S&SB : Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I haven't been participating in Sweet and Simple Bakes for a long time.. I am so sorry Rosie and Maria. I really felt bad for not able to join the past months... I missed so many great bakes. My bad! I got to know about this bake 3 days ago. Luckily, I have most of the ingredients except for the cream cheese.. that is easy to get.. So I quickly made it so that I can post on the required posting date. :)

Actually I never had carrot cake before... I just never like the idea of carrot and spices in my cake.. But after one bite of my own baked carrot cake, hmm... yummy!!! Even my hubby rated A+. hehe.. I was very pleased with the carrot cake but wasn't too pleased with my frosting.. This is my 2nd time!!! Its not in the right consistency. I am not sure what when wrong?? I used powdered sugar and all the ingredients required but still not right.. :( I will keep trying until its right! I didn't put the picture of the whole cake because I thought the presentation of the cake is not attractive enough so you'll see only parts of it.. hehe...

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Serves 12

Ingredients
180g (6½ oz) self-raising (self-rising) flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp mixed spice (Pumpkin pie spice)
2 eggs
150 ml (5 fl oz) vegetable or sunflower oil
200g (7 oz) soft light or dark brown sugar
300g (11 oz) grated carrots
100g (4 oz) sultanas
75g (3 oz) walnuts, chopped (optional)
Cream Cheese Icing
75g (3 oz) cream cheese
75g (3 oz) softened butter
125g (4½ oz) icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
For Decoration
Sprinkles or walnut halves - optional

You will need a 13cm x 23cm (5 in x 9 in) loaf tin, oil and line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas mark 2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and leave aside. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, now add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, sultanas and chopped walnuts. Stir in all sifted dry ingredients and bring the mixture together with a wooden spoon. Turn into the prepared tin, smooth the top of the mixture and bake in the oven for 1 – 1¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make The Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and mix to combine. Using a palette knife, spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled cake. Add the sprinkles or walnut halves if desired. Served cut into slices.

Notes:

1. You can play around with the dried fruits and nuts and use, raisins in place of sultanas and pecans in place of walnuts for alternatives.

2. I would advise you to store this cake in a cool place due to the cream cheese icing.

3. If using plain (all-purpose) flour - The rule of thumb is that for every 100g (4oz) of flour you will need to add 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

I just thought of taking the picture below because it was my first time using the Foodbuzz s apron. You see, Foodbuzz sent me this apron late last year but I didn't get a chance to use it.. Not only that, I get my namecards too. hehe.. cool ah! Well today's blog is all about my first time.. heheh.. well.. there's always first time for everything, right... And thank you Foodbuzz for the lovely apron and the namecards. :)

Dun forget to check out Sweet and Simple Bakes for the bakes from SS members. Thanks Rosie and Maria for this wonderful bake. xoxo
Have a great weekends everyone! :)

Stir-fried Beef

As mentioned in my previous blog, here is the recipe for the stir-fried beef. I adapt the recipe "Stir-Fried Beef with Leeks" from my cookbook; Light Chinese Dishes by Kathryn Hawkins. I made some changes to certain ingredients to suit my likings. Instead of using leeks, I used green peppers and I do not use the dry sherry as indicated in the recipe.
Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

450g (1lb) lean rump or sirloin steak
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp cornflour
4 oz spring onions
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup beef stock

Trim any fat from the beef and cut into 3/4 inches pieces. Place in a bowl and mix in soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, and cornflour. Cover and chill for 30 minutes. Slice the green peppers thinly and wash well. Trim and shred the spring onions.

Heat oil in wok (since I do not have a wok yet, I used my large frying pan) and stir-fry beef mixture for 1-2 minutes until beef is browned. Add green peppers, spring onions and sugar and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until browned. Pour in the stock and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Served on top of plain rice. Yummy!

Last Saturday, while we were groceries shopping, I saw Pillsbury Flag cookies on sale. These cookies were on bargain! 2 boxes for $1 and there are 2 dozens cookies. So without hesitation I quickly put 2 boxes in the shopping cart.. hehe.. So last night, I baked these cookies. Before I took my first bite on the cookie, I kept looking at the cookies, wondering how they stamped the flag in the center without messing the cookie?????????

Shrimp Wantons (deep-fried)

Tonight, we had some home cooked Chinese Food. I cooked shrimp wantons, stir-fried beef, stir-fried cabbage and some eggs. I followed the recipe by Rachel Edelman. I saw her video in About.com: Chinese Food. She uses uncooked shrimp but I used the cooked shrimps and even add some chopped spring onions. ...nice..... I miss eating the Chinese food back home.. Wanton shredded chicken wanton noodles, chicken rice, fried kuehteau, carrot cake and so much more... (oh my thinking of these food makes me hungry again..lol)

For this recipe, you will need:

• 1 pound uncooked shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1 egg white
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• ginger root
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• cornstarch (for dusting baking sheet)
• 1 8-ounce package wanton wrappers, (use 2/3 package; thaw if frozen)

Unwrap the wantons and keep them covered with a moist cloth so they don't dry out.

