Recipe from What Did You Eat Yesterday?

In keeping with Shiro's personality--and Kenji's willingness to try anything Shiro makes--the recipes in the series What Did You Eat Yesterday? are practical and, as one reviewer comments, "doable."

I rarely make them, mostly because I don't have the ingredients on-hand. However, I have picked up a number of cooking techniques/tips, such as how to cook onions and why tempura is so difficult. In the latest volume (12, though Amazon has marked it "10 of 10"), Yoshinaga included an "American" recipe (so described in the volume) that is totally slated towards an American audience!

I had the ingredients, so I tried it--here is the recipe from the volume:

1/3 cup salted butter, room temperature whisked with
1/2 cup sugar and
1 egg
Fold in
1-1/3 cup cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
a few drops vanilla

Fill cups (I used a cupcake tin); place 1/4 (I used 1/8) of an cored and peeled apple on top; press it in; sprinkle slightly with sugar.

Bake for 25-30 (I baked for 20) minutes at 350 degrees.

It produced an almost white cake with apple topping--totally and utterly yummy. I like pastries that are more hearty than sweet--don't get me wrong, I like the sweet, but I like a snack I can eat at any time--so I tried the following variation:

1/3 cup salted butter, room temperature whisked with
1/2 cup sugar and
1 egg
Fold in
1-1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
a few drops vanilla extract

Fill cups (I used a cupcake tin); place 1/4 (I used 1/8) of an cored and peeled apple on top; press it in; sprinkle slightly with sugar.

Latest variation.

Bake for 25-30 (I baked for 20) minutes at 350 degrees.

This produced a rich cake-like muffin (I coated the apple pieces with sugar and cinnamon).

I then tried this variation:

1/3 cup salted butter, room temperature whisked with
1/3 cup sugar and
1 egg
Fold in
1 cup cake flour plus 1/2 all-purpose flour (the 1/2 rather than 1/3 cup was my mistake)

2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
a few drops vanilla extract

Fill cups (I used a cupcake tin); place 1/4 (I used 1/8) of an cored and peeled apple on top; press it in; sprinkle slightly with sugar.

Bake for 25-30 (I baked for 20) minutes at 350 degrees.

This produced more of a heavy muffin-type texture and taste.

All of these were delicious! I've never encountered an easier recipe that could be played with so creatively by a complete amateur baker like me. I guess that's Kayoko's influence :)