Happy Teachers' Day

Made this last night... started after Sheen hit the sack @9pm, and didn't finish until 3.30am. I know I am a slow baker... and really need to have a plan in place to do things faster and better

The base is chocolate cupcake (I will post the recipe later), with ganache. All the decorations are made with sugar paste (fondant)... I had fun playing with all my fondant cutter etc.


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Updated 6 Sep with recipe and fondant tools:

this is part of the serrated round cookie cutter set:

New fondant press to create leaves and flowers:


this is used to neaten the fondant edge:

Flower plunger:

edible dust which I used to create the shimmering hearts:

The fondant roller and wheel - the roller is very useful cos it has the band on both sides to make help me roll out the fondant to even thickness Rose leaf cutter:

Roller to create the spiral imprint:

Chocolate Cupcake
Recipe source : Joy of Baking
Makes about 16 cupcakes

1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water
1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar - I used 150g
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C – I used 175C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
5. Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Baker’s Notes:
I subscribed to Joy of Baking and received notification on all the new recipes. The first time I saw this recipe I was not about to use it for only 1 reason - it requires an additional step to mix cocoa with boiling water. And this cocoa mixture is only added to the batter in the final step - quite unconventional from the way I usually make cupcake.

Anyway a popular local blogger used this recipe and recommended it. So there I went... On hind sight, I could be better off with my vegan chocolate cupcake recipe!

Personally I find it difficult to make the mixture smooth in step 4. I stopped when it was 90% smooth (means still have few small lumps). Those lumps turned up as white spots amidst the dark cupcake.

Also I do not find the cake as moist, and soft as I expected. But it could be me. If you feel otherwise, pls leave a comment for me.

Chocolate Ganache
200 grams unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
200 grams whipping cream

1. boil the whipping cream until almost bubbling.
2. Pour over the chopped chocolate, stir until smooth.
3. let cool to room temperature.
4. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the mixture until smooth and creamy (~1 minute).