Shrimp Wanton Dipping Sauce Ingredients
You will need:

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes
• water

Pour the shrimp into a food processor, and pulse shrimp until they're finely chopped.Then transfer the cut shrimp into a large bowl, and mix in the egg white, cilantro, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Peel some ginger, and grate about 1/2 teaspoon into the mixture. Mix everything together.

Lightly dust a baking sheet with cornstarch. Take one wanton from the plate, and put it on the baking sheet. Fill wantons one at a time. Place 1 teaspoon of shrimp filling on one side of wanton wrapper. Moisten the edges with water.

Fold the wrapper diagonally over filling to form a triangle. Firmly press to seal the sides. You can make a different shape for the wanton. Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the wrapper. Pick up all the sides, and squeeze it to seal. You can even twist it a little, so it looks like a money bag or a purse.

I prefer to deep-fried my shrimp wantons instead of the boiled one. So to deep-fry the wantons:
Heat oil in a pan to about 360 degrees. Add the wantons in small batches. Fry them, turn them occasionally, and after about two minutes on each side, they'll be golden brown. Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Serve the wantons warm or at room temperature with the dipping sauce or the sweet black sauce. (I did not make the dipping sauce because I prefer to have with the sweet black sauce.)

You can also boil the shrimp wantons by bringing a large pot of water to a boil. Add the wantons, about six at a time. The wantons are done when they rise to the surface. This may only take 3 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon or a stainer. Place on a tray in a single layer, cover and keep warm.

The picture below is just to show, our Chinese dinner. I will blog about the Stir-Fried Beef tomorrow. Enjoy! :)

Leftovers - Lemon pepper chicken and my hard boiled egg....

This chicken and egg mayo is so good. We bought a rotisserie lemon pepper chicken yesterday and had plenty of leftovers. I felt bad to throw away the leftovers. I shredded the meat so I can make chicken mayo. The chicken mayo reminds me when I was back home, every time, I go to Subway, I always ordered tuna mayo with plenty of salad, tomatoes, black olives and green peppers with honey mustard and sweet onion sauce. **yummy** hmm.. could have done the tuna mayo too.. lol..

After I shredded the chicken, I decided to add one hard boiled egg. Its funny about hard boiled egg.. I do not even know when the egg becomes a hard boiled egg. haha.. coz seriously, i don't usually eat hard boiled eggs. Even when I do, its was not me who boiled those eggs... hahha.. Anyway, as I was preparing, my significant half came back home for lunch. I didn't realized the time. I was still boiling the egg and I was like"gosh, you are home, my egg is not hard yet".. So I thought maybe its hard, I had to pick up the egg with a spoon and crack the egg open... it was still soft and so I had to dump it back into the hot water again and let it in there for another few minutes...

Once the egg became hard-boiled, I peeled and mashed it, chopped parsley and cilantro and mix with mayonnaise. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Spread on the slices french bread and there you have... Chicken and egg mayo sandwich.. yummy...

(Sorry these are not good pictures.. )

(I always like to put extra black pepper)

You'll need:
shredded chicken (leftovers)
hard-boiled egg - mashed
green onions - chopped
cilantro - chopped
mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together.

Enjoy over slices of toasted bread. :)

POP that chicken and favorite coleslaw

What to do with a few slices of chicken tenders?? Yummy popcorn chicken. It is quick, easy and satisfy. Just be careful when you deep-fry the chicken meat. The popping oil got to my skin and burnt me! Ouch! Blisters.. :/
To go with the popcorn chicken, made some easy coleslaw.

Popcorn chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken meat (cut into cubes)
Eggs
Wheat flour or cornmeal flour
Salt to taste
Oil for deep drying

**The above recipe is only basic hence no measurements are given.

Beat eggs and add salt. Dip chicken meat into the egg and then dredge through the flour. Deep -fry in batches in hot oil until golden brown.
(These batches, I tried by mixing the flour to the eggs and make it like a batter, still good!)

Coleslaw (KFC style.. hehe)

Ingredients:
1/4 small cabbage - chopped
2 medium carrots - chopped
1 small white onion - chopped

For dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp honey mustard

I put the cabbage, carrots and onion in a food processor. This makes it much easier than chopping one by one. In a separate bowl, mix together dressing ingredients and toss into salad.
Transfer to a serving bowl. Chill coleslaw before serving.

Enjoy these snacks while watching TV or movie... :)