Carrot Cake (with Cheese Frosting)

Here's a very easy-to-make tasty carrot cake that I made for someone's birthday.
The only tough part is preparing the ingredients as the grating of carrots takes pretty much efforts and time.
Other steps are basically just whipping all together with an electric mixer XD


If you want a healthier choice, omit the cheese frosting and it will still taste as good!


In this demo, I baked 2 times for this measurement as I only have 1 square pan. And I actually used 1 part of the cake, halve it & create a rectangular cake rather than a square one as a birthday cake. The other part that I baked second time was "topless", without the cream frosting and my family loves it too! :)

Carrot Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for pan)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1½ cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups grated carrots
• ½ cup mashed pineapple
• 1½ cup walnuts (chopped)

Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

• 16 oz cream cheese
• ½ cup unsalted butter (plus more for pan)
• 25g powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Line the bottom of the 7" pans with parchment paper. Then grease the paper and dust it with flour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Step 1: Combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

Step 2: Beat the eggs and vegetable oil in another mixing bowl, using a mixer, whisk till smooth & fluffy.

Step 3: Sift in all the pre-mixed dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Continue to whisk well.

Step 4: Add in grated carrots, mashed pineapples and chopped walnuts. Mix thoroughly.

Step 5: Pour batter into baking tray, bake for 30mins. When done, cool the cake for 10mins before removing.

I trimmed the edges of the cake before proceeding...

Steps to make Cream Frosting
1) Set cream cheese at room temperature and whisk it in a mixing bowl. Add lemon juice and vanilla extract and whisk till creamy.

2) Gradually add in tablespoon by tablespoon of the powdered sugar till the consistency of a frosting cream has reached.

3) Spread the cream onto one side of each piece of the halved cake. Sandwiched them together and cover the entire cake with more cream cheese frosting. And you are done!

 

Well, because it is meant to be a birthday cake for someone ^^, so I combined my other recipe - the langue de chat for the decorations. Kinda a little messy, still trying to improve on my cake decorating skills though. HAHA!

Chocolate Brownies

The Baked Method - More moist, more intense taste..

- 175g (6oz) plain chocolate

- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

- 55g (2oz) unsalted butter

- 2 eggs

- 175g (6oz) caster sugar

- 65g (2.5oz) plain flour

- 55g (2oz) self-rising flour

- 1/2 tsp almond extract (I used almond essence which you may add lesser about 1/4 tsp)

[* Preheat oven 175.]

[* Grease & flour an 8" pan.]

1) Melt chocolate & unsalted butter over double-boiler / Bain Marie.

2) Beat eggs & sugar in a mixing bowl with a mixer till creamy & increase in volume.

3) Stir in sifted (plain flour + self-rising flour).

4) Add in almond extract & melted chocolate. Mix well.

5) Spread batter into pan, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.

6) Bake for 30mins. When done, let cake cool in tin for 10mins before cutting & serve.

TADAH~! Freshly baked brownies~!

Honey Cake

Lately whenever I opened my refrigerator, I will see a few bees staring at me - bottles of honey.

Honey is actually very good in many ways.

Especially when my throat starts to get cranky, I will take some plain honey water or pop a couple of teaspoons of it into my coffee or chocolate drinks (they taste good!).

When we needed honey, there isn't any avail. anywhere in the house.

It was when my sister needed some, she bought a bottle.

Before we get to finish that bottle, I received a bottle from my boyfriend's mom as they claimed a few bottles via some points redemption. Then, my dad went Thailand and bought back a huge bottle of honey.

(=_=) man.. when will we get to finish all these honey?

So my baking bugs started digging into my ears and suggest me the idea of making honey dessert!

So, I went to flip through some recipe books that my friends & colleagues bought me as birthday present for last year.

Spotted this easy recipe that uses honey and i.e. Honey Cake (^,^)

It's really easy but because it was my 1st time baking Honey Cake, and also my 1st time trying out recipe from this particular book, I did not want to venture my risk too far. I cut the portions by half but ended up, I had a slightly flat cake. But no worries, I believe if you follow the exact quantity, it will make a perfect height of the cake! :)

Ingredients: (Original Recipe)

- 85g Flour (sifted)

- 175g Egg

- 60g  Caster Sugar

- 60g Honey

- 25g Milk

- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder (Optional - I believe adding some of it will bring up the taste more (: )

* Pan size: 4.5 inch x 4.5 inch (11.25cm) .

