It really seems like yesterday that I was psyching my Sons for their first day of school. Preparing them for a new year in a new environment. Son1 in his first formal education in Primary One, and Son2 officially donned on his uniform for Pre-Nursery, congratulating them for being b-i-g boys now, and getting all excited about their Orientations, and fretting over the fetching and picking logistics arrangement, and going through menus for best-for-lunchbox-packed-lunches...
Wow! 11 months have since passed. What have I done?!
Time to reflect for the year and collect my memories.
Added about 35gm of natural unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's here) to the vanilla cupcake recipe, and to make up for the increased dry ingredient, I increased milk by a slight 1/4cup (loosely). And a scant 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to accompany the cocoa powder (omit this if you are using Dutch-processed cocoa powder. There is a Science to this, can't quite remember what I read, something to do with acidity and alkalinity).
End result? Very soft. Very spongy. Very fluffy. Very nice. Not cloyingly sweet. Tender, moist-ily spongy. This time I used only 120gm sugar. Think I have found my perfect combination. 120gm is the right sweetness for this Vanilla Cupcake recipe -- for me.
I attribute the softness and sponginess to the creaming of the butter and sugar. This time, I baked at night when my boys are soundly asleep (translated to mean, NO interruption!) and I had more time to pay attention to the beating process. Very important.
Needless to say, it has everything to do with my long-awaited-much-drooled-on KITCHENAID!!!! Hip Hip Hurray!!! Amazing piece of machinery! *Smooch smooch kiss* (show you next time ;)
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