Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It is the year of the ox! We've gotten our new calendars, baskets of mandarin oranges, red pockets, new year's cake, turnip cakes, and various new year treats. We saw these Clementine Cakes on flagrante delicia earlier this month and we knew we would want to try them. Since mandarin oranges are very popular during Chinese New Year, we adapted her recipe to make Mandarin Orange Cupcakes! They were topped with whipped cream and decorated with fondant.


Mandarin Orange Cupcakes
Adapted from flagrante delicia

4 separated eggs
250 g of sugar
150 g of cake flour
70 ml of mandarin orange juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
   
2. Mix the egg yolks with sugar.
3. Add in whisked egg whites, the flour and the juice.
4. Pour batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes.
   

Going clockwise from top left: Separated egg yolks, Mandarin oranges, Whipped cream splatter in mixing bowl, and Mandarin orange cupcake.

The cupcakes were very dense and we are thinking we should have added a leavening agent. Or the egg whites were not stiff enough? The mandarin orange juice left a bitter citrus aftertaste, which helped even out how sweet the cupcakes were. The best part of these cupcakes were the light sugar coating on top - like creme brulee! The tops of the cupcakes were brown with caramelized sugar.

Some people like having this word upside down to symbolize the arrival of luck, happiness, and prosperity. Initially, I was going to write the word with edible food markers, but my dad told me to cut the word out from fondant. Then he said I should make it look like Chinese calligraphy. Well, I took on the challenge and yeahh it looks good!

Chinese gold ingot made from fondant. This symbolizes wealth and money.

Red and gold Chinese lantern made from fondant. Two very lucky colours!

Happy Chinese New Year to you all!