Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

 

IT'S THE HOLIDAYS PEOPLE ! *Breathes a happy sigh of relief*.

 

Why relief, you ask ? Because I have spent every day of the last semester waking up at 6am, driving half an hour to college to book a parking spot then go do some work in the gym, then heading off to class till the evening. How is that different from working, you ask ? Well.. I'm not too sure myself. But I know working doesn't involve actually having to study notes and write essays and stuff. Unless, of course, you are a writer. But then again, you wouldn't have to drive anywhere - you could just work from home, right ? Oh, never mind.

 

Aaanyway, I am now spending my mornings more leisurely, waking up at 7am (I am an early riser. You know how people have insomnia, where they can't go to sleep ? I think I have some sort of reverse insomnia, I can't stay asleep) then going for a jog or cycle. Then I shower and watch all sorts of tv shows before happily noshing on whatever I happen to have baked (which conveniently seems to be cheesecake) rather than having to eat funny, rushed meals at funny times in between classes. Life is good.

 

I spend a lot of time baking too. When I'm not baking or watching tv, I'm sleeping. I don't know when I've become the sort of person that takes naps - maybe it started when I was doing my intern - but now I regularly take naps. Like, after lunch. So technically, I eat then I sleep. Wow.

 

But ! I'm not that bad, I swear. See, yesterday I went out with a couple of friends from highschool, for some food and a movie. Both of them were guys and only a quarter of the original group. I don't know what the other three-fourths are doing, I think they're preoccupied with exams and all that. We went to the mall and went into Carl's Jr, and me being the type of person who just cannot eat normally, proceeded to order some onion rings and waffle fries. Then I polished off the rest of the fries that one of them leftover.

 

Stuffed and geared up for a movie, we spent a good half hour debating what to watch, then in the end I picked The Conjuring, which was relatively new and 'one of the scariest movies of all time', according to many of my friends. There were some here and there who thought it was stupid, and one of the guys with me who had already watched it was one of the latter. I don't know what possessed me to pick that movie but after making sure he didn't mind having to rewatch it, we got our tickets and went in.

 

I think I spent most of the time with my hands clamped over my ears. In my defense, I was squashed between a skeptic and a group of squealy girls who squeaked every time something moved. I did watch most of the scary scenes. Hey, it was my first scary movie in the cinema after all. I admit, I was terrified during the movie, I considered staking out in the toilet until it was over but I sat through the entire thing and once I got out and went home, I felt absolutely nothing. Which surprised me since I expected to be traumatized beyond sleep but then I didn't even mind being left alone at home for the best part of the day today.

 

Sooo that was unexpected. You know what else was unexpected ? How much I liked the pairing of chocolate and cinnamon. It's not something new actually, chocolate and cinnamon have been put together since the Aztec times when they'd put cinnamon and chiles and spices into their hot chocolate. I haven't actually come around to doing that but I did like dunking my churros into the hot chocolate. So I made these cupcakes and then discovered that I was a little too enthusiastic when it was time to eat - I had just showered and dressed and my towel was still wrapped around my head when I was tearing the paper of them and nibbling the edges.

 

 

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes
155g plain flour
185g sugar
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
180ml lukewarm water
80ml vegetable oil
3/4 tsp white vinegar
75g finely grated semisweet chocolate

1. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 180C. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil cases.
2. Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, bicarb, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. Add the water, oil and vinegar, and using an electric mixer on low speed, beat until combined. Stir in the grated chocolate.
3. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups, filling them about three-fourths full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean, 24-28 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove them from the pan and cool slightly before serving.

* You could frost them if you want, the original recipe called for some chocolate buttercream, into which you whisk in 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon. I don't think these cupcakes need the frosting since they're plenty good enough on their own but if you want to take the frosted route, let them cool completely before you frost them.

Silken Chocolate Cheesecake

 

A Fresh Start

 

I'm not too sure that's an appropriate title, since there has been a haze enveloping the entire country for the past week. It's horrible - all gray and gloomy all the time and my hair smells like smoke. Eww.

 

Not is it only ridiculously hot (I just sit and then I'm sweating already), the haze seems to have crept into the malls. Yup, where we thought we were air-conditioned and safe from the smog, there is a weird gray hue around everything in the buildings. How odd.

 

Anyway, classes have been postponed today due to the worsening conditions. I'm already seventh weeks into the semester (my fifth semester now) and up to my eyeballs in French and accounts, both of which are completely alien to me. Fresh from four months of being an intern in one of the BEST HOTELS EVER, I seemed to have forgotten how to even hold a pen, let alone be alone to conjugate verbs and memorize how to count to a hundred in a foreign language. But that's life for you. Life of a student, that is.

