April, like March, was a tough cookie to tackle because of the millions of tasks that were shoved into a short time frame. But as the month came to a close, I felt relieved and accomplished after (1) having a semi-successful gig at PianoFight, (2) finishing up a huge project at work—a big chunk of it at least—and (3) presenting a successful session about making the most out of a studio apartment for my Pinterest Knit con session.

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Lots of K-pop/J-pop in this one, and a combination of my old and new favorite artists. Tom Misch recently came out with his new "Geography" album which contains fantastic songs one after the other (my favorite has to be "Lost in Paris," which I've been obsessively listening to). After doing an IU cover, I started revisiting a lot of her songs as well.

listen

Sleepless rainy night

(잠 못 드는 밤 비는 내리고)

IU

I am so in love with IU's rhythm section these days because they tend to keep things very simple but tasteful. They're really good at making space for IU when she's doing more vocally-interesting things, but they also play some super melodic fills to take up the empty space. This song is a really good demonstration of that. Also please marvel at IU's belting of that high G at 4:10.

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Before Paris

Tom Misch

This intro track to Tom Misch's new album Geography (also an intro to the next song, "Lost in Paris") is so much more than just an intro track. I love the spoken part in the beginning where the musician explains that he will go out to "jam sessions regardless of whether [he's] getting paid or not", and the part where he goes on to talk about how "art is a mirror of society" and so forth. The cool guitar part following that is extremely funky and catchy and always stays in my head after I listen to this song.

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Lost in Paris

Tom Misch

Now, onto the actual song after that insanely cool intro. This is probably my favorite song in the album because (A) it's really simple and catchy and (B) there are really distinct sections of the song that keep it interesting (including a rap and trumpet solo section). I really love how Tom Misch will layer complex guitar melodies under a really simple and repetitive melody that he will sing. This makes his melody sound sophisticated even though it's super singable and memorable to the listener.

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Make Me complete - unchained ver.

BoA

I applaud BoA for singing a full song in English and pronouncing her lyrics really damn well. Plus, this is one of the few times where the English lyrics in a J-pop/K-pop song actually make sense. I'm sure you're aware that a lot of K-pop songs these days are littered with what Koreans think are cool-sounding English catch phrases that make no sense in the context of the song. Luckily this song didn't adhere to that. I also love the addition of the acoustic guitar that cuts through the funky groove that rest of the rhythm section is playing.

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Fool for you

Snoh Aalegra

Spotify suggested this song to me on multiple weeks' worth of Discover Weekly's. So by the time this song showed up again, I was already familiar with it and already knew all the lyrics. I found it too catchy and simple not to listen it over and over again this month.

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Dreamin' - live

Raelee Nikole

Loved this song ever since I listened to the original for the first time, mostly for its simple vocal + acoustic guitar paring, and also for its lyrics which I relate to so much in my life right now:

so if I'm dreaming please don't wake me up
because I feel so much better if I go to sleep
and if I'm breathing
faster than usual please
just let me be

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Each day

Cyrille Aimee, Matt Simons

Because I'm going to see Cyrille Aimee in May at SFJAZZ, I've been listening to her quite a lot these days. Her live scatting is probably some of the most insane that I've heard, and her unique twist on classic jazz standards and 80s pop songs are so fun to listen to. For this song in particular, I really love the layering of vocals at 2:27. Matt starts singing first, and then Cyrille comes in a few bars later, offsetting the melody. Another highlight in the song to point out is the contrast of the electric guitar solo on top of the acoustic guitar at 2:00, which creates such a cool texture.

