CHOC MUFFINS THAT TAKE THE CAKE!

Every kid is a sucker for chocolate. Ditto for mine. Yesterday at the spur of the moment, we thought it'd be kinda fun to churn out a batch of chocolatey muffins. We were really pleased at how they turned out...



I used this easy-peasy Pound Cake recipe from my school's Home Science book and was amazed how well it worked.

3.5 oz plain wheat flour
0.5 oz cocoa powder
3.5 oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp chocolate chip

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together. Cream eggs and sugar until mixture turns light and pale cream in colour. Beat eggs and add 1/4 of it into the egg and sugar batter. Stir well and add in 1 tbsp of flour mixture. Gently fold to incorporate everything evenly. Add in beaten egg alternating with flour until both mixtures are used up. Line muffin pan with paper cups. Divide and scoop cake batter into each cup until it is half filled. Scatter chocolate chips on top to decorate. Pop them into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Test with skewer - if it comes out clean, the muffins are done.



This close-up shot looks kinda 'spacey' huh? Like some alien territory...but one that really takes the cake!

APPLES IN MY CAKE

Fancy a slice?



Apple Cake & Muffins anyone?



I can't recall when I last had some 'kick back' time but this afternoon was one of those rare days. After I had completed my lastest assignment this morning, I decided to treat myself by trying out a new recipe from Chef Wan's Sweet Treats book.

With only 3 eggs available in the fridge, I had to look for a cake recipe that could be made with what was available at hand. So the Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe (page 146) looked promising but then again, I didn't have any bananas or cream cheese in the house! Clever old me decided that I would substitute this with grated green apples instead...and forget about the frosting. So my 'reworked' Apple Cake recipe went like this:

225g unsalted butter (I cheated and used salted butter but omitted the salt called for in this list)

1 cup castor sugar

2 eggs

1 cup grated apples (I used 2 Granny Smith green apples)

1/3 cup yogurt (I used Liteyo Green Tea & Aloe Vera Yogurt which I happened to have)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 3/4 cups all-purposed flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder


Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time followed by grated apples. Then add in the yogurt and vanilla essence to the mixture together with cinnamon powder. Sift flour with salt and baking soda before folding these into the batter. Pour into a greased and floured 22 cm cake pan. Bake for 50 minutes and then remove from oven to cool.


Note: I misread the instructions and poured the 2/3 of the batter into a loaf pan instead! The rest I divided into a 6-cup muffin pan ;-P This essentially changes the cooking time of course. I baked the first loaf for about 30 minutes or thereabouts - once the skewer inserted into the cake came out clean, I removed it from the oven. The muffins went in for about 20 minutes.


All in all, it wasn't a very successful attempt. The overall texture of the loaf turned out nice and soft but I noticed a sticky layer just above the bottom crust which according to Chef Wan's notes indicated too much liquid - I figured it must be the grated apples which of course had more water content in them compared to mashed bananas! Luckily the muffins fared much better. But the taste-wise the cake was delicious!