My Favorite Carrot Cake

I wanted to make a cake that was somewhat healthy for you while being delicious and moist.  I decided that anything that had vegetables or fruits in it would be healthy to narrow the choices down a bit.  Then I came upon this recipe for carrot cake and thought: carrots, what could be healthier than carrots?  So I made some to enjoy with my boyfriend, and to also show him that carrot cake could be yummy and just as good as any other cake out there.  But just in case he didn't agree with me, I added a little marzipan carrot on top to make them just a little more appealing.


My recipe
4 eggs
6 ounces vegetable oil
14 ounces sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
9 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 lb grated carrots
2 1/2 ounces chopped walnuts

Whip the eggs, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.  Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder.  Fold the dry ingredients into the eggs and oil mixture in 3 batches and then fold in the carrots and the walnuts.  Place in pan and bake.

Of course there has to a frosting on it and of course it has to be a cream cheese frosting otherwise it wouldn't be a carrot cake.

1 pound cream cheese, softened
12 ounces butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Then add sifted powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth again.

I made these into individual little cakes by baking them on a sheet pan and using cookie cutters to cut out the shapes and assembling them.  But they can be made in a 9 inch cake pan to make a delicious 9 inch cake and decorate with marzipan carrots and the like.  Hope this recipe is found to be one of your favorites as well.
Happy chomps and nibbles.

Doughnuts...or is it donuts?

I woke up today with a craving for doughnuts.  Or is it donuts?  I can never remember which was correct.  Anyways, I want some doughnuts, so I make some.  I know there are like a million doughnut shops out there, in fact, there's one just across the street from me.  I just can't seem to make them like those doughnut places.  But how can I not try my hand at doughnuts especially if I find a recipe that has an out of place ingredient?  I saw that the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of mashed potato and I had to make it. 

I googled doughnut recipe and found a website that was called secret donut recipe, how could I not check that one out?  Everybody loves to know a secret, right?  So I check, and watch the video and all that, and I got the recipe.  It is simple and all the ingredients are pretty much in the cupboard at any time which make it convienient.  So here is the recipe that I found that seemed most simple.

2tablspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
5 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup milk

Warm the milk to just above body temperature.  Then add the yeast and mix until dissolved.  The milk should not be too hot or it will kill the yeast.  Mix the flour, salt, sugar, and potato.  Then add the milk mixture into the dry ingredients.  Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut out the doughnuts.  Fry them in oil that has been warmed to about 375 degrees F until golden brown.

So I make the recipe and it is delicious.  I didn't even make a glaze for them.  I just topped it with a sprinkle of sugar and that was done.  Now the next time I try making these suckers, I might go with a green tea glaze or some maple with bacon flavorings, but for this week, enjoy the doughnuts.
Happy chomps and nibbles!

Steamed Rice Cake Muffins

This week I tried to make a steamed rice cake muffin.  I had just tried some Putuhan, a Filipino steamed rice cake, and had really enjoyed it.  Even if it was just a plain rice flavored one.  But I wasn't allowed to have more than a couple of these little bite sized treats.  I wanted more but since my boyfriend wanted to take some to work the next day, couldn't, so today I made some. But since I didn't want to do one that was just rice flavored, I chose to do one that was green tea and chocolate flavored. The first attempt needed a little bit more of the green tea flavor so in the next batch I doubled the green tea, but also reserved some of the batter to add some cocoa powder.  I think these came out great, but the second batch was a bit dryer and a bit more dense.  I forgot to take into account the cocoa powder. 

Overall, they were delicious and I thought they were good enough to share.  I did not come up with the recipe that I started with but, as always made it my own.  I found it on asiarecipe.com/phidesserts.html.  

2 cups rice flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons green tea powder or 2 Tablespoon cocoa powder and 2 Tablespoons more milk

2 cups milk

Sift the first five ingredients together.  In a mixing bowl, add milk to sifted ingredients and blend well to make a smooth mixture.  Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full.  Cook in a steamer for 40 minutes.  Test for doneness, muffins are done when toothpick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. 

Hope you enjoy!  Happy nibbles and chomps!

Maple Bacon Mille Fuille FTW!

I made a Maple Bacon Mille Fuille for this past Sunday's Superbowl Party.  I think it was a great success, but you will have to try it out and see.

I guess I should start with a definition of a mille fuille, or napoleon.  A napoleon is a layered dessert that came from France (but with the vast knowledge of the world at your fingertips, google helped).  Traditionally it is 3 layers of puff pastry and 2 layers of pastry cream, but of course there are lots of different variations now.  My version had a Maple diplomat cream and some caramelized bacon with the 3 layers of puff pastry.

I made a Maple Diplomat Cream, or a Maple pastry cream that was folded into some whipped cream and some caramelized bacon to make the dessert.  The diplomat cream had just enough sweetness with the maple flavor to make it a dessert.  But the best part was the bacon.  I essentially made a bacon candy.  It was coated with sugar and then baked in the oven until the bacon was coated with a nice layer of candy.  It was sweet and bacon-y.  But I do have to say that I did cheat a little.  I used frozen puff pastry that I bought at the store instead of making my own.  Of course, making puff pastry can be done at home, but with all the layering of the butter and the dough, it takes some time.  But if the dough is made at home, I will say that the end result tastes a lot better than just using the store-bought stuff.

For the Diplomat Cream:

5 egg yolks
1 oz. corn starch
4 oz. sugar
16 oz milk
2 Tablespoon maple flavoring
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Scald the milk over medium heat, you should heat the milk until it starts to steam.  Mix the cornstarch and the sugar together to get the lumps out of the cornstarch and the sugar.  Then add the yolks to the mix and whisk.  Do not let the sugar sit on top of the yolks, or it will burn the yolks.  Once the milk is warmed, ladle some of the milk into the yolk mixture while whisking.  You want to temper the milk into the yolks without curdling the egg yolks.  Keep adding the milk into the egg yolks until about half has been added.  Then pour the mixture back into the pot and cook while stirring constantly, until thick.  It should end up at the consistency of pudding.  Add the extract last and mix until combined.  Place in a bowl with plastic wrap directly on top of the cream and refrigerate.  Meanwhile whip the cream until stiff, when the pastry cream is cooled all the way through, about 30 minutes, fold it into the whipped cream.


Caramelized Bacon:
Take the bacon and cover with sugar, then place bacon on a sheet tray with a sil-pat and bake until it is almost cooked through.  At this point take the tray out of the oven and sprinkle sugar onto the bacon.  Make sure that the bacon is covered on that side.  Bake until the sugar is melted and the bacon is crisp.
Chop up the bacon into small pieces so that you can put it into the Mille Fuille.

Mille Fuille
Take the puff pastry and thaw it, then take a fork and poke it all over evenly.  Take the puff pastry, and bake it until golden and flaky.  Then cut it into 3 equal sized portions.  Take two and place them on the plate, then pipe the diplomat cream over it, make sure to cover the both pieces, and it can be decorative or just lines, but make it even.  Sprinkle the caramelized bacon onto it then place one piece of the puff over the other.  Then cover with the last piece of puff pastry and dust with powdered sugar.  Freeze or refrigerate to stabilize the cream and serve.  Of course, the puff pastry pieces can be cut into individual serving sizes and then assembled, but the procedure should still be similar.

So that was my dessert for the weekend, and I felt like they were fighting over the 10 pieces that I could cut out of it.  I think I only have pictures of this dessert as it is being devoured or the empty plates that had held these desserts just a few minutes before.  Then I had an idea, since my friend was just eating the diplomat cream from the piping bag, I should just topped off all the pieces with even more of it.  As you can see in the picture above, we were using paper plates, and though it is a bit messy, it was delicious.  But I hope it is a dessert that everyone can enjoy.

Happy chomps and nibbles!