Osmanthus Cookies

My dad was baking on the weekend and I couldn't tell from the aroma what was in the oven. He told me that he was using Osmanthus flowers to make cookies. Apparently, he saw this on YouTube and wanted to give it a try. It's in Mandarin, so if you understand it (I don't), have a look.

Well, the reasons I am posting these cookies are, first they tasted pretty good (crunchy) and second, I am so proud of my dad for knowing how to use YouTube (where does he find these things?)! I have underestimated his computer skills...

Osmanthus flowers are more commonly used for Chinese tea, but apparently have lots of health benefits as well. My dad bought some during his trip to Vietnam and Hong Kong last month. Osmanthus flowers aren't easy to come by (in Toronto at least), so my dad was pretty proud of his find. Here's the translated recipe, if you spot an error, please let me know!

Osmanthus Cookies
(Makes about a dozen)

15 grams of dried Osmanthus flowers (you can also use fresh ones, like in the video)
70 grams of sugar
150 grams of all-purpose flour
100 grams of unsalted butter
10 grams of egg whites
10 grams of almond flour

1. Preheat your oven for 180°C (350°F). Have all your ingredients at room temperature and ready. Use a cookie sheet or tray lined with parchment paper.
   
2. Sift the all-purpose flour and almond flour together and then add in your unsalted butter.
3. Gently mix with your hands to keep the batter light and fluffy. Watch the video for her technique.
4. Add in the sugar, egg whites, and Osmanthus flowers. Use a spatula to mix until well combined.
5. Gather the cookie dough together. Using your hands, create little dough balls of about 1.5-2 inches wide. Place it on your tray and gently and evenly press the dough balls down a bit.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool.
   

REESE'S Pieces Cupcakes

I have some REESE'S Pieces...

...and chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes.

I think you know how to do the math here! To create your REESE'S Pieces cupcakes, use your favourite chocolate cupcake and the peanut butter frosting below.


Peanut Butter Buttercream
(Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes)

250g of cream cheese
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
4 cups of icing sugar
2/3 cups of peanut butter

1. Make sure your cream cheese and unsalted butter are at room temperature. Leaving it out for 1-2 hours will work too.
   
2. Using a stand mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter until combined.
3. Add in 2 cups of icing sugar, mix well. Add the remaining 2 cups of icing sugar and mix until combined. This way the icing sugar doesn't fly out of your bowl!
4. Finally, add in the peanut butter and mix until the buttercream is smooth. Pipe the frosting onto your cupcakes and top with a REESE'S Pieces.

If you also live in Ontario, we hope you had a yummy Simcoe Day!

We're off to visit New York City in a couple of weeks. *So excited!* What do you suggest we do for sightseeing? Most importantly, where do you recommend we eat? I've started making a list of bakeries, let me know if there are any you recommend!

Humming Scooters

Yayyy Civic long weekend! What did you do? We did a day trip to Buffalo, celebrated a couple's new house and engagement (congratulations again Kurt & Diana), and I made cupcakes.

Hummingbird cupcakes! I was missing pecans from this recipe, so I don't know if that makes it less of a Hummingbird? Hopefully not! Oh, and one more change to the recipe. I didn't have enough sugar. I know, me without a fully stocked bag of sugar? So, instead of 2 cups of sugar, I did brown sugar and granulated sugar. The result? A not so overly sweet cake that balanced with the sweet frosting pretty well.

Above left, going clockwise: Cream cheese frosting on Hummingbird Cupcakes; fresh from the oven; cupcake batter; batter up for the oven!

I did manage to crack myself up while cracking the eggs. I attempted to do it one-hand style like the chefs on television. I did it once before and thought I could do a repeat performance. Nope. I think I'll stick to two-hands egg cracking from now on.

Hummingbird Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from the amazing Chockylit
(Makes about 24 cupcakes)

3 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup of vegetable oil
1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 8oz can crushed pineapple, with liquid
2 mashed bananas

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Also have your cupcake liners and pans ready.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt in a good sized bowl.
3. Beat the eggs.
4. Add oil and vanilla to the beaten eggs and mix until somewhat combined.
5. Add egg/oil/vanilla mixture to flour/sugar/baking soda/cinnamon/salt mixture.
6. Mix together the pineapples and bananas.
7. Add the pineapples/bananas with the previous mixture and mix well.
   
8. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
   

The cupcakes are in between a cupcake and a muffin. I can see this being very good for breakfast, especially if they're fresh from the oven. They smell very much like banana cakes to me, perhaps my 2 mashed bananas were larger in size? It also has a nice chewy texture from the bananas. Yumm.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(Makes enough for about 24 cupcakes)

3 cups of icing sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 package of cream cheese
1 stick of butter

1. Cream the butter until smooth.
2. Add in the icing sugar and mix. Include the vanilla extract.
3. Add in the cream cheese and mix until smooth.
   

