I looove this chocolate-orange cupcake sooo much! ^^ It’s so light and fresh, and it smells of chocolate and sunkist! A very nice treat for one sunny afternoon, especially when served cold 😀

Chocolate Orange Cupcake Recipe:

• 175 g unsalted butter
• 120 g castor sugar
• 150 g self-raising flour
• 60 g cocoa powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 orange (sunkist) – use the orange rind and the juice

Beat butter and sugar in a mixer, add in those eggs (one at a time) and the orange rind. How to get the orange rind? Easy. Peel the skin of your sunkist, ensuring that you’re only taking the thin orange skin and leaving the white part. The orange rind has this fresh orange fragrance that will make your chocolate-orange cupcake smells (and tastes) amazing! 🙂

Next, put the mixture in a bowl, add in flour, cocoa powder and orange juice (from the sunkist), fold it, and divide it evenly into a 12-cupcake tin, bake for around 15 minutes, 180^oC.

Choco-Baileys butter cream:

• 100 g unsalted butter
• 50 g castor sugar (you can add more sugar later to the mixture if you like sweeter cream)
• 1/4 cup of coffee-flavored Baileys
• 4 tbsp of cocoa powder

Beat with electric mixer until it turned into a perfect butter cream.

Rainy afternoon. A package arrived on my desk. And look what’s inside! A mood-lifter! 🙂

#28hari, a prose-writing collaboration project I’ve worked on last year together with @ndorokakung, was about to transform itself into a book, thanks to @nulisbuku (our publisher) and @evamuchtar (who translated it into English) 😀

Excited! ^^

Last weekend, I bought a cupcake tin and decided to make cupcakes! For my first attempt, I took a simple chocolate cupcake recipe and make some adjustments:

Basic Chocolate Cupcake Recipe:

• 150g butter (unsalted)
• 150g castor sugar (but I reduced it to 100 g because I don’t want it to be too sweet)
• 175g self raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used hazelnut-flavored cocoa powder)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (but I reduced it to 1/2 tsp to make the cocoa fragrance stands out)

Beat with electric mixer until it’s light and creamy, then divide it evenly into the 12-cupcakes tin, bake for around 20 minutes, 160^oC.

I thought I might have some cupcake papers at home, but turned out I didn’t. That’s the explanation for the quite-flat appearance of the cupcakes, as when the dough developed, it spilled to the tin’s surface 😀

Well, to save it, I trimmed each cupcake a bit and layered the surface with my own recipe of coffee-Baileys butter cream.

Coffee-Baileys butter cream:

• 100g butter
• 50g castor sugar (you can add more sugar later to the mixture if you like sweeter cream)
• 1/4 cup of coffee-flavored Baileys
• 4 tbsp of coffee; liquid (I used Kopi Aroma :D)

Beat with electric mixer until it turned into a perfect butter cream.

So, there you go, cupcake! ^^

Surely I need more training on decorating with butter cream! 😀

I put it on the fridge (I like it cold) and brought it to the office for this morning’s breakfast.

Those cupcakes were gone quite fast!

The Gemini woman is vibrant and exciting but easily bored. She is always looking for something new and favors variety in everything. She probably has multiple interests but none will hold her attention for very long. Her mental complexity is however sometimes misinterpreted as being ambiguous or shallow but she is deep thinking. Though she thinks too much, her downfall is that she feels too little. For as many downfalls this gives it also has it perks. Your Gemini is never overly emotional or draining. She will not move to control you and will always give you space.

Charming and clever she will be a straightforward and flexible lover. She’s light and has a personality many find appealing. She is not the easiest sign in the zodiac to seduce though. The twin nature of the Gemini woman is always prominent. One second she could be all for whatever and whomever and the next, she doesn’t want to be bothered. To seduce her you need to think outside of the box. Rethink your entire approach and adjust your skills of persuasion. She will see through any half-hearted or shallow attempt to win her favor. If she does she see through you she will laugh wholeheartedly in your face and at your failure.

She will leave your head spinning and your area below the belt screaming for more. She makes your life interesting and you will wonder how you ever got along without her before. Try to keep up with her. She will take you on an amazing adventure.

— Gemini woman’s sextrology, sent by a friend early this morning

Finally, I’m back to the kitchen, cooking and baking. It started with a year-end HongKong-style fried rice with scrambled egg and meatball, cooked in chicken stock, vanilla cake with chocolate chips and poppy seed, served with fresh milk: as well as espresso cake with chocolate and liqueur sauce: So, there went my New Year’s holiday…