h-erald: Whisk in hand

After a long hiatus, I'm gonna attempt cupcakes once again.

This time around, I will set my priorities straight: Taste and texture before presentation. Instead of driving myself crazy in attempt to perfect the frosting, I am going to first get the basics straight and then work my way from there on.

Today's practice batch is to experiment with:
a) Light, fluffy chiffon cupcakes
b) Using palm sugar in frosting
c) The cone method (for filling cupcakes)

The Cake

I've always preferred light and fluffy cakes to the heavier, dense ones. I find them less jelak, and therefore not get sick of them after the third cupcake. Angel food cakes are the lightest of them all, as they only consist of egg whites and no fats - as opposed to regular butter-and-whole-eggs concoction. I've attempted angel food cupcakes in the past, but they felt a bit too light (ya I know I'm fussy like that), and in my opinion, did not substantiate as 'cupcakes'.

Chiffon, on the other hand, uses both egg whites and yolks, plus some form of fat (the recipe I used called for vegetable oil), and the result is moist, melt-in-your-mouth sponge cake, delicately flavoured by tiny vanilla bean specks.

Yes, there is nothing I won't add vanilla bean to

Attempting light, airy cupcakes = SUCCESS

The Cone Method
Is used to insert fillings such as fruit puree or cream into cupcakes, as instructed with details here.

It's a great way to jazz up a plain cupcake, or to incorporate a different taste and texture to the existing flavour of the cake. I have plans to attempt matcha cupcakes with red bean filling, but baby steps for now, baby steps. Let us learn how to cone the cupcake first.

Things that can and have gone wrong previously:
- Cutting too deep
- Splitting the cupcake
- Breaking portions off the cupcake

To ensure none of the above happens this time around, I made sure to use a sharp paring knife, and took great care not to stab the knife too far down. We don't want blood tinged cupcakes, despite the aesthetic potential in that.

And because I didn't have any fruits or cream to mess around with, I ended up using some apricot jam that I had lying in the fridge. Just to make sure it works.

And it sure as hell did.

Cone method: SUCCESS.

Palm sugar (gula Melaka) frosting

The idea of infusing childhood flavours into cupcakes is not a new thing, according to well, every other food blogger these days. Anyway I wanted to recreate onde-onde (glutinous rice balls filled with palm sugar and tossed in shredded coconut) just because it came to me one night and also because I found pandan leaves in the Oriental market! So happy can, I never appreciated pandan leaves and banana leaves until I came over here and they are practically nonexistent. :(

My idea of gastronomy: Banana leaf-wrapped Pari Bakar (grilled sting ray) with sambal

Other ingredients greatly missed are freshly grinded coconut milk, agar-agar strips, pisang emas (the tiny flavourful bananas), ikan kembung (according to Google, it is called Indian mackerel), salted fish, dried scallops, calamansi limes, freshly grilled prawn paste, Indian mangoes, cempedak. Half these things can probably be found in Asian groceries if I take the time to scour through every single packed-to-the-brim shelves, walls and floorspace, and I will some day.

Anyway, back to the frosting.

The recipe I used is adapted from this one; I halved the portion (and still had leftover after generously frosting 12 cupcakes) and used palm sugar in place of brown sugar. Actually to be completely honest, I only had a little palm sugar left so I topped it off with dark brown sugar. -.-

The result was sinfully rich and buttery toffee. I added a bit of salt as well since I used unsalted butter, and a dash of instant coffee powder for the extra depth. And it was absolutely divine, even if I do say so myself. I resisted the urge to just retire to the couch, bowl of frosting in hand, and eat my way to sugar ecstasy.

Palm sugar frosting = HELL SUCCESS

And here's the final product: