) Pipe frosting into the cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle cocoa on top for extra chocolate-y goodness and enjoy.

Bake Happy Classes at Chefs & Bakers in Bacolod!

Hey everyone! 

I am very excited to announce that I will be in Bacolod to teach baking and fondant molding classes at Chefs  & Bakers. Though, I'm pretty sure if you follow me on Facebook, you might have already known about it. :)

Posting here on my blog as well in case you fall in the below category:

• you love cupcakes, would love to bake some but don't know where to start 
• fondant molding interests you and want to learn more (especially fashion and animal themed figures)
• you happen to be in Bacolod on May 11 and 12.
• you just want to have a good time while learning something new.

Here are the classes I'll be teaching at Chefs & Bakers:

May 11: Fondant Fashionista Figure Molding - 9AM onwards

May 12: Fondant Animals Figure Molding - 2PM onwards 

]

May 12: Cupcake Baking for Beginners - 9AM and 2PM 

Sharing one of the sweetest write-ups I have read about my blog :) 

Hope to see you all there!

For anyone interested, please contact Chefs & Bakers at (034) 435-1356; text us at +63918 965 9453; and/or message us at http://facebook.com/chefsandbakers for more information.

April 20 is Macaron Day!

Take heart macaron lovers, Bizu Patisserie celebrates Macaron Day on April 20 by giving a free macaron to every patron.

Visit Bizu branches at Greenbelt 2 Parkside (757-2498), Greenhills Promenade (724-2498), Alabang Town Center (809-2498), St. Luke’s BGC (789-7700) and One Rockwell (478-7755) to get your free macaron.

Now on its second year running, Bizu’s Macaron Day offers free macaron in especially designed packaging that signifies a personality trait. There is a macaron perfect for everyone.

First held in 2005, Jour du Macaron was started by French patisserier Pierre Hermé as a gourmand event in support of charities.

For its part, Bizu will donate a portion of its macaron sales for the day to Action Contre la Faim (ACF), A French humanitarian NGO.

Macaron is a French cookie that is crisp on the outside with a soft crème ganache and ground almonds in the middle. It is said to have originated in Italy in the 1500s then found its way to France. What was just a simple recipe of ground almonds, egg whites and sugar with no filling and flavoring was then transformed in early 1900s by French chef Pierre Desfontaines of Parisian pastry shop and café Ladurée into the macaron we know today, two cookies with a ganache filling.

Bizu introduced the macaron to the Filipino palate way back in 2001. Bizu Groupe founder and CEO Anabel Tanco recalls that very few people know about macarons then, often confusing them with the sweet coconut covered macaroons. Bizu now has 13 macaron varieties all with less sugar and more almonds.

Bizu requests people to share their photos and videos doing the Bizu Macaron Kiss on Twitter or Facebook.

Check out www.bizupatisserie.com, www.facebook.com/ilovebizu, Twitter and Instagram: @Bizuph#bizumacaronday.

Bizu has chosen Action Contre la Faim (ACF) to be its beneficiary for its 2013 Macaron Day celebration. It is a global humanitarian organization that fights hunger, from its most extreme manifestation of severe acute malnutrition to its causes—inadequate maternal and child care and feeding practices, poor household access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, clean water and quality health services, and unhealthy environment. ACF intervenes directly in over 40 countries and supports more than 6 million people. Since 2000, ACF has provided humanitarian and development assistance to less empowered and more vulnerable populations in various regions of the Philippines, including populations affected and displaced by armed conflict and natural disasters such as Typhoons Ondoy, Sendong and Pablo.

Nutella Cupcakes Recipe

It's a good thing I became a baker (among other things) and not an architect. 

Because I am totally at a loss when it comes to city planning. You see I am currently obsessing about this game called Simpsons: Tapped Out. In the game, Springfield Nuclear Power Plant explodes and it's all Homer Simpson's fault! So the task is to rebuild Springfield, the first task being rebuilding the Simpson's abode and so on. You get to plan where the houses will be, where the shops will be built, where the roads will be placed. I am now at level 17 but I just have a block worth of road, the Simpson's house is near at the back of Krustylu Studios and the Springfield Elemtary School is at way, way out of the way. Good thing I am not an architect because I am soo sure one will get me to design their house.

Good thing I am a baker. How else can I bake a batch of yummy Nutella Cupcakes if I am not? :)

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cupcakes
from Hershey's
350F/30 cupcakess

What we need:

2 cups sugar 
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa 
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 
1 teaspoon salt 
2  eggs 
1 cup milk 
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1 cup boiling water

Nutella Frosting

1/2 cup Nutella
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
2 1/2 cups icing sugar

Here's how:
To make the cupcakes:
(1) Sift or dry whisk sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

(2) Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla to the dry ingredients. I just used a wire whisk to mix everything up.

(3) Stir in boiling water. Fill cups two-thirds full with batter. Bake 18-20 minutes or until done.

To make the frosting.
(1) Make sure butter, cream cheese, Nutella are in room temperature before making the frosting. 

