Chocolate Cupcake filled with Strawberry Buttercream

All along, I waited for that day to come just because I wanted to apply for a Canadian passport, so I could go to the States whenever I want without worrying my temporary visa was expired or not.

I thought everyone had the same mindset, until I attended the Canadian Citizenship Oath Ceremony on December 17, 2009.

"......Finland, Russia, Turkey, Philippines, Israel, Ecuador, Vietnam......people from around the world have chosen to leave their families, friends, careers, birth places to come to Canada, a nation with the tradition for the protection of its people all over the world......" said the Citizenship judge.

My four years stay in Canada as an immigrant qualifies myself for Canadian citizenship! That alone is generous enough to show the giving ways of the nation of Canada. Over those year, I have realized the great ways of Canada is that Canada cares and is never hesitant to go the extra mile to defend people and humanity.

Having seen the joy of all those new Canadians at that ceremony, I felt the realization of a dream. I was actually unexpectedly emotional. I feel liberty to be a Canadian now.

(makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, soften
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup strawberry buttercream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla.

With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beginning and ending with flour.

Pour batter into cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 mins.

Cool in pan 5 mins, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Fill a pastry bag with strawberry buttercream. Push tip through bottom to fill each cupcake.

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Spice Cookie

Too many home-made cookies for Christmas out there. If I don't start making some, my blog would probably be classified as "OUT-DATED".

(makes 20 cookies)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups whole oats

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger.

In a separate bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Combine well.

Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  Then add oats, cranberries, and chocolate.

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop around 1/4 cup cookie batter onto a cookie sheet. Leave 2" apart between cookies.

Bake for 12 - 15 mins until the edge is slightly brown. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

To Ethan (Transformation)

Dear Ethan, 

You know what, your neighbor buddy who's few months younger than you, is way over walking now. He is TRYING TO RUN!!!!!! And it brought to my attention that your persistence of being on your four has started to get the whole family super itchy.

You do stand up and take a few steps sometimes as long as you hold onto something. But when you travel from one place to another without anything besides oxygen, you will go down on the floor and start crawling. We've been trying to convince you that neither the house will collapse nor earthquake will happen when you let your hands go free. But you've been pretty stubborn until one afternoon a couple days ago. You were standing up in front of the TV cabinet and hand-banging the screen of our 52" HD TV. That TV is the last thing in this house that you are allowed to destroy or else I will have to watch those crazy shaky puppets with you on my laptop for the rest of my life. So I said "No, Ethan!", and you LET GO OF BOTH OF YOUR HANDS FROM THE CABINET and turned your head to look at me. There you were standing with your body surrounded by pure air for FIVE SECONDS which I thought was 5 million years!!!!!! Then I yelled out to your father, "Hey, all along we thought our child was born a reptile, I think he is starting to transform now!"

Love,

Mommy

Mini Strawberry Cupcake with Strawberry Frosting

So, the "Kill Strawberry Mission" continues......

(makes 12 mini muffins)
Ingredients:
For Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup fresh strawberry puree
1 stick unsalted butter, soften
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs

For Frosting:

3 tbsp fresh strawberry puree
1 stick unsalted butter, soften
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: 

Preheat over to 350F. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 

In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla and strawberry puree. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add eggs until just blended.

With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, around 25 mins. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely.

To prepare frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners sugar, beat until well combined. Add vanilla and strawberry puree, mix until just blended. Do not overmix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.

Grease the inside of a 1 1/2" circle cookie cutter, and cut out mini cupcakes. Frost the cupcakes before serve.  

Cinnamon Muffin Filled with Home Made Strawberry Jam

When you plan on moving your house, there are things that you might want to get rid of by giving them away to friends or family, just because you find them too much trouble to pack and move around. Most importantly, these are the things that you realize you can actually live without. Like stacks of outdated magazines that you've been collecting for your whole life......I still can't believe how much I spent on moving 10 boxes of them all the way from Hong Kong to Vancouver!

Why I brought this up? Because recently one of our family members is moving house, and one of her unwanted stuff that she gave to her grandma, who is also Ethan's grandma, whose house is an asylum for anyone's unwanted stuff, was an OVERFLOWING ZIPLOC BOX OF FROZEN STRAWBERRY PUREE! So, grandma found it too sour to eat it plain, so she MADE ME HAVE IT, cause she thought I baked too much that an OVERFLOWING ZIPLOC BOX OF FROZEN STRAWBERRY PUREE might come in handy.

If you don't think it's too hard to use up an OVERFLOWING ZIPLOC BOX OF FROZEN STRAWBERRY PUREE in one go (you just don't want to re-freeze it after it's defrosted), I'm telling you this - after tons of strawberry-themed baked good were made, I still had HALF BOX left which I turned it into strawberry jam.

(makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

For Strawberry Jam:

2 cups strawberry puree

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

For Muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tbsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

3 tbsp milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

For Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Prepare strawberry jam. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together strawberry, sugar and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture volume reduces by half.

Reserve 1/2 cup, and transfer the remaining jam to a hot sterile jar. Seal and refrigerate.

Preheat over to 375F. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin liners.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 tbsp cinnamon, ginger and salt. Mix well.

In another bowl, combine the sour cream, melted butter, milk, and egg, stirring well with a whisk. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet mixture until just combined. Do not overmix.

Spoon 1 tbsp of batter into each prepared muffin liner. Top each with 1 tsp jam. Top evenly with another tbsp batter.

Combine the 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon to make cinnamon sugar. Sprinkle over the batter.

Bake for 15-20 mins or until a tester comes out clean and the muffin tops are golden. Cool lightly and serve warm.