 

I miss interning. I thought I would hate it, but I fell in love with every department I got sent to. I miss the people I met there, the colleagues who'd needle me with lame jokes, make me cart around plates and glasses while walking in heels, the chefs who would pass me bites of food to nosh on and the fellow interns I sat with during break times, and came to call my friends. I miss them so much I stalk them on Facebook to see what they're doing and how they look like and such. I'm an overly attached colleague.

 

As much as I miss them, I'm glad to be back among my group mates in college. I've spent a year and a half with them already and they're like family. Since classes start in the mornings now and finish in the evenings, or go on way into the night, I end up walking to the car park with my friends, singing Taylor Swift songs long after the campus has emptied of students. I can't help it. When you spend that much time with someone, or in my case, someones, you either grow to love them or hate them. I'm lucky that I love the people I'm stuck with. Not that it's going to be that way for much longer. Yup, one more semester (that's three months, by the way) and I'll be graduating ! I may just be a diploma student, but that's a big thing for me since I consider surviving high school my biggest achievement to date.

 

So since today is a day that I don't have to drag myself out of bed at 6am to find a parking space that doesn't require me to walk forever to my campus (a real treat, in other words), I let myself bake another cake in addition to the butter cake and the vanilla shortbread I've baked over the weekend. I'm a kid obsessed, I tell you.

 

I made a matcha chocolate marbled bundt cake. Which, I will be posting about later, since it's still cooling in the bundt pan and I'm too scared to turn it out just yet. For now, I'll just tell you about this cheesecake I made not too long ago that practically ruined the diet that I put myself on, having gained a few pounds from interning in the kitchens together with so many lovely people who are only too willing to share their food. Not to mention being at a hotel with a cafeteria that provides six meals a day.

 

I love cheesecake. I love it so much, one slice isn't enough for me. I feel like a glutton whenever I head to Secret Recipe (the shop best known for their cheesecakes) with my friends and I have to order two slices instead of one. You might think that two slices isn't that much more than one (duh) but then in the mathematics of cheesecake, it makes a huge difference. You see, there's something about cream cheese that makes people feel like they've eaten waaaay too much (it kind of sits in your stomach, doesn't it ?) and because of that, my friends barely make it through one slice. On my birthday last year, I had three giant slices of cheesecake and two scoops of ice cream and practically put myself into a dairy coma. While it sure satisfied my cravings for the stuff, I certainly do not want to do it again. I now limit myself to two slices. One, if I can withhold myself from waving over the waitress.

 

But this cheesecake, ah, it's so smooth, so creamy, so chocolatey that I can't help cutting myself a slice for breakfast after its much needed overnight chill in the fridge. I went for my usual jog after that. Then came back and cut myself a slice for lunch. A slice that's a lot larger than anyone in their right minds would ever cut. I convinced myself it wasn't that bad, since it had protein in it. You see, this one had tofu in it, albeit the silken kind, of course. You won't notice it. It makes the cheesecake really smooth and creamy and it doesn't crack like most baked cheesecakes tend to do. No one who ate it felt that it was any different from your average chocolate cheesecake. Maybe only that this was much, much better. And it's egg-free !

 

 

There's oatmeal in the crust. Now, before you go "eurgh", it adds a pleasant chewiness to an otherwise blah cookie crust. And think of it this way, it's good for you too. Added fibre and all that whatnot.

 

 

 

Remember to smooth the top as best as you can before you bake it. I learnt that the hard way.

 

 

 

 

Bake this. Now !

 

Chocolate Cheesecake
(adapted from Anna Olson's Back To Baking)

Crust:
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tbsp. cocoa powder
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup (60ml) unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
2 packages (8oz/250g each) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4oz/120g silken tofu
2/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
5oz/150g bittersweet chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Pulse the oats, brown sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor then pour in the melted butter, pulsing until evenly combined. Press this into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes. Cool the crust while making the filling.
3. Puree the cream cheese and sugar in a food processor until smooth, scraping the sides with a spatula. Add the tofu and puree well, again scraping the bowl of the processor. Puree in the sour cream and vanilla, and blend in the melted chocolate. Scrape the filling into the cooled crust and spread evenly (it will not move or change as it bakes).
4. Bake the cheesecake for 20 minutes, until the filling bubbles slightly and loses its shine at the edges, but the centre remains shiny. Cool the cheesecake to room temperature, then chill for at least 4 hours before serving. The cheesecake will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.