I also made two small scooters out of fondant. Yes, two. I am insane sometimes. A yellow one and a red one. My mom randomly gave me the fruit to accessorize my photoshoot. Please note, the only fruits in this cupcake are bananas and pineapples!

I would like to dedicate the yellow one to the Scootabaker!

Her shout-out on twitter and her blog made it so worth it!

The red one goes to Jen and everyone else who loves scooters. <3

Lemon Lime Cupcakes

Now this is lovely spring weather! We hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend.
The May 2009 issue of Canadian Living Magazine had cupcakes on the cover! Inside, they had a special feature of a couple Mother-and-daughter bakeries in Canada (for Mother's Day of course). So naturally they had cupcake recipes in their food section! We decided to try the Lemon Lime Cupcakes because "citrus flavours add sparkle to these delicate cupcakes." However, instead of their Seven Minute frosting, we made our own lemon buttercream and lime buttercream.
Lemon Lime Cupcakes
Recipe from Canadian Living Magazine
(Makes about 12 cupcakes)

1/2 cup of unsalted butter
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of grated lemon and lime rind/zest
1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 1/4 cups of all-purposed flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. In large bowl, beat butter with granulated sugar until fluffy
3. Add in eggs, 1 at a time. Then add in lemon and lime rinds/zests and lemon juice.
4. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
   
5. Mix into butter mixture alternately with milk.
6. Spoon into cupcake liners or cups.
7. Bake the cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
8. Let them cool for an hour before frosting.
   

The Lemon Lime cupcakes smell so good! You can really taste the citrus in the cupcakes - which we are so glad about! The only tiny thing we would have preferred was if the cupcakes were a little bit more moist and soft. Also, they didn't rise very high for us, so we would scoop more in next time. Other than that, they are delicious! We will probably try the Banana Buttermilk Cupcake in the near future!
Lime Buttercream

(Makes about 2 cups)

1 stick of butter

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice

1/2 tablespoon of fresh lime zest

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is nice and fluffy.
2. Add in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla, continue to mix till smooth.
3. Wash the lime and using a zester, zest the whole lime.
4. Mix the lime zest with the buttercream.
5. Cut the lime in half and squeeze out the lime juice.
6. Add the lime juice with the buttercream and mix well.
7. If you want, tint the buttercream lime green!

Lemon Buttercream

(Makes about 2 cups)

1 stick of butter

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon of fresh lemon zest

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is nice and fluffy.
2. Add in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla, continue to mix till smooth.
3. Wash the lemon and using a zester, zest the whole lemon.
4. Mix the lemon zest with the buttercream.
5. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze out the lemon juice.
6. Add the lemon juice with the buttercream and mix well.
7. If you want, tint the buttercream lemon yellow!

Yellow Birthday Cupcakes

A close friend of ours needed cupcakes for her cousin's birthday! We were told he likes yellow and cookies & cream. So we made vanilla cupcakes topped with cookies & cream frosting and decorated with yellow fondant lettering. Happy 31st Birthday Alan!

Scorpio Birthday Cupcakes

Keeping with this month's Scorpio horoscopes, we created the Scorpio symbol, among stars on royal blue frosting. We hope there are many good things in store for you!

1. Blue Scorpio symbols and yellow stars made from fondant - drying on icing sugar.

2. Blue birthday message plaques made from gum paste.

3. Fresh Devil's Food cupcakes from the oven.

4. Royal blue vanilla buttercream frosting with yellow fondant stars. I even have a matching glass cup!

5. Fondant Scorpio symbols on the cupcakes.

6. A dozen Scorpio birthday cupcakes ready to go! We hope you have a great birthday!

Autumn Leaves Cupcakes

The leaves are changing colours. Yet, the weather is surprisingly gorgeous this long Thanksgiving weekend. We're going to look at the wonders of autumn in Algonquin Park. Also, lots of family friends are coming over to feast on turkey and treats! Naturally, desserts includes mini chocolate cupcakes with just a hint of maple syrup in the frosting. Topped with a leaf cookie of course! My cousin gobbled them up! As always, there are photos posted on our facebook page and flickr account!

1. Three frosting colours on the mini chocolate cupcakes.

2. Add the home-made cookie cutout of a leaf on the cupcakes.

Cute Birthday Cupcakes

For a sister-in-law's birthday, who can resist chocolate and more chocolate cupcakes? We made chocolate frosting on chocolate cake with cute gum paste flowers

1. Cute tiny pink flowers made from gum paste.

2. Adorable medium pink blossoms made from gum paste.

3. Cute large white daisies made from gum paste.

4. Finishing touches of the centre (royal icing) on the gum paste flower decorations.

5. Happy Birthday plaque made from gum paste.

6. Chocolate buttercream on chocolate cake - yum!

7. Decorating the cupcakes (the fun part).

8. A garden of cute flowers for the birthday girl!