Orange Date Cake

In another baking mood today.Honestly I don't know when this is going to end.Huhuhu.
Flipped the Australian Womens Weekly Cookbook over and over again and finally landed my eyes on this recipe.Its just so happened that the night before someone gave us 2 boxes of dates.So I thought I might as well use it up or otherwise it will be wasted.Found a simple and nice recipe for me to try.So lets see the ingredients first.


125gm butter chopped
3 tsp grated orange rind (I only managed to get 2tsp)
3/4 cup (165gm) castor sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup (80ml) orange juice
1 1/2 cups (225gm) self-raising flour
3/4 cup (120gm0 chopped pitted dates
1tbs yogurt (this one I added)

1. Grease 20cm ring cake pan.
2. Combine butter,rind,sugar,eggs,juice and flour in medium bowl of electric mixer.
3. Beat on low speed until ingredients are well combined.
4. Then beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and changed in colour.
5. Stir in dates.
6. Spoon mixture into prepared pan.Be aware that the mixture is rather heavy.That is why a budt pan or anything with a hole in the middle is highly recommended as it can pass on the heat well to the batter.
7. Bake in moderate oven (175 C) about 45 minutes.
8. Turn onto wire rack to cool.

This is how my batter looks like.

The cake in the cooking book is topped with citrus frosting.
I wasn't in the mood for any frostings yesterday.Its good as it is.

This one taken seconds after I took it out of the oven.

Look at the dates in the cake.It does give a special taste to the cake.

A close up look.
~Bon appetite~

When Others Start Baking Too ^_^

I really feel happy that my bakings have inspired others to bake too.

This is one example among others.

Nida' my junior made cinnamon rolls for her family but changed the raisins to chocolate chips instead.Very creative!Keep it uo Nida'.And others too.

Muallimah Nida' Baking cinnamon roll + menghayati mathurat = terapi berkesan...alhamdulillah!- via DiGi MMS  ·  · Share · 17 hours ago Ani Husni Mohd Tahkim and 3 others like this. Muallimah Nida' jzkk sis Siti Sakinah Meor Omar for the recipe.... tapi atas permintaan anak2, kismis ditukar kpd chocolate chip! heee...ok juga.... 16 hours ago ·  Siti Sakinah Meor Omar Masya Allah... That really looks yummy. Especially the cream cheese. Well done Nida'! 16 hours ago ·  Muallimah Nida' Tahniah kpd Master Chef pemilik blog ni...http://sakinah-omars-kitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/cinnamon-rolls-yang-cukup-wangi-dan.html 16 hours ago ·  Muallimah Nida' ‎Ani Husni Mohd Tahkim, Aslaniah Bt Jamali,....jom meroti! cuti ni... 16 hours ago ·  Siti Sakinah Meor Omar Adeh malu den. Master Chef apanya. Huhuhu. Bukan senang nak dapat title chef tau! 16 hours ago ·  Muallimah Nida' ‎Upiq Asmar Zainal Abidin & Mazli Marhaban! tafadhaluu....sementara stok masih ada.... ;) 14 hours ago ·  Muallimah Nida' Kak Kin, master lah ...ana jadi anak murid! 14 hours ago ·  ·  1 Ani Husni Mohd Tahkim master chef sy juga tu anida... sy ada buat cinamon roll tp sy tak letak gula atas... just tabur brown sugar masa nak roll tu.... sbb family sy mmg tak berapa suka yg manis2 14 hours ago ·  Mazli Marhaban Aku suka ma'thuratnye... :)) 13 hours ago ·  ·  1 Muallimah Nida' ‎Ani Husni Mohd Tahkim, frosting cream tu sy lebih cheese kurangkan gula, supaya gabungan rasa cheese+cinnamon timbul...maaf ya master chef, memandai pulak anak murid ni ubah2 resepi hi hi hi 11 hours ago ·  Aslaniah Bt Jamali dasyat kwn2....bgus2! ank2 kurang mkn kuih muih so x excited sgt nk membaking...hmmm...cuti sek pon dh pnuh schedule outing actvties...bila ya nk berasap oven...heh3 3 hours ago ·

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake

Assalamualaikum dear readers.
How are you feeling today?I'm Ok.Someone had purposely made me feel down this morning.But today I choose not to be let down by those uttered words.Let it be.I choose to be happy and I'd like to share this cupcake recipe I made yesterday.I didn't have any special reason to bake it.I just felt like doing so.huhuhu.
The recipe looked so easy and the ingredients were already available at home.So I gave t a try.I took another Martha Stewart's recipe this time around too.

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons safflower oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract



Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.

2.Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.

3.Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

Add eggs to the flour,cocoa,baking powder,baking soda and sugar mixture.  

Add the rest of the wet ingredients

Mix them well and put into the paper cups and bake.

 4.   Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when      touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

I made some topping and decorated it with colourful sprinkles.

Just lovely.~Bon appetite~

Sweet Dinner Rolls

This post has been stuck in the Drafts for quite some time now.I made it for dinner one night.just felt like eating a Subway-like-sandwich.Hehehe.
Got this wonderful recipe from Allrecipes.

Ingredients

1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened-I used margerine instead
1/3 cup white sugar-I used slightly less
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (25 ounce) package active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.
2. When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. 
3. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. 
4. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. 
5. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.

Left to proove

Done!