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Something divine

Sam Ock

Boy do I love trumpets and this song is full of them. Not to mention they're perfectly in sync. Since they're not playing super high notes or super melodic passages, these trumpets lay a smooth foundation for the vocals to go on top of. Also, the lyrics to the rap part is just so. damn. good:

call it theory but I want to call it life math
call it melody but I call that my soul's path
call 'em chords and let 'em pluck the heart strings
call 'em instruments but they're with what the heart sings
the semiotics and semantics of a man's life

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change ya mind

Mac Ayres

I've really started appreciating music that is simple these days. It's surprising because a while ago I was all about music that was complex and sophisticated. But after writing a few songs that were full of unnecessary complexities, and listening to musicians play complicated passages to purely demonstrate skill, I started getting a little sick of that complexity and looked to music that had fewer instruments and less note-y melodic phrases. I just find that simple music is more likely to make me feel the emotions that the song is trying to convey. This song is a really good example of a song that's super simple, but manages to convey a whole lot of emotion. The vocals paired with the muffled piano leave a lot of silence in the middle of phrases, and the simplicity really conveys the sadness and the helplnessness (?) of the lyrics.

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Fly - unchained ver.

BoA

Here's another pick from BoA's Unchained album, which is basically a compilation of acoustic, jazzier versions of her existing songs. The layering of acoustic guitar sounds so damn good in this (i.e. the fills that one guitar will play at the end of some phrases). The chord changes at 1:23 are also just so tasty.

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Friday (Ft. Yi-Jeong of HISTORY)

IU

I was listening a lot to this song because my friend Anna and I decided to do a cover of it. Also because I just love IU so much. Who doesn't? Head on over to this post to listen to it, and to check out the cake that we were waiting to bake while we were making the cover!

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You're on my mind

Tom Misch

This is another one of my favorites from the Geography album. I love the choice of acoustic guitar for the majority of the song, which is a little different for Tom Misch (who has a very signature sound with his electric guitar). Because the song is very simple and sparse with just vocals and acoustic guitar in the beginning, when the electric guitar comes in with its solo at 2:54, it just sounds way more dramatic and sophisticated. I also love the addition of female background vocals, which also kinda diverged a bit from Tom Misch's usual sound.

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I love these artists and these songs! If you love them too, let's talk :) Also if you have more suggestions on artists or albums I should be listening to, please let ya girl know!

♥ Cindy

Cover of "Friday" (금요일에 만나요) - IU with Yi-Jeong of History by Anna + Cindy

Last week I got to hang out with a friend from UCSD (also from the a cappella community and a K-pop lover!), Anna, and we made a little somethin somethin for y'all listen to! Kudos to her for editing in the bloopers as well, so stayed tuned until the end for those ;) Make sure to subscribe to her YouTube channel, and to check out her Japan and Korea vlogs!

It feels so good to come back to my K-pop grind and to sing all my guilty pleasure songs again—especially because I've mostly been singing English Jazz standards in preparation for gigs lately. I actually powered through a lot of my early days of learning guitar by using K-pop guitar tutorials to learn the chords to my favorite songs. Shout out to the Caffeine Guitar channel and this video for teaching me how to play this song in particular. 

But... that's not it! We also baked an entire cake!

How badass are we for making an entire cover while before our cake finished baking? This day was really a creative and productive stay-at-home day. It feels therapeutic to create something like music or food, which is nearly not as stressful as creating code, for example.

The story behind this creative day? After posting numerous posts about my baking adventures on Instagram, I found out that Anna loved to bake and cook as well. So we decided to get together to bake this Blood Orange Black Sesame Loaf Cake, courtesy of this recipe I found on Pinterest.

I'm really loving the pink color that the blood orange juice creates for the icing of this cake. I've seen so many bakeries around San Francisco incorporate black sesame into their items these days. I recently tried the Orange Sesame Cake from Tartine Manufactory and the Black Sesame Banana Bread from Provender Coffee. After realizing that sesame gives an interesting (even savory, I would say?) flavor to balance out the sweetness of baked goods, I was eager to come back home to try it myself.

Aren't you proud of me for composing two blog posts in under two days? <rant> This is because I finally finished a big chunk of a project at work and now I'm finally spending some quality time with my hobbies rather than coding until 4AM on weekends. (I'm still typing this blog post at 2AM on a Sunday, but it somehow feels more reasonable) In other words, my job is too stress-inducing and maybe I should try to transition into a role that's better for someone who has bad anxiety issues already. </rant> Whatever. Good night y'all.

