Vanilla bean cake with chocolate ganache

Yesterday was my Birthday :)

And Today is my Hubby's Birthday!!!

I wanted to give him a surprise; and what can be better than a Birthday Cake!

Since I have some vanilla pods which have been sitting inside my fridge for ages, I shall make a Vanilla cake!

Complete with my favourite chocolate ganache!

It is my first attempt to make a cake!

I always make cupcakes/muffins but never a cake, I am so excited.

Two 8-inch round pans squeezing in the oven!

Cakes are done! Time to dress up!

Yes, covering cake with ganache is indeed very messy and unsightly!

Until the ganache hardens and you can clear it up to make it look nicer.

 Tadah!

Words written with edible gel

Complete with packaging to give hubby a surprise!

To me, a birthday must have a cake with lit candles, so I can make wishes!

The cake looks great, both inside and outside.

But the cake is a bit too moist and dense; maybe I added too little flour.

Luckily the chocolate ganache comes to the rescue and makes the cake quite nice though.

A nice first attempt!

I will try to improve next time :)

Blueberry Muffins

Berries, berries,berries, I love them all!

Especially Blueberries!

But it's a pity that I'm living in a tropical island country, with very little access to temperate fruits like berries, peaches etc. By the time these fruits were imported here, they were not that fresh and sweet and were often very expensive.

So I must make some blueberry muffins before the season ends and they are gone.

Can you see the blueberries?!!

Rising rising! Muffins do not seem to rise as much as cupcakes, but they still rise beautifully~

Almost done! The smell coming out of the oven is heavenly!

Freshly done!

Ready to be devoured!!!

Blueberries oozing out everywhere!

The muffins (recipe) tasted great; soft like cake yet still moist but not as dense as cupcakes.

And the juices from the burst blueberries were oozing out everywhere, tasted a bit like blueberry jam but so much better. The only sad thing is the blueberries are sour (I forgot to taste them before adding).

Anyway I still fell in love with the muffins on the first bite; can't stop myself from popping them into my mouth ^o^

Just a note: I have no idea what the cup volume for blueberries in the recipe is (I use metric measurements); anyway I made 12 muffins and I used 250g of blueberries which is sufficient enough.

Pistachio cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Last weekend I finally bought a 12-muffin tray!

I have been wanting to buy it for the longest time but yet unable to bring myself to spend that money.

Now I find it really really well-spent, because I have gotten such beautiful cupcakes!!!

(Read on to check it out!) 

The batter was done and poured into the muffin cups, waiting eagerly to get into the hot oven!

Rising, rising, rising...UNIFORMLY! and oh-so-beautiful!!!

Last time when I used alumimium foil cups for baking, the cupcakes would turn out to be of all ugly shapes.

Now I finally get pretty cupcakes!!! ^_^

~Freshly out of the oven~

Decorated with chocolate ganache and pistachio pieces!!!

It tasted as nice as it looked, I am on cloud nine!

This recipe is good; the ingredients are simple and the steps are easy. The cupcakes are soft and moist, but I change the sugar icing to chocolate ganache because I find pistachio and chocolate make a wonderful pair!

And good baking tools are really important too! Go get yourself that muffin tray if you have been secretly eyeing it! Cheers!