Carrot Cake

I've tried so many carrot cake recipes but my 5 year old daughter who doesn't eat carrot cake said to m this time: " please forget the old carrot cake recipe you have, I like this one", and she ate the carrot cake and asked for morehhh.
This carrot cake dis light and fluffy enough, but moist anriceh flavored. I like the way the raisin gave that extra kick of flavor when it got soaked in the grated carrot mixture. Next time I might add more apple too, for extra nutrition. :-)  I don't know what got into me when I added ginger powder, but before I baked this cake I was craving for some ginger cake, but I couldn't find molasses here in Saudbi Arabia so I have to resort to this. Nonetheless it satisfied my craving for that holiday cake.V

Carrot Cake Recipe

2 1/2 cups flour sifted
1 1/2 C. Sugar
3 medium carrots grated
1 apple grated
1 cup raisins
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger powder
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup yogurt
1 cup oil
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 360 F

1. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger powder and 1 tsp cinnamon. Set aside.

2. Stir grated carrots, apple, raisin, remaining cinnamon, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and 3 tbsp brown sugar. Set aside.

2. Beat the eggs, and sugar for 3 minutes, add yogurt and oil and continue beating for 2 more minutes. Slowly add the flour mixture until batter is well mixed and smooth, then fold in (no. 2) carrot mixture.

3. Bake in a well greased baking pan, I usually butter my stainless pan and place waxed paper/ parchment  and butter again before I pour the cake batter. baking time is 30-40 minutes.


Enjoy!

Pancake ala Hevyn Recipe

There was a time in my life when I depend mostly on boxed cakes, brownies and pancakes. But now is a different time and I love doing things from scratch it saves me and my family from ingesting a lot of unnecessary chemicals. So, recently I realized pancake is one of the easiest breakfast I can make and I've been into a lot of experiment in finding the right one for me. I don't want the usually bland tasting pancakes, I wanted a creamy sort of cake pancake. So this one is what I perfected today to suite my taste, hopefully my kids and husband too. What I came up with is thick pancake, creamier than usual pancake and I'm so happy with the outcome of it that I'll name it after my daughter. lol

Pancake Ala Hevyn

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp condensed milk
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Some Hershey's Chocolate chips (optional)

1. Sift the flour and mix it with the baking powder and salt, then add the butter and try to mix it in the flour mixture.
2. Add in the condensed milk, milk, eggs and vanilla. Mix using a fork until well incorporated, there will still be some lumps but not as big as a grain of rice. it's ok, don't over mix it else you might end up with a rubbery  batter.
3. Heat your pan in a low heat, you may rub a little bit of a butter to prevent from sticking or skip this if using a non-stick skillet.
4. Pour half a cup on the skillet and sprinkle chocolate chips then top the chocolate chips with a little bit more of the pancake batter so it wouldn't stick or melt to your skillet when you flip it over.

Home Made Beef Sausage

After another experiment, here is another recipe of garlic beef sausage. I also tried wrapping it in spring roll wrapper and fried it in medium low heat.





Home made skinless Garlic Beef Longganisa/ Sausage

Ingredients:

600 g ground beef
1 medium size carrots diced finely
⅓ cup garlic, minced or more
2 tsp iodized fine salt
⅔ cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 tsp peppercorn, finely crushed
1 pouch (200 g) DEL MONTE Original Style Tomato Sauce
⅓ cup vinegar
2 tbsp sugar

Procedure:

1. Mix all the ingredients.

2. Roll every 2 tablespoons of mixture and arrange on a tray. Chill for 4 hours. Wrap each piece in cut out plastic/wax paper.

3. Pack in plastic bag. Freeze until ready to cook and serve.



4. To Cook, fry in medium heat.

Dark Chocolate-Orange Cake

You can never go wrong with chocolate cake. To make variety, I like to add hint of orange or mint in my chocolate cake. I have modified this chocolate cake recipe to accommodate the new flavor. With its quick and super easy recipe you can never go wrong, plus I love that the additional flavor is not artificial, rather it is fresh and purely natural. The cake is very rich and chocolaty, soft, light and very moist with orange hint. My kids love it, I usually bake half of the batter in 9" round pan and use the remaining batter to make cupcakes so my kids could eat it while I frost the round cake else there will be nothing to frost anymore.

