Cupcakes

Orange and Chocolate cupcakes for the last baking before Berkeley!

Having a whale of a time in the USA :D

Nutella Cupcakes

What initially started out as a plan to make cinnamon rolls became nutella cupcakes instead.. There's much to learn in bread making, and I'm barely touching the tip. It's a whole new aspect of baking and I have to try many more times to get it right. Next time, I'll remember patience and I'll remember temperature and humidity for the dough!

So I can't bring myself to end today's baking empty handed and so here's Nutella Cupcakes! I'll bring it to school, hopefully it makes everyone feel a bit better. The atmosphere is killing me.

Today made me feel very lost. I think I can't see the big picture anymore. Perhaps I was searching for an answer as I baked, perhaps I've found my answer. It didn't matter if I couldn't produce cinnamon rolls, but it mattered if I went to school empty handed. 

It doesn't matter if things don't work out, the only thing that should matter is that our hearts can continue to smile as it should. Please be happy.

Nutella Cupcakes

Some people live to bake. I think I bake to live.

It's been a terrible time for me recently and I guess this form of therapy is desperately needed. Perhaps it is also no coincidence why I signed up for a 10km run, as always, I'm trying to run away from it all again. So, sunday morning was spent baking nutella cupcakes. Kinda like marble cake but you just use nutella instead of cocoa batter. Tastes delicious especially if you're a nutella fan like me!



I packaged a few up, hopefully to salvage some situations. Food therapy... tops retail therapy.



There's no "Esc" button in life. We're all lost and messed up. And I'm clinging on to baking like it's the last thread preventing everything from unfolding. Life's expectations are too difficult to live up to. Can't be perfect all the time can we?

Ming Jie's Teachers' Day present

Because tomorrow is a day for teachers, an old friend of mine decided to show them her love. So she came over this rainy sunday and together we baked chocolate cupcakes. I think she got inspired by my happycakes!

They are very soft and delicious. It's a very good cupcake recipe. But I wonder why it erupts like a volcano. Probably due to the chocolate rice inside?

Err the words screwed up a bit, but aiya whatever right.

Finished product! Those in the container are for her class, the lucky people.

So because it's a really good recipe, I'm going to post it! How exciting.

Chocolate cupcakes:

-50g cocoa powder

-240ml hot water

-175g plain flour

-2 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp salt

-113g butter

-200g sugar

-2 eggs

-1.5 tsp vanilla

1) Stir cocoa powder with water until smooth.

2) Sift flour, baking powder and salt and mix well.

3) Cream sugar and butter, adding eggs and vanilla essence slowly until smooth.

4) Mix flour into mixture till incorporated and add the cocoa mixture. Stir until smooth.

5) Bake at 180C for about 15 minutes.

My first project ACCOMPLISHED!

My big project is accomplished! Awaiting for feedback always makes me nervous, but whatever the outcome, I just feel so proud of myself. The products of fiona being inthekitchen for 13 hours:



The three layers of cupcakes!



Thousands and Hundreds on cupcakes...



M&M on cupcakes. Erupting like a volcano, into a myraid of colours!



And the top layer with my blessings. =)

12 packets of chocolate chip cookies, each a 100grams.



Sushi: crabstick, cucumber, egg. And another plate for extras.



The finished products all together. It just brought so much joy to me when I took that picture.



Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows while making it.
Rolling the sushi was harder than I thought, since I was using only half a piece of seaweed to do this kind of roll.



But giving up is not an option, so I wiped the sweat away and conquered the almighty sticky rice and flimsy seaweed!

It's time to do some reflections, something rarely seen in this blog of mine, saturated with pictures of food.

Firstly, throughout this whole experience, I never once questioned myself why I was doing this. I never thought about all the things I could accomplish with the time if I didn't accept this task. The thought that kept surfacing into my head was how Melinda would remember her 2nd birthday. And when I think about the permanent memory this would be captured as in pictures, that I made this memory with my own hands, I realise that this is what makes all the sweat worth.

I will never regret doing this and even though I sold everything at a hundred bucks, the opportunity to do this was priceless. Simply because people trusted that I could do it.

I know this post will mean a lot to me. Just like how much this blog will mean to me. 3 years ago, I started off with the image of my mum screaming at me, telling me that I will never be able to make anything and that I should not waste my time. 3 years on, I proved to myself, with this blog, that what I do is going to be something bigger than what everyone initially thought.

It's possible sometimes, with encouragement from all those dear ones, to make your dream come true. So dream big, and stay happy.