Sadie's Bubble of Yum

Classic Cupcakes

Happy belated Women’s Day to all you fabulous ladies out there!

I spent my Women’s Day the stereotypical way…in the kitchen 🙂 On Wednesday I bought a few piping nozzles, eager to try them out I decided to whip up a batch of cupcakes.

I’m sure, like me, you’ve all seen and tried your fair share of cupcake recipes. In the quest to make the perfect cupcakes, I browsed the web and found some useful tips to do so:

1. The weight of the sugar must be equal to or less than the flour

2. The liquids (eggs and milk) must equal the flour

3. The butter must equal the eggs

4. Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour – South African baking powder is quite strong so I’d recommend using a bit less

5. It’s best if all ingredients are room temperature (butter, eggs, milk)

With that in mind, I gave the recipe below a try…

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

240g butter

3/4 cup milk

4 extra-large eggs

2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with cupcake liners (makes about 40 cupcakes).

In a relatively large mixing bowl, cream the butter until it’s smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until the mixture is fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one.

Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk.

Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners (Using a disposable piping bag, I opted to pipe the batter – much neater and safer, spooning can get quite messy). Each one should be about 3/4 full.

Bake for 20 minutes (or until a cake tester comes out clean)

See my next post for the White Chocolate Buttercream frosting…

This weekend I invited both mine and Raaziq’s families over for iftaar. I’m kind of weird in that I get a thrill in cooking under pressure (although I do prefer to take my time in the kitchen), makes me feel like I’m on Ready, Steady, Cook! With Raaziq obviously attempting and executing the Ainsley Harriot pan-flip-hip-wiggle perfectly 🙂

On the menu was mushroom soup (my mother-in-laws bowl-lickingly divine recipe), butter bean and mutton curry with the choice of rice or flaky rooti (uh uhm…made from scratch…), prego steak and potato, roasted chunky veggies finished with a creamy sweetcorn topping and chicken fettuccini.

To treat my fabulous guests, I decided to give the Nabiscus Creamy Pie a swing…

Decadently Creamy Oreo Pie

Ingredients:

39 Oreo Cookies, divided
1/4 cup melted butter
240g Plain Cream Cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups whipped cream

Method:

Crush 26 of the cookies and mix with butter until well blended. Press this cookie mix firmly onto bottom and up the side of 23cm pie/tart dish. Pop this into the fridge while preparing filling.

Set aside 9 of the remaining cookies. Beat cream cheese and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Thereafter combine chopped cookies and the whipped cream; stir gently until well blended. Spoon into prepared crust.

Spooning the creamy oreo mixture onto the refridgerated base

Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until firm.

Decoration ideas: Halve remaining 4 cookies, place them upright on cut edges around center or edges of pie.

Tips: – To sweeten the cream, add 3/4 tsp vanilla essence before whipping it

– Pipe the mixture into the dish instead of spooning it to give it a neater presentation

The final product

Also when serving the pie, I would suggest adding a few strawberries or your choice of fruit to give bring another flavour to the plate or if you really have a serious sweet tooth you could even add some caramel. The great thing about the Creamy Oreo Pie is that you can play around with it in terms of additions and presentation.

Being a total strawberry addict – it was a no-brainer to opt this route. The burst of colour also added to the presentation

This recipe is definitely one to add to the recipe file as it is quite versatile – the perfect addition to any occasion from a simple dinner party to a kiddies birthday. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this recipe and for you to give it a go.

Sadie xxx

Welcome to Sadie’s Bubble of Yum….

Today signifies the beginning of what I hope will be a fruitful and enriching journey of sharing recipes, experiences and laughter. I’m excited to dig into my first recipe sharing post of the delectable Creamy Oreo Pie and to hear your thoughts!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has encouraged me to give this adventure a go, I would never have delved into this without your support and motivation. With their encouragement they’ve also volunteered to be the “tasters” lol Good luck to them! Just kidding 😉 My mother has indicated that I need to give her a crash-course in “locating and reading blogs” Should be quite easy…

Saadiyah: Mummy meet Google…the end 🙂

Mummy: Wait, now how do I find Google….

Ok maybe not that easy…

To all my muslim readers, I wish you all the best with Ramadaan inshallah and hope that I can assist you with some ideas for iftaar and Eid.

Happy reading all 🙂

Sadie…