Recipe: Berry poke cupcakes

A while ago my friends I and C came to me and said "if you don't make cake for us, we will put your name on the ice bucket challenge." I was dumbfounded for a while, and the three of us laugh hysterically. Those two are among the perkiest people in the department, and I knew they didn't really mean what they said. However, I did bake cake for them and others in the department as I love baking, and it was fun succumbing to their crazy 'threat' ;)

This cake is a modified version of the Victoria's sponge cake, and it is one of my favorite! To have fluffy cake, use cake flour instead of normal flour, and whenever you mix eggs one by one in the batter, always put a tablespoon of the dry ingredients to prevent the eggs from curdling.

Berry poke cupcakes 
(make 2 9' cake or 18 large cupcakes)
[click for printable version]

Cake
300 gm cake flour
300 gm unsalted butter
300 gm castor sugar
6 eggs (or 300 gm eggs)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla powder

Blueberry compote
200 gm blueberries
4 tablespoons castor sugar
1 cup water

400 ml whipping cream - whipped until fluffy
250 gm fresh berries of your choice (I used strawberries)

Method:

To make the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Mix baking powder, vanilla powder and cake flour in a small bowl, set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy and fluffy (about 10 minutes). Beat eggs one by one into the butter mixture with one tablespoon of dry ingredients for each egg to avoid the batter from curdling.
3. Fold the rest of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture with wooden spoon, and pour the batter in the cake pans or cupcake liners. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

To make blueberry compote:
1. Mix all the ingredients in a large pot on a high heat until boiling. Reduce the heat until the compote becomes thick

To assemble:
Poke the cake/cupcakes several times with a fork. Pour the blueberry compote on top of the cake followed by the whipping cream. Decorate with fresh fruits

I'm glad you guys love the cake! :D And happy belated birthday to I (I baked the same cake for her) ;)

p.s: Fun facts - in the Netherlands, when it is your birthday you are the one bringing the cake to the office and people will shake your hand and congratulate you. In Malaysia on the other hand, your close friends bring the cake for you to celebrate your birthday. So I (if you read this post), you should be prepared for my cake next year hehe

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Recipe: Black and white pudding

It's been almost two weeks since I came to Netherlands. It's a beautiful country and I can't stop saying pretty since the day I arrived. Wageningen is a small and pretty city, it reminds me a lot of Davis (maybe it's prettier here haha). Our apartment is surrounded by parks and nature and we enjoy walking to the arboretums nearby. The campus is small, and I like the fact that my office, lab and greenhouse is all at one place. The idea of cycling from one end to another is not really fun. Albeit Netherlands is known for its flat land, this place is a little bit hilly and cycling from campus to home can be quite challenging for me.

Grocery shopping is awesome as the market has fresh local produce, even finding fresh halal meat is easy. Baking supplies on the other hand is another story. It's pretty hard to find few ingredients  here (baking soda and cream of tartar for example), not to mention the price is not compatible with my wallet. I will buy the baking stuff one by one, and yeah seems like I have to buy most of the things online (read: 'cheaper').

I haven't tried much of the local sweets, but the honey and nut cake from one of the local bakeries is yummy! I was searching for the recipe but couldn't get my hand on it. Seems like it's their very own special recipe. Owh well, maybe I can try making something similar later. Stroopwafel is to die for. I know few people don't like it because of the sweet caramel filing, but the cookies taste great when you complement it with coffee and tea (without sugar please!).

Anyway, there was a Malaysians get-together few days ago for sunset viewing and watching football match of Netherlands vs Spain (wasn't it such a great match! haha), and I prepared simple pudding which I find awesome. It's a combination of chocolate and vanilla pudding and I put chocolate ganache and stroopkoeken (a butter cookies version of stroopwafel) for extra flavor. You can use other cookies if you want, but I find having the cookies gave that extra crunch to the pudding. Owh yeah, this is American+British pudding thus the texture is different than Malaysian type of pudding.

Black and White Pudding (makes 12 -16 pudding in ramekins)

Chocolate pudding (recipe source from Nigella with few modification)

100 grams dark chocolate (I used IKEA's dark chocolate)

100 grams unsalted butter

4 tablespoons of caster sugar (you can use more if you want, I love my desserts less sweet)
4 large eggs
50 grams plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Vanilla pudding (recipe source from Taste of Home with few modification)

2-1/2 cups milk, divided

Pinch salt
2 tablespoons of caster sugar (you can add more if you want)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter

For filling and chocolate ganache

12-16 stroopkoeken (or you can use other butter cookies)

180 gm dark chocolate (I used IKEA's dark chocolate)

200 gm cream (I used 30% cream)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Break up the chocolate and melt it with the butter in a bowl in the microwave or in a double boiler. Once it's melted, sit the bowl on a cold surface so that the chocolate cools.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale and moussy, then gently fold in the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt.
4. Fold in the slightly cooled chocolate and butter mixture and then put 1/3 in each ramekin and bake for 20-25 minutes. While waiting for the chocolate pudding to be cooked, prepared the vanilla pudding.
5. Place 2 cups milk and salt in a saucepan. Sprinkle sugar on milk and do not stir; heat over medium-high. Quickly combine cornstarch with remaining milk and mix well. When milk comes to a full boil, remove saucepan from the heat and stir in cornstarch mixture. Pudding will begin to thicken. Return to the heat and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla and butter. 
6. To make chocolate ganache, break chocolate in small pieces and put it in a bowl with cream and  microwave or double boiler until the chocolate melts. 
7. To assemble: take out the chocolate pudding from the oven, put stroopkoeken on top of it and cover with vanilla pudding. Let's everything cool and set, and put chocolate ganache on top of the vanilla pudding. You have to make sure the vanilla pudding is set or it will mix with the ganache. 
8. Put it in the fridge and let it cool for 2 hours or overnight. Garnish with raspberries or anything you desire.

The sour taste of raspberries complements well with dark chocolate. 

Hope you guys love this recipe! 

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