Our Weekend Baking Bonding (and how I learned to bake...)

I learned to bake in 5th Grade after joining the Culinary Arts Club. I didn't join just for the free tasting, though I would say it makes for an interesting fringe benefit. But I really did put into practice what I learned. The first cake I learned to bake was the basic sponge cake. I cannot forget this because while in the process of melting the butter, I used a small skillet and used high setting for the burner. The result? The melted butter caught fire and before I knew it, the whole pan was on fire! Anyways, the cake turned out fine (after repeating my batch of butter). Then I moved to Devil's food cake, cupcakes and muffins. I stopped baking sponge cakes after breaking our electric mixer (did something very stupid...) and only made the ones that can survive manual mixing (like coconut macaroons and brownies).

Baking has now become a weekend bonding for me and my kids. We take a special favor for muffins because they are quite easy to prepare, you can mix and match flavors and ingredients, it works best with tea or coffee and most of all, I better put to good use my Muffin Recipe book!

Kyla is my all around side kick- she helps me fetch some ingredients, mix the batter (when I'm done with the mixer) but she has to do it manually of course, add the choco chips or sprinkle the toppings. Kevin is our morale booster, patiently watching while we are at it. He even pulled a stool to sit near us.

The simple cheese cupcake is my favorite while the kids love choco-chip muffins. I will try the peanut butter variety as my next project.

Here are the samples of what we have made so far...

There are my first attempt to do Iced Cupcakes.

Loved the Blueberry Muffins. I used icing sugar as sprinkles.

And these are the Choco-Chip Muffins.
Last week I also baked Choco-Banana variety with Cream Cheese frosting.

Baking has now become one of our weekend activities.

There are many more muffin recipes waiting for me -- days of weekend bonding with the kids. I know that when they surely remember muffins, the fragrant aroma will bring memories of home.

Blueberry Muffin Recipe

125 g softened butter
140 g caster sugar
2 eggs
140 g plain flour (I used Gluten Free flour for Kevin)
1/2 tbsp baking powder
125 g dried blueberries
2 tbsp milk
icing sugar, for dusting

Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper muffin liners. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in the eggs. Sift flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture. The fold in the blueberries and milk. Spoon the mixture into the paper liners.

Bake in the preheated oven, 180 dec C for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer into a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust the tops with sifted icing sugar once the muffins have cooled down.

Makes 10-12 muffins.

*fold - this is a technique in mixing

Happy Baking!