Orange Cupcake

My nephew was at my place yesterday afternoon. Thought bake some orange cupcakes for the 4 kids. Had some time between 2-3pm, so quickly whipped them up and put them in the oven.Receipe:
200g self-raising flour
200g butter
200g sugar
1 tbsp freshly orange zest
50ml freshly squeezed orange juice
3 eggs

Cream the butter and sugar till pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat. Mix all the flour and zest, juice in. Bake for about 35 min on 170C oven.

My baby is 5!

My little "baby" Buttercup turns five! Time flies, but she will still be the baby of the house.

This was what I did for her 2 celebrations - one at parents-in-law's and another at her childcare centre. Cute little train, filled with goodies in their carriage.

We were browsing through the websites for lovely cakes, and she asked for a train/dino/butterfly. The frosting is buttercream, though I personally like fresh/whipped cream better. Buttercup helped by colouring the frosting with pink, green and blue. Frosting a cake was not as simple as it looks from the videos on the internet. The crumbs seem to get in the way. Was stressed that if the cake did not turn out as expected, I would have to rush to buy an alternative. But I wanted to make it turn out right as the gals' expectations were already there.

Her friends loved the cake, Buttercup was proud, her teacher was inspired. I was pleased with it too! Coz I had a lot of fun making it.

Receipe for frosting:

100g butter

100g shortening

250g icing sugar

3 tablespoons fresh milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

colouring

Madeleines

Bought a new "toy" over the weekend - madeleine baking tray. Love the seashell shapes and the other factor is to bake something that is cake-like yet crispy and thin. Something DH likes.

Seems that the history of madeleines date back to the 18th century in the French town of Commercy, in the region of Lorraine. A girl name Madeleine made them for Stanislaw Lezczynski, Duke of Lorraine, who loved them so much that he then gave some to his daughter, Marie, the wife of Louis XV. Their popularity grew from that point on and until today. We see them here in SG at the Delifrance outlets.

Receipe
200g cake flour
165g castor sugar
4 small eggs
200g butter (melted)
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp baking powder

Beat the eggs with the sugar using an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Combine flour and baking powder. Add the flour combination into the egg mixture. Add orange zest and butter and give it a quick stir. Scoop into greased mould (I put until about 80% full). Send it into a preheated 180C oven for about 15 minutes or until brown.

The aroma of butter plus citrus filled the kitchen when it was baking - wonderful!

The madeleines came out of the mould in perfect shape. It tasted really lovely piping hot, crispy and soft. Even more delicious when partnered with tea or coffee. When cool and on its own, I though it was slightly dry.