Tag Archives: cream cheese

Cakes

Mr J’s Birthday: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

30 May 2010 – 9:56 pm

I have a confession to make: Mr J does not like chocolate.

Now I can’t recall divulging that information here in the past, but yes… the boy does not enjoy chocolates, desserts, or anything sweet for that matter. He can happily tuck in a 1 kg full rack ribs, or a dinner of rice and fried fish, but he won’t touch chocolates (unless they’re Ferrero Rochers – that’s the only chocolate he’ll eat).

So for his recent birthday lunch held at his parent’s house, his mum requested I make him a cake instead of buying one. I happily obliged, until I realised all the cakes I’ve done in the past were chocolate-based. He also has a cousin who has a nut allergy so that pretty much narrowed down my options. I was in a cake dilemma for a few days, until I couldn’t take it anymore and just blatantly asked him:

“What do you want as your birthday cake?”.

You see, communication is really the key to a relationship (I know I know… I should really listen to my own relationship advice). Because had I asked him that earlier, I would’ve saved myself from the stress and worrying. He just simply and quickly said, “Carrot cake”. With no walnuts of course, which was fine with me.

So, I went to my most favourite recipe website in the whole World Wide Web, Exclusively Food, and knew then that their carrot cake recipe would be superb. And I wasn’t wrong. I had to omit a few ingredients off the recipe to cater for the allergies in the family, and also for my own preference. I also did something a little bit naughty – I doubled the amount of cream cheese frosting because that was how good it was. And yes – I put double the amount in the cake. Fantastic!

Carrot Cake
Recipe adapted from Exclusively Food
Makes about 10-12 servings

Cake

2/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 carrots, peeled and finely grated
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 1/2 plain flour
1 1/4 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C. Grease and line a 20 cm baking tin with baking paper.
  2. In a large bowl, stir oil, eggs, vanilla, grated carrots, and sugar together. Set aside
  3. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda together. Add to the wet ingredients and combine well.
  4. Pour mix on to prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
  5. Remove from the oven, and set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Remove from baking tin and remove the baking paper. Frost as desired.

Cream Cheese Frosting

120g cream cheese, room temperature
1 tbsp butter, softened
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

  1. Beat cream cheese and butter together.
  2. Add lemon juice.
  3. Add icing sugar, one cup at a time. Beat well together and frost cake as desired.

The candles and “Happy Birthday” topper courtesy of Mr J’s mum, which I was grateful for because I was just clearly having a very bad day of decorating the cake. I just couldn’t think of how else to decorate it, and out she came with the topper. It didn’t matter much though… the cake was a hit with the aunts, uncles, cousins and everyone else polished off their slices within minutes. And apparently the best thing about it all? The generous amount of oh so good cream cheese frosting. Oh yes!

Happy 2o-something birthday, my dear Mr J.

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Cupcakes & Muffins

Banana Cupcakes & Espresso Cupcakes

23 August 2009 – 11:36 am

A box of cupcake goodies as a sample platter for Mr J’s workmates and my sister’s best friend.

Not much to say about them except that I’m really really happy with the way they turned out. I think I’ve pretty much perfected the banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and it is by far my most ordered cupcakes. I have a little technique with the bananas that gives the cupcakes that extra sweetness and “banana-ness” and I’ve received compliments about the espresso cupcakes.

I’m reposting the recipes here as per your request (see how much I love you dear foodies?).

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes approximately 12 – 14 cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Exclusively Food’s Banana Cake


125g unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups soft, brown sugar

2 very ripe bananas (medium size), mashed

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

Pinch of salt

  1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Line your muffin tin with paper cases.
  2. Mix together mashed bananas, butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.
  3. Slowly add buttermilk.
  4. In another bowl, sift flour, bicardbonate soda, and salt. Add this to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.
  5. Divide batter evenly on to the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes.
  6. Cool on rack. Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting

250g cream cheese, softened

80g butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

  1. Beat cream cheese and butter until softened.
  2. Add icing sugar and beat until well combined.

…

Espresso Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream

Recipe adapted from Best Recipe’s Easy Coffee Cake


125g butter

3 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup sour cream

  1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Grease and line a cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy.
  3. Add the eggs to the butter one at a time.
  4. Mix the vanilla and the dissolved coffee, and then add this to the butter/eggs mixture.
  5. Sift flours together, and add this alternatively with the sour cream to the coffee/butter mixture.
  6. Pour batter on to prepared cake tin. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Test if the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle – if it comes out clean, then it is ready. If it comes out with some batter, add another 5 minutes to the baking time. Cool before frosting.

Coffee Buttercream

100g soft unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp instant coffee powder dissolved with 1 tbsp hot water

  1. Beat butter until light and creamy. Add 1 cup of icing sugar, beat into butter, and then add the rest.
  2. Add vanilla and milk. Beat until combined.
  3. Add dissolved coffee to the butter. This will look curdled so put your beater/mixer on high and beat until well combined.
  4. Frost cake using prepared buttercream. Enjoy!

…

And with a little bit more batter left, I tried being playful and made little babycakes. Yes, I’m weird and bored like dut!

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