Here is my recipe for the chocolate orange cake.

Dark Chocolate-Orange Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa (I use Hintz dutch processed cocoa and it makes a lot of difference)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling fresh milk
1 orange, zest the skin and squeeze the juice to add flavor to your cake


1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Add sugar,salt, eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and orange zest and juice. Mix for 2 minutes, then add the boiling milk and stir until well combined.
3. Transfer the cake batter to 9x13" pan or 2 10" pan and bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick tests done.
4. Cool and frost with your favorite frosting.

Banana Muffins

I have two large over ripe bananas sitting on the kitchen counter which I don't want to throw. I was searching for a quick recipe and came up with banana muffins. It turned out the texture is really soft but because only one (1) pc of egg is used it is a little bit crumbly, but still my picky 18 months old boy devoured most of it.

Banana Muffin

2 large bananas mashed
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Some chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 f
1. Sift the flour, and mix with baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside
2. Mix banana, egg, melted butter, sugar, and vanilla extract then fold in the flour mixture until just moistened. I actually didn't use my electric mixer for doing this just a fork.
3. Scoop the muffin batter to lined muffin tin and sprinkle some chocolate chips or nuts on top. bake for 12-15 minutes or do toothpick test to check doneness. Enjoy!

Lumpia Shanghai/ Beef Spring Roll

I love spring rolls, the usual fillings I used are vegetables, bananas, but today I decided that I will fill it with beef using the recipe my mom gave for home made skinless longanisa or sweetened beef sausage. My two kids are big fan of vegetable and it is difficult to feed them with chicken or beef meat so I have to explore the possibilities of feeding them protein rich foods. This is my recipe:

1/2 kilo ground beef
1 medium size onion diced thinly
1 garlic bulb shredded finely
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt or more according to your preference
2 eggs
3 tbsp soy sauce

Spring roll wrapper
Oil for frying

1. Mix all of the ingredients and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Wrap the meat mixture using the spring roll wrapper and seal with egg wash or water. I suggest to use only a teaspoonful of meat for each spring roll wrapper and roll it thinly to make sure the meat gets cooked inside.
3. Deep fry the spring roll until golden brown.

We made 20 pcs of spring rolls this afternoon and they ate it for snacks. There are still left over meat which I placed in the chiller, that I can turn into skinless longanisa or sausage for our breakfast tomorrow.

Chocolate Orange Swiss Rolls

Baking has been one of the things I enjoy doing.  Here is one of the recipe I'm able to come up with while doing some cake experiments. Some friends had complemented about it so I'm posting the recipe here.

Chocolate Orange Swiss Rolls

6 eggs

1/2 cup flour + 1tbsp

3 tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup sugar +2 tbsp

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp oil

orange zest

beat egg whites and add a tbsp of sugar once in a while about 10 minutes. use only the 1/2 cup of sugar.

beat the egg yolks add 2 tbsp sugar and let it froth, then add the 3 tbsp oil, vanila, orange zest, and salt

sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder three times

gently beat the egg yolk mixture to the egg whites and once incorporated fold in the flour and cocoa mixture.

spread in the parchment lined pan

bake at preheated oven 450 deg F for 15 minutes or until it springs back to touch.

filling

1 bar favorite chocolate bar, I used Galaxy

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp cocoa powder

melt chocolate in microwave at low for 1 minute or until slightly melted but not too hot.

pour whipping cream and beat while adding cocoa and vanilla. Add sugar if you prefer it sweeter otherwise this should taste a bit of dark chocolate. Whip until stiff peak forms.

Once the cake is done let it cool in a towel and spread the filling. Make sure the cake is completely cooled otherwise the whipped filling will melt. Then roll the cake carefully, frost and chill before serving. 