* Preheat oven to 160°C.

1) Whisk egg, sugar, honey and cinnamon (optional) until soft peak.
    Whisk in milk till creamy texture.

2) Fold in flour thoroughly till creamy batter-like texture.

3) Pour batter through a sieve into a bowl to remove lumps.

4) Pour sifted batter into cake pan. Bake 160°C for 30mins.

5) Remove from oven, allow to cool in tin for 10mins before turning it out on wire rack to cool further.

** Wrap cake in plastic wrapper and chill 1 day to enhance the flavor.

ENJOY~~~~~~ :D

Coconuty Lamingtons

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WHAT IS LAMINGTONS?
Lamingtons are a sponge cake (or, more traditionally, butter cake) in the shape of a cuboid, coated in a layer of traditionally chocolate icing and then desiccated coconut. They are sometimes served as two halves with a layer of cream and/or strawberry jam between. The chocolate lamington is as Australian as meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars. So called the culinary icon of Australia.

HISTORY
The documented history about the creation of lamingtons is from the "accident" where Baron Lamington's (a popular governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901) cook accidentally dropped his favourite sponge cake into a dish of melted chocolate and being not a wasteful person, Lord Lamington suggested the cook to coat the chocolate cake in desiccated coconut so as to prevent messy hands from the chocolate when eating the cake. From there, it was greatly loved by the guests and all started asking for the recipe.

HOW I KNOW?
For me, I get to know about lamingtons from my oversea studies in Perth, Australia. Staying in the hostel did not only allow me to experience different cultures from the different natives like me, but also get to taste some of the very traditional food and desserts of Australia. For lamingtons, I don't used to like desserts related to coconuts but to my surprise, my last Australia trip to Brisbane for vacation, and it is many years after I graduated, I get to eat the cake again during the trip. I came back and one day, I actually missed the dessert!

So being a passionate in baking, I decided to find the recipe and try making it! A little tweak in my recipe as I still have quite a bit of coconut milk left, so I made a coconut twist sponge cake than the ordinary butter one. :)
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THE MAKING OF LAMINGTONS
So here's the recipe and steps:

 

Cake Recipe:

- 2 cups self-rising flour

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup milk (I tried using 1/4 cup milk + 1/4 cup coconut cream)

Assembling Recipe (Filling/Chocolate Frosting):

- 1/3 cup cocoa powder

- 3 cups powdered sugar

- 3 tbsp unsalted butter

- 1/2 cup milk

- Strawberry jam (for cake filling, you may choose other jams)

- 2 cups Desiccated Coconut

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Cake:

(Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.)

1) Grease & flour bottom & sides of an 8" (20cm) square cake pan.

2) In a large bowl, sift in flour + salt. Set aside.

3) In electric mixer bowl, beat butter & sugar till light & fluffy (2-3mins).

4) Add in one egg at a time, beat well after each addition. (Scrape down the sides of the bowl). Add in vanilla extract, beat till combined.

5) With mixer on low speed, alternatively add flour mixture & milk, in 3 additions, begin & end with flour.
(For the milk, I had already mixed the milk & coconut cream together)

6) Pour the batter into the pan, smoothing the top with offset spatula. Bake 25-30mins.

7) Cool cake in pan for 10mins then remove from oven. Poke a toothpick into the center of cake. If toothpick comes out clean, it is done.

8) Place a wire rack on top of pan & invert, lifting cake off the pan onto the wire rack. Re-invert the cake.

9) Using a cake knife, trim off the uneven top of the cake. Cut the cake into 4cm squares. Wrap cakes in plastic wrap & chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

10) For each squares, cut horizontally into half. Spread strawberry jam onto the center and sandwich the cakes.

11) Chocolate Frosting: Place powdered sugar + cocoa powder + butter + milk over a double-boiler.

12) Stir mixture till smooth and of pouring consistency.

* Put the sandwiched cakes onto a wire rack and place a baking sheet/pan below to catch the drips.

* Pour the desiccated coconut onto a shallow pan or a plate.

13) Use a fork to hold the cake, slowly dip into the chocolate while using a spoon to pour some chocolate over the top till they are fully coated. 

With a knife, transfer the chocolate coated cakes onto the plate of desiccated coconut & sprinkle to cover all sides.

14) Place done lamingtons back onto the wire rack & let it set.

 * You may put in airtight containers & chill overnight before serving.

ENJOY!!!

Items you may need for this recipe: