Super Moist Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I wanted get this up before Easter. I like to bake my cakes, cupcake or cookies a day ahead, if there's something special going on. So I ended up baking a Carrot Cake for Easter this year. Just like last and the year before that. I seriously need to bake something other then carrot cake, but who am I kidding?! I will always make a carrot cake for Easter. It's my favorite cake so there you go!

This is my first Easter away from family so I'm really missing home. Sending lots of love there way! This year I'm going to be cooking a ham and some yam mashed potatoes and rolls. Just going to be low key this year. Don't worry I wont be devouring this cake on my own. I will share...if I want too that is...haha

I came across this recipe on Sally's Baking Addiction blog. I'm absolutely in love with her blog and the treats that come along with it! She breaks everything down and has lots of helpful tips. A really great blog and you all should check her blog out!

She doesn't call it "Super Moist" for nothing. It's actually the moistest carrot cake I have ever made, and I made plenty! I know not many people like carrot cake because not many like carrots. You absolutely wont taste the carrots. As the cake bakes, it takes the moisture from the carrots and brings it out to the cake. I opted out on adding pecans into the batter. That was my preferences.

You can actually see how moist this cake is! It's a really delicious recipe and easy to follow. I had to stop eating it just to share this with you all. I had to bake it an extra 5 minutes because the batter was a bit wet in the center. Just be careful not to over bake, or your cake will come out dry.

The cream cheese frosting is like heaven to this carrot cake. Without it, it just wouldn't taste the same. Combine makes a very delicious cake!

Look how cute these colored eggs are! I used a D.I.Y. food coloring, using:

 1/2 cup water 

1 tablespoon vinegar

5 drops of food coloring* (I used AmeriColors & Wilton Color Icing)

*depending on how bright you want your eggs to come out.

Please enjoy and Happy Easter! 

Super Moist Carrot Cake

Source: Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

Carrot Cake
1 cup light brown sugar, packed (or dark brown sugar) 
3/4 cup vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil, or canola oil) 
1/4 cup greek yogurt (or regular yogurt, plain or vanilla) 
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups very finey grated baby carrots (or regular carrots) 
3/4 cup pecan pieces
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2-2.5 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar
2 Tablespoons heavy cream (see note for substitutions) 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoons salt, or as needed

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray 9 or 10inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. I do not recommend a regular circle or square pan, as the cake may rise above. Set aside.

Set out the cream cheese for the frosting so it may soften as you make the cake batter. 

Make the carrot cake: In a large bowl with a handheld or stand mixer on medium speed, combine the brown sugar and oil. Beat in the yogurt until fully combined - about 60 seconds. Mixture will be gritty and thick. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. With a spatula, manually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and all flour pockets are gone - do not overmix. Fold in the finely shredded carrots and pecan pieces. Pour into prepared springform pan.

Bake cake for 32-38 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake, which will dry out cake. Check the cake at 30 minutes, then again at 32. My cake took exactly 34 minutes. Allow cake to cool completely before frosting. 

Make the frosting: beat the softened cream cheese and butter together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until soft, creamy, and combined thoroughly. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat until thick and combined. Add 2 Tablespoons heavy cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed for 2 more minutes. Add more powdered sugar until desired thickness is reached. Add salt to taste. I used 1/8 teaspoon to cut the sweetness.

Leche Flan (Caramel Custard)

So it's has been some time now since I posted on this blog. Sorry about that just been busy with other things. I' am still baking (I mean who can quit that right?!) and I will be posting some delicious desserts for you all. Easter is coming and of course you know I'm going be making a carrot cake! Oh Yay! Can't wait for that and of course I will be posting that up too! 

Where do I start?...Oh! 

I have been a custard fan since I was a kid.  My mother used to take my sister and brothers to this Spanish bakery where I used to live in the Bronx. They had all kinds of the desserts from cakes, puddings to cookies and donuts. But I wanted none of those so I picked the flan. As a kid I always thought that flan was more of a grown up dessert. Boy was I wrong! When I bit into that first piece of custard delight, I knew my mouth was in custard heaven! I knew I was hooked and never looked back. 

Cooking caramel can be tricky but if you keep the fire on medium and watch out so it doesn't burn then you'll be find. Just make sure when it becomes that dark amber color to transfer it quickly to your pan(s). Also make sure to swirl your pan(s) around to get it spread out through the surface. As you see in the above photo the caramel quickly settled to the middle of my baking pan. :( That's why you need to work fast!

Bake in a water bath so it doesn't cook to quickly. It's a pretty easy recipe to follow and don't be afraid of baking custard. Just give it go and practice! if you feel your oven is cooking the custard too fast then turn it down a few.

By the way, flan may look pretty simple and boring but the taste is so velvety and smooth. I especially loved the caramel sauce. I believe the caramel sauce is what makes the flan so delicious.  I'm very much happy that I know how to make flan on my own. **Patting myself on the shoulder** Just make sure if you make this to SHARE! Don't eat this on your own like me...Okay time to go running around the park.

