Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Baking continues...

It's been a while since I last blogged about my baking. I've been pretty busy with my jewelry business, packing up the place for major home renovations and baking for the Christmas season. Here are some photos of what I and my daughter have done so far.

A few weeks ago, my 16-year-old daughter decided to bake me a surprise rainbow cake! She had never baked on her own before although she had helped me previously to measure out ingredients and check on the doneness of the cakes. I thought it was a wonderful effort considering she followed a recipe taken off the internet and the cake tasted quite nice (a little too sweet for me but she did follow the recipe). Her colour mixing was great too. I'm so glad she was inspired and I was really touched by her gesture. Needless to say, the kitchen was a mess but I didn't really mind.

For Teachers' Day this year, my daughter asked me to bake some brownies for her teachers. I decided to teach her how to make them (my philosophy of teaching her to "fish") and here's her completed brownie! We used Elle and Vire butter together with a mixture of 52% and 74% Valrhona chocolate. It was delish!


I found a recipe on the internet for Nutella brownies and decided to make them because they looked simple and only needed three ingredients! Nutella, egg and flour!! Here's the mini brownies before going into the oven.

It's amazing how 1/2 cup Nutella, 1 egg and 5 tablespoons of sifted cake flour can go such a long way in producing 12 mini brownie cupcakes. I love how the brownies puffed up to make the domed tops, after being in a 145 degree C oven for 12 minutes.

Here's another shot of the brownies in my soup spoon to show you how small they are. Practically guilt-free!

After the brownies cooled, I frosted them with Nutella straight from the jar and topped them with sprinkles, chopped nuts, chocolate chips and whatever I had in my cupboard. Really yummy! 12 cupcakes lasted approximately 30 minutes...

Go ahead, try them! Make two batches if you have Nutella or chocolate lovers in your family.