Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing

Recently, every weekend, the weather has not been very nice. It has been rainy and cold. I thought the best way to occupy myself on a cold day is to bake. My theory is that the warm oven keeps the house warm, the cake satisfies my sugar fix and I get to do something that I love.

My latest recipe that I am addicted to is baking Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes. The recipe is adapted from the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake recipe that I had posted previously and is the most easiest recipe I have ever followed.

The reason I decided to change this recipe into cupcakes, was because I was sick of waiting for the cake to bake and cupcakes are faster to cook. I feel that this recipe tastes better in cupcake form.

The main change to the recipe when you make them into cupcakes, is the cooking time. I cook the cupcakes for 15-20 minutes at 150 degrees Celsius. I also ensure I fill 3/4 of the cupcake case with the cake  mixture, because if you put too much cake mixture into the cupcakes cases, they will overflow when they are baked. The recipe makes approximately 12 cupcakes.

The Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes taste better than when baked as cupcakes. The Buttermilk Cupcakes are so moist and delicious.

For the icing, I have been practising piping icing and I have managed to find a technique that works for me. I used the icing recipe that I have posted before and started using the disposable piping bags instead of reusable piping bags.

Other additions that I have recently added to the recipe include chocolate flakes, desiccated coconut and pieces of chocolate. All these additions have worked well.

I believe that if anyone is looking to bake cupcakes, this recipe is so simple to make. The addition of Buttermilk, makes the cupcakes taste so super moist and delicious. Try this recipe and let me know what you think.

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake Recipe:

100gms of Butter
3/4 cup of Caster Sugar
1 and 3/4 cups of Sifted Self Raising Flour
1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla Essence
1 Egg
1 cup of Buttermilk
1/4 cup of cocoa

Method:

Preheat fan forced oven to 150 degrees Celsius
Melt Butter in the microwave for 35 seconds.
Add Caster Sugar and mix the ingredients thoroughly together with a wooden spoon.
Add Vanilla Essence and Egg and mix the ingredients together.
Add sifted Self Raising Flour, Buttermilk and cocoa powder.
Mix combined ingredients together.
Put ¾ of the mixture into cupcake cases
Bake cupcakes for 15-20 minutes at 150 degrees Celsius.

Icing:

125gms Butter (a room temperature or melted in the microwave for 30 seconds)
1 and 1/2 cups of sifted Icing Sugar Mixture
1  tbs of Milk (depending on how smooth you want the icing to be)
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
Mix the Butter and sifted Icing Sugar mixture together. Add milk and then mix on low speed with a mixer. Then add cocoa powder and mix the ingredients together on low speed with a mixer

Melbourne’s Sweet Treats

For my Husband and I’s one year wedding anniversary, we decided to visit Melbourne for a few days. I was so super excited to eat my through all the great dessert places that Melbourne has to offer, unfortunately we were only there for a few days.

Here a few of my favourite places that I discovered whilst in Melbourne:

Cupcake Central

I was very excited to hear about Cupcake Central’s awesome cupcakes from my Twitter friends. I was advised that I must try their Red Velvet Cupcake, and of course this is exactly what I did.

I was quite impressed with the look of the shop. All the cupcakes looked so delicious in the display cabinets, that I could’ve eaten them all. Alas, I decided that I must try one cupcake first. I ended up buying one Red Velvet Cupcake and one Salted Caramel Cupcake for my friend.

The Red Velvet Cupcake was so delicious. The cupcake part was so super moist and the cream cheese frosting was so creamy. I was really super impressed. My friend said she loved the Salted Caramel Cupcake too.

Visit Cupcake Central’s website for store locations and baking schedule: http://www.cupcakecentral.com.au/

Brunetti

After a really bad dinner experience in Chinatown, my husband and I were really craving something sweet. I suggested we try Brunetti, because I have heard so many great things about this place. Unfortunately when we got there, it was quite late and there were not many cakes left. Nevertheless, I managed to choose two types of cake. I ended up choosing the New York Baked Cheesecake and the Nutella and Ricotta Cake.

The New York Baked Cheesecake was really delicious. I loved the fact that the New York Baked Cheesecake was slightly dense and creamy and did not taste like gelatine.

The Nutella and Ricotta Cake was really nice too, the ricotta cheesecake was smooth and creamy and the Nutella gave the cake a delicious hazelnut hit. I just wish I had a bigger slice!

Koko Black

Koko Black was probably my first sweet love when I first visited Melbourne. To this day, I still love Koko Black and try to visit their salons every time I visit Melbourne.

Usually when I visit Koko Black, I always order the Belgian Chocolate Mousse and the Hot Chocolate. This time when I visited Koko Black, I decided to be different. This time I decided to order the Caramel Delice and of course the Hot Chocolate.

