Chocolate Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes - 巧克力北海道蛋糕

Last Tuesday I have made some Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes for my family as well as mum's church friends. And since I still have leftover whipping cream, I decided to make another batch which is Chocolate flavour upon my boy's request.

The recipe for both flavour is rather similar as I just replace some of the cake flour with dutch process cocoa powder which give it a deeper brown and nicer flavour.

Chiffon Cakes Using Happy Call Double-sided Pressure Pan

It has being long since I last baked a chiffon cake for my family. Although previously I have baked a few Chiffon Cakes(recipes HERE) but I still have in mind that chiffon cake is rather complicated and not easy to achieve it's unique light and fluffy texture. And moreover, sometime I find chiffon cake batter is quite difficult to handle due to the whisking of egg white(to stiff peak), mixing of yolk batter with whites and even after baking the cake itself might collapse or have wet texture due to oven temperature of baking time.

Here with my amazing Happy Call Pan(韩国双面锅), I decided to challenge to another level by using it to make Chiffon Cake. Although most of the Happy Call Pan (HCP) members used Prima Flour - Pandan Chiffon Cake Mix (available in most supermarkets) to make chiffon cake but I find the amount eggs required are too much for my liking and also since I have most of the ingredients in my pantry I decided to make it from scratch instead of using pre-mix flour.

CHOCOLATE CHIFFON CAKE

So far I have made two chiffon cakes using HCP and as you can see from the photo, even though the cake might now raise as tall as in height compared to the usual chiffon cake but we simply loves it's light and fluffy texture which how amazing it could be done by HCP. For your information this lovely chiffon is ready within 30 minutes of baking time too.

Chinese version of this recipe available HERE.

(Serves: 30 x 25cm(Basic Red Pan) | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
3 Egg Yolks
75g Cake Flour
15g Valrhona Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
25g Caster Sugar
65ml Coconut Milk
2 Tablespoons Water
1.5 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
4 Egg Whites
60g Caster Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
50g Mini Chocolate Chips, optional

Method:-

1. Beat egg yolks and 25g caster sugar using an electric beater till pale and creamy (about 3 minutes on medium speed).

2. Stir in oil, coconut milk and sifted flours(cake flour, cocoa powder and baking powder) till combined before mixing in the water and chocolate chips. Set aside.

3. Next using a clean beater, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar in another bowl till foamy before adding in the sugar in 2 - 3 batches and continue to whisk till stiff peak(when the bowl turns over the whites remains without falling off).

4. Divide the whites into 3 portions and slowly mix in one batch at a time to the yolk mixture till combine. (carefully not to mix too much and knock out the air in the batter)

5. Pour batter into the lightly grease Happy Call Pan, bake on low heat for 12 minutes, slowly shift the pan towards right side so that left side (1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat, bake for another 6 minutes. Next shift the pan back towards the left side so that right side(1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat. (the purpose of doing this is to even out the baking as well as give the cake a nice brown colour on the surface when flip over)

6. Lastly, flip the HCP over and bake for another 6 minutes(3 minutes left, 3 minutes right) to have a nice brown top.

7. Leave the cake to cool in the pan before running a small rubber spatula around the sides and underneath the cake to remove it from the pan. (since chiffon cake tends to stick to the pan, just be extra careful and gentle when removing it from the base)

Note:-
For baking using Jumbo Pan, you can use x 1.5 of the above recipe.

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FOR OVEN METHOD:-

1. Follow steps 1 - 4, pour cake batter into a 14cm (7") chiffon pan.

2. Bake in preheated 160° Celsius oven for about 40 minutes or when a skewer inserted in the center and comes out clean.

3. Remove pan from oven and invert the pan immediately to let it rest on top of a cup. Make sure it cool completely before unmould.

4. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife(i use a small rubber spatula) around the inside of the pan and the center core then follow by the base of the pan before removing the whole cake.

PANDAN CHIFFON CAKE

This is the 1st Chiffon Cake I experiment using HCP and I am happy with the result as compared to the usual chiffon cake that I used to bake. For this recipe it required 3 Egg Yolks and 4 Whites from eggs that weight 60g each.  And from the photo above you can also see that although this Pandan Chiffon Cake is bake using HCP but it still has it's unique brown crust like those usual one that we bought off self or bake from the oven.

