DIVANA vanilla cupcakes

Once again, today was preparation for our virgin order! Our blessed first customer had ordered gingersnaps, absolutely chocolate cookies and vanilla cupcakes (topped with heavenly buttercream as you can see from the picture. this one has been coloured a light pink. i made both white and pink ones to alternate in the box!)
My feet were really aching when I was done and there was just so much cleaning up to do because I had used so many bowls and spoons and forks, it was kind of crazy. But I’m glad to be busy with business than with stupid things like math, or econs. Ha.

Anyway these cupcakes can be done in the ordinary swirly creamed kind or the cloud cream kind. I had lots of fun doing this, despite the heat of the afternoon. And thank God, the buttercream didn’t melt. It stayed in place!These cupcakes are perfect for those who utterly enjoy the scent and taste of vanilla and the fact that it goes so well with the rich aroma of butter. It’s a no-holds-barred kind of thing, so if you’re dieting then too bad for you but my recommendation is to not miss it for the world, right Sam? 😀

So…interested? Do drop us an email then for your order!

DIVANA.living for divine moments.

DIVANA Gingersnaps

Busy day today! Orders to fill today and to be up for collection tmr. Out of a whim, I decided to post up pics of DIVANA Gingersnaps. Currently, we have cupcakes and cookies on our menu but we do customise for special orders like slices, whole cakes and muffins. Somehow, I’m beginning to think the new year will start to bring in more orders and business will be good.
I just can’t wait for the new year. To think ‘next year’ is ‘next week’, the thought is both daunting but utterly exciting. It’s like a start of a new life, not to mention a start of a new baking frenzy. And of course, more birthdays to come and more birthday cakes to make. And! Chinese New Year is around the corner to, so that also leads to more baking of chinese goodies like almond cookies, pineapple tarts (though i think i’m too lazy to even try doing those…could possibly ask mo for a good recipe). And my new year resolution: move away a little from baking and try main course dishes. Just yesterday, I did a fettucine with sweet cherry tomatoes for the dinner at yif’s. Seemed like it was pretty good though I was sooo very afraid it would get a bad response because it was very much like a pasta salad, served with red wine vinegar, lots of olive oil, dried marjoram and fresh basil. Luckily, tasted fine and vin said ‘thank you’. 🙂

Well, so here’s today. I won’t be posting up the recipe since it’s kind of like a secret recipe! Ha. If you do want to try these cookies or want to find out what are the cupcakes and cookies DIVANA makes, just drop me an email at divana-@hotmail.com and sam and I would be delighted to cater to whatever your needs or enquiry.

So here’s a very Merry Christmas (i’m still in the mood) to everyone! Enjoy yourself up till the new year with good foodies and great company. I shall do so at the party tonight so here’s outa from me. Baker’s gonna get a life tonight!

Eve dinner

Happy Yuletide! Today marked the day I made a perfect cake! Ginger Spice Cake, though the gingery taste wasn’t as strong as my dad would have liked it, i felt it was just right. Tasty enough for the kids. No longer would this be called the adults-only cake. 🙂 I used a Tyler Florence recipe but after studying other ginger cake recipes like that from joyofbaking.com, i made a few slight adjustments for my own liking. Honestly, this is really a very good cake. I served it with warm cranberry sauce and it went pretty well. But maybe the next time I make it, I’ll wanna try it with a lemon icing instead.

Ingredients

2cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tbs ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 egg

1/2 cup molasses, unrefined

1 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted then cooled to nearly rtp

1 cup buttermilk (i used faux buttermilk which is 1 cup milk + 3/4tsp cream of tartar)

Directions

Preheat to 175dcelsius.

Put dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.

Beat egg, molasses, sugar and melted butter until thick. Sift dry ingredients and gradually mix it in in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk. Beat for near 1 min after each addition and end the mixing with the dry ingredients not buttermilk.

Finally when done, pour into pan and bake for 35-40min.

Next comes the Cranberry Sauce. This needs to be served warm and can be microwaved right before serving if you have made this too early. This recipe was created by my own try-and-error and guess what? It was pretty damn amazing (to my surprise)!

And it’s really simple too. I used 1 cup of frozen cranberries, washed and dried with a paper towel. Add 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and some leftover blueberries from my previous blueberry cake and voila!

All this needs is for you to boil everything together, except the blueberries and cinnamon. Then reduce the heat to the smallest fire, so it heats nice and slow enough to simmer. Stir occasionally so that all the sugar crystals melt. The berries will start to burst. Add the cinnamon when it starts bursting. And wow, there’s this amazing warm thick scent that wafts up. Indescribable. You can let this simmer for 10-20min, depending how fast your sauce started to boil. For me, I let it simmer around 12min which gave me time to get a bite to eat since I was skipping lunch. Finally, when it’s done, remove from heat. Give it a stir and throw in the blueberries. I suggest keeping the blueberries to a minimum cause you want the cranberries to not be overpowered by the blueberries which are meant to reduce the twang and add a more defined colour to the sauce.

So, slice the cake up into wedges and serve with warm sauce! Perfect for our garden dinner after turkey, wine and salad! We ordered some mini mince pies from this British Pies place over at Swan Lake too. Forgot to upload the pic but gosh were they so yummily adorable! (O yea, found orange peppers for the salad from this Meidi-ya supermarket. amazing. they were as orange as carrots) Of course, it ended up with my sister spilling wine and flipping the bowl of water and floating candles and so everything had to be cleaned up. But what a way to welcome Christmas.
Merry Christmas everyone! Cheers!