♥ Cindy

Follow me on Instagram @cinders_zhang for more cooking demos/recipes!

With spring here in full action, and 3284323576 of my colleagues and friends jetting off to Tokyo and posting photos of their Japanese treats on Instagram, I found myself craving mochi and matcha all the time. I was also bombarded with photos from Third Culture Bakery in Berkeley, which specializes in mochi muffins and Japanese sweets. So with cravings came curiosity, and I decided to do a little bit of research on desserts I could make with the Mochiko rice flour I had lying around.

I attempted to recreate the mochi muffins at home—though I consider them to be "mochi cupcakes" because of how dainty and light they are. Several recipes online suggested using coconut milk instead of regular milk, and I found that the lighter, more refreshing flavor of the coconut was a great match for the heavier, more intense flavor of the matcha.

I tried a total of four different flavors. At the very top you can see the matcha mochi cupcakes with no filling. The plain ones were stuffed with passionfruit jam, guava jam, and cookie butter.

Prior to baking these, I happened to stop by Trader Joes and brought home a jar of cookie butter. If you haven't had cookie butter, well, what are even you doing reading this blog? You should be rushing to TJ's right this moment to buy a jar and experience your life change. Anyways, since I had an entirely new jar of cookie butter at my disposal, I couldn't help by try to incorporate it into these as well.

I purchased my guava and passionfruit jams from Nijiya Market. Before I discovered that Nijiya carried guava jam, I resorted to amazon to purchase guava paste and guava jam (which I used to make these guava pastries). Now I can simply make a trip to Japantown and find not only guava jam, but also the other exotic pineapple, passionfruit, papaya, and strawberry-guava jams by Hawaiian Sun.

Before adding the top layer of batter to cover each cupcake, I scooped a teaspoon of jam and cookie butter into each the plain mochi cupcakes. I found that the passionfruit and guava also worked really well with the faint coconut flavoring from the milk to create a tropical flavor. As for the cookie butter, well, I think we can all agree that goes with everything.

Instead of going out of my way to buy actual matcha powder, I cheated once again with an instant latte mix. If you've read my previous dessert posts, you'll know I'm quite a big fan of instant coffee and latte mixes and find them to be an easy but creative addition to a lot of different baked goods (you can see how I incorporated a cafe latte mix into my chocolate cheesecake cupcakes). I added a total of 2 small packets of instant matcha to my batter and I found it to be a bit less scary than adding raw matcha due to its strong flavor and coarse texture that may easily overwhelm the cupcakes.

The matcha flavored cupcakes had a nice, subtle green tint to them when they came out of the oven. To add a little more pizzaz to them, I dusted powdered sugar on top. The color scheme reminds me a little bit of Christmas. In fact, I'm sure you could just add a raspberry or strawberry on top to make these work for the holiday season. I know, I know, we still have a long ways to go till Christmas—but I'm letting you know in advance just in case.

Unfortunately, I ran out of cupcake liners and had to add the batter directly to the cupcake pan—so a few of plain ones turned out a bit flatter and more golden on the sides than the ones at the start of this post. But no worries—just remember to spray your cupcake pan with cooking spray before you add your batter. Also remember to wait for your cupcakes to chill before you flip them out of the pan. Difficult, I know, especially because these smell so damn good when they first come out of the oven. The cookie butter ones were the most popular amongst my family and friends, whom I ended up gifting these to.

Mochi Cupcakes

Ingredients

Plain Mochi cake:

• 3 cups Mochiko Rice Flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 cups coconut milk (can replace with regular milk)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• Powdered sugar (optional)

Fillings:

• 2 packets of matcha (optional)
• Passionfruit jam (optional)
• Gava jam (optional)
• Passionfruit jam (optional)

Takes 45 min, Makes 12 for a standard cupcake pan.

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350˚F (148˚C).


