Scone-aholic!

I love scones. Eat it on it's own, eat with butter (which I love the most!),eat with whipped cream, drink it with tea, have it for breakfast, have it during high tea. I can go on..

I love it when the scones recipe calls for buttermilk. This recipe I'm going to share is a basic scone recipe but I had strawberries in refrigerator from my last Creamy Berries Cakelets. (I have yet to share that !)

I took the recipe from Confession of a Tart , her pictures in her blog is so pretty especially that yellow rose. Ok, I'm side tracking a lil bit here. Maybe 1 day, I might buy fresh flowers for my pictures too. But first, I need a good camera! Recommend me what type for food taking please..

And so I only had like 10 strawberries left but to me that was enough for the whole scone dough as too much will make the scone too tard. With that little strawberries here and there, it looks really pretty.

And here goes the recipe.


Strawberry Scones
Adapted from Confessions of a Tart
(makes 8 large wedge scones or 12 mini circles)1/2 cup strawberries

3 tablespoons sugar (granulated)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt ( I did not use these as I use salted butter )
6 tablespoons butter, in cubes, slightly softened
2/3 cup cold buttermilk

Topping:

1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

If using larger fruit (peaches/apricots), cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tablespoon sugar; set aside. Cut these fruits to small cubes so that it will not fall out of the dough.

Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter,  you may want to use your fingers to rub these lightly to be sure butter is evenly mixed into flour. Do not overwork the butter.

 Stir in fruit; then add buttermilk all at once. Use spatula to gently stir dough until it holds together.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. The buttermilk is enough to make the dough sticks together. If it looks a little dry - it's OK! trust me.

Press (pat) the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them.

I brush the whatever is left buttermilk on top of the scones for a little shine and for the sugar to stick on it. Sprinkle the granulated sugar on top of the wedges.


Bake 15 minutes.

Check your scone and bake till tops are beginning to brown and spring back when you push them (this took another 15 minutes in my oven, but keep a careful watch and check every 5 minutes - you do not want dry scones!).


Lastly, enjoy your scones as it is. Warm and buttery! Love it!

I hope you try it and let me know how did yours turn out!

Thank you for reading!

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Rainbow Butterfly Cupcakes

I was seeing rainbows the whole week cause I am one of Hadya's enthusiast. I am preparing her 1st birthday party already. Not physically preparing but just scouting for lots of ideas online.

I grew more and more fond of the rainbow theme and have decided to make her a Rainbow stacked cake for her birthday. Yes, I have even decided on the cake already!

So before I go on making the real stuff, I wanted to make sure the taste is perfect and I have to practice on the coloring of the batter(s).

And so , I half-ed the recipe and tried to create a fairy cake with the rainbow version. My mind is getting more complicated now a days..

BUTTERFLY RAINBOW CUPCAKES

Recipe Adapted by Whisk Kid
Designed directed by Azlita Masam Manis

Ingredients:
1 ½  cup plain flour / cake flour / all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

1/2  cup butter ~ room temperature

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 egg white ~ room temperature ( size B)

1tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup fresh milk ~ room temperature

Red, yellow, green, blue GEL food coloring or you may use color paste, it works well for me.

I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the topping. Please click here for recipe.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line 12 white paper cups in your muffin tray.  Standard cupcake size.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add them a little at a time, mix till thick and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts, mixer has to be in slow mode.

e.g: flour and milk and flour and milk and flour and milk and flour. (Must end with flour)

Divide the batter amongst 4 bowls

 (Add about 1 c each first, Ensuring you weigh all bowls equally.

Tip:  Weigh your mixing bowl before you begin adding ingredients and then subtract the weight of the bowl from the final measurement after the batter is completed. Divide that number by 4 and add that weight of batter to each bowl),

Then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of the unbaked batter will be the color of the baked batter.

Scoop 1 color at a time into the paper liners. You may repeat the colors. For another easier way, place the batters into a piping bag and pipe them out equally. This will be about ¾ full

Pour into the pans and bake for 25 minutes each.



This is what you will get. Gorgeous Rainbow Cupcakes!

And no, no, no.. It's not done yet. I wanted to make a fairy cake remember. I'm sorry that my hands were to busy to take pictures of me slicing the top of the cake, buttercream it and assemble the wings.

Ways to assemble the butterfly

Slice the top of the cupcake till your knife reach the edge of the cupcake liner

Cut the sliced top to half

Pipe your buttercream with which ever design you like. See my picture below. I was experimenting a few flower designs to be on the butterfly.

Then, place the sliced cupcake tops, ( straight part touching the cream ) to shape it like a butterfly.

Pipe a straight line buttercream in between the slice to secure it.

Decorate with shiny dragees of your choice.

And you will get these!

Happy Trying!

Working a lil magic

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