Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins

I love making muffins because I can easily mix up a batch without taking out my electronic beater. For muffins, dry ingredients are often prepared separately from the wet ingredients. Then the prepared wet ingredients are folded into the dry ingredients.

During the folding process, do make sure that you don't over fold them. Mixture is usually lumpy but that is just fine for muffin.

So, one day, I told Shu Vun that I wanted to bake something different. Not the usual chocolate cake, cheese cake but something different! She recommended the Strawberry Cream Cheese muffins. This muffin give you surprise inside. =D

I found several links on the web and i chose to follow this and this. The latter link shows steps by steps pictures. This recipe is very well received by all my friends and family. They just couldn't get enough of it!

However, i changed the amount of baking powder used because my muffins didn't seem to rise much on the first tries. Taste wise is good. Really good. But i prefer my muffin to be taller. I had made this countless times and it always comes out good, soft and nice!

The cream cheese filling in the middle often cause people to think that the muffin is uncook so be sure to assure your guinea pig, ahem i mean, your friends that they are just cream cheese. Well, that usually happen if you consume the muffin right out of the oven.

Here's the recipe:-

This recipe make about 12 muffins

Dry ingredients:-
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups of granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

wet ingredients:-
1 cup milk
1/2 cup/113g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs (at room temperature)

1 cup fresh strawberries (chopped into pieces)

Cream cheese mixture:
4 oz/113g cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Methods:-

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and set aside.
2. In another bowl, whisk the wet ingredients together until well incorporated.
3. Make a well in centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
4. Fold them until just combined. Mixture may appear to be lumpy but it's fine. Do not overmix
5. Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cases or tin. Fill each cup barely half full only.
6. Scatter a few strawberry pieces into each one.
7. Top the strawberries with about a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture.
8. On top of that, add on another 1 or 2 tablespoon of the muffin batter.
9. And on top again, press a few strawberry pieces to the batter
10. Bake for about 25 mins or until top is brown in preheated oven of 180 degree celcius

Enjoy this wonderful recipe. =D

Something I think I should mentioned here, hope it's not too late
Note:
1. The batter should be watery
2. If you want to test the muffin with skewer for doneness, remember to poke the side of the cake. If you poke through the middle, the cream cheese section would be forever moist!

Mr Haines' Chocolate Cake

Mr Haines was my Combined science teacher back in year 1997 from STPRI. Our school love to celebrate Teacher's day by holding the day off and having each class organised their own party. Then each teacher would visit each classes and sample the dishes brought by the students.

So, My Haines @ our homeroom teacher would bring his special chocolate cake everytime with nice chocolate icing on top. He didn't only bring it during Teacher's day, he would even bring it if we students requested it. I don't remember how it taste like now, after 14 years. but it does bring back a lot of happy memories from back then. I probably try to bake it once some 10 years ago. Haha. I think he went back to New Zealand several years ago. Wonder how he is doing now?

So it was 4.30 p.m., i was halfway watching Kimi ni Todoke when i suddenly feel bored. Then i look for Mr Haines' old recipe and started to scout for ingredients around the house. I didn't have milk so i substitute with chocolate milk. My cocoa powder wasn't from the best brand and my margarine was the Farm Cow brand (which i never really like). But I'm really dying to bake something. So i go ahead with all those ingredients in hand.



Here's the recipe for any of you who would love to try it.

1 cup hot water
4 tbsp cocoa powder
4oz margarine (really, i would prefer using butter)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups self raising flour (sifted)
2 cups sugar

Methods:-

1. preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Mix together hot water, cocoa and margarine.
3. Add baking soda dissolved in milk, vanilla and eggs into the first step and mix well.
4. Beat in sifted flour and sugar until well combined.
4. Pour into baking pan and bake for about 25 to 30 mins.

Cool and then ice with your own chocolate icing recipe. The cake taste fine without icing of course.

My oven took 40 mins to bake this cake. So each oven's baking time varies. This is a really easy recipe. I didn't even need to take out my electronic beater and just mix everything with my whisk. =D

The result? soft and fluffy. I like!