Pink Ribbon Cupcakes Project 2011

Chocolate and Vanilla (Yin-Yang) swirl cake topped with pink Swiss meringue butter-cream

 I added a little pink coloring to the cake and it turned out with a light tinge of pretty pinkness to it <3

My personal Pink Ribbon Campaign Finale!

All set to bring these 50 pink cupcakes to tonight's Flaunt It! Concert @ Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial.

This is my first personal project in 2011. On my birthday month, I've decided to do something meaningful. So far, for the month of October, I've baked about 100 cupcakes for people around me, be it I know them or not. It is to promote the Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Awareness. This project is a test for myself as well - a project with double meaning.

i've not accepted any monetary benefits from this, all cupcakes were given away for free. So skeptics, i'm not a con-star.

I hope you guys spend some time reading about breast cancer and how we could prevent by early detection.

Do you even know about Male Breast Cancer?
Where can your Mum or Sis or wife or gf or yourself go for a test?

www.pinkribbon.com

Gothic Halloween Cupcakes

classy gothic purple swirls cupcakes for Halloween

Red Velvet Cupcakes

 

And so, I allowed myself to be sucked into the seemingly "trendy" red velvet cupcake craze - a traditional Southern American delight. However, on this side of the globe, buttermilk isn't a readily available ingredient. That didn't stop me from trying to bake these beautiful cuppies. I didn't want to short-change myself  by baking a chocolate based cake with red food coloring. I mean, what's red velvet without the acidity in the cake? I HAD to bake the real deal.

And so, I made my own buttermilk. Basically just coagulating normal milk with white vinegar.

The cake was moist and dense, perfect with a tower of sweet and slightly sour cream cheese topping! <3

Cookies and Cream Cupcake

Vanilla cake with crumbs of coarsely crushed oreo cookies embedded within, topped with fresh light vanilla buttercream dusted with oreo crumbs~

After baking too much of the plain Vanilla and Chocolate based cakes, I did an experimental batch of Oreo cookies embedded cake. The first batch came out rather dry. I guess the cookies had absorbed the moisture too much, leaving the cake dry. And so, I altered the recipe a little and the 2nd batch turned out moist and more dense.

Both batches has it's own plus and minus points to them. The dryer batch would taste perfect with a larger pile of butter cream on it, while the moist and heavier batch could go with lesser topping. Either way suits the different preferences I guess!

Zesty Orange Muffins

best eaten warm with some butter sweating over it

freshly baked orange muffins dusted with icing

finely grated orange zest is added to the batter

Baking these little things made the entire house smell of refreshing orange fragrance, somehow giving me the countryside homely warmth feeling.

I personally prefer eating them warm, with a slab of butter sweating over the steaming orange delight. Mmmm.... this makes me wanna bake some of them now! The orange zest works wonder in the batter, giving the occasional zesty highlight to the taste.