Lemon cupcakes with Cinnamon buttercream frosting

Yesterday I decided to make some cupcakes for me to bring to my friend's house. Also something I can add to my recipes page.

I've been craving for something lemony ever since and wondered about making lemon squares, since I don't have any recipes for it, I just made those cute little cupcakes and I also enjoy making them as well.

I googled for some recipes and found only a few. This one recipe I saw was so easy to make but I don't have some of the ingredients and some of them were expensive too. Desperate for some baking action, I decided to make some tweaking to it. So this time it's a bit experimental.

I made two batches, the first one was a wreck. It overflowed so I panicked! I didn't know what to do at that time, I said to myself, now I'm gonna be late. That's the reason I made another batch, I realized the oven was too hot, instead of 180 degrees I had it on 220 degrees. It was the stupidest thing I've done. I've made cupcakes before and turned out great, well I made it months ago. LOL.

So in the second one I changed the temperature to 180 degrees. Thanks to common sense, my cupcakes came out great. I tasted one without the frosting and I loved the taste, you can taste the lemon in it but due to the vanilla, it tasted like banana bread with lemon in it. Overall it's ok. I need to adjust the frosting though, too sweet and it somehow lessens the lemon flavor to it. .

That was it, I got late for my friend's get together party and had a good batch of cupcakes, they said it was okay. Guess I need to do some more tweaking to it, maybe in time It'll be good or maybe great. So, cheers! :D

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Lemon cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting

• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• zest of 2 lemons

Frosting:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioner sugar, Sifted
2 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon

Procedure:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. By dry ingredients, I mean the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Preheat the oven 180 degrees Celsius.

2. In a different bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Make sure it's mixed well, no lumps. Add the eggs, one at a time and the vanilla. Mix well.

3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well and make sure there's no lumps. At this stage, once there's no lumps you can add the lemon juice and the zest. You might notice that it will start to curdle a bit, don't worry, just keep mixing it but just don't over mix it.

4. Pour the batter in the prepared muffin cups evenly. I suggest pouring it half of the cups so it won't overflow during cooking. Once this is done, pop it in the oven for 25 minutes. Make sure to check it once in a while.

5. Put it in a cooling rack once it's done cooking. Be sure it's cooled down so the frosting won't melt when applied.

6. You can pipe the frosting now however you want. Just be creative with this. .

Frosting:

1. Cream the butter then whisk in the confectioners sugar. Add the vanilla and the cinnamon. Whisk it until it everything is fully incorporated and when you lift the whisk, it starts to form stiff peaks.

2. Once done, place it in a piping bag and pipe it or you can store it in an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator for future use.

Tartlet shells

This post is dedicated to what I did last February 15. I made little chicken tartlets, it's like the basic chicken pot pie but instead I made it into little tarts. Though this one is just dedicated on the recipe for making the Tart shells. Just used the basic recipe and molded them into small cupcake tins. 

Now for the Recipe, it's just 2 cups flour and 125 g butter (not melted) and a pinch of salt. Just that. 

Cut the butter into small cubes ( really small ones if you're gonna do this by hand, you can also cut them a bit bigger if you're gonna use a food processor ), for this one, I did it by hand. 

Once the butter is cut into small pieces, you can now start mixing it in the flour. Just use your hands (clean hands) to crumple the ingredients together. At this stage it may start to look like bread crumbs and that's exactly what we're gonna need. 

After all the butter has turned to pea sized and no sign of dry flour, add 3 tbs of water at a time and start kneading it gently until it becomes soft and smooth. This will look like a really soft bread dough. 

Once it's smooth, take it out of the bowl and place it in a plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. This makes the gluten in the flour to rest if not, the pastry will shrink during cooking.

Above is a picture of the dough wrapped in a plastic wrap ready for refrigerating. . . 

Once done, you can start rolling the dough. Firstly, you need to dust the work area with flour so the dough won't stick to the surface and flour the rolling pin also, same concept. Roll it and rotating the dough 90 degrees each time. Make sure it's even though. You can stop rolling when the pastry is about a quarter of an inch thick.

