Cup Cake Mania !

Baking my favourite cup cake again last weekend. This time I tried to bake pandan flavoured one. The reason why I baked this flavor of cup cake is because i missed the smell of pandan leaf so much ! It's really very aromatic and unforgetable. They are known as 'daun pandan' in Indonesian and Malay; and 斑蘭 (bān lán) in Mandarin. Fresh leaves are typically torn into strips, tied in a knot to facilitate removal, placed in the cooking liquid, then removed at the end of cooking. Dried leaves and bottled extract may be bought in some places. IT's really give a very nice aroma to the dishes !

The last time when i worked on pandan leave extract is last year December when I was trying to make some 'Tang Yuen' (chinese dumpling). Gosh ! But this time i forgot to capture some great photos of it. Will do that next time & I sweared. A recipe without photos similar to nasi lemak (coconut milk rice originated from Malay) without sambal chili (Chili Paste) !

This version of cup cake recipe is adapted from Delicisious Halloween Hooting Owl Cup Cake recipe. But I have replaced the cocoa powder with 'pandan leaf' juice that I extracted from freshly picked pandan leaf from my garden. I have sprinkle some sun flower and pumpkin seeds
on top of it, plus some raisin for each cup.

Delicious Hooting Halloween Owls Cup Cake

Delicious and simple chocolate cup cakes to make with the kids at Halloween - real crowd pleasers. Kids sure will love it much ! I have tried this cup cake before, and the result is quite fantastic ! My hubby commented that it taste like those selling in bakery shop. This really lighten my heart very very much ! This is the original recipe that I have used, for my version i have adapted abit by adding some salt to the flour & evaporated milk for softer texture. Hope you like It !

Preperation and cooking times

Ready in 30-35 mins, plus cooling and decorating

Freeze cake bases only

Ingredients

• 280g butter , softened
• 280g golden caster sugar
• 200g self-raising flour , minus 1 rounded tbsp
• 1 rounded tbsp cocoa powder
• 6 medium eggs

FOR ICING AND DECORATION

• 200g butter , softened
• 280g icing sugar , sifted
• 1 tube orange ready-to-use icing
• 1 small bag Maltesers
• 1 tube choco M&Ms minis (use just the brown sweets) or Cadbury's mini buttons
• 1 tub jelly diamonds (just the orange ones)

Method

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with brown muffin cases. Beat the first 5 ingredients to a smooth batter and spoon between the cases, almost filling them to the top. You may have a little left over. Bake for 20-25 mins until risen and spongy. Cool on a rack.
2. Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Slice off the very tops of the cakes and cut each piece in half. Spread a generous layer of icing over each cake.
3. Working on one cake at a time, squirt a pea-sized blob of orange icing onto two Maltesers and use to fix a brown M&M on each. Sit the eyes, two pieces of cake top (curved edge up) and a jelly diamond on the icing to make an owl.

Per cake

615 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 68g, fat 38 g, saturated fat 23g, fibre 1g, salt 1.06 g

(Adapted from bbcgoodfood.com)