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)

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. 

Not-So-Old-Fashioned Chocolate Chunk Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks

Instead of chocolate chips, I swapped it with chocolate chunk! The chunkier the better! ;P

At first, I was like “baking cookies is so easy-peasy!”  But no it wasn’t! Haha! I had to put some cookies back into the oven because they were under-baked. Others were a bit over-baked resulting to a crunchy bite. I just want chewy cookies! And for the last 2 batches, I made it! Woohoo! :D

Chocolate CHUNK Cookie dough with White Chocolate Chunks

Make cookie balls in the size of a, hmmm.. it’s hard to describe it, maybe as big as a regular-sized lollipop? Haha! Line them on a cookie sheet. My cookie sheet could fit 1 dozen cookies, so 1 batch = 1 dozen :)

Bake for 8-10 minutes, Cool on cooling rack for a while. Ready to eat! Dip it in a glass of milk for 10 seconds til it absorbs the liquid then eat it, soo yummy!

Perfect for a cloudy/windy day! Or a to-go snack when you’re running late for school ;)

(Source: bakedlunchbox)

Cinnamon Raisin Pull-Apart Bread

This was the best bread I’ve ever made! I had so much fun making it and it was very easy!

I was supposed to roll it out into a square but the dough wasn’t following very much to what direction it was supposed to go, so it ended up being an irregular round/oval/spherical whatever. Doesn’t really matter because I am going to slice it up anyway later.

Sprinkle the cinnamon-raisin-sugar mixture generously on top of the flattened dough.

Slice it up to at least 3 inches thick strips. 

Put them on top of each other. You’ll get a long 3-inch thick layers of long dough with cinnamon-raisin-sugar in between each layer.

Slice them to squares this time. Grab the prepared loaf pan and hold it vertically. Start stacking up the square slices from bottom up. 

(I wasn’t able to take pictures because my hands were all messy and it will be such a hassle if I go wash my hands, take a picture then get messy again - repeat.)

Pop to oven. Mmm-mmmmm! You can see the bread rising and the sugar melting.

And I got this yummy overly cinnamon-raisin-sugared pull-apart bread!

The next day, it was devoured! xD It was so delicious! 

I want to make another one, and try different flavors ;)

Doesn’t matter if it makes you fat! Even Scott Pilgrim loves his bread! xD

Dark Chocolate Brownies: so rich, so tempting, so delicious!

Here’s the long-awaited Brownie post as promised! 

—————

You see, Brownies are the must-know-how-to-bake when you really like baking. It’s one of the simplest and easiest pastry to bake just as long as you keep your consistency, it’s all good! 

First, prepare the ingredients! I’m doing this routine of measuring everything and laying them all in front of me before starting to mix everything. This way, I won’t have to hurry myself getting the salt from the shelves while the batter is already mixed because I just want everything to go smoothly. Just try this, it won’t bite.

Melt the butter when making brownies; not creamed, not softened. This will make the brownie’s texture really smooth.

Mix in sugar and cocoa powder, one at a time.

Fold in flour, split into 3 portions to incorporate fully.

I also sandwiched small chunks of dark chocolate in between the batter poured into the cups for added richer taste of the brownie.

Pop into oven for 20 minutes, alternating sides halfway. 

While waiting for the brownies to bake, the weather outside was so lovely. A little bit of drizzle from time to time. This is the kind of perfect weather for me :D

View from the kitchen window. Lovely, isn’t it?

After a few moments, the brownies are done! They look yummy!!

I was happy I bought the foil cups weeks earlier because they’re just perfect for the brownies! It kept the temperature inside the brownie balanced so it baked perfectly. Unlike when baking brownies using a pan, the center part of the brownie is usually raw but the sides are already overbaked. Blahhh…

Well done, silver foil cups! *clap*clap*

And so this concludes today’s chapter of Baked Lunchbox! Stay tuned for more mouth-watering food experience!! :D

Non-Fat, Non-Oily, All-Baked Onion Rings!!!

Onions make your breath stink! That’s what they all say.