After rolling you can now use a cookie cutter or anything the same size as the mold to cut the sheets of pastry. Don't forget to dip the cutter in flour. Just a precaution, you never know when the dough strikes and starts sticking and eventually destroys the whole thing. 

Here it is, it's fitted in the tin and make sure to poke small holes in the center, just use a fork for this. This is now ready to get refrigerated for about 10 minutes. Same concept as the last. 

After refrigerating, add some wax paper, you can just cut small papers that fits in the shells and add some weights to it, in this I used Mung beans. This is what's available at that time. 

Oh before I forget, when refrigerating the pastry make sure to preheat the oven as well to 180 degrees Celsius. 

Bake it for at least 10 minutes, after that remove the weights and bake it for another 5 minutes to brown it a bit. This can make the shells crisp. Voila! your tartlet shells are good and ready. You can do anything you want with these little fellas, any savoury appetizers can be made with these. It cost less and is easy to make.

Try them on some of your little gatherings with friends and family, be creative with what you want with these. Just remember, it doesn't have to be expensive to have decent appetizers for your gatherings, all you need to have is your imagination. Like what the late Albert Einstein has said, " Imagination is more important than knowledge". So just let your creative side flow and have fun with it. 

Cheers!

Yields up to 24 tartlet shells. 12 when using cupcake tins like what I used. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups All purpose flour
• 125 g butter
• 3 tbs water
• pinch of salt

Oh if any of you out there has any opinions whatsoever about this post, feel free to comment below. <3

Creative juice

So, I was thinking of something to make in addition to my recipes page. Sadly, I can't seem to think of any. I have lots of ingredients laying around the house and still can't figure out what to do with them. 

I surfed online for some recipes that are easy and quick to make still none of them just catch my eyes. So I just went and listened to some music hoping I get inspired and get this brain of mine to function and work its magic. . I remembered listening to this before and wondered why I never downloaded it. So freaking weird. 

Now I'm starting to get a bit creative, just hope it will be enough to come up of something. hmm

So I'm sharing this to you guys out there hoping it will inspire y'all too. . Turn up your volume and listen to this wonderful beat in the kitchen and get your creative juices going! 

Cheers!

CUPCAKES!

Bohol Trip

Last February 13, 2013 we went on a 1 day trip to Bohol. My parents had some important stuff to do there. That was one of the most exhausting and fun trip I've had. 

We left the house around 5 am, making us miss the first trip of the boat which made us take the second one instead, only an hour difference. . 

After buying the tickets we then waited at the terminal at the port. I was so excited for it was my first time travelling after a year of being sick and stuff. 

Minutes before boarding we saw some politicians about to go on the trip as well. They were gonna do some campaigning for the coming election. It was weird seeing them there. 

When we were on the boat, 20 minutes past the schedule time for departure, one of the passengers behind us kept on complaining about how it is unfair for them to wait for some of the VIP's to be on the boat while normal people gets left behind for just 5 minutes late. It was quite a laugh for me to hear him moan about his "PROBLEMS" with the management. LOL

Enough about that, once the VIP's has settled, the boat then took its course and head out to sea. :D

In the middle of nowhere, some of the politicians went up to the economy class where we are seated ( 'cuz the business class is full just for them ) and they started greeting everyone and letting us know about their candidacy. I was so happy to have my pic taken with one of my idols. He is a senator and the chairman of the Philippine Red Cross. It was a good way to pass the time for it's an hour trip.

From the left: my dad, Senator Gordon, my mom and me. 

When the boat arrived at the port in Bohol, there was a marching band greeting the politicians. I just made it seem like they were there for me. LOL. 

Let's just fast forward to where we got some breakfast, there isn't much story there when we arrived. So we met the driver of the car my mom rented for the day and he took us to where my mom always eats when she gets there. It's not a fancy restaurant, it's just a small informal restaurant in which all people have known it as an Eatery.

This is it, Kan-anan Exacto ni Ate Jo. . It's quite small really but the best part is that it's cheap, clean and just along the way to our destination. .