2. Line a standard cupcake/muffin pan with baking cups. If you're adding the batter directly to the pan without the baking cups, make sure to grease your pan with cooking spray or butter so the cakes come out easily after baking.


3. Combine all the wet ingredients (sugar, coconut milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla extract) together. Slowly add the Mochiko rice flour and mix until fully combined


4. (Option 1) If you're making a batch that are matcha flavored, add in the two packets of the instant matcha latte mix and mix well.


5. (Or, option 2) If you're planning to add fillings, fill up the muffin 1/2 of the way with the batter. Add 1-2 tsp of jam or cookie butter to each cup, then add more batter to cover the filling, until each is filled 3/4 of the way.


6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
 

7. Do note that they are very delicate when they first come out of the oven, so wait until they're cool before taking them out of the muffin tin. Finish by dusting with powdered sugar.

Recipe adapted from Sugar and Cloth

For more cooking:

Sorry about my inactiveness this month on the blog! Work being a hot mess and practicing for various gigs has got me sleeping at around 2-3AM every night. So finding time to compose posts like this is quite the challenge. Hopefully May will be a better month :)

♥ Cindy

This recipe was originally inspired by what my mom used to make for me and my brother on hot summer weekends. This is the perfect dish to make when you're short on time, and don't have too many ingredients in the fridge—which is why I adopted this recipe as a college student, and even now, as a working adult. I don't know if this is true for all Chinese families, but my family in particular likes to make complicated lunches, but keep dinners very simple. We'll usually have rice and several dishes for lunch and then have dumplings or noodles for dinner. For weekend dinners, my mom literally tosses this up in 10-15 minutes. As for me—well, I still have a long ways to go to get to her level.

This later transitioned from a family dinner item to an item I would always bring with me to school for lunch. You may consider this a risky option, based on what other kids might think. After all, I went to a high school located in Scripps Ranch, which is a neighborhood that's 70% white. Luckily for lunch I always either hung out in the band room or in my math teacher's classroom with the friends I met in Japanese class. They did not make fun of my lunch. In fact, they usually ended up eating half of whatever I brought.

Maybe half is exaggerating, but they did really enjoy it. I ended up making this for my friends whenever we hung out after school because it was just so simple. Making this once again for the blog made me feel really nostalgic. I realized just how much I missed hanging out with my high school friends in San Diego... and spending relaxing summer nights with my family without having to worry about the stress of work the next day.

The noodles are tossed in a simple "dressing" made with soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, and—if you're feeling fancy—a little bit of peanut butter. I like to microwave the soy sauce for around 20 seconds before adding the peanut butter. This helps the peanut butter dissolve and mix well with the rest of sauce.

As for the chili oil, I was actually lucky enough to use one that my dad made from scratch. He fries dried red peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and bayleaves together with vegetable oil, and then drains out all the other ingredients until only the oil is left. This chili oil can then be used for all sorts of dishes—mapo tofu, as a dipping sauce for dumplings, noodles, soups, and more.

The toppings can be anything you have in the fridge, really—but my mom and I usually top the noodles off with a spicy stir fry made with ground pork as the main ingredient. Usually if I want to be healthy—or if I want to make this dish vegetarian—I will chop up some oyster mushrooms and stir fry it with tofu instead. Get creative and make the most out of whatever you have left in the fridge. Day after Thanksgiving? Use your leftover Turkey! I would just advise to cut up whatever ingredients you decide to use into small pieces so that they can evenly distribute in the noodles once you mix them in.

And that's basically it! If you want to create a "noodle bar" of some sort, you can skip the step of adding the toppings directly to the noodles. If you want to make everything vegetarian friendly, and let your guests decide what they want to top the noodles off with, just give everyone a bowl of noodles and let them decide what to add. You can also chop up some cucumbers and lay out some cilantro for your guests if they'd like to garnish. Chopped peanuts are good options too!

