Happy 47th Singapore!

It's Singapore's birthday tomorrow and what's a celebration without cakes, right?

Cupcake recipe book-of-the-day: Cupcakes with Attitude by Benjamin Wong

Decided on a chocolate cupcake with dark chocolate ganache recipe. I am a happy baker today because I've finally decided to pick up a bag of Valrhona Cocoa Powder! Priced at $42 (excluding GST) for a bag of 1kg (I bought mine at Bake It Yourself), it is definitely not cheap. So, I'll be sure to only use it for special occasions. For those who aren't aware, this brand of chocolate is really popular with bakers because it's Dutch-Processed (alkalised) unsweetened, which means it doesn't react with baking powder while baking, best suited for recipes that call for baking powder. On the other hand, if your recipe calls for baking soda, using Natural Cocoa Powder will neutralise the acidity of your batter. And cakes made from Valrhona chocolate just tastes better, doesn't it?

My trusty ice cream scoop for easy scooping of batter.

Preparation of ingredients.

Sifting of cocoa powder and flour together.

Using President Butter today since I'm using the Valrhona Cocoa Powder!

Creaming of the butter.

Adding the sugar.

What you should get after several minutes of beating.

After adding in the eggs and vanilla extract, you'd expect the mixture to curdle. Not to worry! 

After adding in the sifted flour and cocoa powder.

The batter is ready to be scooped!

Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full.

... and after 20 minutes. :)

Best-tasting chocolate cupcake I've baked so far! Haha, must be the Valrhona cocoa powder. :)

With dark chocolate ganache.

I won't be reproducing the recipe here because of copyright issues, but if you like what you see, you could grab a copy of Cupcakes with Attitude at any book store. What I really love about the recipes in this book is the section with 'uniquely Singapore' cupcake flavours! Examples include Kaya, Horlicks, Milo and even Teh Si, among many others. Can't wait to try baking the other flavours soon!