Moist Carrot Cake (from Scratch)

For mah-mah's birthday, Tina and I made her an awesome, super moist, not-too-sweet carrot cake from Allrecipes.com.
I topped it with a whipped cream cream cheese frosting I also found on Allrecipes. This will be my go-to carrot cake recipe now!

Yield 1 - 8x12 inch pan (I made a two layer 6-inch cake with 11 cupcakes)

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups shredded carrots (about 2 large carrots)
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
• 1 cup golden raisins, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x12 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well.
4. In a medium bowl, combine shredded carrots, coconut, walnuts, pineapple and raisins.
5. Using a large wooden spoon or a very heavy whisk, add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well.
6. Pour into prepared 8x12 inch pan, and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour. Check with toothpick.
7. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Rolled Sugar Cookies

[Updated 2010-12-05]

This is just a recipe for the cookie. I will post the royal icing frosting in a separate blog entry. I wanted to make cookies for Christmas so I found this awesome recipe on Allrecipes.com. The original makes 60 so I cut it in half to make less since I was trying it out. It was a perfect soft and tender cookie. I highly recommend this recipe!

The picture is of the naked cookies...pre-frosting!

Yields approx. 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight). Tip: Chilling dough is extremely important. If dough is not adequately, the cookies will not keep their shapes and will flatten.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven until cookies are slightly golden at the edges. Cool completely.

Haupia Cake

I made a cupcake version for Throwdown against Mike (and won) but for Mom & Dad's birthday, I decided to do it in a cake. They loved it! So did Ba Noi. We discovered that this cake is best eaten cold.

Cake:

• 1 box white cake mix
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 eggs

Haupia Filling:

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tablespoon corn starch
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla (I didn't have vanilla when I made this cake so I used one whole vanilla bean)
  

Frosting:

• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• shredded coconut, to top

DIRECTIONS

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cake mix, coconut milk, water and eggs into a large mixing bowl. Mix well and fill 2 cake pans. Bake for 40 minutes. Cool completely.

Haupia Filling:

1. In a sauce pan heat coconut milk (do not boil).
   
2. Mix sugar, salt, and cornstarch with water; stir into hot coconut milk.
   
3. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens (cook over low heat to avoid curdling). Stir in vanilla and cool.

Frosting

1. Soften gelatin in 1/3 cup coconut milk; dissolve over hot water.
   
2. Cool.
   
3. Whip cream; fold in gelatin mixture and sugar.
   

Assembly

1. Slice each layer in half.
   
2. Pipe a border of frosting to keep the filling in.
   
3. Spread filling on top.
   
4. Top with a cake layer.
   
5. Repeat until all layers are done.
   
6. Frost, pipe and put a layer of the filling on top! Chill & serve.
   

Chocolate Health trifle

I made this for a bbq with the OCEB. It was the best one yet since I didn't use any Cool Whip. Mike says next time to make more chocolate mousse so I modified the recipe below with this change:

1 prepared brownie cut in cubes
1 quart whipping cream
3.9 oz box chocolate pudding
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup health bits

Measure out 2 cup of whipping cream and whip to soft peaks.
Meanwhile mix pudding with hot water.
Stir 1/3 of whipped cream into pudding mixture. Fold this mixture into
the remaining whipped cream until no streaks of white remains. Set
aside.
Whip the other 2 cups of whipping cream and sugar to soft peaks.
Assemble trifle: chocolate mousse, brownie, whipped cream, 1/4 cup
Heath bits repeat 2 more times ending with the last 1/4 cup of health
bits as garnish. Chill overnight.

Haupia Cupcake

For a cupcake throw down challenged by my very own husband, I knew I had to up my game because he's not only good at everything, the kitchen is his turf...usually. I ate a haupia cake at Zippy's when we were in Maui a month ago and I remember telling Jackie, "I HAVE to learn how to make this filling! I could drink it!" So when I had to come up with a kicked up classic flavor, I decided on coconut and to kick it up with the haupia filling. It was sooo good it actually won the throw down for me. The whipped cream frosting kept this delicate cake super light and refreshing...especially for a cupcake.

Makes 20-24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

• 1 box white cake mix
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 eggs

Haupia Filling:

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tablespoon corn starch
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:

• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• shredded coconut, to top

DIRECTIONS

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cake mix, coconut milk, water and eggs into a large mixing bowl. Mix well and fill cupcake pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes.

Haupia Filling:

1. In a sauce pan heat coconut milk (do not boil).
   
2. Mix sugar, salt, and cornstarch with water; stir into hot coconut milk.
   
3. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens (cook over low heat to avoid curdling). Stir in vanilla and cool.

Frosting

1. Soften gelatin in 1/3 cup coconut milk; dissolve over hot water.
   
2. Cool.
   
3. Whip cream; fold in gelatin mixture and sugar.
   

Assembly

1. Use cone method to create cavity for filling in cakes.
2. Fill cavity with about a tablespoon of filling.
3. Put cake cap back on.
4. Chill for 30 minutes to set filling.
   
5. Top with generous dollop of whipped cream frosting.
6. Top with shredded coconut.

Pistachio Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Makes about 4 cups

4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into tablespoons
Sweetened pistachio paste, to taste
Green food coloring (optional)

Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).
Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add 1/4 cup pistachio paste and mix until incorporated. Add more if a stronger flavor is desired (I used about 1/2 cup).

Sweetened Pistachio Paste
Makes about 1 cup

1 cup pistachios, skins removed (if pistachios are salted, rinse them well)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup hot water

In a food processor, grind pistachios and sugar until it becomes a fine meal. With the processor still running, Slowly add hot water, one tablespoon at a time scraping the bowl often, until a thick but spreadable paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and press plastic wrap against the surface. Cool to room temperature.

Credits: How to Eat a Cupcake blog

Spumoni Cupcake

Slight adapted by a recipe I got off of "How to Eat a Cupcake" blog. Only difference is I didn't use cherry extract and opted to do a mix of maraschino cherries and canned cherry because I thought the canned cherries tasted too much like prunes plus when I eat the maraschino cherry, that tastes more like the cherry ice cream in spumoni to me. I also halved the recipe to make only twelve cupcakes.

This cupcake is half cherry batter and half chocolate batter topped with pistachio buttercream to finish off the three classic flavors in spumoni ice cream.

Cherry Batter

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup + 6 tbsp. flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon cherry extract (I didn't have any)
  
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/8 cup chopped cherries (canned or frozen, thawed)

Chocolate Batter

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon cherry extract (I didn't have any)
  
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/8 cup chopped cherries (canned or frozen, thawed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a standard 12-cup muffin pan, or use paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; add cherry flavoring and mix until combined. On low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, followed by milk; end with remaining flour mixture and chopped cherries. Mix just until incorporated (do not overmix).
Fill muffin cups with 3 tablespoons of each batter, side by side. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.