Maple Oatmeal Cranberries Muffins

Muffin cravings!!

Dislike that it is totally unexpected and out of the blue. Caught me completely off guard and I needed to fix it with this.

I had to abandon my saffron creations so that I can have a quick fix of this moist, doughy sugary treat. Is considered healthy since I put oatmeal in them. 

I wasn't patient enough to sit and think for 45 minutes to decide what to put into saffron muffin. That's life. It doesn't always go as planned . 

And the unplanned always seems to be better. See these muffins? I think they are better than what I have planned ... which was work. 

The Saffron Challenge #3 - Vanilla Poppyseed Cupcakes with Saffron Lemon Curd

Cupcakes! Who doesn't like them? They have special effects on everyone ... even more so than cookies.

They are tiny, cute and when you look at them, perfectly lined in the cupcake pans with individual colourful 'wrappers' (i don't know what those things are called), how could you resist?!

And it gets even better. You get to do all sorts of things to it ... frost them, sprinkle them, dip them or just simply bite into them. Mmmmmm good! Satisfying. 

They make me feel like a girlie girl again. 

I've decided to pair the very simple yet classic Vanilla Poppyseed Cupcakes with a tart lemon curd, spiked up with saffron. Gorgeous, don't you think?

I tried to do the 'artsy' thing here. Focus at the back and blur at the front.

I am trying!!! ;)

The Saffron Challenge #1

I've been around saffron quite a bit these days and realized that not a lot of people use it in desserts or maybe i just haven't came across them. So I am giving myself a little challenge until the end of this month - come up with 6 desserts using saffron. (Though I just realized while typing this that I only have until next Monday as I will be going on a short trip until April 1st). emmmm ...

Saffron is the world's most highly priced spice. Totally in a league of its own, saffron has a very unique aroma and taste. Just a couple of these thin golden strands will give any dish a deep and vibrant orangey-yellow colour. Is an amazing spice and I love it.

Okay, so back to desserts ... guess there isn't any rule in this challenge. As long as I use saffron in my dessert recipes, it counts. :) I am sure there are plenty of good flavour combos out there.

Creamy, velvety, smooth and heavenly ... some words that you usually associate with cheesecakes. My first saffron dessert is going to be ....

It has not been my week ...

.... in baking that is. 2 days in a row, 2 failures. Right now I don't even want to be near my mixing bowls, whisk and spatulas. I don't understand why I always have a hard time baking cakes, or anything for that matter. Almost always nothing comes out the way they are supposed to.

Knowing that I still have a tub of yogurt in my fridge, I thought it would be fun to bake a yogurt cake with a lemon glaze. All sounded simple enough and it shouldn't be too bad if I follow some guidelines. So 350F, buttered mini loaf pans and I started mixing the batter. All was well and mixed in 20mins and into the oven for 30mins before checking. The mini loaves were rising beautifully in the hot oven (I should have taken pictures of that). But when I used a skewer to poke them to check if they were done, the whole thing just collapsed on me! I baked it for another 5 mins and took them out and they just turned into heavy and dense yogurt loaves! I don't know what went wrong, but here's the recipe that I used:

1.5C flour
2t baking powder
1/4t salt
1C yogurt
1C sugar
3 eggs
1t lemon zest
1/4t vanilla
1/2C veggie oil

your very simple and basic yogurt pound cake recipe, yet I still managed to screw it up.

With yesterday's flop, I thought I should go with something I am more familiar with, cookies. I've been baking them nonstop for the past couple of weeks and all turned out delicious. Dav, my friend, gave me a recipe and said is the best chco chip cookies ever. And so I gave it a go with confidence that nothing will go wrong and I will be able to enjoy a fresh batch of cookies in an hour. Was I wrong!

I don't think there is anything wrong with the recipe. It was just idiot me who forgot to refrigerate the dough for at least an hour before baking!! With so much butter (ratio of butter to flour is 1 to 1 in this recipe) in the dough, how could I have forgotten to chill it first!!!! so my first 2 batches of this supposedly heavenly treat turned into a blob of mess - or thin choc chip crisps if you want to be nice.




(then i tried to shape them into those fancy French buttery cookies and rested them on my rolling pin)

Totally NOT my week for baking at all. I now believe that your mood reflects on the results of your dishes. I have been rather grouchy and moody for the past couple of days (yes, I am blaming it on PMS) and my dearest Dr Chan just told me that I should cut back on desserts because white sugar is bad for my skin and whatever else I have. With not so good news, I am letting my oven take a break until next week.

Fresh Ginger and Maple Cake (Bread)

Today while I was making the Chinese raddish cake in preparation for Chinese New Year, I all of a sudden wanted to bake a loaf of cake/bread. I ran out of bananas so I couldn't make my banana bread. As I just recently got into this whole baking craze, I bought quite a few baking spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger - and so much more. So I have decided to make a spiced cake loaf. I was never a baker, and my cakes always turned out rather blah. This would be a good chance to test myself and see if I can come up with a new cake/bread recipe based on my banana bread.

Using only the ground spices won't make the cake very interesting. I saw fresh ginger, they are going in. I saw maple syrup and apple sauce - these 2 made it onto the list as well. I grated a big fat nob of ginger and used apple sauce in place of the veggie oil - which according to many blogs and food sites, they are interchangeable in baking. Your cakes will still turn out moist but none of the fat. I also used brown sugar to add more sweetness and depth to the flavor. Then of course, your usual cake mix - flour, egg, baking soda, etc.

30mins in a 350F oven, my kitchen was filled with the warm aroma of ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Not bad I thought.



Now comes the taste test - i liked the taste - it got a kick to it since i used fresh ginger. The cake was moist enough but the taste was not as rich as if you used oil or butter. And the texture got a bit chewy after the loaf was cooled. Was it because I didn't use any fat in the recipe? Not enough eggs? In any case, this was a good start to a homey & comforting quick bread recipe. Still need improvements of course. In the mean time, I will be devouring this loaf of fresh ginger and maple bread tomorrow morning - heating it up and serving it with a nob of butter & fig jam.

You gotta have the fat.