There are a few varieties on the menu for them. Some are good and some are just okay. Most of items we ordered are Filipino foods that are a bit hard for me to describe. We ordered the Stingray simmered in vinegar and coconut milk along with other spices. We also ordered the Filipino style Beef steak, and the Pork menudo. .

Filipino Style Beef Steak

Pork Menudo

Stingray

Ordered each for us though I only ate the Beef steak and just tasted the rest. Not so much a fan of the stingray. . . 

After breakfast we then started our journey to San Miguel, where my sister's farm is located. It's a one hour drive from where we were. There were lots of really nice views along the way, too bad I'm not good with photography. Haven't taken some good pictures of the scenes there. The ones I took are okay but not that good though. Here is a glimpse of Bohol from the path we've taken:

You can see how there are lots of greens there. . It is really relaxing to just stay in the car cruising through the empty highway. 

Here's a picture of the farm too,

The dog being cozy in the small garden. .

Here's my mom with her Ipad. haha

They were all busy doing their stuff while I was taking some pics, some are posted on my facebook page and some I've deleted. 

Time for lunch, my mom and I just bought some food in a small eatery again for there is no time to cook. most of the food we bought for lunch were fried. Fried native chicken, Fried pork, and Stir fried vermicelli. .

I don't recommend eating the huge slice of fat of the pork, eat at your own risk. . . We ate outside knowing it may rain at any time. The weather that time wasn't really that good. By the time we got settled in, the rain just poured. One by one took whatever we can inside and continued eating there. 

It was fun if I may add. LOL. 

The only thing that pissed me off was that after eating it stopped raining. It's like the heavens are playing with us. >.<

Then after eating back to how things are, they did their own thing while I did mine. LOL. I still had nothing to do there. Have I mentioned I was soaking in my own sweat? YES! walking on mud really exhausts you. Well, that is if you're like me, big and heavy. 

By 3 pm we headed back to the port so we can go back to Cebu early. An hour car drive and another hour boat ride again. It was just a 1 day plan really. I wanted to take the last boat trip at night but my mom wanted to go home early. So that's the whole day activity we had. It was really fun even though we only did a few things and the whole thing didn't really cost that much.

You don't have to spend so much to have fun. You don't have to eat in a fancy restaurant to be full and have a decent meal. What's important is the company you have and how you spend your time with it that makes it fun. We were laughing a lot during the trip. This whole thing is like going back to being simple. 

I just hope we can go back soon! Cheers!

Here are more pics taken on our way back to the port from the farm:

                                       

High school friends. .

Hmm. . as you can see there's no post about food for today. There were plans made right after tennis, my high school classmates hung out at my house and had rum coke. . Unfortunately I wasn't able to have any drink whatsoever due to my medications. .

I wasn't even able to prepare any food for them. . If only it was planned ahead of time. . .

This is us, me with the yellow hair and my friend Lee wearing black, Khaye, Isaiah doing the somehow offensive sign and Karl my tennis buddy. 

 and another one, with a very awkward shot of me. . I don't really look good in pictures. LOL

 and these are just crazy pictures of us. Doing wacky faces. Just playing and waiting for the time to pass. .

Look how crazy we are. . LOL

 Khaye and me just messing with the cam. . Doing whatever we want.

 Isaiah and Karl are the musically inclined ones. Karl has a good singing voice and Isaiah knows his way with instruments. He's pretty amazing behind the guitar. .

And this is the wacky group shot and again Isaiah with his offensive sign. Sorry 'bout that. . 

This event has given me the idea of hosting a small get together with friends and make some great party planning topics for my blog. Though I'm not good, I can always ask help from the best party planner that I've known. She's one of the best. 

She knows how to make ordinary things work great. She even organized my sister's wedding and that woman is my one and only MOM. . . Yup! She knows her way too with organizing stuff. . Too bad she haven't passed her party planning genes to me. LOL! But I guess I can learn in time. . .

Cheers! 

Month of hearts. .

I can smell the lovely couples everywhere excited about Valentines day. . . Seems like a good week for bakers and pastry chefs everywhere.

I'm seeing lots of cupcakes, cookies and other pastry items on social networks that are made for the sole purpose of celebrating the day of lovers expressing their love for each other. .

Soon, I'm planning on making a few desserts made especially for that day. Still searching for some recipes since I don't have much recipes in hand. . I want something cheap and quick like my other posts.

Since I love making pastries and I'm not yet good in making them yet, I'm gonna start practicing Monday next week.

I just feel envious on what everyone made. Those heart shaped cookies and stuff. Though it's common, it's still cute. Still need to incorporate the healthy stuff in it.

Time to get my thinking cap on and think of ways to make some cheap and easy desserts for that special day! Cheers!

Hungarian Pork Goulash

Another day for a new recipe to try. I thought about making Hungarian Pork Goulash which is new to me since what I have done in school before was beef. I tried pork since it's all that was available and can be cooked in a short time.

After a really tiring game of tennis, I could really use some nice warm meal to relax. . . .

First things first, prepping of the ingredients. This includes cutting the vegetables and such. Will be specified below in the ingredients list. Procedure will be stated as follows,

First, what I did was I dipped the pork in flour. Not too much though. Just dust off the excess flour. Then put a tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauce pan and wait until the pan gets really hot.

Once the pan is hot enough, sear each slice of pork on all sides. Don't crowd the pan. What we need at this time is the brown color, that gives the pork its flavor.

After the browning process remove the pork from the pan and into a plate. At this point, the pork is not fully cooked, we need to cook it thoroughly later. Now, add another tablespoon of olive oil and start caramelizing the onions. When caramelized, you can now add carrots, bell peppers, chilies, tomatoes and just saute them for a few minutes. Then add half a cup of water at this time.

Now, I wanted to use the canned tomatoes where there are huge tomatoes and the juice of it inside but unfortunately we don't have them here and there's no time to buy some. Instead I used real tomatoes, the small ones and just used some tomato paste. I added the tomato paste when after adding the water. Remember to mix it well.

After adding water, add the fried pork and let simmer for a few minutes to properly cook it.

This is the time to add more water and add the salt, cayenne pepper, black peppercorn, cinnamon and paprika. I just used the spices that are laying around in the kitchen. I don't know why but adding cinnamon to it gives it a unique flavor.

A few minutes before the pork will be properly cooked, add the potatoes. That will make them soft and tender at the same time.

It is also good to add Yogurt in it to make the taste of the stew richer.

Voila! That is how I make my own version of the Hungarian Pork Goulash. I've found other recipes online but I don't have some of the ingredients so I decided to make my own using the ingredients that are easily available at our own house. Easy and quick to make!



NOTE: The measurements for the powdered items are still temporary. Will be changed as soon as it will be confirmed. . . . 


Ingredients:

• 1/4 kilo Pork, cubes
• 2 pcs Carrots, diced
• 3 pcs large Potatoes, diced
• 4 pcs Tomatoes, quartered
• 5 pcs onions, minced then caramelized
• 5 pcs Chilies, roughly chopped
• 3 pcs Bell peppers, diced
• 1 pc Ginger, chopped
• 3 cloves Garlic, peeled, crushed and chopped
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• A packet of tomato paste about 150 g
1 tbsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Black Peppercorns
• 1/4 tbsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tbsp Cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tbsp Paprika

Another fish for tonight's meal. .

Tonight I made Fried Pangasius with Roasted Vegetables. Weirdly enough, it tasted good. It wasn't even planned, just went to the kitchen and saw the bought fish like last time then vegetables popped in my mind. 

Pangasius is a shark catfish. Mostly found in Asia. 

Source:Pangasius 

The only vegetables laying around were tomatoes, carrots and bell peppers. Even added some garlic, chilies and some caramelized onion on top of the fish. . 

On top are the vegetables getting ready for roasting. Just seasoned them with salt and black pepper then drizzled with olive oil. .

Best thing about this is that you can use any kind of vegetables laying around and can be easily made. 

