Earl Grey has got to be one of my favourite teas – love it especially, lightly sweetened with a spoonful of honey. I was really excited to make these to bring to a pot-luck party. The distinctive scent of bergamot, tempered with the floral sweetness of vanilla beans and a touch of citrus zest to brighten the flavour. The cupcakes were then crowned with a dollop of silky, dark chocolate ganache frosting. Then next time, i might even grind some of the tea leaves and add to the cupcake batter for a more intense earl grey flavour. Continue reading »
Cupcake baking yet again, and this time more fruit pairings. This is really becoming somewhat of a Cupcake Chronicle. Anyway, it’s the time of the year again when these orange-hued juicy fruits, bursting with sweetness come back into season. I used hate persimmons because of their pulpy and squishy flesh but I’ve since grown to like its unique taste and best of all, it’s supposed to be really good for you! 
It was my first time baking with persimmons, so I wanted to keep it really simple to let the natural sweetness of the fruit shine. Vanilla Bean & Honey Cupcakes were filled with a persimmon puree centre and topped off with more sliced persimmons. Sugar was sparingly used and floral honey was added to barely sweeten them. For the frosting, a rosette of whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache was piped on each cupcake to temper the sweetness of the fruit. 
Biting in one, the fudgy melt-in-your-mouth frosting gives way to a light cake which surrounds a jam-like centre, infusing the cake with flavour. On hindsight, I should have added more persimmon puree to the middle (to achieve a runny oozy salted egg custard bun effect) but oh well, there’s always next time!
Another off the list! I love figs and apples, but combined together in a cupcake? Seems unusual but I was dying to test this flavour pairing out. Moist vanilla bean buttermilk cupcakes were filled with a fresh apple-fig compote, buried in the batter before baking. While the cupcakes were cooling, I got to work on the frosting – a satiny, light and not-too-sweet swiss meringue buttercream flecked with tiny specks of Madagascar vanilla and a touch of cinnamon. Apart from my absolute favourite cream cheese frosting, this sure is one of my most loved cupcake frosting of all time. It delivers a luscious and silky mouthfeel that’s most importantly, stable enough to hold up in our sweltering heat and humid weather. No doubt this takes quite abit of work to make (from the meringue to the seemingly endless process of whipping it where it turns from a soupy, curdled mess to a billowy cloud of frosting), but the efforts are always worth it. Finally, the frosted cupcakes were garnished with a little slice of dried fig and a spiced caramel drizzle.
Despite being one of the most complicated, multi-component cupcakes I’ve done so far (cupcake base, fruit compote filling, frosting and caramel drizzle), I was surprised that it didn’t take as much time as anticipated. Here you go, another original cupcake creation – the Fig & Apple. I’m super excited the share this recipe. Do try it for yourself and let me know what you think!
I chanced upon a photo of these Sparkling Champagne Cupcakes which I made during the festive period last year, and boy did they make me hungry just writing about them! My go-to vanilla cupcake was given an new spin with a good glass of bubbly. Since I was feeling particularly indulgent, they were drizzled with more champagne and filled with an almond-praliné filling. If that wasn’t enough, I decided to dress them up by dipping the tops into a shiny dark chocolate-champagne glaze and some sprinkles. 
The crunchy and nutty praliné provided textural contrast to the moist and delicate cake. Every bite had just enough of that rich luscious glaze to meld all the flavours together. Although these do require quite a bit of effort to make, the results are definitely worth it! They even make a really pretty centrepiece for a birthday party, complete with sparklers on top and sprinkles of fancy sugar pearls or nonpareils. The next time (for that extra bit of decadence), I’m looking at a champagne swiss meringue buttercream frosting with swirls of fresh strawberry puree, to make this a truly over-the-top celebratory dessert.
Since the cake was so deep and chocolaty, I paired it with just a smidgen of orange-ganache frosting which was adapted from Pierre Hermé’s passionfruit milk chocolate ganache. On hindsight, I could have up the blood orange flavour as it was very very faint. Some major tweaking is in order – maybe some grated zest or orange liqueur added to the batter.
Nobody likes eating squishy, over-ripe bananas. To most people, the sight of the ugly black spots covering their once sunny yellow skin, is simply unappetising. However, these are the ones (with the most pronounced flavour & sweetness) that make the most amazing banana cakes!
