Chocolate Swirl Cupcake

An aromatic chocolate flavour light cupcake with some semi-sweet chocolate found at the bottom. The texture is light, and was supposed to show some swirling patterns. However, over-mixing the batter had blurred some of  the patterns :(

Yield: 9 muffin size cupcakes

Ingredients:

All ingredients in room temperature 

2 eggs, separated
55g fine sugar

50g fresh milk

15g condensed milk

10g golden syrup/honey
10g vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

75g top flour
1/4 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp hot water

21g semi sweet cooking chocolate chips (optional)
About 3x 1-cm chocolate chips to each cupcakes

Directions:

1. Line muffin moulds with cupcake liners. Set aside.

2. Mix flour with baking powder using a hand whisk.

3. Pour milk, condensed milk, golden syrup, vanilla extract, and vegetable oil in a bowl. Set aside.

If your ingredients are cold from the fridge, you can keep them warm in a rice cooker for about 5 to 10 minutes

4. Mix 1 tsp of cocoa powder with 1/2 tsp of hot water into a smooth paste. Set aside.

5. Beat egg whites in a clean and grease free mixing bowl at high speed using an electric mixer till frothy. This takes about 1 minute.

Add in the sugar in 3 batches, and continue to beat at medium high speed.

When the meringue starts to form a steady trail behind the moving whisks, lower the speed till the meringue reaches the firm peak stage.

6. Beat in the egg yolk, one at a time.

7. Add in the flour mixture from (2) and milk mixture from (3) in alternate sequence. Starting with flour and end with flour.

Do not over mix the batter.

8. Spoon about 2 big tbsp of batter to mix with the chocolate paste from (4).

9. Drizzle the chocolate batter onto the egg batter, and mix briefly.  

If you want to create a swirling pattern, minimize the mixing.

10. Use a cup cake scoop to scoop the batter into the lined muffin mould to about 2/3 the mould height.

Tap the mould to even out the batter, as well as to get rid of trapped air bubbles.

11. Drop the semi-sweet cooking chocoate chips into the batter and push them in.

8. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degree Celsius for about 10 minutes, or till the top of the cake has form a flat dome. Lower the oven temperature to 150 degree Celsius, and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or till the top has browned, and the cake has shrank a bit from the muffin pan.

Bake at lowest rack of the oven.

When the cake has risen to this height, lower the oven temperature to 150 degree Celsius.

At the end of baking, the top of the cake has become golden, and the side has shrank in size a little.

9. Remove the cakes from the muffin mould and cool on a wire rack.

To avoid moisture loss, cover the warm cakes with a towel or paper kitchen towel.

Enjoy :)

Light Japanese Cheesecake (2-egg recipe)

I love this light Japanese cheesecake which involves mainly 2 eggs, 20g butter and 80g of cream cheese.  Relatively light in terms of the fat content as compare to other similar cake recipes I used. The cheesecake was equally creamy :P

A cheesecake looks more pleasant if it is crack-free. This has always been my challenge when baking this type of cake.  There are so many recipes with different recommended baking method.  This round I decided to bake by eyes, not by following recommended temperature and duration. Although this is rather troublesome as I have to stand by the oven window gazing at the rising cake constantly, it helped to minimize the chance of developing a deep canyon in the middle of the cake.

Pan size: one 16cm round cast iron pot, or 6x3" round cake pan wrapped with aluminum foil.

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature

Using 55g Omega-3 eggs

80g cream cheese
20g unsalted butter
60g fresh milk

2 egg yolks

20g top/cake flour
15g corn flour

2 egg whites
50g fine sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Directions

1. Line the base of a 16cm Le Crueset round cast iron pot with parchment paper, and grease the wall with butter or non-stick spray.
Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.

2. Add cream cheese, unsalted butter,and milk in a heat resistant mixing bowl, and place over a double-boiler. Stir over low heat till all the ingredients melted into a smooth batter.

3. Remove the cheese batter from the double boiler, and stir in the two egg yolks, one at a time.

4. Sieve in the top/cake flour and corn flour. Mix well. Cover and set aside.

5. Whip up egg whites in a dry and grease-free mixing bowl. Add in the sugar, in 3 batches, after the egg white has become frothy (medium low speed)

Add in the lemon juice after adding the 3rd batch of sugar. Whip at low speed still almost reaching the soft peak stage.

6. Scoop some meringue to mix with the cream cheese batter at (4), using a spatula.

 Pour the cream cheese batter back to the meringue. Mix well using a spatula.

7. Pour the batter to the prepared Le Crueset pot.  Bang lightly to remove any trapped air bubbles.

8. Place a wire-gauze in a 20x20cm square pan, and pour about 1 cm of hot water into it.
Lower the pot into the warm water bath.

The baking temperature and duration are only for reference purpose. Please adjust according to your oven and batter conditions.

9. Bake at the lowest rack of a preheated oven at 160 degree Celsius for 25 minutes , or till the top of the rising batter has formed a flat top.

Reduce the oven temperature to 140 degree Celsius, when the top of the batter has formed a plateau. Bake for another 25 to 30 minutes, till the top beginning to brown.
If small crack starting to be seen, open the oven door for about 5 to 10 seconds to reduce the temperature.

When the top starts to brown, turn off the bottom heating element, and increase the oven temperature, using only the top heating element, to 170 degree Celsius for 2 minutes. This is to give the cake a nice golden top.

Turn off both the heating coils, and let the cake stays in the closed oven for about 15 minutes.  This enable the cake to brown more evenly, and shrink gradually.

10. After transferring the cake out of the oven, lightly bang the cake over a kitchen towel. This will help to minimise the cake from over-shrinking. Let the cake rest over a wire rack for about 10 minutes, and invert it out onto the cooling rack. (After the side of the cake pulls away from the wall of the pot.)

11. After the cake has cooled down to room temperature, refrigerate it for about 3 hours before cutting.
Enjoy it cool :)