(Serves: 30 x 25cm | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
3 Egg Yolks
90g Cake Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
25g Caster Sugar
65ml Coconut Milk
1.5 Teaspoons Pandan Paste
2 Tablespoons Water
1.5 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
4 Egg Whites
60g Caster Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Method:-

1. Follow the same steps as above shown in the Chocolate Chiffon Cake.

2. Mix pandan paste with 2 tablespoons of water and add it into steps 2 shown above.

OR

3. You can blend about 20 pieces of Pandan leaves(Screwpine) and extract fresh juice from it. Recipe HERE.

This recipe is pretty simple and straight forward to follow so you can even bake it with your kids during weekend like what I did with my boy. I am sure this would be a good family activities to add extra bonding and fun time before tea-snack.

Feel free to explore this recipe with your own preference by adding or different ingredients such as dried fruits, sweet potato, corns and etc to make different flavour of your family favourite chiffon cakes. Till then have a great weekend, everyone!

Double Chocolate Banana Cake

Continue from my previous post on the Banana Chocolate Cake With Cranberry this double chocolate version is definitely with excitement! I made this Double Chocolate Banana Cake because it consists two of my boy's favourite ingredients which are "Banana" and "Dark Chocolate" and they definitely pairs well. If you want to impress your guests with something rich, soft and moist and quick for afternoon tea perhaps you can try baking this using either oven method or my super Happy Call Pan!

Banana Chocolate Cake With Cranberry

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Banana Cake is always an old-fashioned family favourite when comes to tea-time or gatherings. I love it's unique fragrant release from the cake that kept lingering in your mouth after eating as well it also contribute extra points to the texture of the cake.

We also have quite a few of our favourite banana cake recipes such as "Banana And Oreo Muffin ", "Spongy Banana Cake" and "Cranberry And Banana Walnut Cake" which you might be interested to take a look too. 

BANANA CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CRANBERRY

(using Happy Call Pan)

After the two cake recipes that I have tested using Happy Call Pan(HCP), I decided to try whether I could apply normal cake recipe using this pan instead of oven. So I made this Banana Chocolate Cake with Cranberry which inspired from the latest banana cake recipe(HERE) that I have shared a few weeks back. Although the cake did not rise as high as what I expected compared to oven bake but the overall texture and taste of this cake is very well-received. Many who tried (during the blind taste test) didn't even realise that this cake is actually bake using HCP instead of oven.

(Makes: 30 x 25cm | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
225g All-Purpose Flour(plain flour)
170g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
170g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs(55g each)
2 Large Ripe Banana, mashed
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Salt
30ml of Milk
100g Dark Chocolate, chopped
60g Dried Cranberry
2 Tablespoons of RUM
1 Extra Banana for topping, optional

Method:-

1. Soak Cranberry(roughly chopped) with 2 Tablespoons of RUM for about 10 minutes. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream soft butter and caster sugar using a electric beater or hand whisk till pale and creamy.

3. Add one egg at a time together with vanilla extract, beat till combined before stirring in the mashed banana and cranberry mixture. Mix well.

4. Using a spatula, fold in sifted flours in 3 batches alternatively with milk till well combined. Lastly stir in the chopped chocolate.

5. Slowly scrap mixture into the lightly greased Happy Call Pan(grease 1 teaspoon of oil on both side of the pan using hand or paper towel). You can also add some banana slices on top of the batter before baking to enhance the look and taste.

6. Bake on low heat for 12 minutes, slowly shift the pan towards right side so that left side (1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat, bake for another 6 minutes. Next shift the pan back towards the left side so that right side(1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat. (the purpose of doing this is to even out the baking as well as give the cake a nice brown colour on the surface when flip over)

7. Lastly, flip the HCP over and bake for another 6 minutes(3 minutes left, 3 minutes right) to have a nice brown top.

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FOR OVEN METHOD:-
1. Follow steps 1 - 4, pour cake batter into a greased 7" square or round tin.

2. Bake in preheated 180° Celsius oven for about 40 - 50 minutes or when a skewer inserted in the center and comes out clean.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BANANA CAKE

(Preview)

Lastly here is a snack preview of the Double Chocolate Banana Cake made using similar recipe above with a slight twist.Will update more recipes on my HCP bakes and dishes soon. Stay tune.

Christmas Gifts - Classic Chocolate Brownie and Cheddar Cheese Crackers

What is your PERFECT Christmas Gift! I am sure everyone loves to receive something special for Christmas and for us homemade gifts are perfect for this festive season. You could bake some cookies, truffles, fruit cakes or DIY some special craft and etc for your family or friends.

