Saturday's Alright for Baking

It has been so hot in Hong Kong lately. Apparently, it's been hot in many places around the world. Even Russia is burning. Saturday is my only day off during the week
(hard to relax on Sundays when your husband is a minister) and we thought about going for a dip in the pool, but I haven't been feeling too great lately, so we decided to stay indoors. Here recently I've been on a really big baking/cooking kick and so Ellison came up with a great idea for us to have a baking competition! We took the train one stop to Citysuper because they had everything we needed and began gathering our ingredients. Ellison decided he was going to make an Apple Pie and I decided on Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes. We had lunch and then made our way back home and got started. My ingredients for the cupcakes.
El's ingredients for his pie. (Please note that he used a box mix for the crust!! haha)


After a couple of hours of prepping and sharing the oven our desserts were finished! I ran out of Strawberry jam, so I opted for Raspberry and I have to say, I think I liked them more! :)
Ellison's delicious Apple Pie! He did pretty good for a dude ;)
My Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes! So moist and sweet!! Loved them!
We couldn't really choose a judge,and Sylvia had watched us do the whole thing so we figured we'd let her decide... Turns out, she'll eat anything! So I guess we're both winners!!

Here's the recipe for my cupcakes if you would like to try them for yourself. I got them off a website given to me by a friend. Sorry about the awkward measurements..we do everything different here. Might have to use some mental math!

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (makes 9)

* 100g butter
* 100g caster sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon milk
* 100g self raising flour

For the Strawberry (or Raspberry) Cheesecake Frosting

* 125g mascarpone (at room temperature)<----Cream cheese will do!
* 50g butter (at room temperature)
* 225g icing sugar
* 2 tablespoons strawberry jam <-- Raspberry blueberry or whatever you like!
* a little pink food colouring (optional)
* 2 digestive biscuits (optional)<---Also known as graham crackers!

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line 9 holes of a muffin tray with muffin cases.

Put the butter and sugar into a bowl, and cream together until pale and fluffy, with an electric mixer.

Continuing to beat, add an egg, until incorporated, then a spoonful of the flour, incorporate, then the final egg, and incorporate that too. (Adding the eggs one at a time, with a spoonful of flour between, reduces the chance of the batter curdling.) Finally, add the vanilla and milk and beat some more.

Add the flour, and mix in well, but briefly, either with your mixer on a low speed or by hand, since overworking the batter once the flour is added may affect the rising of your cakes.

Divide the mixture between the waiting cases, ensuring they are not more than two thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, checking at 20, until the sponge is lightly golden, springs back if you gently touch it, and/or an inserted skewer or similar emerges clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cakes are cooling, or even while they’re baking, make your frosting. Put the mascarpone, butter and icing sugar into a bowl, and beat together, slowly at first, and even if completing the job power-assisted, I would start of with a spoon to avoid the dust-cloud of icing sugar you may otherwise get. Once combined, turn up the mixer and continue beating until quite light and fluffy.

Add the jam to the frosting, beat it through, and then taste, and add a little more jam if you think you need it. If you wish to add a little pink food colouring, do so now, and again beat, until you have an even colour. If your frosting seems too runny, add a little extra icing sugar, and then chill in the fridge until your cupcakes are completely cold and ready to be iced – this will also help the frosting firm up a little after all of the beating.

When you’re ready, top the cupcakes with the frosting. Bash, whizz or otherwise pulverise the digestive biscuits into crumbs, and scatter over to decorate. These will keep in a sealed container, in the fridge if its warm, for a couple of days, although do please bring them back to room temperature to eat.

Hope you enjoy them! This week I'll be baking a Marble Brownie Birthday Cake and a Caramel Apple Layer Cake! YUM! :)