Enjoy!

Spanish Flan
Prep time: 20 mins Cook Time: 1 hour Servings: 8
Source: All Recipes

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar 3 eggs 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

 

Directions:

	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
	In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.
	In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.
	Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely.
	To serve, carefully invert on serving plate with edges when completely cool.

 

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

When there's ripe bananas in my kitchen then there's a banana bread or cake baking in my oven! I mostly bake banana bread (it's high demand in my house) but this this I wanted to try it in cake form. Banana + Cake = Cream Cheese Frosting! Oh Yeah! I love cream cheese frosting. You could spread that baby on just about anything. Or just plain cream cheese would also do it for me.

This cake is really delicious, light and super moist. It's pretty much fool proof, so it's real simple and easy to make. One piece just didn't cut it with me. I'm a cake, cupcake and cookie eater...Well I think it's known I'll eat just about anything!

Make it! Make it now!

Enjoy!

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 8"x8" pan

Ingredients

Banana Cake
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 mashed (over ripe) bananas (about 3/4 cup)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 block (4 oz.) cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons milk or cream, if needed to thin frosting for easy spreading.
1/4 cup chopped, toasted walnuts (optional)
  
Directions

Preheat oven to 375*F. Grease an 8"x8" pan (with butter or non-stick cooking spray).
 
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, sour cream, eggs, melted butter, mashed banana and vanilla. Whisk (can be done by hand, or with electric mixer) until fully combined.
Add flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder, and stir with whisk or spoon until fully combined and smooth.

Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake at 375*F for about 30 minutes (check after 25 minutes). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter.
Cool (in pan) on wire rack.
 
In the bowl of an electric mixer, or with an electric hand mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar, then add vanilla. Add milk or cream, if needed to thin frosting for easy spreading.

Spread frosting onto cooled cake (make sure the cake is cool, or the frosting will melt).
Top cake with chopped, toasted nuts, if desired.

Source: Glorious Treats

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish you all a very healthy and safe Holidays! I will be posting more often on this blog by next year. I've been slacking badly! That will be my New Year resolution. Hopefully I stick to it! lol

If your wondering about those delicious looking cookies, yes I made them and I will post the recipes up soon! Crossing my fingers they will be up by tomorrow!

Liz

xo

Dairy-Free Pumpkin Pie

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's not Thanksgiving until tomorrow but my boyfriend and I had it a day early, so it was more like Pre-Thanksgiving for us. The reason being that I wont be home for turkey day so I didn't want him to miss out. It was a small one for us, and first. So it was special. :)

I made his and my favorite. Pumpkin Pie! Now he's allergic to dairy so I made him this recipe, that I also made for him 2 years ago. This recipe calls for eggs, but eggs aren't a dairy product. It's an animal byproduct. Which, if your interested you can find out more here! 

This pie is absolutely delicious! It will make you go back for seconds! If you don't like pumpkin pie, then that's okay cause there's other pies out that like apple. I didn't make my own pie crust for this recipe. I was too busy to actually make one. So I used a frozen pie crust (unbaked) that you can find at your local food stores.

There's so many things that I'm thankful for this year. This piece of pie is one! Happy Holidays!

Enjoy!

Dairy-Free, Soy-Free Pumpkin Pie
Makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed
1/4 Cup White Sugar
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg or Allspice
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Large Eggs
1 15-ounce Can Pumpkin Puree
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Regular Canned Coconut Milk
1 Unbaked Pie Shell



 Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425ºF.

Combine the sugars, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg or allspice, cloves and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Beat in the sugar mixture, pumpkin, and vanilla until smooth. Fold in the coconut milk.

Pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350ºF and continue to bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.  It may be a bit wobbly still, but it will firm-up as it cools.

Allow the pie to cool on a wire rack for 2 hours (Be patient! This is important).  Serve or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Source: godairyfree.org

Chocolate Birthday Cake with Whipped Vanilla Frosting

How could I totally forget to write a blog post about this delicious Chocolate Birthday Cake! Well let me get started then!

It was my best friends birthday about a month ago and I asked her what kind of cake she wanted? She said she didn't want a cake. I was like "What?". Everybody deserves a cake for there birthday, right? Plus birthdays give me a great excuse to bake a new cake recipe! So I tried again, and asked her what she wanted instead. Her answer...Banana Bread. I told her no problem, so I made one plus a cake. I very pink cake if I might add. A very pink cake with Whipped Vanilla Frosting (that taste like ice cream!)

 The cake it self is very moist chocolate cake. It's super delicious, together with the frosting makes an awesome combination. I got this cake recipe from Sweetapolita. I used her Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes recipe 3-times the batch. Each batch makes 1 (8-inch round layer).