Chicken A La King With Fettuccine or Rice

Living in the Middle East, again, our two kids had been used to eating more pasta rather than rice. Include me, that makes three of us wanting pasta, an my husband preferring rice. At times when I know red sauce spaghetti means starving him, I would resort to making chicken a la king, with creamy and cheesy white sauce. With a cup of rice or with fettuccine, it is sure to satisfy everyone in the family. 

Chicken A La King

500grams chicken fillet diced to bite size

250 grams fresh button mushroom sliced

1 bell pepper diced

1 medium size carrot diced

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp corn flour

1 medium onion diced

snow peas( optional)

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup mozzarella cheese or cheddar cheese

2 cups water

salt to taste

1. Heat the sauce pan and melt the butter, then add the bell pepper. After 2 minutes, add sliced button mushroom and saute until tender, then add onion and chicken. 

2. Once the chicken are browned add the corn flour and water. let simmer until the water thickens. Add the carrots and snow peas, cover and simmer until tender.

3. Add the heavy cream ans stir then add the cheese, ans salt according to taste.

I usually serve this with fettuccine and dash dried parsley and more cheese on top. Whenever served with hot steamed rice I like to sprinkle more cheddar cheese on top. 

Best Dark Chocolate Cake

In our quest for the best tasting chocolate cake, we've come to find some good recipes online but this one stands the best because of the taste and it is super quick and easy to prepare and foolproof too. Even if you're just a newbie in baking, you can never go wrong with this recipe.


This cake has very rich chocolaty taste, soft and light. Frost it with dark chocolate ganache and you have a rich chocolate cake.




Dark Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa (I use Hintz dutch processed cocoa and it makes a lot of difference)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling fresh milk



1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Add sugar,salt, eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix for 2 minutes, then add the boiling milk and stir until well combined.
3. Transfer the cake batter to 9x13" pan or 2 10" pan and bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick tests done.
4. Cool and frost with your favorite frosting.

Roasted Lamb With Sweet Caramelized Crust

Lamb is one of the meat that is available and affordable in Saudi Arabia. I don't like its pungent smell when cooking, but I love the taste of its meat. It reminds me of  Durian, an exotic fruit in the Philippines, many people couldn't take the aroma of the fruit but the taste is just heavenly.

Back in Al Khobar, I tried cooking lamb but I didn't like the aroma. But the meat is always on sale and more available than beef. I would say it is an opportunity to indulge in lamb while here while it's cheap. Until a Cambodian friend of mine advised me to rub chinese five spice on it. I was surprised because I did miracle removing the pungent smell of lamb I liked the sweet smell as it cooks. The shredded ginger and sugar also added a delectable caramelized and crispy crust on the meat. It is now a regular dish in our house because it is easy to cook and doesn't require too much preparation. So here is the recipe I made and experimented myself.

Sweet Lamb Roast

Ingredients:

1 medium Leg of lamb, or lamb racks

3 cloves of garlic (I shred it finely)

lots of shredded ginger 

chinese five spice just enough for rubbing

5 tbsp brown sugar for rubbing too

salt and pepper

250 ml sprite or 7 up

1. Make incisions on the flesh of lamb and put some shredded garlic in it.  Then rub the remaining garlic, ginger, chinese 5 spice, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Then soak the lamb in sprite or 7 up. Marinate for at least a day. 

2. Preheat oven to 350F. Place the lamb in a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for 2-3 hours or until tender. Once it is tender turn it over and remove the foil and   return it back to the oven. You might want to taste the sauce so you can adjust the sweetness you may sprinkle some more brown sugar and salt on top to suit your taste, it will also help caramelize the top part so you can have a crispy and sweet crust on the meat. Once the meat has caramelized or browned you may flip it over to brown the other side.

And don't forget to cover it again with foil after you take it from the oven, this will help keep the meat moist.

Beef Embotido

I know, I've been posting too many recipe today. But since I have time doing so, I hope the blog can bear with me.