Does the above photo look a little naked (or "nood") to you? See what I did there? :-) It's because it's missing an egg, of course! Honestly, I've never met someone who, when asked, "do you want this dish topped off with an egg?" (free of charge), responded with "no thank you". Also, noodles and eggs go together like peanut butter and jelly. If ramen can have a soft boiled egg, and bibim naengmyun can have a hard boiled egg, then these Chinese cold noodles can have a sunny-side-up egg as well. In fact, it doesn't even have to be sunny-side-up. Top this off with a poached egg to take it out of Chinatown and make it restaurant quality.

Simple Chinese Cold Noodles

Ingredients

• 500g egg noodles or soba noodles
• 1 egg (optional)
• Sesame Seeds for garnish

The stir fry on top:

• 1 lb (around 450g) ground pork or ground beef
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp Chinese black vinegar
• 1 slice of baked tofu
• Scallions

Sauce for the noodles:

• 2/3 cup light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Sichuan chili oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 egg

Takes 30 min, Makes 4 bowls.

Instructions

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the noodles. Cook until the noodles are al dente (cooking time might differ based on the type of noodle used)


2. Strain the noodles and run them under cold water while they are still in the strainer. The cold water will stop the cooking process and make sure that the noodles stay al dente and do not become soggy. Place the noodles in the fridge to chill while you make the sauce and toppings


3. For the stir fry topping, combine the ground pork with the oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and cornstarch (adding corn starch to the meat will make the stir fry gooey and create a sauce underneath, which is perfect for topping off the noodles). Set aside to marinate


4. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the meat when the pan becomes hot. Stir fry until the meat is cooked and a gooey sauce has formed underneath. Add more water mixed with cornstarch if you want the stir fry to produce a thicker sauce. Add the chopped baked tofu and scallions and stir fry until everything is well combined and cooked through


5. To make the dressing for the noodles, first heat up the soy sauce for 20 seconds in the microwave. After it's heated, allow the peanut butter to dissolve in the soy sauce. Mix in the chili oil and sesame oil. Top off with sesame seeds and chopped scallions if desired
 

6. Take the chilled noodles out of the fridge and add the sauce. Toss the noodles in the sauce and make sure it's well combined


7. Fill a bowl with 1/4 of the noodles and top it off with the stir fry. Add a sunny-side-up egg and garnish with sesame seeds and leftover scallions

If you're a bit weirded out by the peanut butter in the sauce, I want to point out that the chili oil + peanut butter combination makes these noodles reminiscent of dan dan mian. Feel free to replace the peanut butter with sesame paste as well if you don't like the idea of Jif being in your noodles.

Shout out to my mom for giving me the inspiration to steal one of her dishes and taking my own spin on it. And shout out to my high school friends whom I miss so so much. I'll make this again for y'all someday :')

♥ Cindy

March has been busy busy in terms of trying to balance (A) preparing for a gig in April, (B) projects at work, (C) trying to create content this blog, and (D) planning out my Italy trip—so I haven't really gotten the opportunity to actively seek out new music or watch new performances on YouTube. Luckily a few of my Discover Weekly recommendations have been absolutely on.point. this month. Thanks Spotify—you've been so good to me this month!

3.

You will hear lot of appearances by muted trumpets in this playlist. More generally, this month's playlist comprises of songs that I'm actively practicing for an April gig at PianoFight, songs recommended by Discover Weekly, and a high school throwback, courtesy of BoA :)

listen

I Wish You Love

Ann Sally

Pure guitarispiration. Discover Weekly you've done it again. This is one of those super-easy-to-listen-to songs that helped calm and destress me in March.

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Alright

Jordan Rakei

Ugh, the piano solo in this is everything. This song also has the tendency to stay in my head for hours and hours after just one listen.

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Monsieur

Stella Jang, Pleyn

Upon my first listen, it took me a while to realize that this was K-pop. She has a very interesting Indie-accent that she not only applied to singing in English, but singing in Korean as well—which I've never heard before. Definitely very unique. Let's also talk about the call and response between the trumpet and the guitar... so yummy!

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Chamallow

Ben Mauzé

While we're still in the French state of mind: this pick is a French indie-alternative tune introduced to me by a teammate (thanks Emma!). At work we've been trying out this Spotify app called JQBX, where you and your friends can listen to a playlist at the same time, and you take turns becoming the "DJ" by playing your song contributions. So if you saw on your Spotify friends feed that I was listening to a few songs out of my normal genres and was confused (i.e. EDM)... that was my coworkers forcing me to :P

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Let Love Grow

Eva Celia

Clearly this woman knows how to control her voice very well. The chords are not super easy to follow and the melody also takes a while to get used to. In addition to the vocalist, there's a section in the song (at around the 2:50 mark) where the guitar riff transforms into the trumpet solo seamlessly with the trumpet finishing up the scale that the guitar started. The trumpet and guitar are also mixed to have similar timbres to make that transition even more bizarre! Such genius.

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Movie

Tom Misch

This song always gets stuck in my head after I listen to it. I love the dramatic intro with the actress speaking in the transatlantic accent. What the piano is playing from 4:20-5:00 is so damn pretty I die every time. Also I love the outro's lyrics (rhyming is so exact there), and the violins' tremolos which help juxtapose this song's modern instrumentation with an orchestral old black-and-white movie vibe.

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Baby I'm a fool (Live in London)

Melody Gardot

This is one of the songs I'm doing for the gig that works really well with just guitar and vocals. I love this version in particular because of how she changes up the melody slightly in the intro and makes up for the lack of the orchestra. This is one of those songs that is so calming that it will no doubt help you fall asleep at night—and probably shouldn't listen to as you're driving.

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Voyager

Stella Jang, Pleyn

After listening to "Monsieur" as suggested by Discover Weekly, I decided to discover more music from this Stella Jang + Pleyn duo and found this gem. 

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Dindi

Cyrille Aimee, Diego Figueiredo

Another song I'm doing for the gig. I love this version because Cyrille Aimee's scatting is always fun to listen to.

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pretty little birds

SZA, Isaiah Rashad

I'm normally not a big fan of rap music that has the "Explicit" tag next to them, but this one was actually very unique. I love the addition of the muted trumpet (on second though, add a muted trumpet to any song and I'll love it). SZA has been really popular amongst my coworkers and friends these days, but I have to say that her best songs are those in the middle/end of the album that not too many people know about :) 

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BabyBaby

Suran

More muted trumpets and cool guitar fills in this one! There's something about adding classic jazz elements to a modern electronic instrumentation that makes the song sound trippy and interesting. Suran's songs are all super upbeat and catchy, and this one is no exception. Her voice is a little reminiscent of Amy Winehouse, which is probably another reason why I enjoy listening to her.

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song with no name

~名前のない歌~

BoA

I recently discovered that BoA's entire Japanese discography is up on Spotify and now I've been obsessively listening to her music from the 2000s and reliving my elementary/middle/high school days through them. Although her songs are really pop-y and simple, they're not repetitive or on the subject of sex like a lot of American pop songs are—which is why the middle school me loved them so much, and why I still do! This song in particular is really simple in terms of instrumentation, and really allows her voice to shine without much going on in the background. The acoustic guitar and cello combination is extremely beautiful. I also am so incredibly in love with the lyrics after I saw the translation. They don't just describe a romantic kind of love, but a love you can feel towards a friend, or just someone you're missing.

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I love these songs to death and listened to them an unhealthy amount this month. Which songs did you obsess over this month?

♥ Cindy

You may think I'm a weirdo for saying this, but I'm not a big fan of desserts that are head-to-toe drenched in chocolate. I feel that the flavor can get a bit overwhelming, especially when you have a chocolate base from a chocolate cake, chocolate fillings from chocolate chips, and chocolate toppings from frosting and syrup. Luckily, there are two ingredients that pair wonderfully with chocolate that help balance the rich flavor: cream cheese and raspberries. The tanginess of cream cheese and tartness of the raspberries help cut through the rich sweetness of the chocolate. You can see a myriad of raspberry + chocolate desserts and cheesecake brownie recipes all over the internet these days—as well as menu items at restaurants and bakeries. 

