Rum ‘n’ Raisin Muffin vs Green Tea Cupcake

And the winner is... ME 'cos these bakes have made me really happy today!

It’s amazing… I’ve been quite busy past two weeks coping with a new workplace which requires me to take an hour to get to work (compared to the past when I take only 10 minutes by foot) and new challenges, and yet, I’ve had the time to make two different bakes every weekend ; )

Today, I decided to try out a new recipe which a friend found on the web – quick muffins which uses ice cream and self-raising flour. I decided to use Bud’s Rum and Raisin ice cream – this originates from San Francisco and uses skimmed milk – yes yes, I’m trying to lessen my guilt of over indulgence on fattening food and skimmed milk is definitely not as sinful as full cream milk. I also replaced 25% of the ice cream with non-fat yogurt. The recipe required sugar which I omitted ‘cos I thought the ice cream was a bit too sweet. And then, alcoholic me decided to add half teaspoon of rum so that the muffin will have a nice and strong rum taste. As a result, the batter was a bit too stiff and the muffin turned out soft but not sweet enough. Since it’s so easy to make, I won’t mind trying again and add some honey and white choc chips instead.

My next bake turned out much better. It’s the first time that I’ve attempted to make cupcakes and I decided to go for healthy green tea cupcakes which use egg whites (yes, less fattening) instead of whole eggs. Very little butter is also needed. The results were great – while the cupcake isn’t that pretty, it was fluffy and the sweetness was just right. So, I was glad I didn’t beautify it with any icing or it would have been too sweet. Will try added some cooked red bean and do a swirl green tea red bean cupcake for my next attempt ; )