Vanilla Vanilla Cup Cakes

I do like blogging and blog hopping, and always drooling to the delicous food my blog friends have posted in their place.
But have to admit even I though I enjoy all this, I did enjoy my break from all that.
Daughter had 10 days of holiday , most of the time the weather was cold and horrible. In the whole 10 days we went once for a long walk.

We also went to see the University KU Leuven which our daughter is going to learn from October this year.
It was so exciting to see so many young adults, they were eveyr where, the coffee shops and , snack bars, restraunts every where we could see them.
Some of the buildings were really old. It seems it was founded in 1425.
She could go and sit for lessons for 2 hrs and while she was doing that we explored the town and to my delight I found this 2 beautiful cooking shops.

Now to the recipe, made this cup cake on Valentines day.
It is a recipe from Matha Stewart, we all loved it, it was a really light cake, ofcourse the addition of buttercream I am not counting.
Did the same recipe, I halfed the measurment as 30 cupcake is a bit too much for us and also just added some red colour to the butter cream.

Makes about 30 cupcakes
1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

Makes enough for 30 cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency.

Chocolate buns

This was one bread which my daughter always ate when she was little, especially when we went for shopping and she was sitting in the pram.
Those were the days I didn't make bread at home, so mostly I had to go to the bakers to buy bread and while we were in the bakers my daughter used to point to this chocolate bun and ask for it.
So while i window shoped, did my grocerry shopping etc......she used to munch on these buns enjoying them fully.
Few months back I bought this bread baking book and to my daughters delight there was the recipe for these buns.

So as Jamie is hosting this months MM and her theme is chocolate in bread.
I think next time i will less the oven temperature especially as my oven is conventional, they were a teeney weeney bit browner than I wanted.

My bounty of Callebaut chocolate .

I had promised priya I well send something for her valentine event so sending these heart shaped lollipos for her.
I made this from Rachel Allen.
According to my daughter they were really yummy, but I won't be making them anymore as it was such a sticky thing to make, I spilled sugar every where and had to clean up my whole kitchen. My fault i should have been more carfull.
And my daughter remarked, what is there if you have to clean up, when the lollipops are tasting so good.
Now thinking about it I should have left the kitchen sticky till my daughter came from school so she would clean it up as the lollipop was so tasty.
Well while i did the clenaing I didn't know she would be making the above remark :-)

Make the recipe for Basic bread I used the recipe for 8 pieces so below are the measurment for that.

100 gm of baking chocolate
1 egg

After the first 30 minutes raising of the basic bread, knowk the air down. Make the dough into a sguare shape, put all the chocolate in the middle. And mix the chocolate pieces into the dough till they are fully mixed evenly.
Make the dought into a ball shape and keep them for raising in a bowl for another 30 minutes , cover the bowl with a towel of a plastic foil.
After 30 minute raising push down the air and weigh 50 gm each of the dough and shape into a ball.

Place them in a tray which is lightly oiled. Press the ball a bit down.

Cover with a tea towel and keep in a warm place for raising.
After 15 minutes brush each ball with beaten egg. And just give a small 2 cuts on each side of them ball. This will give you the un even shape to the buns.
Let them rise now without the tea towel for 45 minutes in a warm place.
Preaheat the oven to 230° c and bake them for 10 minutes. With this temperature in my oven it got a bit too dark so i might less the temperature to 200°c next time.
The buns were a bit too densed, could be because I added to much chocolate or maybe my pieces were a bit too big. Next time will cut the choco pieces half.

It is Carnival Holidays for my daughter from tommorow onwards for a whole week, so no blog hopping for a week, see you all after a week of holiday.