In this post I would like to share with you two sample bakes that I have made as Christmas Gifts for my friends.

CLASSIC CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

A chocolate recipe that is foolproof at all time would be this Donna Hay, Classic Brownie which comes in handy for all occasions.  Instead of the usual rectangle shape brownie I have made these star shaped brown using foil cases from IKEA which is just perfect for Christmas Gift. 

Adapted from Donna Hay Magazine, Oct-Nov 2011 issue
(serves: 10 Stars | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 16 - 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
200g Dark Chocolate, chopped
140g Unsalted Butter, cubes
1 Cup(175g) Brown Sugar
3 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup (75g) Plain Flour

Method:-

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place half chocolate(100g) and butter in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth.

2. All to cool slightly to lukewarm.

3. Place sugar, eggs and flour in a big mixing bowl with the chocolate mixture and mix till well combined.

4. Stir through the remaining chocolate pieces and spoon the mixture into the star shaped foil cases(I bought the star shaped cases from IKEA).

5. Bake for 16 - 20 minutes depending on the size of your mould or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

6. Allow it to cool and dust with extra cocoa powder and icing sugar.

Before serving or packing you could dust the star brownies with some extra Cocoa Powder and icing sugar to give it a better outlook as gift. I have baked this brownie for 17 minutes which I feel it could be even better if I under bake it for another 1 or 2 minutes to achieve that more moist effect with melted chocolate.

CHEDDAR CHEESE CRACKERS

This is my first time making cheese crackers for Christmas instead of our usual Gingerbread Man. These savoury treats can be an appetizer to go with champagne or any yoghurt/cheese dips before Main Course or even as a gift-giving items. And beware this is a very addictive snacks that would be gone in no times.

(Makes: about 40 crackers | Preparation: 5 minutes + 30 minutes chilling |
Cooking: 12 minutes each batch)

Ingredients:
210g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon MasterFoods Paprika
Pinch of Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
165g Butter, soften
165g Grated Cheddar Cheese
Beaten Egg for glazing

Method:-

1.Sift flour, baking powder, paprika, salt and black pepper into a bowl.

2. Mix softened butter using a spoon with Cheddar until they are well blended.

3. Add dry ingredients (flour mixture) into the cheese mixture and mix until it form a soft dough.

4. Slightly flatten the dough between two sheet of baking paper and wrapped it up and place into a zip lock bag before refrigerate it from 30 minutes to firm up.

5. Take out half portion of the dough, floured work surface and roll dough into 0.5cm thick. Cut dough with desired shaped cutters and place them 1cm apart on baking tray.

6. Bake in preheated 180°C oven for about 12 minutes or till golden in colour. Remove and set aside on rack to cool before packing.

GRILLED CHICKEN WITH AGLIO e OLIO

After spending a few hours in the kitchen baking the above Christmas Gifts we had this quick and simple pasta dish for dinner. I have marinated the boneless chicken drumstick with Portuguese Seasoning and some fresh rosemary herbs.

While the chicken is cooking on the pan, I also prepared some Aglio e Olio (you can refer a similar "Spaghetti Aglio e Olio" recipe HERE) and garden salad to complete the dish.

Lastly I would love to wish everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Nutella Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips

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There are so many versions of Self-frosting Nutella Cupcake recipes available online whenever you do a goggle search. Here I am using a recipe from Camemberu with slight changes by adding my son's favourite mini chocolate chips to make it more chocolatey on top of the Nutella used.

NUTELLA CUPCAKES WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS

For the recipe of this Nutella Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip you would notice that I have used 2 types of flours like what I did for the Kiwifruit and Lime Cupcakes as i prefer a lighter texture by in-cooperate some self-raising flour. But if you find it too troublesome, you could always follow the original recipe and use 100g of plain flour plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead.

Recipe adapted and modify from Camemberu Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes.

(serves: make 6 | Preparation: 10-15 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
70g Plain Flour
30g Self-Raising Flour
70g Unsalted Butter, soften
70g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs, 60g each
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
Pinch of Salt
Some Nutella Spread

Method:-

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy(about 2 minutes on medium speed)

2. Add egg one at a time and beat till no trace of egg mixture.

3. Next add vanilla and stir in flour mixture until flours are full in-cooperate before toss in the chocolate chips and mix well.

4. Fill each cup with 1/4 of the batter, add in 1 teaspoon of Nutella each before covering it with batter to fill 3/4 full.

5. Give the mixture a quick swirl using toothpick and bake in preheated 180 degree celsius oven for 20 minutes or until skewer insert and comes out clean.