(2) Combine all ingredients until smooth.

Have a great week ahead, everyone!

Bake Happy at Cake Journal: How to Make Mermaid Cupcake Toppers

Hey everyone!!!

Two things - 

(1) It's the time of the year to scratch 30 in my About Me page. Yup, today I turn a year older and so much busier :)  And speaking of my About Me page, I think it needs a major overhaul, don't you think? The picture on it is embarrassingly old (or embarrassingly young)... depends on how you see it :) 

(2) I'm so excited to announce that I am now officially a part of the Cake Journal Team!!! A big thanks to Louise for allowing me to be a part of her wonderful site. It was her site that introduced me to the world of cake decorating. For my very first post at Cake Journal, I'm sharing how to make this cute mermaid cupcake topper. Check it out HERE! :)

How to Make a Fondant Bunny

Someone sent me a request for a fondant bunny tutorial. Hi dear, thanks for your sweet note! I hope you pass by my blog from time time because today is your lucky day :)

Since Easter is just around the corner, today we're making fondant bunnies. We'll I made just one, so technically, it's supposed to be "today we're making a fondant bunny" but "today we're making fondant bunnies" sounds so much better doesn't it? As I type this, I don't even know why I just made one. Oh well, here it is :)

Fondant Bunny Tutorial

What we need:
Fondant in black, white, soft pink, green and orange 

Rolling pin

Ball tool (small)

Oval fondant cutter (small)

Fondant tool (miniature one with the half circle) - I got mine from Baking Buddies

Knife

Water and brush (to glue things together)

Here's how:
(1) Get some white fondant, create a big oval shape then two small tear shapes for the bunny's feet.

 (2) For the feet, flatten the narrow end, and press the knife inwards on the rounded end, like so.

(3) Make two tear shapes for the arms.

 (4) To make the bunny's face, shape white fondant into a ball then flatten it like a mentos :) Then using the fondant too, press two half circles into the center.

 (5) Add the eyes then a pink nose.

 (6) To make the bunny ears, shape two tear shapes from the white fondant and cut the narrow end. Then using the small oval cutter, cut out two ovals from the soft pink fondant. Place them on the ears.

 (7) Attach the ears to the bunny's head. 

 (8) To make the carrot, grab some orange fondant and shape it into a tear. Then run the knife horizontally to create carrot marks then add the carrot tops.

 (9) Place the carrots in the bunny's cute arms.

Hope you like this one, dear friends! :)

Banana Walnut Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

Funny how having an "all out there" hobby makes giving me gifts so easy for the people I love. My friend Pammy recently gave me this color gel organizer that make picking out colors easy when prepping for tutorials here on my blog. When Kat and Gene found out that I only use a small mixing bowl for all the baking that I do, they went out of their ways to give a nice big mixing bowl that I have been using ever since. Even little Ada gave a very pretty cake stand - which I have to use soon! A special shout out to Malin from giving me those totally adorbs cupcake liners and cute bag with cupcake design! :)

And sometimes, it just warms my heart when people I don't know from Adam would surprise me and send me stuff. You guys are the greatest! Thank you. Imagine my surprise when I received a sweet postcard from Sylvia all the way from Sweden! Then there was Perry who gave me the nicest vanilla beans I have ever seen! Then recently, I received tubs of walnuts from two sweet readers from the United States. I cannot thank you enough... so I made these cupcakes for you. 

I got the recipe from Martha Stewart, but instead of pecans I used walnuts. I love bananas better with walnuts. How about you? Anyway, here's the recipe :)

Banana Walnut Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream
adaptes from MarthaStewart.com

Banana Cupcakes
350F/Makes 28 cupcakes


3 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups very ripe large bananas, mashed 
3/4 cup buttermilk (I used Yakult)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

Caramel Buttercream

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Here's how:
To make the cupcakes
(1) Sift/dry whisk dry ingredients - flour, baking power, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
(2) Combine all wet ingredients, buttermilk, vanilla and mashed bananas. Set aside.

(3) Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

(4) Add eggs, one at a time.

(5) Add a third of the dry ingredients into the mixture. Then add a half of the wet ingredients. Repeat until all is combined. 

(6) Fold in the walnuts. 

To make the Caramel Buttercream
(1) Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan.

(2) Bring 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons sugar to a boil until the color turns to amber.

(3) Turn off the heat and add cream. Let it cool, set aside. 

(4) Combine egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves.Egg white mixture should reach 160 degrees on a candy thermometer before removing from heat. The mixture should not be grainy when you rub it between your fingers. Let it cool to room temperature.

(5) Once cooled, mix until stiff peaks form. Add butter, small amounts at a time mixing well after each addition. Note, at some point the buttercream will curdle but don't be disheartened, okay?Continue mixing until it becomes smooth again. :) Whisk in vanilla. 

(6) Add in the cooled caramel. Optional to leave some caramel to drizzle then on top of the frosted cupcakes.