A Different Kind of Cupcake, Baked in Paper Cups

These cupcakes are different from the usual cupcakes we know. When one mentions cupcakes, what comes to mind are pretty little cupcakes topped with icing and sprinkles, beautifully decorated and visually pleasing. But these cupcakes are the ones I grew up with. I’ve loved them since I was a kid. They don’t need any fanciful design or colourful sprinkles. You’ll love them just the way they are – soft and spongy.

Instead of using special cup tins, I used paper cups (read somewhere that paper cups will work and they did!). The paper-lined cupcakes sold in Singapore are baked in white baking paper. I used brown parchment paper since I only have them on hand. If you accidentally spill some batter on white baking paper, they’ll show up as an ugly brown patch. With brown baking paper, the patches are a lot less noticeable.

Paper-lined cupcake comes in 3 flavours: vanilla, pandan and coffee. I made pandan ones using my pandan chiffon cake recipe but reduced the ingredients slightly to make 10 paper-lined cupcakes.

PANDAN PAPER-LINED CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 5 egg yolks, room temperature
• 30 gram caster sugar
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 2 tablespoon pandan juice (taken from 10 pandan leaves + 1½ tablespoon water)
• Pandan essence / green food colouring (optional)
• 100 gram cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 egg whites, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 60 gram caster sugar
• 10 paper cups
• 10 pieces of 19 cm x 19 cm baking parchment

Method:

1. To make pandan juice, cut pandan leaves into small pieces. Put pandan leaves in a food processor with 1½ tablespoon water and process till fine. Transfer pandan leaves to a muslin bag (or just use your hands) and squeeze out about 2 tablespoon of  juice.
2. Cut parchment paper into 19 cm squares. Place the parchment square on top of a paper cup and use another paper cup to push it in. Continue till all 10 paper cups are lined with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C.
4. Sift flour and baking powder together. Set aside.
5. Using a hand whisk, whisk egg yolks and 30 gram caster sugar till creamy.
6. Add coconut milk, pandan juice and if you wish, a few drops of pandan essence or green food coloring.
7. Add flour mixture, a third at a time, into yolk mixture and mix well. Stir in olive oil.
8. Beat egg white with electric beater until big bubbles formed.
9. Add cream of tartar and beat until it is white in colour.
10. Add 60 gram caster sugar in 3 additions and beat until stiff perks formed.
11. Fold egg white mixture into the flour and egg yolk mixture gently, a third at a time.
12. Divide batter equally among the 10 paper cups.
13. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Remove paper-lined cupcakes from oven. Allow cupcakes to cool 5 minutes in the paper cups before transferring them to cool completely on a wire rack.