Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes

Christmas is about family, friends, fun and great food. But it is often the food and gift that form the stress part of this approaching holiday season. So why not whip-up something simple and yet special from your very own kitchen, gift-wrapped it into a heart-warming and gorgeous Christmas gift for your friends and relatives..........

Usually around mid of November onwards, you will be to find all kind of Christmas Goodies on sale at most pastry shop and shopping mall. Eg. Christmas Logcake, Gingerbread man/house, Minced Pie and etc...... Since now is the festive baking season, Rey and I have come up with these quick and easy Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes. After which we gave them a make-over, packed them in gift-bags and ready to distribute out.

The Main ingredients for this Chocolate Cupcakes are Dark Chocolate, Egg, Sugar and Butter. You may also wish to get your kids to be involved in the stirring, mixing as well as the decoration of Christmas Ornaments on the end products. Since afterall, Christmas is a family festive season where everyone is encourage to be involved in the preparation. These cupcakes are so rich and simple to make that you won't hesitate to make another batch in anytime of the week.

Ingredients: (makes 6)
150g 70% Dark Chocolate, chop into small cubes
150g Unsalted Butter, cut into small cubes
3 Medium Size Egg
60g Caster Sugar
100g Self Raising Flour
1 Teaspoon Dutch-process Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Snow Powder/Icing Sugar, for dusting
Extra 1 Teaspoon Dutch-Process Cocoa Powder, for dusting

Method:
1. Set a medium glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together(refer to the picture above, 2nd row, 1st picture), stir well till everything is completely melted then set a side to cool a little.
2. Sieves the self-raising flour and 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder together and set aside.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick, fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture till combined.
4. Next slowly add in the melted chocolate mixture and stir till well blended.
5. Preheat the oven to 160 degree, scoop the mixture into the prepared cup cases and bake for 20 minutes (depend on the size of cupcake case, baking time will range from 15 – 20 minutes which you can test by inserting a toothpick to test if it is cooked through)
6. The cupcakes will be soft and gooey in texture and appearance.
7. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes, dusted with extra cocoa powder and icing sugar to create the snow effect.
8. Lastly decorate it with some store bought Christmas Ornaments for that extra festive outlook.

Note:-
1) The cupcake case that is used in this recipe yield 150ml of mixture per case at 3/4 full.
2) If you prefer not to have that gooey texture cake, you can baked for another further 2 - 3 minutes for dryer texture.


After the baking, dusting of icing sugar, placing of Christmas decoration, it is time for gift wrapping. You can get some fancy wrapping bags and ribbons from Daiso or any leading Baking Accessories shop like Phoon Huat (Singapore) and Bake It Yourself.

I am sure anyone will feel great and heart-warming to receive such a wonderful homemade gift. So if you can bake any simple cookies or cupcakes, why not grab some nice wrapping bag and start making your very own Christmas goodies for your love one, colleagues or relatives. I believed they will be surprised and delighted by your special thoughts and bakes.

Bak Kuet Teh

Bak Kuet Teh is one of the popular Chinese soup found in Asia countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and etc. In Singapore there are mainly 3 different types of Bak Kuet Teh and the Teochew version is more popular with patrons with its light color soup base that is more pepper in taste. Whereas for the Hokkien who prefer stronger taste soy sauce is added which results a darker soup. But as for Cantonese extra Chinese herbs, gingok nuts and etc are added to create a stronger flavoured soup.

Jia Xiang Sarawak Kolo Mee

The famous Sarawak "Jia Xiang Mee" has about more than 6 outlets scattered in different area of Singapore. Till now, we have tried about 3 times in their Vivo City, Compass Point and Thomson branch. According to the menu and write up, their noodle is Air-Flown fresh from Sarawak Kuching and their wanton skin is thin and smooth. They have different choices of dried Kolo Mee such as Abalone, prawns, wanton and etc.

The photo feature here is their Signature Dish of Kolo Mee with Abalone slices. Friendly speaking, you can ask for more when you pay for a bowl of noodle at S$8.90. But we are just curious on what kind of Abalone they will be using.... and I guess from the photo you can see whether is it worth to pay the S$8.90 :p Other than the so called "Abalone slices", there were plenty of ingredients such as - lots of green vegetables, minced pork, char siew, fried wanton and in the separate bowl of soup there are 2 prawns and 3 wantons.

Em... for me as I was in a mood of having curry, I decided to give their curry noodle a try. I have tried a few curry noodles from those famous stalls selling Chicken Curry Noodles but the curry at Jia Xiang taste much different from the local type. I personally find that the curry don't really goes well with the Kolo mee as it taste a bit blend or maybe the noodles has not adsorb the gravy from the curry. There is also a powdery taste in their curry gravy so I guess is not my cup of tea.

Exploring Bottle Tree Park

Prawning has became one of the hottest past-time hobbies for most Singaporean from young to old. No matter which age group you belong to, this is indeed a fun, patience testing, friends and family get together type of activities. Last weekend, we visited Bottle Tree Park which is a walking distance from MRT and bus-stop.

We have being to the Bottle Tree Park a few times which is about 5 -8 minutes walk away from the Khatib MRT Station(NS 14) station. This is a concept village where there are different kinds of sports, recreational facilities, conference rooms, eateries as well as old-times nature.


After about two years since it's grand opening in 2006. This park has being doing well and they have in-corporate a new Japanese restaurant called "Botoru Ki" which serves many varieties of reasonable price-range Japaneses Bento set meals.

They also have this little "Vegetable Farm" near the entrance of the Park where they cater for Schools Educational Tour. These are what I have discovered while discovering around the park. Neat rows of seedlings and vegetable are being planted at different stage for school tour and they even have this little cafe that looks like those western farm-style cafe that sells they own-grown vegetable, homemade snacks and beverages.

Behind the vegetable patch, there is a narrow path-way that consists of different cages that which you can see Chicken, Rabbit, Goose, Quail and etc. This is indeed a great discovery where young kids can take a look on the Kampong life-style as well as the local farm animals.

In this park, almost every members of the family can be occupied with certain activities that they like. They can choose from Long Kang” (drain) Fishing, Prawning, Paintball, Swan Paddling, Outdoor Courts (for playing balls)Remote-Control Car Racing and etc.

Prawning is a great activity where families and friends can have great time together. The anticipation of prawn biting, the patience of waiting, the excitement of hooking up a prawn and the reward of a great feast of fresh prawn. All these are wonderful moments will be last in the memories.

This is our victory of the day..... after waiting patience for about 3 hours at the pond, we managed to grab some decent amount of Fresh Prawn to whip up this wonderful Baked Prawn With Lemon & Cheese. If you are interested with the recipe, you can hope over to my recipe blog HERE to read more about it.