Baked Lunchbox

Rainbow Cupcakes: I can finally taste the rainbow!

I’ve always wanted to experiment with colors on cupcakes and now that I found the time to do it, I dove into the whole idea! First of all, I know I have to use a lot of bowls and spatulas for this one, I didn’t realize it really was A LOT. Nevertheless, making rainbow cupcakes was the most relax I’ve had in the midst of school work piling and piling over.

So, the first rule, prepare all the ingredients and bowls needed. In this case:

5 bowls

5 spatulas

5 spoons (to go hand-in-hand with the spatula)

small bowl for dry ingredients

small bowl for wet ingredients

Ingredients

Prepare all the ingredients according to recipe instructions, but I didn’t use a recipe anymore. I already have the recipe in my head! A must for baking/cooking! Memorize the ingredients by heart ❤

Don’t mind the messiness, it naturally comes with baking, and the fact that I used a lot of colors.

Pour each color carefully into the cupcake liners. I strategically followed ROYGBIV… but with 5 colors only.. xD and added chocolate chips in between colors!

For some gravitational reason, the batter swirled itself while I was adding them one by one.. Not complaining or anything, I like how it turned out!

After 5 hours of carefully preparing the batter, not to flatten out the air bubbles, I’ve created an army of Rainbow Cupcakes ready to spread happy rainbows all over!

I know the outer kinda turned a bit brown, it’s really like that. So when you slice the cupcake in two, SURPRISE!

Last rainbow picture before this post ends! :D

I bet you all are like this now:

(Source: bakedlunchbox)

Strawberry Chiffon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I baked a cake for my friend’s birthday; it was a 3-layered plain chiffon cake with buttercream frosting and a handful of white choco-chips + ground cinnamon in between layers. I’m still working on my decorating skills on the other hand, so I just used buttercream frosting to smooth out the exterior and drew a blue star on top ( she likes blue haha!) She took a picture while slicing it and posted it on FB right away! I thought that was cool :)

And so I was inspired to bake another one! But this time, I used strawberries instead of cinnamon. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?! That cake would have tasted better! xD

3-layered plain vanilla chiffon cake with cream cheese frosting + strawberries + white choco-chips.

I think I was the only one who ate almost the whole 8” cake! It was good anyway so I don’t mind. The sourness of the strawberries complimented the sweetness of the white choco-chips and cream cheese frosting. A match made in cake kingdom, according to me! ;P 

I didn’t decorate the outer part of the cake with frosting anymore since I was the only one who ate most of it. I like less frosting :)

(Source: bakedlunchbox)

Rainy Days are the best: best for baking and best for snuggling up with a warm cup of cocoa topped with large marshmallows.

The smell of the rain on the rich grassy soil is like the smell of nostalgia. It works best in the cold kitchen with a warm oven waiting for something sweet to be baked. Plus sugar. Plus vanilla. Perfect season.

Muffins may not be as extravagant as the cupcakes but it’s easier to work with it; no frostings. Frostings need a lot of sugar and the consistency needs special attention all the tone, but with muffins: easy, delish and cute ;)

Breads: I’m just fascinated how one sticky piece of dough can turn into something incredible and tasty in a span of half an hour. Especially when the bread is designed into something different rather than the usual loaf.

Baking could be a lot of fun, if it wasn’t for all the dish-washing and cleaning up I had to do on my own. Anyway, everyone should at least try baking or cooking once in a while. You’ll be surprised how there is a wonderful side to food than eating. 

(Source: bakedlunchbox)

Apple Blueberry Bar: Crunch, crunch…

New Zealand’s apples are still the best… just sayin’…

The fruit bowl in my house never goes out of fruits. In fact, it’s always full or even over-flowing we had to get another container as a fruit bowl extension. I’m not complaining or anything, I actually like it because my baking would have a theme and I like it when fresh fruits are involved :) 

This time, we were blessed with apples for the week and we had some ignored pieces so I put them to use. 

I used 4 really really red fresh Washington apples. Peel them and cut into four parts, remove the core and slice thinly.

My favorite part of this Apple Bar is the large crumbs scattered on the top of the whole thing. It’s just fun to eat and every bite give a crunch from childhood, like eating rock sugar xD

Guess who ate the a slice?! 

I watched Hell’s Kitchen, Master Chef US, Master Chef Australia, a Malaysian food show in Malaysian (so I didn’t get any of what he said haha!), Jamie Oliver’s American Road Trip, and all the food shows that was on TV during the weekend. I even watched the repeats because that’s how addicted I was! Knight And Day was also on, I watched it twice, night before I slept and morning when I woke up! 

Eat this topped with ice cream.. the Bomb! I like how the apples are stil crunchy even if it was bathing in apple cinnamon syrup for 2 days! Incredible! :D

EDIT ON MY EARLIER POST:
It’s not 2 dozens Apple Bars, it’s 16 pcs. Apple Bars.  

Ginger Cookies: but no ginger included, really.

Continuation of this earlier post.

When I think of ginger for baking, I think of some old pharmaceutical organic medicine… but my perception changed after trying this. :)

Ginger Cookies do not really have ginger in it. It’s just the aroma the other spices give. The fusion of cinnamon and all the other spices mixed into the cookies give it a kind of an unknown taste, like lost between somewhere familiar and not. 

You can put all the dry ingredient together in one large bowl.

Add the wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

Roll cookie dough into a ball and cover with powdered sugar. Arrange on cookie sheet at least 1 inch apart and push down the tip of the cookie ball with two fingers until slightly flat but not too flat. 

Wait 12-15 minutes until baked, soft on center but solid on edges.