But I’m going to show you a way of preparing a pure onion dish without giving you stinky breath! xD

Bake it!

Since baking the onions will dry out the onion’s juice, leaving it crunchy and still tasty!

I used white sweet onions for this Onion Rings dish. Sliced at least 1cm thick.

Dipped it in the batter i prepared prior to slicing the onions. Make sure the onion slice is fully covered before moving on to the next step.

After fully dipping the onion slice in the batter, cover it with the crumbs prepared also prior to slicing the onions. Fully cover it with the crumbs if you must. I wanted it extra crunchy, so that’s what I did ;)

Place them on an oven-safe tray, with spaces in between.

Bring them in the oven for 8 minutes at 375F. Turn them upside down. Bake for another 8 minutes. LE POOF! Tasty, crunchy, scrumptious Onion Rings!! 

This was what’s left. Everyone was picking and eating on the baked ones every time they pass me by while the other onions were still inside the oven so the platter was never full hahaha! 

TIP on dipping the onions in the batter and crumbs:

Use LEFT hand for the batter. Use RIGHT hand for the crumbs.

I only used left hand for one onion because I was holding my camera with my right hand xD

Red Velvet + Ice + Pistacchio

Lalalalala… 

This is my second post for the Red Velvet cupcakes because my earlier post didn’t give justice to how good-looking and tasty these cupcakes are!

For those of you who don’t know what a Red Velvet is, here’s the rundown:

- chocolate

- smooth in texture compared to other cupcakes

- it’s freakin’ chocolate!!

The red coloring was just to cover up the chocolate-y-ness of the appearance because there are a lot of chocolate cakes out there.. this one cupcake just wants to be mysterious :P

I kinda forgot to bring my electric mixer so just used a spatula to mix it, but the texture didn’t quite get to where I wanted. Note to self: DON’T FORGET THE ELECTRIC MIXER!

Well, I want to upgrade to a Kitchen Aid Artisan Series (read more - scroll down)… but not now, I’ll need to save up for that first! :)

Notice the liner cups, I only filled it 2/3 full. Always like that!

I always enjoy watching the cake rise up. It’s pretty entertaining! Haha! xD

Of course, after the first batch I just had to taste it. Yummy! :)

Made 1 dozen. They look like an army of Reds! You should be scared because they’ll shove themselves down your throat haha! xD

Skewered a hole on the center of the cupcake and used a piping tool to fill them with what else?! Of course, Cream Cheese Frosting! Mmmmmm!

——-

About that Kitchen Aid Artisan Series Stand Mixer, here’s how it looks like:

I like the “Ice” and “Pistacchio” colors better compared to the dozens more available. I think the red version is so over-rated and the shades of different black is just too plain. Why would I pick something common from a wide variety of, in lack of a better term, happy colors..?

It also has 3 paddle attachments: whisk, mix, knead.

Can carry up to 5 quarts and it also has a protector so that the batter won’t splat all around the kitchen. 

Did I mention this the heavy duty? It’s the top-of-the-line stand mixers out there. I think all bakers should have one in their kitchen. If you can’t afford it, save up and really try to buy one someday! It’s gonna be so worth it and it’ll help you save time in your baking because while it mixes, you just pour in the ingredients. And you don’t have to pause and scrape the sides all the time because the mixer attachment covers up the whole bowl as it goes around and around. 

These 2 are on my top list! But of course I’ll just have to choose 1 in the end right? xD

La Pâte Feuilletée: one of the tricks i want to master

[retouch-free photos]

Next time around, I’m going to practice my puff pastry skills by making a croissant. 

A lot of techniques will be used here and the Tour Double (double fold) is the main one.

And so I tried out different types of croissants from all over the Metro to see and taste how it should be, but only one stood out (down, picture). I’ve tried a wheat croissant but it wasn’t that good since the wheat made the pastry harder and dry instead of puffy and moist. And so I’m sticking with the classic butter croissant.

I like how there are many thin layers inside the croissant and that makes it feel good with each bite.

*I’m also practicing my food photography skills and I think it’s improving since the first time I posted here haha! xD