whipped cream cupcakes.

How do you guys decide what to bake?

I was faced with a dilemma a few days ago when I had this sudden urge to bake but I had no idea what. In the end, I decided to make my decision based on what I had to use up urgently in the fridge, which happened to be heavy cream this time. And because I was impatient to bake, I didn't want to wait for butter to soften to room temperature and all so I went with this whipped cream cake recipe which doesn't call for butter at all.

The resulting cupcakes are moist, but the texture is a little coarse and they are a tad sweet as well. I guess this is a recipe you can turn to if you're out of butter and oil. At least I've satisfied my curiosity about this recipe.

The whole point about baking cupcakes, to me, is the decorating of them. Before I piped the whipped cream on though, I filled them with a black bean black sesame jam I got from Japan (delicious). This is the first time I'm trying this piping method, and I think it's pretty obvious unfortunately. But then again, piping has never been my strong point. I just wished I'd realised sooner that to pull of this piping technique the cupcakes had to be level.

And since today is the last day of 2013, I think I shall do a round-up of the best recipes I've tried this year! Granted I've not baked much this year, but there shouldn't be any problem finding a couple of good ones so stay tuned!

Whipped Cream Cupcakes
makes 6

3/4 cup cake flour
2/3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup heavy cream, chilled
1 egg
1/3 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup + 2 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 37F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together.

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the egg mixture while still whipping until thickened and well combined. Gradually add in the sugar.

Fold in the flour mixture in two additions until just combined.

Divide batter evenly amongst paper liners and bake for about 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out mostly clean. Cool completely before decorating.