berry chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Lots of work had to be done last week (even more this week) - but I had to relax to keep myself sane. I tend to bake when I have things on my mind - or when I'm hungry XD. I used the Berry Chocolate Cake from earlier, but put in cupcake form.

They were kind of dense because I forgot to add some rising agents (I actually used a mix of plain flour and self-raising like the recipe told me to XD). I frosted them with cream cheese icing and I planned to put chocolate spirals on top, but they melted (because I was impatient and didn't wait for it to fully set before I started working with it), so I just mixed the chocolate in with the cream cheese. It didn't look too good, but they tasted okay.

cheese bread attempt #1

One of my favourite things about heading back home to the Philippines is cheese bread. I swear, if I can live off one kind of bread for the rest of my like - it would be cheese bread. There's something so addictive about cheese encased in soft, sweet bread. I could never get anything thats even close here in Australia, so I figured that when I was bothered I would try and recreate it.

Piecing together an ingredients list and a method from various sources, including Philippine Bakels and City Girl Gone Country for the ever so confusing "no time dough" method stated in the method in Philippine Bakels, I came up with my own way of doing things. It's kinda messed up and odd.

INGREDIENTS.

makes about 8

• 1 3/4 cups of self-raising flour
• 1/4 a cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of dry yeast
• 1/2 a cup of water
• 1 egg
• 10 grams of vegetable shortening (I used melted butter instead)
• cheese cut into sticks for the filling (the cheese should be flavoursome and meltable)

PUTTING IT TOGETHER.

• Mix together the yeast, flour, sugar, water, egg and shortening.
• It might be super gluggy, so add flour and sugar until it forms a nice doughy consistency.
• Knead the crap out of it.
• Lightly oil up a microwavable bowl and toss the dough in, then flip it over so it's oil side up.
• Cover with a wet towel, and a dry one on top.
• Put it in the microwave it for 25 seconds.
• Let it rest for 5 minutes.
• Run it through the microwave again for another 25 seconds.
• Let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Roll the dough out and and separate it evenly.
• Encase the cheese in each portion of dough.
• Bake at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes.

THE VERDICT.

I don't think I'm a big fan of the no-time bread method. It doesn't seem to produce the right texture (mine turned out dense as opposed to light), and the cheese I used wasn't right, but it was what my father wanted, so I guess it was okay. It tasted okay though =D

But just a query - every time, I've baked bread from scratch, the crust and outside is always so hard/chewy. Is there any way to make it softer?