Carrot Cake and Rich Moist Chocolate Cuppies

Weekend is here and as usual, my baking mood kicks in. I have so many recipes in my file to try and all of them look equally tempting. Undecided, I asked my lil' daughters, Aisya and Fatin what would they like to have for tea. Aisya pointed her little finger to Ree Drummond's favourite easter recipe, Sigrid's Carrot Cake. OK, good choice. I've been wanting to bake carrot cake and Ree's recipe looks delish and easy enough for an amateur like me :D. I simply enjoy visiting her website, The Pioneer Women.com, a treasure chest of recipes.


To be fair, I have to ask Fatin as well. "Cupcakes, I want cupcakes!" she replied excitedly. Hmmm, I have plenty of time today, why not I bake both! Scrolled through my file and finally decided to try Rich Choc Moist Cake for Fatin's cupcakes. Thank you Mamafami for sharing this recipe.


Dear Ree and Mamafami, allow me to post your recipes here. OK, here goes. The results of my banking adventure today!


Sigrid’s Carrot Cake
Source: Ree Drummond


Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting sprinkled with chopped almonds

FOR CAKE:
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Oil
4 whole Eggs
2 cups All-purpose Flour
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
2 cups Grated Carrots

For Icing
1/2 cup Butter (113.5g)
8 Oz Cream Cheese (approximately 250g)
1 pound Powdered Sugar (I used only 200g)
2 teaspoons Vanilla (I substitued with 2 teaspoons vanilla powderz0
1 cup Pecans, Chopped Finely (could not find any pecan in Carrefour, I substituted with almonds)



Cake:
Blend together the sugar, oil and eggs in a mixer. In another bowl sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Add to first mixture and combine. Then add carrots and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured pan (bundt, sheet cake, 9 x 13 pyrex) and bake in preheated oven at 175 degrees, 25 to 50 minutes, depending on the pan you use.
Cool completely.



Icing:
In larger bowl, cream butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla and blend, then mix in the nuts. Spread on cooled carrot cake.



Rich Chocolate Moist Cuppies
Source : Mamafami (original source from Zack aka Mrs Zairul)




Ingredients A
70gm butter
300gm castor sugar
3 eggs

Ingredients B
2 teaspoons Nescafe granules
1 tablespoon lukewarm water
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence (I substituted with vanilla powder)
1 teaspoon Chocolate emulco


Ingredients C
225gm flour
65gm cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
180ml chilled water from the refrigerator


Cake:
Beat butter and sugar on high speed till light. Add eggs, one at a time and continue beating. Mix well ingredients B and pour a little at a time into the batter. Beat a few minutes more. Sift ingredients C. Cut and fold ingredients C into the batter alternately with chilled water, starting and ending with flour. Spoon mixture into papercups until 3/4 filled and bake in a preheated oven at 175 C for 20 minutes. If you would like to bake a full cake, Mamafami suggested a 9 inch round tin, and bake for 40 minutes or till done.



Creamcheese frosting topped with Maltesers

TOPPING (I was too lazy to make this ganache, instead used leftovers cream cheese frosting as topping)

1 can condensed milk
90gm cocoa powder
100ml corn oil or melted butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

In a small pot on slow fire, heat the milk (make sure the milk doesn't get burnt!). Add in sifted cocoa powder and stir to mix. Add in vanilla essence and corn oil/melted butter. Stir to mix well and shiny, about 5 minutes. Once lukewarm, pour onto the cooled cake and decorate as you wish.

Baking addiction

Every pregnancy is different as with every child. My third is no exception. I don't remember having morning sickness in my first two pregnancies. This time, my 'morning sickness' lasted the whole day. Fortunately, it went away in my 5th month. But then, I'm still coping with the daily headache and fatigue. Ah well, these discomforts are just minor issues. Pregnancy only lasts 40 weeks, and I'm enjoying every minute of it, the special attention, people seems to be nicer to you everywhere you go, feeling my little one moves and kicks. ..

Despite the nausea and headache, I developed a ferocious appetite and tend to be hungry most of the time. I started baking to satisfy my craving for sweet things. My baking addiction kicked into high gear in the past few weeks. There has been no shortage of cakes at home. My two little girls love to 'help out' and having a blast in the kitchen. Cooking with them can be a real challenge though...as there's definitely gonna be a big mess afterwards. But its good to start involving them early. I can see that my girls have now developed a big interest in cooking. They even have their own mini baking set.

With so many wonderful recipe blogs nowadays, baking ideas are just a click away! I became a follower of some of these blogs and found amazing recipes of cakes and bread that are surprisingly easy to make and produce delicious results. Will add the link to those sites later...hmmm...perhaps I could also share some of the recipes that I have personally tested here.

One sweet day

My first daughter to me: "Ibu, you're so pretty. And you are a good mother. I love you sooo much" * followed by a kiss on my cheek*

My second daughter to me: " Ibu, you are my best friend" * with a big lovely smile*

Aaahh, those sweet words really make my day :D. Thank you girls. Ibu loves both of you too.

Weekend is coming

The week is almost over, and I'm looking forward to spend time with beloved hubby and my girls. Alhamdulillah, I could say that this week was a stress-free week. The girls were also less demanding.

My first eldest girl is a fussy eater and I was getting so concerned about her not eating much, I end-up baking pizza almost every morning for her. She loves it so much. But need to figure out a healthier option though. Should compare notes with other mothers, wonder if they are having the same issue as me.

I discovered the recipe to make 'Soft crust pizza' (click here for the recipe) from Dapur Tanpa Sempadan. Thanks to Mat Gebu for sharing the wonderful recipe. Its has now become a family favourite...I've made this pizza over and over again. The good thing about making your own pizza from scratch is that you can load it up sky-high with your favourite toppings!

Family v Career

I enjoy travelling, provided that that my family is around too to share the fun. I'm a bit reluctant if required to attend meeting or training abroad. That means I have to be away from my belowed, less time to spend with them :(. My priority in life is my family, not my career. Been struggling hard all these years to balance both.

Some may see that my reluctance will be a stumbling block for my career growth...I don't think so. Learning can be done in many ways and forms. Though of course, there's opportunities to establish international acquintances and expand my network during my travel.

Worry

Urggghh, I felt really worn out today, mentally and physically. My work is getting challenging day by day. Recently I noticed it started to effect my health as well. My mind is crowded with so many things of work, at the end of the day I'm left with little energy to switch into my role as wife and mother.

Trying to make concious effort day by day to take one step at a time. Not to say having worry in my life is not good at all. A little bit worry puts you in the state of alertness. But letting it ruled-over your life...not good. I can see some positive effects, small but still good.. at least I have started to find some personal space and time for myself.

Still a long way to go but I'm making efforts and progress :D

A new beginning

This is it. Finally I'm starting my own blog. hahaha I know... I know... other people have been into this for years. What's so great about it. But at least for me, its a small self achievement. Let see how long I can keep up. Hope I won't totally stop after a few posts :D.

Seize the day..