Taiwanese Local Eats: Cold Noodle!

Per request of a very monstrous (but harmless and adorable) creature with noodle on the back, I'm posting this not-very-Berlin-way vegan recipe...

This summer is indeed a hot summer!  It roared up to 38°C yesterday, good thing that I saw clouds drifting over to rescue my apartment, which is situated on the top of the apartment floor, making the ceiling heat up in the scorching sunlight and radiating me in the night like a human-oven.

Chinese eat a lot of different types of noodle, not just differ in thickness, but in the type of floor it is made of, amount of oil, freshly made (damp noodle) and dried, and of course, the way of indulging them (eating it cold or hot, eating it in soup or dried, eating it with sauce or with garnish only, sauté in hot pan...)

Taiwan has this local specialty of noodle that's called 油麵 (literal translation would be "oil noodle").  The noodle it self doesn't seem that much different from other types of noodle, except it looks round, not too thin (about 2 mm) and has a faint hint of yellow.  It is made WITHOUT OIL.  It is made with high gluten wheat flour, which gives it the texture of smooth and chewiness, and the noodle doesn't stick to each other as easily. This is the real reason why it is called oil noodle, not because it is made of oil, but the high gluten wheat flour that gives it the characteristics of not sticking together.

Taiwan yu-mien (oil noodle) by a Hong Kong-nese noodle company

Being in Berlin, I could find all the ingredients in an Asian supermarket chain called "Amazing Oriental" on Kanstraße opened up by Hong Kong-nese, originated from the Netherlands:

Kantstraße 101, 10627 Berlin

I don't think you can get all the ingredients in other Asian markets in Berlin, because other markets are opened by Vietnamese-Chinese (they are mainly Cantonese), Thai or perhaps Korean, and these ingredients are too real Asian to be sold else where.


Usually this type of noodle is sold fresh, meaning it is freshly made and without drying process, sold in traditional markets in Taiwan.  But now that I've left Taiwan for so long and now in a country without too much connection to Taiwan, I could only find dried ones from Hong Kong.  The label says: "Taiwan oil noodle" but I read the company information, it is a Hong Kong company.  (disappointed)

This noodle is used for making 台式涼麵 tai-shi liang-mien (literal translated to "Taiwan cold noodle"), I assure you, it tastes different with other types of noodle.

The sauce is basically made with:
BLACK sesame paste (Middle Eastern and Westerners only know of the white sesame)
peanut butter
黑醋 hei-tsu (or hei1 cu4, literal translated to "BLACK vinegar," I only know of Taiwan people use this)
米醋 mi-tsu (or mi2 cu4, literal translated to "rice vinegar," Chinese, Korean and Japanese all use this, other vinegars don't have a "zing" like rice vinegar does, try it, you'd know what I'm talkin' about!)
soy sauce
sugar
sesame oil

The tricky part is getting this ratio exactly right to make your sauce for the tai-shi liang-mien.

The pure black sesame paste, rice vinegar, organic soy sauce and sesame oil

When you get sesame oil, try to get the ones from Taiwan, Japan or Korea, these origins produce their own sesame seeds for the oil.  I've tried one from Hong Kong, it really didn't have the "zing" in the sesame oil and isn't as aromatic as the others.

Tai-Shi Liang-Mien Jiang (or "Taiwan Cold Noodle Sauce")
Preparation time:  10 - 15 minutes
Cooling time:  5 - 20 minutes (depends how you cool you want it)
Yield:  2 - 3 servings
(I've written the recipe in perspective to "tablespoons," so you can just take the ratio to make smaller or larger quantities)

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
15 mL	1 tablespoon	black sesame paste
7.5 mL	½ tablespoon	plain peanut butter
60 - 75 mL	4 - 5 tablespoons	warm water (about 60°C)
7.5 mL	½ tablespoon	brown sugar
30 mL	2 tablespoons	rice vinegar
15 mL	1 tablespoon	black vinegar (if you don't have it, replace it with adding rice vinegar instead)
15 mL	1 tablespoon	soy sauce
15 mL	1 tablespoon	sesame oil

Direction:
1.  Scoop out the black sesame paste and peanut butter in a bowl.
2.  Heat and add the warm water.  It's very important that it is warm, because cold water doesn't do the magic of thinning the sauce to a very runny state without clumps.
3.  Mix in sugar, rice vinegar, black vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil and mix the sauce well.
4.  You can have it in room temperature or pop it into the refrigerator to cool it down a bit.

The process of , making the sauce smooth by adding WARM water

After mixing, the consistency is smooth and no clumps

Tai-Shi Liang-Mien (or "Taiwan Cold Noodle")
Preparation time:  about 10 minutes
Cooling time:  5 - 20 minutes (depends how you cool it)
Yield:  2 - 3 servings

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
2 servings	1 ball (or 2 servings)	tai-shi yu-mien (or "Taiwan oil noodle")
7.5 - 15 mL	½ - 1 teaspoon	vegetable oil
	(4 - 8 cubes)	(ice cubes, an option for cooling)
60 mL	½ cup	fresh cucumbers, in finely cut strips (about ¼ of a normal long cucumbers with shiny skin that are sold in Berlin)
60 mL	½ cup	carrots, in finely cut strips (about 2 medium sized carrots)

Direction:
1.  Boil about ½ liter of water for cooking noodle. (Do not add salt in the boiling water, most East Asian noodles are made WITH salt added, and adding salt would over salt the noodle.)
2.  Drop one ball of noodle (or 2 servings, the noodle size will double after boiling) in the boiling water and turn the heat down to medium or low in a simmer.
3.  Stir gently and check the noodle.  After about 5 minutes, you will see the transparency of the noodle only on the outside, this is very noticeable.  After about 7 - 10 minutes, you will see the whole noodle having much more consistent color (faint translucent all across the noodle width), if this happens and if 10 minutes is up, the noodle is finished cooking and turn off the heat.
4.  Rinse the noodle in cold water until it is at the same temperature as the cold water.  (At this stage, you'd notice that once the cold water hits the noodle, the noodle isn't translucent anymore and becomes darker in color.)
5.  Drain the noodle out lightly, try avoiding water and pour about 3 drops of oil onto the the noodle and mix the oil into the noodle.
6.  Further cool the noodle down.  If you have ice cube, you can just put it on the side of the noodle and serve it, but if you want to cool it in the refrigerator, it takes about 20 minutes.
7.  Garnish the noodle with a lot of finely chopped cucumber strips and carrot strips!
8.  Drizzle the sauce on right before eating and slurp!
The noodle is also popular to eat with some cooled fermented vegetables or pickles on the side.

The translucency is only on the outer side of the noodle cross-section, not yet finished cooking

Mostly translucent in the noodle cross-section, finished cooking

This is a noodle once get me started on eating, I'd not know when to stop.  It has a nice vinegary taste, a bit sweet and salty, and it is cold and slippery in your mouth and chewy on your teeth!

Traditional Chinese Soy Milk Brings Me Back to My Childhood

When I was little, my mom would homemake soy milk or dou-jang (豆漿).  Growing up in the culture of drinking soy milk, I refuse to call the "soy milk" that Western markets sell "soy milk".  What soy milk should taste like is this thick and aromatic milk-like consistency, but the soy milk that can be found in the Western culture is this think, runny, watery and non-aromatic liquid with soy content.

When I was young, I'd wake up to this aromatic soy milk smell in the morning and have a bowl of it with brown sugar and have some bread or buns before going to school.  Every time I smell the true soy milk aroma, it brings me back to the sweetness of the life back then.

So that's why today I'm going to pass down the TRUE soy milk that has been in the Chinese culture for thousands of years; the real soy milk that is use for making bean curd/doupi (豆皮), tofu (豆腐), douhua/tofu jelly (豆花) and varieties of other Chinese soy milk products.

Fully soaked soy beans

Soy bean ground with cheese cloth and squeezed-out soy milk

The process is actually pretty simple:  soak the soy beans, blend them with water, squeeze the liquid out of it and boil.  I just don't understand how are these simple steps got messed up in the Western industry and made some tasteless soy milk in the market and still have the pride of selling them...  (snobby)

Real Soy Milk that is Aromatic and Thick from the Chinese Tradition
Preparation time:  30 minutes (plus 8 hours of soaking soy beans)
Cooking time:  15 minutes
Yield:  about 1 liter

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
355 mL	1½ cup	dried soy beans
592 mL	2½ cups	water (for blending)
		Need a blender or food processor
		Need a big pot, preferably with higher rims
		Need a big cheese cloth that can be folded into 2 layers

Direction:
1.  Soak the soy beans in water over night or for at least 8 hours, till soaked into the center.  (You can pick one up and eat it, if it's crunchy and chew-able to the center, it's finished soaking)  Fully soaked soy beans can expand to about 2 to 2.5 times the size of dried soy beans.
2.  Drain the fully soaked soy beans out and save the soaking water.  Place the soy beans into a blender or food processor.  Pour in 2½ cups of soaking water and blend till it is a silky fine consistency and soy beans are in very fine particles.
3.  Prepare a big pot, preferably a high big pot, place 2 layers of cheese cloth over it and secure the cloth as you pour 1/3 blended soy bean and liquid slowly and carefully onto the cheese cloth.
4.  Stop and squeeze the cheese cloth so all the liquid from soy beans came out into the pot.  Save the soy bean particle in another bowl.
5.  Repeat step 3 and 4 till all the juice is separated from the soy bean into the pot.
6.  Simmer the soy milk over medium to low heat for 15 minutes or till the aroma changes to that of a special soy smell.  Stir it constantly to make sure the foam doesn't overflow and the bottom doesn't burn.

You can drink it cool, drink it warm or drink it with a bit of brown sugar (traditional)!

Now, this is what we do with the soy bean ground that are left from making soy milk:

Soy bean pie in the making

Soy Bean Pancake
Preparation time:  10 minutes
Cooking time:  15 minutes
Yield:  about 4 pieces (8-cm diameter)

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
745 mL	2 cups	wet soy bean ground
59 mL (49g)	¼ cup	brown sugar
59 mL (30g)	¼ cup	all-purpose flour  (wheat, of course, and is optional, only to help it sticking together)
(about 60 mL)	(about ¼ cup)	some oil for cooking

Direction:
1.  Add sugar and flour into the fine soy bean ground mass.
2.  Form into 4 flying saucer shaped pie.
3.  Heat up a pan with just some oil and when the pan is heated, place the soy bean pie onto the pan.  Flip the pie and add some more oil into the pan (if needed) when one side is nicely brown and tanned so the other side can be just as brown and tanned.  When both sides are brown and tanned, they are done!

Finished soy bean pancake! :9

SOOOO soy-ful!

Wondering what you can do with the soy milk in baking?  Try making blueberry-banana muffins or golden cupcakes!

A German Must: Cucumber Pickles!

Bavaria harvests half of Germany's cucumbers.  What do I mean by saying this?  CUCUMBER SEASON IS HERE!!!

Summer is cucumber season in Germany.  It starts around mid-June.  This is the time to get the freshest, crunchiest and weirdest-looking cucumbers!!  You can have varieties of choice when you choose them.  Small ones, big ones, curly ones, bent ones, alien-looking ones, big head with a small body ones...  Oh, I can't name them all!

A few tips for picking the freshest cucumbers:
-  Put slight pressure on a cucumber between your fingers, if it feels a bit soft, they've lost water, which means they are not as fresh.  Although harder ones doesn't necessarily mean it's fresh, but at least you can avoid those that have lost water.
-  Weigh the cucumbers on your hand up and down to feel the density.  A tasty cucumber is the ones that are young and dense, if it feels light, it means there are air in the center and the cucumber is a bit old.

Washed cucumbers waiting for me to pickle...  "Pickle me first!! Pickle me first!!" they shouted excitedly

With all these cucumbers, you can make lots of pickles for the summer and even for the whole rest of the year till the next cucumber season!

Spreewald is one of the most infamous area in Germany where pickles are made.  Don't get too excited, I don't have exclusive access to their local cucumber pickle secret recipes...  BUT I can offer a cucumber pickle recipe that comes close.

The pickling spices in the jar, waiting for the cucumbers to be packed in

Cucumber Pickles
Preparation time:  20 - 25 minutes
Jarring time:  1 week in the jar before eating
Yield:  7 - 8 pickles (or 0.5-liter of pickles)

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
0.5 L	17 fl. oz	air-tight glass jar
		7 - 8 medium, normal sized and well-washed pickling cucumbers (about 7 cm long and 2 cm in diameter)
165 mL	¾ cup	5%-acidity apple cider vinegar (or wine vinegar) (Apfelessig oder Brantweinessig)
165 mL	¾ cup	water
30 mL (or 25g)	2 tbsps	brown sugar
30 mL	2 tbsps	mustard seeds (Senfkorn)
25 mL	1½ tbsp	caraway seeds (Kümmel) or parsley seeds
		3 - 4 bay leaves (Lorbeerblatt)
15 mL	½ tbsp	whole cloves seeds (Nelke)
15 mL	½ tbsp	peppercorns (Pfefferkorn)
		3 - 4 stems of fresh dill (dill with flowers has more flavor)

Direction:
1.  Prepare a 0.5-liter jar.  Wash and dry the jar.
2.  Put the pickling spices (mustard seeds, caraway seeds, 3 - 4 bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns and fresh dill) into the jar.  You can just lay the dill into it with a bent or you can cut the dill in half. (Don't forget to wash the fresh dill before putting it in.)
3.  Wash the cucumbers well!  Cucumbers are grown touching the ground, so it has a lot of sand and dirt on it.
4.  Gently pack the cucumbers into the jar.  Make sure they are not pressured into the jar.  Let them nicely touching each other without forced in.  This way, the pickle would come out more crunchy and won't be soggy.
5.  Boil water, vinegar and sugar together, this is the brine for the pickles. Once it starts to boil, pour it into the jar and cap it.  Place the jar in a cool and dark area for a week.  In a dark and cool area, it can store up to a year (so I heard), but please please put them in the fridge after opening the jar!

The cucumbers will look freshly green the first 3 to 4 hours, but it'll gradually turn cucumber-pickle green.  The part of the cucumber that touches the wall of the jar will turn the color a bit later, but don't worry about it, after a week, all the cucumbers will look the same.

The pickles that comes out has a very nice dill taste, they are crunchy, a bit sour with a hint of sweetness.  If you indulge a bit further, you'd taste the faint clove taste!  They are really not what you can get commercially in the supermarket!  They have much more flavors!  Try making this, you'd be so delighted that you'd even be pickling in your dreams!

When I first made the cucumber pickles, there was too much brine.  What to do?  Hehehe...  I had some organic carrots and an abundance of caraway seeds so I made CARROT PICKLES!  :]

Pickled Carrots

Preparation time:  10 - 15 minutes

Jarring time:  1 week in the jar before eating

Yield:  3 - 4 small to medium pickled carrots (or 0.25-liter of pickles)

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
0.25 L	8 - 10 fl. oz	air-tight glass jar
		3 - 4 small to medium sized and well-washed carrots (about 9 - 12 cm long and up to 2 cm in diameter)
82.5 mL	⅓ cup and a bit more	5%-acidity apple cider vinegar (or wine vinegar) (Apfelessig oder Brantweinessig)
82.5 mL	⅓ cup and a bit more	water
15 mL (or 13g)	1 tbsps	brown sugar
30 mL	2 tbsps	caraway seeds (Kümmel)

Direction:
1.  Prepare a 0.25-liter jar.  Wash and dry it.
2.  Put the caraway seeds into the jar.
3.  Wash the carrots well.  You don't want to pickle the dirt on the carrots.  Also, preferably using organic carrots, that way you know you are eating little to no pesticides.
4.  Pack the washed carrots into the jar, if some of them are too long, just cut them so they can fit.
5.  Boil the vinegar, water and sugar together to make the brine.  Once it's boiled, pour it into the jar and cap it.  Wait a week before opening the jar to eat.

The pickled carrots has slight caraway seeds, very crunchy and fresh tasting.  Not at all soggy and soft!  One of the greatest summer side dish and snacking delight in my opinion!

Pickled cucumbers and carrots after one day

Blueberry Season!!! Muffin, Anyone?

It's summer time!  Blueberries are beginning to come out in the markets.
"Hmmm...  blueberries?" you asked.  Yes, blueberries indeed.  Blueberries in vast of Germany in the summer are from local source (from Germany!), which makes it a great reason to eat them by the handful!

I have to admit that in this recipe, banana is not from local source, although they are organic.

Besides eating the nutritious blueberry goodies by the handful, you can also make delicious vegan muffins with them!  This recipe came from my blueberry-loving friend, "Soberry", who got ahold this recipe from, yet, another friend.

Baking muffins are cracking up (I wonder what they are laughing about...)

These conveniently sized muffins are great to bring with you on a picnic trip with friends, as bicycle ride snacks, comfort food, onto the U-Bahn and S-bahn to give away to the poor homeless people, to a party or a lakeside/river bank eat out!  The possibilities are endless!

Blueberry-Banana Muffin
Preparation time:  20 minutes
Baking time:  20 - 25 minutes
Yield:  about 1 dozen

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
475 mL (240g)	2 cups	all-purpose flour (wheat, of course, I used Typ 405, Typ 550 works fine also)
15 mL	1 tbsp	baking powder
2.5 mL (1.3g)	½ tsp	cinnamon
2.5 mL (1.3g)	½ tsp	ground ginger
2.5 mL (5 g)	½ tsp	salt
180 mL (150 g)	¾ cup	brown sugar
5 mL	1 tsp	vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
		1 large ripe banana
136.5 mL (121.5g)	½ cup	vegetable oil
30 mL (45g)	2 tbsp	golden syrup (or agave molasses, maple syrup, sugar beet syrup)
205 mL	¾ cup	soy milk
273 mL	1 cup	fresh or frozen blueberries (I prefer using frozen ones, they don't pop as easily while stirring and baking)

Direction:
1.  Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2.  Lightly oil 12 muffin tin tray OR simply place the paper muffin liners in the muffin tin tray cups.
3.  In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, salt, sugar and vanilla.
4.  Add the mushed banana, vegetable oil, syrup and soy milk into the bowl.  Stir the batter together well.
5.  When the batter is mixed well together, fold the blueberries (frozen work the best) into the batter.
6.  Carefully pour the batter into each muffin tin tray cup, to about 90% full.
7.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, when the top turns light brown.

A bitten blueberry-banana muffin.  You can see the muffin texture inside!

You might be interested in making golden cupcakes, too!

Curious about how to make soy milk yourself?

Vegan's Take on Cupcakes... LOCALLY in Berlin!!

I shall start with something sugary as a sweet start to this blog.

Cupcake has been popular for a number of years in the U.S.  Naturally, vegan communities in the U.S. has also been tackling the balance between their taste buds and a life style they have chosen.  A number of vegan cook books have taken on the challenge to make that happen, and one of the most distinguished and recognizable cupcake cook book is called "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule", which includes an admirable effort and astonishing number of cupcakes and tips to make cupcakes vegan.

My sister has made some cupcakes a while back when I went back to the U.S.  After I bit into the consistency and the taste, I asked for the recipe.  She has modified the cupcake recipe a bit, but the recipe was originally based on "Golden Vanilla Cupcakes" from a recipe site called "Culinate".  What I found most challenging in vegan cake-making (or baking) is that the ratio of oil, sugar and flour often deceives the outcome.  What I mean is that when you measured the amount, everything seems to be in order, but once the outcome reveals in its mysterious way, I would see that the cake is actually way too greasy (in a "moist" sense, since oil gives the "moist" feeling in cakes) or that the outcome is way too sweet.  Having trouble testing recipes as I did, I came to develope a rule of thumb in regards to making cakes, the sugar and flour volumn ratio is usually about 1.5:2 (please refer to the ratios that I work for me if you want some reference).

After knowing my sister's modifications, I started testing my own modification...  So here is my take on the vegan cupcakes.

What I chose for the ingredients:

First of all, I used a type of margarine, I guess, what is commonly used in a lot of vegan recipe as a replacement to butter, "margarine", which is a plant-based, industrially derived oil.  Margarine typically higher in "saturated fat" (vegetable shortening, partially hydrogenated, hydrogenated, and in some cases trans fat, or "gehärtetes Öl", "gehärtetes Fett", here's a nice diagram denoting how long these industrially-made molecules are on Wikipedia page, the longer they are, the less able your body can process them).  This brings out a question of German's food labeling, but that is a topic for another day.  I chose this brand after carefully reading the ingredients and selecting them.  Most of all German margarines I came across in any store have "hydrogenated oil" (gehärtetes Öl) as one of their ingredients.  Try to eat as healthy and not taking a toll on my body as much as possible, I almost never choose product that has "partially hydrogenated oil" or "hydrogenated oil" in it.  Finally, there was a product that doesn't state it as an ingredient and looks very legit (although in reality, the nutritional values are not stated clearly, it doesn't separate the "unsaturated fat" and "saturated fat" like the U.S. FDA would have required), the "Flora Reform-Margarine" (found in Berlin's "Real" and "Kaufland" grocery stores):

The detailed description of the product and why I chose this product over the others is on "Ingredients Reference" page.

For pure soy milk, I mean just extracted from pure soy and water, without all those calcium-something, flavorings and salt.  There are a number of brands out there, the easiest place to access those in Berlin is undoubtedly health-conscious, organic-oriented health food store "Vitalia Reformhaus".  I used granoVita's Soja-Drink:

Vinegar has to be the lightly favorful cooking vinegar ("Tafel Essig"), such as apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar (unsweetened) or wine vinegar, about 5% acidity are all O.K.  But definitely NOT heavy flavored ones like balsamic and other ones out there (fruit-flavored and Chinese dark vinegar 烏醋, you know just who you are!).

All-purpose flour means it's not weak flour ("cake flour" or type 550) and contains more gluten than weak flour and will result in slightly harder outcome.  Although it is not that big of an issue, use what you have on hand, just try not to use those contains more high gluten, unless you have a special fondness to chewy cakes, then I would have absolutely no objection.

Recipes from the U.S. usually state the unit by volume, which is a great reference if you have no weight in your kitchen (described as "weightless", hehehehehehehe...) to do a volume ratio.  Here I will also do the same and give relative weight of the ingredients.

Golden Vegan Vanilla "Just-As-Nice-and-Even-Better-For-the-Earth" Cupcake

Preparation time:  about 10 minutes (batter)
Baking time:  about 20 minutes
Yield:  about a dozen cupcakes

Metrics Measurements	U.S. Measurements	Ingredients
250 ml (300mg)	1 cup	soy milk, unsweetened and unflavored ("plain" or "original" soy-and-water soy milk)
5 mL (5g)	1 teaspoon	apple cider vinegar (or any other 5%-acidity, light-flavored, like wine vinegar, rice vinegar, but NOT balsamic or anything like that)
312.5 mL (170g)	1¼ cup	all-purpose flour (wheat, of course, Mehltyp 405 or 550)
30 mL (7.5g) (OR 15 mL)	2 tablespoons (OR 1½ tablespoon)	corn starch (Maisstärke, or any old baking starch) (instead of corn starch, use flaxseed meal) (OR flaxseed meal)
3.7 mL (11g)	¾ teaspoon	baking powder ("Backpulver")
2.5 mL (7.5g)	½ teaspoon	baking soda ("Natron")
2.5 mL (10g)	½ teaspoon	salt
62.5 mL (50g)	¼ cup	non-hydrogenated plain margarine with no flavorings (like salt or olive...), softened in room temperature
83 mL (74g)	¼ cup	vegetable oil
180 mL (90g)	¾ cup	brown sugar
5 mL (7g)	2 teaspoons	vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)
1.25 mL (2g)	¼ teaspoon	almond extract (or caramel extract or MORE vanilla extract if you don't have them!  Yay!)

Direction:
1.  Preheat oven to 350°F (or 175°C).
2.  Add vinegar into soy milk in a bowl, let it sit a couple of minutes while you prepare other stuff.
3.  Whip together the margarine, oil, brown sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract till it gets fluffy (and if you don't have a device to do that for you, simply stir evenly).  Then add in the soy milk.
4.  In a separate large bowl, combine in flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda and salt, then add in the oil-sugar-soy milk mixture.
Make sure there is no clumps of flour.
5.  Lay the muffin/cupcake parchment paper ("Backpapier") cups, and pour into the muffin baking tray and pour in the batter into the cups till about 85% to 90% filled.
6.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  The cupcakes are done when they appear golden yellow and/or poked with a stick and pulled out with no batter sticking on it.
7.  After taken out of the oven, make sure to take them out of the tray, or else the water vapor gets accumulated on tray and the cupcakes.

What about the signature cream on top of the cupcakes?
For the amount of one cupcake cream, whip or cream together (by hand or machine) about :

Preparation time:  7 minutes
Yield:  cream for just one cupcake

1 tablespoon (15 ml or 6 g) confectioner's sugar, unbleached powdered sugar ("Zucker Pulver"), add more if the feel it's not up to your sugar-craving standard.
1 tablespoon (15 ml or 12.5 g) margarine

Powdered sugar and white sugar (any old white cane sugar, sugar extracted from cane or "Zuckerrohr") usually uses a refining filter that contains animal bone char, which is a de-coloration process or bleaching process. This would make vast majority of the commercial powdered sugar non-vegetarian and especially non-vegan. However, if the sugar comes from sugar beet ("Zuckerrübe"), it will not go through this process and is considered vegan by the pourists. In Germany, since cane is grown in warmer locations like sub-tropical or tropical area, majority of the sugar will be derived from sugar beet, so it'd be safe to say that most of the sugar you see in Germany is from sugar beet. (Although I cannot guarantee if they combine cane sugar and beet sugar in the process for some reason or the other...)

To avoid this issue, you can simply use finer sized brown sugar, or use a salt crasher to create finer sugar.

Then you can add any flavor you like and combine the creamed sugar-margarine mixture!  Here are some examples:

Coffee
a small dash of ground coffee powder
½ teaspoon (1.25 ml or 1 g) coffee (you know, share a little of your coffee from your brewed coffee, sharing is caring!)

Cherry (Strawberry flavor is the same way also!)
1 teaspoon of cherry jam

Chocolate
1 teaspoon of unsweetened plain cocoa powder
And maybe some sprinkle of dark cocoa chocolate on top of the cupcake after putting on the cream (make sure there is no diary product in there)

Coconut
2 teaspoons (or more if you want it to be stronger) coconut powder (available in most Asian markets)
If you want, sprinkle on some coconut shreds on top of the cream on the cupcake to please your eyes, teehee!

Be creative, it's up to you to make some new flavors!  :]

I hope you guys enjoyed it!

You might be interested in making blueberry-banana muffins, too!

Curious about how to make soy milk yourself?