After seasoning them I just popped them in the oven for about 5-8 minutes or until they're done. . I don't really like some of them overcooked. 

The fish was marinated in a mixture of lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. Just as simple as that! I was also looking for something that can be done easily. Just marinate it for 15 minutes for the fish is a bit delicate. Longer than that will make the fish more brittle and unappealing. 

Once it's done marinating I just seared it in a pan for about 5 minutes. The fish is really thin so it doesn't need to be cooked too long. 3 minutes on one side and 2 on the other. On the last minute, just turn off the heat and add a bit of butter to it for added taste and so the fish won't be dry. 

What I liked most about this fish is that, unlike other fishes, it doesn't have that nasty fishy smell and taste. 

Everything will be done under 30 minutes. So it's a recipe for those who want an easy and quick meal and a bit healthier too.

My parents loved it! I love the look on their face when they've tasted it. I just love it when someone appreciates your cooking. 

Here is a picture of the finished product:

Fried Pangasius with Roasted vegetables topped with caramelized onions

There you go, another fish recipe for my reservoir. Simple yet tasty. Cheers!

Ingredients: 1 serving

1 Pangasius (filleted)

Marinade:

• Olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt and Black pepper

• 1 Carrot, diced
• 1 Onion, minced then caramelized
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 pc Chili, diced
• 2 pcs Tomatoes, cut into quarters
• 2 pcs Red bell peppers, diced
• Salt and pepper to taste, for the veggies
• two tablespoon olive oil, for the veggies  

Not so healthy topic for the night

Warning: The following is not for the health conscious people out there. Just a random post about what we had for dinner. Also not included for the health awareness week though it can be a great idea for lunch or dinner on a lovely Sunday. 

Tonight I came home from tennis practice and saw a freshly bought fish. I was a bit reluctant when it comes to fish, I'm not a real fan of it. What I did was ask my mom what it is and she said, "It's a blue marlin!" . .

The first thing that popped into mind was fats and oil. YES! Fats and oil. I used to like that fish but as I grew up, I started hating it. I don't know why but there's just something about the taste that stays in your mouth  for hours. 

My mom wanted the fish marinated in a simple marinade and grilled. She just wanted something simple. So the fish was marinated with a soy sauce mixture. I then started thinking about how to give it more taste and every time I think of fish, the only thing that comes into mind is HOLLANDAISE. 

I kept saying to myself "NO, too much fats!". I opened the fridge and only saw eggs, butter and some lemon.  . Maybe that's what encouraged my thoughts to bring up hollandaise. 

So after two hours of marinating (yes, two hours! to get rid of the awful fishy taste, it won't really damage the fish due to its fats.) the fish was grilled. Just until it's properly cooked, it only takes 15 minutes to properly cook it. 

After grilling the nasty piece of fish, I then started making my dreadful hollandaise sauce. Dreadful not for the taste but for the process of making it. Whisking it is just a pain in the ass but still I love doing it. Weird right?

To make the sauce you must first need to separate the egg whites from the yolk. All we need are the yolks. Once separated whisk in the freshly squeezed lemon. Whisk until it increases in volume. . You'll start to see the egg and lemon mixture thickening.

Once it is done, put it over a saucepan with hot water in it, not too hot though and careful not to touch the bottom of the bowl to the water. This may cause your egg to be cooked and scramble.

Start pouring in slowly the melted butter and whisk vigorously until all the melted butter are incorporated. Voila! your very own Hollandaise sauce. Don't forget to season it with salt and pepper too.  :)

I also added some chopped pine nuts just to give it some texture, I just roasted a handful of pine nuts and chopped them roughly.

It's pretty exhausting but still worthwhile.

Grilled Blue Marlin with Hollandaise Sauce and chopped pine nuts.

So here it is, doesn't look like much but taste good. Cheers!


Ingredients:

Blue Marlin

Marinade:

• 1 cup of Soy sauce
• 1 cup of Vinegar
• a handful of Black peppercorn
• 1 lemon
• 1 bayleaf
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• Hollandaise sauce:
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• Fresh juice of 1 lemon or 1 tbsp
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper