Carrot Cake

Easy Carrot Cake.

Maybe I should change that title to the easier carrot cake - ever!

Honestly I do not like carrot cake.
But it appeals to some. My mum has been telling me to bake one like for quite a while,
but since I'm not a fan I took my time searching the internet and recipes books for a good one.
Actually I was really looking for an easy one that doesn't require much ingredients or steps.
Me being lazy ha ha ha!

I kept 'looking' until one day, mum decided that she really wanted to eat one. So off we went to a famous cake shop, I won't mention it here as I don't want to hurt people's feelings...
Bought a piece, brought it back and well needless to say mum was not pleased! Wasted a good RM 10.00 too!

So I Googled for carrot cake recipe and got several. There were even ones with pineapple!?! Wasn't this suppose to be carrot cake? So then I tried Googling easy carrot cake recipe and magically this recipe appeared!
I have baked this twice and both times it was a big hit! Mum is happy, so I'm 'happily' grating the carrots!

One thing though, at the end of the recipe there is a link to a video on youtube.
You will notice that some of the measurements for the ingredients vary. So I opt for the youtube version.
It is up to you, which one to chose, but I posted the one on youtube.

I chose a rectangular baking tin but you could easily use an 8 in round tin too!

Carrot Cake
source: all recipes uk
watch it on youtube

Ingredients
250g all purpose flour
4 eggs
300ml oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon (I skipped this)
400 g sugar (I used brown sugar)
120g chopped walnuts (I only used 100g)
350g grated carrots

Method
In a bowl, combine eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy and thick.
Add in flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and cinnamon (If using).
Beat again.
Add in the grated carrots and walnuts. Mix to combine.
Pour into greased tin and bake at 180 C for 40-50 min.
Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes before taking out.

Cream Cheese Topping.
125g butter
200g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
450g icing sugar
120g walnuts ( I skipped this)

Method
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
Add in the icing sugar and beat again.
Add in the vanilla and the walnuts.
Ice the cake when it is cooled.

** I did this icing and got a lot. Too much for the cake.
In fact I could ice two cakes with one quantity of topping.
I suggest you half the recipe for a cake.

Caramel Chocolate Cake

 Caramel Chocolate Cake

Hmm... the name of the cake alone is already making me drool.

In fact I came across several recipes of this said cake a few times but after reading the ingredients and method I just skipped to the next recipe as I thought it was a tad tedious and hassle.
This is the sure proof that you'll never know until you try.

A few weeks ago, my brother's friend gave us several pieces of this cake.
At first I was rather skeptical, the cake looks great but I wonder does it taste great too?
After all it is a steamed cake and I don't really like steamed cakes.
But after one mouthful, I was totally convinced that I have been an idiot not to try out this recipe sooner!
Make sure your steamer is filled with water at all times and ready!

Caramel Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2 Tbsp sugar
Sprinkle onto baking tin (8 in round tin) and slowly melt over fire until it turn brownish.
Be careful not to burn the sugar!
Put aside to cool.

For Caramel
1 cup condensed milk
1 cup evaporated milk
3 yolks
1 tsp vanilla

In a bowl combine everything, and whisk to combine.
Don't over beat, as air bubbles will make your caramel filled with holes.
Pour onto cool melted sugar and steam for 15 mins.
Once cook, take out and leave to cool for a while.

For the Chocolate Cake
A
1 cup condensed milk
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup oil (any cooking oil will do, I used sunflower oil)
1 cup sugar
1 cup cocoa powder

Combine all the ingredients in a pot and slowly cook until it turns into a smooth paste
and warm through. Stir at all times, to avoid burning.Switch off fire and cool.

Chocolate Cake
B
4 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tsp baking powder

Sieve flour and both baking powder and soda . Beat the eggs.
Using a whisk, alternate the flour and eggs into the chocolate mixture.
Then slowly, using a ladle, spoon the mixture on top of the caramel layer.
Do it gently to avoid breaking the caramel.

Then steam again for 45 min to 1 hour.
Check that there is water in the steamer at all times and occasionally wipe the insides of the cover to avoid too much water dripping onto the surface of the cake.

Leave the cake to cool completely, about 2 to 3 hours before attempting to remove it from the tin.
Using a butter knife gently loosen the sides and use a plate to flip the cake as some melted sugar will drip to the sides of the cake.
Cool in the fridge or eat it.

Happy Baking.

Crispy Japanese Cream Puff

I came across this recipe while looking for another recipe. In fact it didn't have anything to do with cream puffs at all!
I often wondered what those cracky bits on top were whenever I spot theses at the shops. Lo Behold, I now know! LOL

Basically, cream puffs are choux pastry.

1. Choux pastry, or pâte à choux, is a light pastry dough used to make profiteroles, croquembouches, éclairs, French crullers, beignets, St. Honoré cake, and gougères. It contains only butter, water, flour, and eggs. Wikipedia

Choux pastry is not easy to do. I had several moments where I just wanted to throw everything in the bin or they, i.e the puffs simply refuse to puff up! Believe me, I had my fair share of ruined profiteroles which we commonly call cream puffs.

I have yet to try making eclairs, although it just a different technique in pipping the shape of the pastry
but I do want but am afraid to try out croquembouches!

Look how beautiful they are, a real treat for a very special occasion like a wedding, birthdays or even Christmas!
They are just stacked puffs, 'glued' around a cone, to retain its shape and filled with whatever your heart or tummy desire, cream, custard or chocolate. Then drizzled if wished with melted chocolate, or draped with pulled sugar or just left on its own.
But it requires a lot of patience and hard work, something I am lacking in... hihihi!
Pictures courtesy of Google, unfortunately not mine T T



Right back to reality, 'knock, knock' on my head.
The recipe for this cream puff version, a Japanese one is relatively easy to follow.
I must admit it is the first one I have come across that has baking powder as one of its ingredients!
But I tried it out, in fact several times and it worked! Hey, go figure janji it comes out fine and delicious!
I think the tricky part would only be where you cook the dough on the stove.

Make sure, the fire is medium low and that the dough must pull away from the sides of the pot and forms a ball. If this doesn't happen, *sigh* don't waste your time, energy and electricity to go to the next step.
In choux pastry the dough forming into a ball is a very important step.
Using cold eggs also helps cool the dough.
Another tip, a hot oven is also vital as it helps the puffs, to puff up!

But with a lot of practice and patient, it is possible.
Please don't let my words deter you from trying out this wonderful pastry.
Follow each step carefully and take care during the cooking process, God's will you will be fine.

If you are up to it, here is the recipe.

Crispy cream puff
source: Julia Homemade

Ingredients
100g of butter
1 tsp of sugar
110g water
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)

120g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs

Topping
50g butter
50g sugar
1 Tbsp water (I added another table spoon of water for smoother flow)
50g flour

Beat all into a smooth paste.
Put it into a pipping bag and pipe spiral circles, onto the puffs.
* make sure to cover the puff evenly as it will expand as it cooks.

Method
Preheat oven to 180-200 C.
In a pot, combine water, sugar and butter. Boil gently until the butter melts.
Add in the flour all at once and stir until the flour combines with the mixture.
Keep stirring until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot and forms into a ball.
Switch off the fire.
Put aside to cool.
When cool, add cold eggs one at a time. Use a wooden spoon to beat until combine before adding another egg. Lastly add in the baking powder. Beat again to combine.

Now either using a piping bag or a spoon, pipe or place the balls of pastry onto a greased baking tray.
Leave some space in between each puff as it will balloon up twice its size.
Pipe the topping on each puff.
Bake at 180-200c according to your oven, until puffy and golden brown.

Take it out of the oven and cool on a cooling rack. Be gentle, as a hot puff can suddenly deflate if crushed.

The Filling
Puan Julia used chocolate cream as the filling, but I prefer a custard filling.

3/4 cup of milk
2 Tbsp custard powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water

Mix the custard powder with the water, stirring out the lumps before adding it to the milk and sugar mixture.
In a pot, gently boil everything, stirring occasionally to avoid lumps.
Once the custard thickens, and warm through switch off fire.

Cut the puff using a scissors, half way through and pipe in or spoon in the warm custard.
Ready to eat!

Happy baking.

Doraemon!

Birthday Cake

A friend asked if I could bake a birthday cake for her son's first birthday... cute! First birthdays are important even if the birthday person isn't quite aware of what exactly is happening or who are all those people...!!

The mum wanted it to be Doraemon as that is his favourite cartoon character.
So off I went looking high and low of the said cat's edible icing sheet, but sadly after visiting 4 shops, Doraemon was no where in sight!
Eventually we settled for figurines of the blue cat made of sugar and some plastic toys.

For this cake I baked a Victoria Sandwich, chocolate and vanilla with butter cream topping.
As she didn't want a lot of cream, I covered the sides lightly with some butter cream before propping up bars of Kitkat that look like fences. For a festive touch I added some colourful lollipops.

Applying the fences a.k.a kitkat takes a lot of patience and a bit of icing.
Patience, so that the bars don't break as you are unwrapping them.
Icing, works like glue to stick to the cake. When done, gently press the bars to the cake and put it in the fridge to set. Same goes for the cats, a bit of icing at the bottom of eat figurines, helps them stick better.
I piped some rosette at the edge between the cake and kitkat bars, to close some gaps.
If you like, tie a colourful ribbon around the chocolate bars with a big bow right at the front.

Here is the end product, I left the front part empty for the candles.

Victoria Sandwich
source: my mum's recipe book

4 oz self raising flour (I used Blue Key)
1 tsp baking powder
3 oz castor sugar
2 medium size eggs
4 oz butter
* I doubled the recipe for this birthday cake.

Method:
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add in eggs one at a time, beat well.
Fold in flour in batches and mix well until batter is smooth.
**
Line and grease 2 baking tins.
Bake for about 25-30 min at 180 C.

Take cakes out of tins and cool on racks.
When cakes are still warm, spread jam on the surface of one cake (pick the bottom part of the cake, as it is easier to spread the jam) before topping it with the other cake.

** If you are doing the chocolate part, put aside half of the batter and add 1 Tbsp of cocoa. Mix well until all the batter is evenly mix, just use a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour batter into tin and bake.

For the butter cream
125g butter
70g shortening
80g icing sugar (please sift first)
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp condensed milk

In a bowl beat butter and shortening until light and fluffy,
then add the vanilla. Beat again.
Gradually add the icing sugar and continue beating until all the
sugar is finished. Lastly add in the condensed milk.
Mix well and it is ready to be used.

For colour, just add a few drops of your favorite colour. 

Happy Baking!

Marble Cake - another recipe

Just look at that, sedapkan?
YES! It is!
Forgive my rudeness, but you ought to give this recipe a try.
It is just perfect for lazy me. The steps and ingredients are basically easy.
Okay let's back track for a bit.
As always, me and almost everyone out there love browsing through the internet, other then their
prefixed favorite pages.
I'm no different, but I do love roaming and reading cooking blogs especially ones with recipes and good pictures. Ahem, the pictures do help!
Sometimes, it is irritating when I scroll down only to discover only pictures and no recipe *sigh* but I guess some people don't want to share or just love posting pics.

I came across this wonderful site. Not sure how I missed it before but it has some very interesting recipes.
I like the layout, very user friendly and the instructions are easy to follow. To find out more, click here -
 QL Kitchen

I'm sharing their Marble Cake recipe. Try it, it is worth the time and effort.
I used a wooden spoon to beat up the butter and sugar, too lazy to take out the hand mixer.
I also added 1 tsp of Baking Powder to the flour.
I used 1 non stick loaf pan. 30cm x 11 cm, 6cm deep. I still greased and lined it with paper anyway.

The cake is light, not too sweet or greasy. The masses ate almost half! I was lucky to snap the photos before it disappeared!
Well QL Kitchen, thank you so much! I'm sharing this wonderful recipe with everyone else. This recipe is definitely a keeper!!

Marble Cake
source: QL Kitchen

Ingredients

225g butter
225g castor sugar
225g all purpose flour (to this I added 1 tsp baking powder)
4 eggs
6 Tbsp milk (I used evaporated milk)
2 heaped Tbsp cocoa (I only used 1 1/2 Tbsp)
1 tsp vanilla

Method
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.
Add in vanilla essence. Mix well.
Alternate the flour and 3 Tbsp milk, mix well.
Divide the batter into 2 bowls.
Leave one plain and to the other half add cocoa powder and 3 Tbsp milk.
Combine well.
Use 2 clean spoons to alternate the batter into the cake tin.
Lastly use a skewer to make marble like patterns on the top.

Bake at 180C for 45 mins - 1 hour. It depends on how many cake tins you use.
I used 1, but QL used 2 smaller ones, so the cooking times is faster.
Allow to cool before tipping it out of the cake tin and on to a cooling rack.


Happy Baking.

Scones

Scones

Scones... Mmm I love the buttery smell of scones. It is delicious even on its own. Opps I sound like a roti add on tv! Straight from the oven, warm or cold I love them.
But seriously scones, a tad tedious to do as it requires the least bit of handling or you'll end up with a lump of rock instead of scrumptious scones.

I used a fluted biscuit cutter, sometimes I just use one of the biskut raya cutter in the shape of a circle.
Some scones aren't round but triangle or look like slices of cake. Instead of using a cutter, the round dough is divided into 6 or 8 depending on your preference.
You decide which shape or size you want your scones to be, after all you as the baker has the last say!
As to glazing the tops with eggs makes it look more brown and golden compared to just milk. I brushed mine with milk. Some recipes say you can add dried fruits some don't. I just added a handful about 50g or so into the flour. If you like yours plain, omit the fruits.

I tried two recipes, one with egg and the other without. After tasting both I decided they both tasted almost the same. So here are the recipes if you want to give it a try.



Scones
source: BBC Food recipes

225g/8 oz self raising flour
55g/2 oz butter
25g/1 oz castor sugar (about 1 Tbsp)
150 ml milk
(to glaze: 1 egg - optional. Brushing the tops with milk is fine)
(50g dried fruit - I added raisins, it is optional)


Method
In a bowl rub the butter into the flour until mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Stir in the sugar and the dried fruit if using.
Then add the milk until you get a soft sticky dough.
*I added a bit more milk to mine as it was dry.
Turn on to a floured work surface and knead lightly.
Gently pat out a round about 3cm thick.
Using a biscuit cutter, cut out the scones. Just press down
onto the dough and push out with your fingers lightly.
Arrange scones onto a greased oven tray.
Brush top with egg or milk.
Bake for 15 - 20 min at 180 - 200 C, depending on your oven.
Cool on a wire rack. Serve with your favorite jam or whipped cream.






Mary's Tea Time Scones
source: BBC Food Recipes & Mary Berry

250g/9 oz self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g/1 1/2 oz butter
25g/1 oz castor sugar
1 egg
about 100 ml milk

Method
Put the flour and baking powder into a bowl.
Add in the butter and rub it in the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Stir in sugar.
Beat the egg in a measuring jug and pour enough milk until 100ml.
*For this I also added a few tablespoonful more of milk as my dough was dry
Set aside 1 Tbsp for glazing the scones later.
Turn the  mixture out onto a floured surface and pat a round about 2 cm thick,
Use a biscuit cutter to cut out the scones.

Place the scones on a greased oven tray and brush the tops with the leftover milk/egg mixture.
Bake the scones for 10 min at 190-200 C.

Cool on a wire rack and serve with jam or whipped cream.


Happy Baking.

Victoria Sandwich Cake

Baked this lovely all time favorite of the family and masses, Victoria Sandwich Cake.
I barely popped it out of the tins, it was still warm and Mum wanted to know if she could have a piece!
Not yet, said I as it has to cool slightly before I spread the jam and topped the other half over it!
As requested, I made the second half of chocolate.
Simply really, just add 1 Tbsp of cocoa powder with just enough water to form a paste.
Then add that to half of the batter.
Stir well to ensure all the 'white' turns chocolate.

If you want to try this lovely recipe for tea or just to eat cake, go here

Happy Baking!