These are some of the Mini Nutella and Peanut Butter Cupcakes which my boy would occasionally request as his tea snack or breakfast. And I guess these mini version would be great for kids to bring to school or outings compared to the normal size cupcakes above.

Lastly I would like to submit this Nutella Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips for Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy Cupcakes! (November 2011) hosted by Min of Min's Blog. Enjoy everyone!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE NUTELLA CUPCAKES

This is another version of our Double Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes which is filled with lot of Dark Chocolate and Chocolate Chips. You can find the recipe exclusively from Cuisine Paradise Facebook page, HERE.

Cardamom Chocolate Chunk Cake

Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic and resinous fragrance. It is also one of the common ingredient use in Indian cooking but whereas in the Middle East, usually green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes and traditional flavouring in coffee and tea. Today I am sharing this butter cake recipe using Cardamon Powder and Chocolate Chunks which would filled your kitchen with wonderful aroma release from the cardamon used.

CARDAMOM CHOCOLATE CHUNK CAKE

I always love the sweet scent release from the Cardamom seeds while using them for either cooking or baking. After searching from a few Indian provision shops around my area, I finally found a packet of the ground cardamom powder which is one of the main ingredients for this recipe.

Recipe adapted and modify from Australian Table(aka Australian Good Food) magazine

(make: 2 (17cm x 8cm x 6cm) loaf tins | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 35 minutes)

Ingredients: 
150g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
150g Light Brown Sugar
3 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
50ml Fresh Milk
300g(2 cups) Self-Raising Flour, sifted
*2 Teaspoons Ground Cardamon(refer to note below)
100g Dark Chocolate, cut into chunks

Method:-

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease and line loaf tins with baking paper.

2. Place soft butter and sugar in a big mixing bow and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes on medium speed).

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well before next addition. Stir in sifted flour and cardamon powder together with milk and continue to beat until mixture is smooth.

4. Mix in chocolate chunks until well combined. Spoon mixture into prepared tins(about half full each tin) and level top.

5. Bake for about 35 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

6. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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Note:-

*~ If cardamom powder is not available, you can replace it with 2 teaspoons cardamom seeds which are pounded in a mortar.

~ If you are baking this in 1 "single" tin the baking time would varies from 50 - 60 minutes depending on the size.

Just for your information, the cake batter for this recipe will be a bit thick rather than runny. And since it is using self-raising flour do fill the baking tin till half or slight more than half full in case the batter raise while baking and overflow from the tin.

Overall this is a very fragrance tea-cake that which I recommend it to go with a cup of good English tea to pamper yourself in cold winter day or serving this to friends for an afternoon get together tea session. For savory dish using Cardamom pops, you can refer to my Orange Scented Rice recipe HERE.

{Halloween Special} Jack O' Lantern, Black Cat Pumpkin Soup, Eyeballs Fettuccine And Death By Chocolate

Halloween is the celebration typically held on 31st October each year where this date marked the end of the summer and beginning of the cold winter which was often a time of death. As usually this year you could also join in some Halloween event at some of the tourist attraction such as Universality Studios Singapore, Halloween Horror Nights(here), Sentosa Spooktacular (here), FrightFest@Singapore Flyer (here) and etc.

This is the second year (read last year post, here) I cooked Halloween theme dishes despite that we don't actually celebrate this festival. Same as last year I have cooked a creamy pumpkin soup but with fusion of Asian and Western ingredients. And for this year we have a set Dinner Menu that comes with salad, soup, pasta and dessert with Halloween theme decorated.

Orange-Scented Flourless Chocolate Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake has being queuing in my "must-try" lists for at least more than 2 years. Whenever I saw beautiful photos and recipes from fellow bloggers who lay their hand on this delicious looking cake I will be fascinated to give it a try. But the "fate" between me and this cake only begins to spark last week while I was planning to bake something for my neighour and my boy's school teacher.

From the name "Flourless" you can more or less figure out that this recipe does not require any Flour, but somehow or rather it did call for a minimum amount of cocoa powder to enhance the taste. So in order to have better texture and taste for this cake, I would suggest you get some decent brand of cocoa powder which would give it that dark and luxury outlook.

I love this recipe because it is so easy to prepare and you can even let your kid(s) handle most of the beating and folding job with maybe a bit of help from the Adult. Furthermore those of us who tried this cake were surprised of it's taste and texture which is moist, fluffy and tasty even without any use of "BUTTER or MILK".

