Yummy-licious Carrot Cake

My husband is a fan of carrot cakes and can't stop raving about the carrot cakes from Cedele. Rightfully so.. Cedele carrot cakes are moist and oh-so-generous with their carrots and walnuts. As for me, I am no fan of 'sweets'. I rarely ever finish a piece of cake by myself, usually just pinch a few small bites from hubby.

The last time I baked a carrot cake was for his birthday last year. I remembered it as laborious and extremely sweet, definitely not trying that recipe again. Searched the internet and decided to use the one from Allrecipes.

The result was extra-ordinary!! I had many rave reviews. My hubby said it was better than Cedele's and not overly sweet. Maybe he said that to please me (considering I am heavily pregnant now....). Either way, I am grateful for the compliment. Here's a pic of the cake. The fork in the foreground was my son eagerly waiting to dig-in.

My FIL and MIL enjoyed the cake too. A family friend also commented that its as good as Cedele's. Ha ha.. think I'm surrounded by very kind people who tries to please a heavily pregnant woman!

As for me.. well.. I did manage to polish off a single slice of the cake. Here's the recipe if you are keen to try.

INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup brown, 1 cup white)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts instead)

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

Note : I recommend to line the cake pan with baking paper. I only greased my cake pan and the cake got stuck. When I tried to force it out of the pan, it broke into many pieces.

Hope you and your family enjoyed it too!

Rye Bread

This is a good rye bread recipe. Oops.. cannot remember which book I got it from. The bread is soft and nutritious. Tastes excellent when lightly toasted... yum..

Looks good too, doesn't it? Kind of professional. :-)

Here's the recipe:

(A)
200g bread flour
50g rye flour
25g wholemeal flour
10g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsps instant yeast

(B)
1 tsp honey
170ml water

(c)
10g butter

(D)
35g chopped walnuts, optional

Method
--------
1. Mix (A) till well blended
2. Add (B) an knead to form a dough
3. Add (C) and knead to form a smooth, elastic dough. Do the 'window pane' test
4. Add (D) and mix till well combined
5. Cover dough and leave to rise for 30 minutes
6. Punch down. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces and shape into balls
7. Shape balls into ovals
8. Spray some water on the dough and sift some rye flour on top
9. Use a sharp knife to cut out leaf shapes
10. Bake at 200 degree celcius for 20 to 25 minutes

Have tried this recipe couple of times now and was successful each time. My family and extended family enjoy this bread, so do try it.

Fruited Muesli bread

I love Sundays. Missing church service last week made me enjoy this week's service even more. There are just so many things to thank the Lord for!

Although its my domestic helper's day off on Sunday, I still managed to bake quite a few breads. Thanks to my dear hubby and wonderfully good children.

I made the fruited muesli bread, as I have too many bags of muesli at home! The result looked and tasted good too. Unfortunately, when left overnight, was a little hard, not sure if it was because I did not proofed it long enough.



Here it is, shaped, brushed with eggwash, sprinkled with some muesli and 'imprinted' using star shaped cookie cutters.


And this is the final result, golden brown and healthy.



Here's the recipe

Ingredients
------------
475g bread flour
2 tablespoon milk powder
3 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon butter
100g fruit muesli
1 and 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
300ml water
100g ready to eat dried apricots
50 g dried cranberries (i replaced with raisins)

Method
---------
1. Mix all dry ingredients for 1 minute (except apricot and cranberries)
2. Mix in wet ingredients, except butter
3. Knead till dough come together
4. add butter, knead till dough is smooth and elastic
5. Add apricot and cranberries, mix till even, do not over mix
6. Cover dough and rest for 1 hour
7. Punch down, divide into 2 portions and shape into balls
8. Brush with egg wash, sprinkle some muesli on top
9. use cookie cutter to 'print' on the dough
10. Leave to proof for an hour
11. Bake at 180 degrees for half hour. Bread should sound hollow when tapped with finger tips
12. Cool on wire rack

I also baked some rye bread which I gave away. Its getting late, so I'll share next time.

Citrus Brioche

It feels so good to spend the weekend at home. Time with my kids and of course, some time for baking. Browsed through some bread books borrowed from the library and settled on 'Florida Citrus Brioche. It looks so delicious. Here's what I mean.

So I measured the ingredients, grated the orange dump everything into my breadmaker to knead the dough. Only then did I realise that the recipe requires that the dough be left to rest in the refrigerator overnight! NO patience for that, so I'll just bake it 'normal'.

Unfortunately, the end result was a far cry from the picture. Here's my citrus brioche

Had a few mishaps too.. I used plain flour instead of bread flour!!!! Gosh!! No wonder following the recipe did not give me a dough, but a cake batter instead. Plain flour absorbs less water than bread flour. In the end, I had to add an extra cup of flour to make the 'batter' come together... sigh...

Before adding extra flour

and after

And this is after shaping, proofed, brushed with egg and decorated with twisted orange slice.

Taste wise, it is nice and refreshing. Unfortunately not fluffy soft.. no fault of the recipe.. entirely mine.

So here's the recipe if you are interested.

Ingredients
------------
5 large eggs
2 tablespoon dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons orange extract
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
2 tablespoons high quality orange liquer (Cointreau or Grand Marnier)
3 and 1/2 cup bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten for brushing
12 thin orange half slices, with peel, for garnishing

Method
--------

1. Mix eggs, milk, sugar, extract, orange rind, orange liquer and flour for 3 minutes on low speed
2. Switch to medium speed, add salt and knead for 7 minutes
3. Gradually add butter, and knead till a smooth uniform dough is formed
4. Cover with plastic and leave to rise in refrigerator overnight
5. Transfer dough to floured surface and punch down
6. Divide dough into 3 equal parts and each part into 4 pieces, for a total of 12
7. Roll each piece into a ball and place in a cup. Brush with beaten egg and top with a twisted half slice of orance. Let rise at room temp for 2 hours or until 3 times in size
8. Bake in 180 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown

I wish you success!

Amaretto Almond Rolls

Recently, I have been crazy about baking breads. Had been off cake for quite a while now.. probably a month?

Saw the recipe for Ameretto Almond rolls in the book 'The easy way to Artisan breads and pastries' by Avner Laskin. Hmm.... a double almond experience, who can resist trying it?

The end result was lovely!

Its a lean bread, not so sweet and is best eaten with some filling. Pop into the toaster prior to serving, this will crunch up the sliced almonds on top, then fill it with lettuce and ham and loads of mayonaise. My 4 year old loves it and can almost finish the whole roll! As he ate, he kept telling me 'Mummy, please make this again, OK?'. Such a sweet boy. :-)

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

-------------

1 cup cold milk

2 tablespoons dry yeast

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 and 1/2 cups bread flour

1 cup ground blanched almonds

3 tablespoons real amaretto liquer

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter

1 egg, beaten, for brushing

brown sugar and sliced almonds for garnish

Method

--------

1. Mix all dry ingredients for a minute

2. Add wet ingredients i.e. milk, ameretto, egg. Mix till mixture comes together

3. Add butter, knead till a smooth, stretch-able dough is formed

4. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour

5. Punch dough, divide into 2 equal parts, then each part into 5 pieces, for a total of 10 pieces

6. Shape each piece

7. Place rolls 2 inches apart on baking sheet and brush with beaten egg.

8. Sprinkle a little brown sugar and a few sliced almonds on top and proof for 1 hour

9. Bake in preheated 190 degree celcius oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

In my case, I did not have ground blanced almond on hand. So I ground some almonds (with skin on) and replaced with that. Problem was the mixture was extremely watery, I had no choice but to add more flour, about 1/2 cup more. I later read that blanched almonds can absorb more water than almond with skin on.. so that may be the reason. In any case, the result was still pleasing.

If you do have a chance to follow the recipe exactly, please share your results.

Adious!