~Bon appetite~

Chocolate Yogurt Cake

I was in my baking-mood this morning. I wanted something chocolatey with chocolate chips. Don't start giving me that face... Its the time of the month OK?!
So I searched high and low. Ahaks. Just until I find something that I can do that is not too hard yet will give me good results. I had bought yesterday a bucket of yogurt so I went Chocolate yogurt cake hunting! And I came across this recipe. But I attempted a slight difference. I baked them in two pans and layered them with creamy chocolate frostings.The cake was not really fluffy.But it was moist enough for me.Went well with the frostings. Yummy!
No special reasonfor making it today. Just made coz I wanted to. You should do it too.
Lets check out the recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


1. Prepare your baking pan. Butter and dust it with flour. I used 2 8" pan for this cake since I planned to make it double layered.

2. Sift 2 cups of flour and 2/3 cup of cocoa together with the baking soda; set aside.



3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.



4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. (sorry I forgot to snap a photo for this step ).

5. Add the flour mixture, alternatively with the yogurt, in three parts.Do not overmix.




6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.



7. Bake in a preheated 180c oven for 25 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.



8. Cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a rack to cool completely.




I then made some frostings for the cake.The recipe is as follow: I got it from Creamy Chocolate Frostings recipe from Allrecipes after a long search for the ultimate frostings. Hehehe.And I was very satisfied.

• 2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 5 tablespoons evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.

Lovely...Umamah and a friend who came by;Husna were licking this topping out from the mixing bowl.

Inside view

~Bon appetit~

Adapted from here.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Upside Down Cake

As usual.I just love to bloghop looking for new recipes.I found this recipe and automatically . It looked very tempting.But I'm not to sure where I went wrong.My cake turned out to be soggy.Maybe too much bananas or not enough baking time.But I will definately try again coz even with the sogginess it was delicious.

For the topping
1/3 cup + 2 Tbs packed brown sugar
2 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2-3 ripe bananas, sliced into 1/4-inch slices (I used 6 rather small bananas)

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)- I used 5 small bananas
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs low fat sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the topping, place the brown sugar and butter in a 8-inch square baking pan. Set the pan over a burner set to medium-low heat, and cook, stirring frequently, until the butter melts and the brown sugar is thoroughly moistened.

Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Arrange the banana slices over the bottom of the pan, overlapping them slightly.

I laid down the bananas as so.

Covered all corners

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, banana puree, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add pour the wet ingredients into the well. Stir until just combined, then gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Scrape the batter into the cake pan, being careful not to disturb the banana slices. Smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake until the center is just set and firm to the touch, about 40 minutes. Allow to cool 20 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the cake pan, and invert onto a serving platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tadaaa

Side view.Just lovely!

-http://www.pink-parsley.com/2011/04/banana-chocolate-upside-down-cake.html

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

German Apple Cake

Lately since I started to bake many types of cakes,I always find that guests to my house kinda of expect to have a taste of my cakes. So I didn't want to dissappoint my friend from Kelantan who came over with her family yesterday. As usual I would browse for lengthy hours sometimes just to choose which recipe to try. I have this habit of always trying a new recipe every time I bake. Its very seldom for me to do a recipe twice even if I really liked it. I just want explore all possibilities. Ahaks.

Since I had already bought some apples the day before I searched for a simple carrot cake yet appealing to my eyes. Hehehe.
This is the recipe I chose today. Very simple. Yet so delicious. Its moist and dense. An the cinnamon just goes well with the apples. I especially like to see the apple chunks in the cake. The contrast colour is really eye catching.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/german-apple-cake-i/detail.aspx

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups apples - peeled, cored and diced




Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x13 inch cake pan. I used a 22" spring pan.
2. In a mixing bowl; beat oil and eggs with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat well.
3. Combine the flour salt, baking soda, and ground cinnamon together in a bowl. Slowly add this mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined.
4. The batter will be very thick. Fold in the apples by hand using a wooden spoon. Spread batter into the prepared pan.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes or until cake tests done.
6. Let cake cool on a wire rack. Once cake is cool serve with a dusting of confectioners' sugar or with a Cream Cheese Frosting. I passed this. It was still delicious. Besides it was already sweet.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chocolate Velvet Cake With Siced Bananas

I made this cake last eidul Adha.I took the recipe from the Australian Women's weekly Cookboks but adjusted it a bit by layering it with bananan.


Ingredients
125gm butter,chopped
1 cup (200gm) firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup(110gm) castor sugar
3 eggs
2 cups (300gm) plain flour
1/2 cup (50gm) cocoa
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup (125ml) sour cream
2/3 cup (160ml) water
1/4 cup chocolate chips
5 medium sized bananas sliced


Buttercream cocoa frosting

½ cup (115 g) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
About 5 tablespoons lukewarm milk


Method Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, and add gradually powdered sugar and cocoa; add a tablespoon of lukewarm milk in between, when needed. Add vanilla extract, and mix until smooth; do not over-mix. 


Method for batter

1. Grease 23cm square slab cake pan,cover base with baking paper.
2. Combine all ingredients in medium bowl of electric mixer,beat on low speed until ingredients are combined.Add the chocolate chips.
3. Then beat on medium speed until mixture is just smooth and changed in color;do not over beat.
4. Spread half of the mixture into prepared pan.Place the sliced bananas and pour the rest of the batter.
5. Bake in moderate oven (175C) for about 50 minutes.
6. Stand 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack yo cool.
7. Frost the topping when completely cooled.

I layered with slices of bananas