Baking with Dorie: Bill's Big Carrot Cake

I'm so glad I took the time in between baking orders to bake this cake. It's absolutely delicious! And I was able to share the cake for tea. 

One layer was given to my mother (after I took the pics that is) and the other two I took with to an aunt's home. Where my cousin who married a week ago, cut up her wedding cake for tea too.


I love the addition of coconut in the batter and while the original recipe called for plump raisins, I opted for the addition of cranberries instead. 


Half way through preparation, I realized that I had used up all the oil that I had on the 500 snowballs order for Saturday morning. Having to improvise, I decided to melt some butter as a substitute. I was a bit apprehensive as to the result I would get but I crossed my fingers and just hoped for the best. I beat the eggs and sugar together, while the recipe called for the oil and sugar to be beaten first and the eggs added one at a time. 


The end result was a deliciously moist cake with tonnes of character! And the addition of coconut to the cream cheese icing lent a nutty, toasty taste to every mouthful!

This cake's definitely a keeper and one I will continue to make for years to come!


PS: I've been struggling to add some more pics, but somehow blogger's been uploading them upside down :D Will try again tomorrow!

Baking with Dorie: Brrrrrr-ownies

It's my first time baking along with Dorie, so I was really looking forward to this bake! I suppose because it contains two of my all time fav ingredients. That being.... Yes!...You guessed it! ....Chocolate and mint!


I had been looking for the mint patties, to be used in the recipe, since last week already. But wasn't successful finding them. Until last week Friday that is. I was standing in the store when a package caught my eye, and upon closer inspection, I realized that it was mint choc patties! 

Well, at least I THOUGHT they were mint choc patties. After purchasing them this evening and rushing home, I was all excited to get started! But when I unwrapped the box of chocs and broke one of them open, I soon realized that my end result wouldn't be as minty as I wanted it to be. 


Nonetheless, I went ahead with my baking! These brrrrrrownies are definitely chewy, fudgy and deliciously chocolaty! But I was missing the brrrrrrrrr in the brrrrrrrrrownies :D 


I'm definitely going to bake these again, but next time will make sure to use a minty ingredient that contained more bite! Perhaps the chewy mints that Tina used in her bake :)

Coconut...... Oh coconut.....

Just mention of the word coconut would make my knees go weak :D


So when I saw the recipe for madeleines here, I just had to try them out the first chance that I got. My mom's a huge fan of snowballs and fancies. Snowballs are cupcake size sponge cakes dipped in jam syrup and rolled in coconut! Fancies are much the same but only the sides are dipped in the syrup and rolled in coconut. Oh! Oh! And how can I forget them small coconut tarts! There goes my heart rate once again :D


Fancies, topped with fresh cream and various fillings

Snowballs dipped in jam & rolled in coconut!


Mum came around for tea today and I knew the madeleines would hit the spot! Preparing them took all of twenty minutes. While I waited for the oven to heat up, I cooked the jam syrup and colored it with a bit of red food coloring. By the time the first tray of cakes came out of the oven, the jam syrup was cool enough to dip the cakes into. 

Crisp, buttery coconut tarts shown here with cream horns!

These babies are very soft and should only be dipped once they've cooled down completely, otherwise they'll break! Once dipped, they're slit through with a serrated knife and sandwiched together with a mock icing. I chose a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream instead, YUMS!





They're decadent, melt in the mouth wicked! :D

Wickedly delish madeleins!

Genesis

I've decided to start baking along with the fellow bloggers at Baking with Dorie, which is why I thought of adding a separate blog to my profile. 


I'm certainly looking forward to some delish bakes and awesome photography, not to mention baking along with some very experienced baking enthusiasts! 


Watch this space :D