Ingredients: (make 4, 9cm x 9cm square disposal baking case)
4 Egg Yolks
4 Egg Whites
110g Caster Sugar
12g Valrhona Cocoa Powder
100g Valrhona(Guanaja - 70%)Dark Chocolate, melted
1 Teaspoon Grand Marine/Vanilla Essence
Zest of 1 or 2 Oranges

Method:-

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree.

2. Separate egg yolks and whites in two different mixing bowl. (i use a bigger bowl for my yolks mixture in order to mix in the whites later on)

3. Whisk egg whites in a bowl with a mixer until soft peaks form. (do not over beat till stiff peak)

4. Next whisk egg yolks and sugar in another mixing bowl until pale and airy before folding in cocoa powder, orange zest and grand marine.

5. Stir in melted chocolate till well combined. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites at a time and mix well. (since chocolate mixture will be heavier than egg whites, try to scrap and stir from the bottom when mixing to get an even texture)

6. Pour mixture into prepared cake pan or disposal baking cases. Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes(9cm square paper case), 25 minutes(7"/15cm round cake pan) or when skewer insert and comes out clean.

7. Cool the cake completely on baking rack before sprinkle it with icing sugar and decorate with whipped cream, ice-cream or assorted fresh berries of your choice and serve.

Tips:-
1. You can either melt the chocolate over a double-boiler or place them in microwave safe bowl and cook on HIGH heat for about 90 seconds, stirring at an interval of 30 seconds to prevent burnt.

2. Eggs use in the recipe is 60g each in weighs.

As you can see from the photos, the top of the cake has a delicate crispy crust which gives this cake a few layers of texture such as crisp top, moist and fluffy cake with orange-scented flavour on each bites. And since this is my 1st trial, I hope I would be able to achieve a bit slightly fudgy texture perhaps with a 3 minutes under bake on the timing.

For more recipes on different type of Flourless Chocolate Cake, you can refer to the follow site which I bookmark too.
1. Flourless Chocolate Gateau from Happy Home Baking
2. Flourless Chocolate and Almond Cake from Little Teochew

Chocolate Lemon Yogurt Cake

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About two weeks back I have an entry on Lemon Yougurt Butter Cake which was quite well-received by most of my friends. So during my Kids' Pizza and Bento Workshop last week I decided to twist the recipe a bit in order to suit the kids with this Chocolate Lemon Yogurt Cake.

Each bites on this chocolate cake leaves you with a light and refreshing lemon fragrant mixing together with that rich chocolate taste that stays in your mouth for quite sometime which I am sure it would makes a perfect tea cake for the kids.

In order to make it more chocolatey, I added extra 100g of mini chocolate chips so that i will make the cake more moist and full of chocolate flavour.

Recipe adapted from Lemon Yogurt Butter Cake HERE.

Ingredients: (makes 2 small loaf tins, 17cm x 8cm x 6cm) 
175g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
200g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs, 60g each
200g Self Raising Flour
45g Valrhona Cocoa Powder
100g Mini Chocolate Chips
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
Zest of 1 Lemon
4 Tablespoons Plain Yogurt

Method:-

1. Cream butter and sugar with mixer till creamy and pale (about 3 - 4 minutes on medium speed).

2. Add in eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition. If necessary scrap mixture off the side of the mixing bowl and make sure everything is well beaten.

3. Fold in the mixture of sifted self-raising flour plus cocoa powder in 3 batches.

4. Next add in lemon zest, juice, yogurt, mini chocolate chips and fold thoroughly till combined.

5. Divide batter equal into 2 mini loaf tins that are lined with greaseproof paper.

6. Bake in preheat 180 degree oven for about 35 - 40 minutes or when skewer insert and come out clean.

7. When cake is done, remove it from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

8. Transfer cake to cooling rack and cool completely before cutting it into serving slices.

{Recipe and Game} Chocolate Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes With Vanilla Ice Cream Plus Blind Taste Test

Isn't these "ice-cream cone cupcakes" look great for special occasions such as Birthday party, school function or even tea-time. I am sure not only the Kids fancy this,  Adults like us will also love eating our favourite cake in a cone instead of on a plate too. So why not give this a try and start making your favourite cupcakes in ice-cream cones instead of paper cases. Or just like us if you don't fancy frosting your cupcakes you can even eat it on it's own or top it with an extra scoop of your favourite ice-cream.