For the Whipped Vanilla Frosting I used her frosting recipe from her Vanilla Birthday Cake. The frosting is super creamy. Almost taste like ice cream! I'm all for frosting that taste like ice cream! This frosting also pipes really nice. I used Ateco #849 for the top border and Wilton #2D for the bottom border. At the time I didn't have a cake spatula, so I had no choice but to use a butter knife. It would have came out a lot cleaner with an angled spatula. To ahieve pink frosting I used a few drop of AmeriColor Gel Paste in Electric Pink. Don't forget every pink cake needs to be dressed up in sprinkles! Go on, don't be shy...pile tons of it on!

Over all this cake turned out great. It was a huge hit on her birthday. She end up loving it and the Banana Bread!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake

(make 3-times this recipe for 3, 8-inch round pan)

Ingredients:

For Cake Layer

3/4 cup (95 g) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (150 g) white sugar

1/4 cup (30 g) dark cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon (3.5 g) baking soda

3/4 teaspoon (3.5 g) baking powder

3/4 teaspoon (3.5 g) cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon (4 g) salt

1/3 cup (80 mL) buttermilk

1/4 cup (60 mL) brewed coffee or espresso, hot

3 tablespoons (45 ml) vegetable oil

1 egg, room temperature, lightly beaten

1-1/2 teaspoons (7.5 mL) pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F and line a muffin/cupcake pan with your favourite cupcake liners.

In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch and salt.

In a medium bowl or measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, coffee, oil, egg and vanilla.

Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed (you may need the plastic splashguard that comes with mixer), Divide batter among (2/3 full or just less) liners. Batter will be liquidy, and cupcakes will rise.

Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until toothpick or skewer comes out with a few crumbs. Try not to over-bake. Carefully remove cupcakes from the pan immediately (it's hot!), and place them on a wire rack until completely cool. 

Source: Sweetapolita

For the Whipped Vanilla Frosting 

2-1/2 cups (5 sticks)(575 grams) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

5-1/4 cups (600 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted 

4-1/2 tablespoons (70 mL) milk

1-1/2 tablespoons (23 mL) pure vanilla extract

pinch or two of salt

few drops pink gel colour

pastel sugar pearls, or any other sprinkles for decorating

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 8 minutes on medium speed (I use “4″ on my KitchenAid). Butter will become very pale & creamy.

Add remaining ingredients and mix on low-speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 6 minutes. Frosting will be very light, creamy, and fluffy. If you want all of your frosting (for filling and frosting cake) pink, then add a drop of pink gel colour and mix again, adding one drop at a time until desired pink shade is achieved (see notes). If you want just the outside of the cake pink, you will fill the cake layers first, and then colour the remaining frosting pink.

Best used right away (for ideal spreading consistency), but keeps well once frosted. 

Source: Sweetapolita

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Happy Halloween!

How's everyone doing on the east coast? This hurricane sandy was just crazy! But I just didn't want to let this hurricane keep me away from my baking. While I still have power, I wanted to bake up some very yummy Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes. Just in time for Halloween too! I wanted to incorporate some pumpkin into my chocolate cupcakes, so I found this wonderful recipe on I am Baker. This is the most moist cupcakes I've ever tasted!

For the Cinnamon Buttercream, I found this recipe on My Kitchen Addiction. I minus the brown sugar in this recipe because I didn't want it overly too sweet. This frosting is so darn good! I love the added cinnamon in this frosting, gives it a kick. Combine together makes the most delicious cupcakes, I've tried!

I also love these cute Halloween baking cups I bought from Tops. I think I'm going to go back and get some more for next year! ^_~

 For the finishing touch I drizzle some Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce on these babies! This caramel sauce is so so good! I drizzle this sauce on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! I love drizzling this on top of ice cream. Oh man...I think I'll have some when I'm done with this blog post...lol I will post this recipe soon!

This is a wonderful treat for Halloween. If your going to have a party, make them. If you have kids, make them, and if you don't and it's just you...make them!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tablespoon vanilla

3/4 cups softened butter

4 Eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cups cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350

In a small bowl combine buttermilk and pumpkin. Just mix together until incorporated.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a mixer, beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated.

Alternating, add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the sugar mixture. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Mix for 1 minute on low until fully combined. Using an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup, place batter in prepared cupcake pan.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. Cupcakes are done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Source: I am Baker

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed (I excluded this ingredient)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups powdered sugar (varies based on temperature/humidity)
3 tablespoons half and half (varies based on temperature/humidity)

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and shortening. Whip together with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy. 

Add the brown sugar and cinnamon and whisk until well combined.

Gradually add the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. Alternately add the half and half, whipping the icing on medium-high speed after each addition, until the desired consistency is reached.

Fill a pastry bag with the icing and pipe the icing onto the cupcakes. Top the cupcakes with Halloween candy and a sprinkle of cinnamon, if desired.

Source: My Kitchen Addiction