Butter Cupcake with Strawberry and Cream

I like cupcake but having cupcake with a lot of butter cream is not for today when there are a lot of strawberries in my house. This recipe is an adaptation from the well known book ............ I like this cake with whipped cream because it adds the richness in flavor but full of lightness and if you don’t add too much sugar in it, this little cake will have a lovely taste plus when adding a strawberry, sweet fragrance of it, bring so much life to this cake.

-In fact you can have it with a butter cream if you like and I must say this recipe is very good; the texture of the cake is light (this is not a pound cake, right?).

Butter Cupcake with Strawberry and Cream

MAKES 24 CUPCAKES

1 cup (2 sticks)	unsalted butter, softened
2 cups	Sugar
4	large eggs, at room temperature
1½ cups	self-rising flour
1¼ cups	all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon	salt
1 cup	milk
1 teaspoon	vanilla extract
	Strawberry (sliced and whole)
1 cup	Whipping cream
4 teaspoons	Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Sift together self-rising flour, all-purpose flour and salt.

Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl, cream the butter on the medium speed of an electric mixer, until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flours and add in four parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla extract, beating well after each addition.

Spoon the batter into the cups about three-quarters full. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 20-22 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans and cool completely on a rack before icing.

Decoration: Whip the whipping cream with the sugar until stiff peak form, then put the cream into piping bag with star nozzle.

Cut the cake into 3 slices.

Squeeze the cream on the cake, then put the strawberry on top, or you can use or fruits that you like.

From: Traditional vanilla birthday cake

The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook: Old-Fashioned Recipes From New York's Sweetest Bakery

Tiramisu

I know that I don’t have to tell you any story of this soft and sweet dessert, most of us knows about it. Many people have their own dearest dessert, mine is Tiramisu. The love affair start form Italian restaurant in the childhood and it grows. I try any one that I can (I really love the Tiramisu at Harrods, but you have to eat it real soon after it leave the counter, the softness, lightly sweet, oh mine). I want to have a good recipe and I found this one. I love the lightness of this recipe, you can see that it uses only 150 g of mascarpone but it’s still rich enough to fulfill your mind (do you have the same feeling, when you eat something that you really like, it’s so comforting). Some of the easy recipe has a lot of cream, which I found it too rich, but you will only get the soft and light from this one. The original recipe ask for the grounded coffee or cocoa powder, but I found it too hash for many people so I change to grated dark chocolate and I like it more. I don’t see any liqueur in the recipe, and I don’t think that we should leave it out, so Kahlua®, I need you now (in fact you can use other kind of liqueur that you like).

I love this one, even the recipe is for 8 people, and I already finished half of it by now.

Tiramisu

Serves 8-10

1 cup	strong black coffee
5	eggs, separated
120 g	caster sugar
1 tsp-2 tsp	Kahlua® or other brand coffee liqueur
150g	mascarpone
	sponge fingers
	Dark chocolate to grate

Pour coffee into a shallow dish. Set aside.

Beat egg yolks and 60g of the sugar in a large bowl over lowest heat with a whisk until pale and thick and the temperature is about 60°C. Add the mascarpone and coffee liqueur, mixing gently until just combined.

Beat egg whites with 60g of the sugar in a medium bowl with electric beaters until soft peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into the mascarpone mixture.

Add a layer of mascarpone mixture to cover the base of a 15X24cm glass dish; Dip enough sponge fingers into the coffee mixture Add a layer of soaked sponge fingers. Dust generously with grated chocolate. Cover the biscuits with the rest of the mascarpone mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

There is no link for this book because it’s so old that it’s already out of print.

All-Butter Puff Pastry

It’s not usual for people to make their own puff pastry, buying is easier. But if you like to be in the kitchen, why don’t you make something you will love (I hope you will like this puff pastry as I do, the all butter mean there won’t be some unpleasant feeling left in your mouth, and the flakiness is very much, I made a sausage roll from this recipe and after refrigerating the roll still crisp and delicious). Many of my friends want this recipe, but I didn’t have chance to make it until today. Making your own puff pastry is not hard but it takes time. You need about 4 hours to make it, so plan making it when you don’t have other thing to do. I got this recipe from ........................ (.............. again, if you can buy only one book about pastry making, this is the one, I love it and it’s covered with flour and batter until I decide to copy the page and stick it in the notebook, so the book will be in better condition - you can see it in the photo). There is an only key to make good puff pastry, DON’T RUSH. I made a lot of mistake before but too rush is the worst, because your dough need time to relax and the butter has to stay cold to prevent leakage, so 30 minute between each turn is not too long, believe me.

All-Butter Puff Pastry

Yield: 1 kg 250g

Butter Block
510 g	Unsalted butter
	Pinch of salt
10 ml	Lemon juice
130 g	Bread flour
Dough
10 g	Salt
240 ml	Water
55 g	Unsalted butter (cold)
15 ml	Lemon juice
100 g	Cake flour
310 g	Bread flour

TO MAKE THE BUTTER BLOCK

1. Work the cold butter into the proper consistency with the warmth of your hand. Dissolve the salt in the lemon juice. Mix into the butter together with the bread flour.

2. Shape into a 15cm square and refrigerate until firm.

Note: The butter block should not be so soft that it is hard to handle; you should be able to transfer the finished block easily from one hand to the other. It should not be so firm that it cracks or breaks if you press on it. Ideally, the dough and the butter block should have the same consistency.

TO MAKE THE DOUGH

1. Sift both flours together onto your work surface. Cut the firm butter into chunks, place on top of the flour, and, using your fingertips, cut it into the flour, pinching it down until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2. Shape into a mound, make a well in the center, and add the salt, lemon juice and most of the cold water to the well. Stir to dissolve the salt. Gradually mix the flour and butter into the water, using the fingers of both hands. If necessary, gradually add more water to form dough that holds together but is fairly sticky and rough looking.

3. Form the dough into a ball, kneading it as little as possible. Flatten the dough a little and cut a cross halfway into the ball. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

TO ASSAMBLE

l. Pull the corners of the cuts out to make the dough square-shaped.

2. Roll the opened dough out to a square slightly thicker in the center than on the sides and slightly larger than the butter block.

3. Place the butter block diagonally within the square so there are 4 triangles around the sides. Fold the dough triangles in so they meet in the center. Pinch the edges together to seal in the butter block.

4. Start by pressing down the dough with the rolling pin before rolling the dough into a rectangle 1.2 cm thick (-this is my method to prevent the leakage if the butter). Do not roll the dough wider than a sheet pan is long.

5. Give the dough the first single turns by fold the bottom third of the rectangle up toward the centre, carefully aligning the edges. Brush off any flour. Fold the top third down to make a neat square and brush off any flour.

6. Give the dough another 4 single turns, refrigerating it for approximately 30 minutes between each turn. Be sure the dough is well covered at all times.

7. After the last turn, roll the puff pastry out to approximately ⅛ inch (2 mm) thick. If this is difficult to do, refrigerate the dough for a few minutes to relax the gluten. Place the dough on a sheet pan lined with baking paper, cover, and refrigerate or freeze. Remember that you should not keep puff pastry dough in the refrigerator more than 5 days.