So I thought... why not combine the two? Raspberry cheesecakes are also a thing, so you're literally getting the best of three (!) worlds. The motivation to try to make something like this actually came from craving a certain black bottom cupcake from a bakery that always runs out of them. This happened with the guava pastries too. Guess I'm always craving what I can't have...

Oh! I should mention I brought another ingredient into the mix for the chocolate cupcake at the bottom, just to add an interesting kick:

And -drum roll- that ingredient is... instant coffee! You might have a bad impression of instant coffee, but Asian coffee brands do these instant latte mixes really well. For example, UCC coffee has a cafe au lait mix (pictured above) that you can just mix into hot water without milk and even a creme brulee latte mix that tastes absolutely delicious. Because there's sugar combined in the instant coffee mix already, you won't have to worry about the instant coffee making your batter bitter.

You can purchase these kinds of instant coffee mixes from most Asian grocery stores. I got mine from Nijiya Market.

I don't care if you hate the word moist—I'm going to use this word a lot in this post. It's a perfectly valid term to describe a delicious cake. In my case, I think chocolate cakes are best when they are super moist. To ensure that the cake is moist, it's important that you add adequate amounts of oil, water, and butter. I took the proportions from this recipe, and added two extra tablespoons of butter just in case. Because extra butter doesn't hurt (your tastebuds, at least). And we all know butter is at the bottom of the food pyramid, obviously.

I sectioned off my box of raspberries among the cream cheese topping mixture and the chocolate cake mixture. Adding raspberries to the mixture will help add that extra bit of moisture to the cake.

Fill up each cupcake two-thirds of the way with the chocolate cake mixture, then top it off with the cream cheese mixture. This will create a beautiful shiny top to each cupcake—so you can ditch the frosting and the piping bags.  You can check if the cupcakes are ready by sticking a toothpick into a cake and seeing if it doesn't pick up the chocolate filling (seeing the cream cheese on the toothpick is normal).

Raspberry Cheesecake Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

Chocolate cake:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• Half a packet of instant coffee mix (optional, Asian brand preferred)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
• 1/2 box of raspberries

Cheescake topping:

• 8 oz box cream cheese
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 box of raspberries

Takes 35 min, Makes 14.

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300˚F (148˚C). Take the cream cheese out of the fridge to soften


2. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, instant coffee, baking soda, and salt) together. If you're adding an instant coffee mix that is sweetened, subtract a tablespoon from the cup of sugar to ensure the cake isn't overwhelmingly sweet


3. Heat the 1/2 cup of water and dissolve 2 tbsp of butter. Combine the water and butter mixture with all the other wet ingredients (milk, oil, egg, vanilla)


4. Combine the dry mixture with the wet mixture and whisk until the mixture forms into a ribbon-like texture, making sure that everything is well incorporated and that there are no lumps


5. Slice the raspberries into halves and carefully fold in half into the chocolate cake mixture, saving the other half for the cream cheese topping
 

6. For the cheesecake topping, combine the cream cheese with the sugar and egg. Carefully fold in the second half of the raspberries


7. Fill a cupcake pan with liners. Fill each cup two-thirds of the way with the chocolate cake mixture, then top off each cupcake with the cream cheese mixture, making sure to leave a little space at the top (since the cupcakes will rise)


8. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. You can check if the chocolate cake is cooked through by sticking a toothpick into a cake and seeing if it doesn't pick up the chocolate mixture (seeing the cream cheese on the toothpick is normal)

I brought these into the office and they were gone in a blink of an eye... I'm actually quite sad since I only had one and wanted more ): But according to my coworkers, the cake was indeed very moist!

These actually would've been great for Valentines Day! Maybe next year I'll make them for somebody—or even better, someone can make these for me ;) That's just a hopeful dream at this point.

♥ Cindy