The Caramel Delice was amazing, I swear it literally melted in my mouth. The Caramel Delice is basically caramel chocolate mousse cake with a biscuit base. I actually ended up liking the Caramel Delice more than the Belgian Chocolate Mousse, because it was not as sweet.

The Hot Chocolate was delicious as always, so chocolatey,  but is no longer my favourite Hot Chocolate in Melbourne.

Visit Koko Black’s website for salon locations: http://www.kokoblack.com/

Cumulus Inc.

Cumulus Inc. is the cafe in Melbourne that makes the best Hot Chocolate I have ever drunk.

My Husband and I decided to visit Cumulus Inc. for the purpose of ordering drinks only. We were not in the mood to eat. I decided to order the usual Hot Chocolate.

 

The Hot Chocolate from Cumulus Inc. was as usual, absolutely divine. The Hot Chocolate was so creamy, frothy and chocolatey. The only fault of the Hot Chocolate, was that the cup it was served in was too small, and for this reason I drank two cups.

Whilst at Cumulus Inc., I received a comment on Instagram from my friends from Twitter. They suggested that I order the Lemon Curd Madeleine. I took their advice and ordered one. The Lemon Curd Madeleines are freshly baked and usually take 15 minutes to bake.

So 25 minutes later and attitude from staff member, I received my Lemon Curd Madeleine.

The Lemon Curd Madeleine was so delicious, even more so because it was fresh out of the oven and it was still warm. The Lemon Curd Madeleine was so soft and fluffy and the oozing lemon curd filling was slightly tangy.

Visit Cumulus Inc.’s website cafe location and further details: http://cumulusinc.com.au/

 

 

La Belle Miette

A visit to La Belle Miette to buy their delicious macarons, was definitely high on my sweet eating agenda. I must confess, I visited this place three times when we were in Melbourne.

I absolutely love their macarons. I love their range of flavours, my favourite ones are the Mango and Coconut, Caramel a la Fleur de Sel and Strawberry and Vanilla.

 

La Belle Miette’s macarons are so well made and the flavours are amazing. The macarons shells are so perfectly soft and chewy and the macaron fillings are so creamy. Together, these make a match made in heaven.

Visit La Belle Miette’s website for store locations: http://labellemiette.com.au

 

There are so many other great sweet places to discover in Melbourne, but we ran out of time.  Overall, I really loved my sweet eating experiences in Melbourne. I cannot wait to come back again soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Apple Crumble Pie Zonuts from Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier

When I heard that Adriano Zumbo was going to make his own version of Dominique Ansel’s croissant-doughnut ” Cronut”, I was very excited. Then when I found out that he was going to release them on Friday, which was my day off, I thought it was fate.

Adriano Zumbo’s version of the croissant-doughnut is called  “Zonut”, keeping with the existing Z theme. The Zonut comes in a variety of flavours, that may change weekly. The first Zonut that was released was the Apple Crumble Pie Zonut.

The Zonut is essentially a croissant-doughnut in one. The concept of this combination is simply genius.

On Friday, I left home really early in the morning, so I could go buy my Zonut and hopefully not line up. I had imagined that there would be this crazy frenzy and extremely long queues. When I arrived, there was no queue, in fact there were only three customers in store.

I immediately made my way to the counter and my eyes were drawn to the delicious looking Zonuts that were sitting on top of the counter. The Zonuts looked flaky and golden brown, I was literally drooling.

 

When it was my time to be served, I ended up having a conversation to the guy working there about the Zonuts. He told me that they had already sold three trays of the Zonuts. He also told me that the Zonuts tasted amazing.

I decided to buy only four Zonuts. I also decided to buy some Zumbarons as well.

When I turned to have a look at the store whilst the guy working there was boxing my Zonuts, I spotted Adriano Zumbo. I was so thrilled that I decided to say hello to him and have a chat. Adriano said he is very excited about the Zonuts. He said he plans to change the flavours weekly. I found Adriano Zumbo to be quite a nice person and easy going too.

For some strange reason, I did not feel like eating the Zonut when I left the shop. I actually did not eat the Zonut until I got home late in the afternoon.

The Zonut was very delicious, the taste reminded me of those sugar egg puffs that you get at yum cha. The Zonut was essentially layers and layers of goodness that melts in your mouth. On the top of the Zonut is icing and apple crumble pie topping and on the bottom is the apple pie cream.

Of course the Zonut is not something you would eat on a regular basis, but it is still good for a occasional treat.

I think I am officially obsessed.

Zonuts are available from Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier’s Rozelle shop:

114 Terry Street, Rozelle NSW 2039