I always love dessert such as Chocolate Brownie or Molten Chocolate Cake that serves with a generous scoop of premium Vanilla ice-cream. And when compared to other flavour, vanilla ice-cream is said to be the most popular flavour like by most consumers which is why you can always see vanilla ice-cream appears in most dessert corner or menu in major cafes/restaurants.

Since I am making some ice-cream cone cupcakes for my neighbours as one of our tea snacks we decided to play a small game while waiting for the cupcakes to cool off. To start off we gathered 3 different brands of vanilla ice-cream to do a blind taste test and see which is the most popular choice among us. In this game, each family contribute one of their favourite brand of vanilla ice-cream and I would scoop it into 3 different cups and let all the participants take a blind taste test on each of them.

For this test we had 9 participants from 3 different families with age group ranging from the youngest; 5 years old to the oldest 60 plus. Each participants will get to sample the prepared Vanilla Ice-cream from Haagen Dazs, New Zealand Natural and Ben And Jerry's without any knowledge of which brand they are tasting. So can you make a guess which is the most popular choice out of the 3 brands that most of them pick?(result is shown at the end of this post) But before we scroll down to read the "taste test" result, let's take a look at the Chocolate Ice-cream Cone Cupcakes recipe shown below first.

CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM CONE CUPCAKES
WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM

I have bookmarked this recipe for quite sometime but was not very keen to attempt due to the frosting part. So with some read-up and brainstorm with my facebook friends, I decided to give it a try without doing the frosting and replace it with a good scoop of Vanilla Ice-cream.

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay

Ingredients: (make 8 flat base ice-cream cones)
60g Butter, soften
80g Caster Sugar
1 Large Egg
50g Valrhona(Guanaja - 70%)Dark Chocolate, melted
95g Plain Flour
1 Tablespoon Dutch-process Cocoa Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
50ml Fresh Milk
8 Flat Base Ice-Cream Cones
40g Valrhona(Guanaja - 70%) Dark Chocolate, extra

Topping:
Premium Vanilla Ice-cream

Method:-

1. Melt 50g of dark chocolate in microwave on High for 40 seconds with an interval of 20 seconds each.

2. Arrange ice-cream cones on baking tray and place 2 feves of dark chocolate at the base of each cone.

3. Preheat oven to 160 degree. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl till light and creamy, add in egg and beat till well mixed.

4. Next sift over flour mixture(plain flour, baking powder and cocoa powder) and continue to beat until mixture became a gluey batter.

5. Fold in milk and stir with either a spatula or hand-held whisk till combine before stirring in the melted chocolate.

6. Spoon batter into each cone and fill up 0.5cm away from the rim. Bake in preheat oven for 15 minutes; increase oven temperate to 170 degree and continue to bake for another 10 minute or when skewer insert and comes out clean .

7. Allow cupcakes to cool for 10 minutes, running a small knife round the "hump" on top of the cake and remove it before stuffing it with a scoop of Premium Vanilla Ice-cream.

8. You can either drizzle extra melted chocolate, sprinkler or use the cut-off cake to place on the ice-cream to act as toppings.

Chocolate Ice-cream Cone Cupcakes

These cupcakes taste great even without any frosting. The cake itself is soft, moist and infused with "Triple" chocolate content. With each bites you can taste 3 different texture in one mouthful such as the crispy ice-cream cone, moist chocolate cake and cold ice-cream all mingling in your mouth.

For your information these cupcakes are best to be eaten within an hour or warm so that the ice-cream cones will reminds crispy instead of soft and soggy after a few hours. But if you intend to keep for longer time you might want to consider reheat it in a 200 degree oven for about 3 minutes to revive the "crispness" of the ice-cream cones.

Result Of Our
BLIND TASTE TEST

Tata!!!!! Have you make the correct guess? Or you are surprised with the result shown above? Yes! I myself was surprised when I saw the results; out of the 9 participants, 4 voted(2 Young Adults, 1 Teenage and a Kid) for New Zealand Natural immediately after they tried all the 3 different cups of ice-cream whereas the other 5 participants still took sometime to decide which product to cast their vote.

As for products wise you can still see tiny bits of vanilla pods in both New Zealand Natural and Ben And Jerry's. But in term of taste New Zealand Natural has the smoothest texture and mild creamy taste which does not overpower the vanilla fragrance. So if you like vanilla ice-cream perhaps you can also gather a few brands and do a blind taste test like us, have fun and enjoy the process as well as the eating those cold and delicious ice-cream especially during hot and humid days.