On a positive side, I used to say we're lucky to live in Jeddah, because you wouldn't be tempted to eat pork. The fats and layers of fats found on pork looks disgusting because you know it is never healthy specially for the heart but the taste is always irresistibly yummy! But because we're missing out on pork means we will try to enjoy every other meat available. For now, I'll post beef embotido or Filipino style meatloaf. I like making this because you can prepare it ahead of time, freeze it and just thaw when you needed. This is convenient food to have ready in my freezer because there are days when the two kiddos wouldn't let me cook anything. Shopping can also be challenge in Saudi Arabia because I always have to wait for my husband to bring me to the supermarket and when time doesn't permit me to do my shopping on time at least there are still some foods left in the freezer and we won't starve.





1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup carrot, minced
1/4 cup onion, minced
1/4 cup red bell pepper, small diced
1/3 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup chedar cheese
2 tablespoons pickle relish
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs( I don't advise using other breadcrumbs but if you will do you can add 3 tbsp sugar to sweeten it, panko has some sweetness when mixed with meat which is missing on regular breadcrumbs)
3 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper
2 hot dogs, sliced horizontally----( you can substitute viena sausage or in my case cheddar cheese strips because I don't like canned foods, the thought of preservatives makes me feel bad when I see my kids eating)
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered






1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. or prepare your steamer, this can be cooked either way.

2. In a large bowl, mix together ground beef, carrots, onion, red bell pepper, tomato sauce, cheese, pickle relish, garlic, panko, eggs, salt and pepper.

3. Mix well.

4. Place the Foil on a flat surface.

5. Place the meat mixture on the foil and flatten, about 1/2 inch thick. Make sure you have enough space on the sides for sealing.

6. Place the sliced hotdog and quartered hard boiled egg in the middle of the meat mixture (forming a line).

7. Grab one end of the foil and fold over towards the middle covering the hotdog and egg. Press down gently to pack in the meat.

8. Grab the other end of the foil and fold again towards the center, forming a cylinder. Try to make your "meat roll" as compact as possible.

9. Grab the two ends of the cylinder and give it a twist to seal.

10. Do the same for the rest of the meat mixture.
11. Get a bigger pan and put hot water on it and place the pan with the meat rolls over it. Another option is steaming the meat rolls for 1 1/2 hours.

Light And Fluffy Carrot Cake

I'm not really a huge fan of dense cakes. I always oft to a light and fluffy version, and I always change the recipe to make it healthier. Most of the time I also decrease the sugar as much as possible.

Carrot cake is one of my husband's favorite. And I have tried lots of recipe and have made lots of versions that I could.

The one that I will share now uses yogurt instead of milk and I also increased the yogurt and have lessened the oil called for the recipe that I found. I also don't frost my cake if there is no occasion so feel free to frost it with your favorite frosting.

Ingredient:

3 medium carrots shredded
2 cups flour
1 cup oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt
4 eggs
1tsp vanilla
1 tbsp cinnamon powder

Procedure:

1. Sift the all purpose flour 3 times and mix it with the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, maybe 3-5 minutes until the color turns light yellow. Then add the oil, yogurt and vanilla and beat again for 2 minutes. Add the flour and beat until well incorporated, don't overbeat or your cake will turn out rubbery or rustic-it happened to me. Once it is well incorporated fold in the carrots using your spatula.

3. Bake in a greased 9"x13" pan in a preheated 350 F oven for 40 minutes. Cool and frost with your favorite frosting.

Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

My daughter loves baking. Most of the time she will ask me to bake cake, but if I feel lazy I measure ingredients and let her do cookies. She enjoys mixing the ingredients.

The recipe below is a cookie recipe I found in my Email. Its is called 250$ recipe, because that was the cost paid for by a woman to get this recipe from a cefeteria. Anyway we call it Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and when ingredients permit I use all brown sugar and it is even more perfect!

Ingredients:

2 c. butter (1/2 c)
2 c. sugar (1/2 c)
2 c. brown sugar (1/2 c)
4 eggs (1 egg)
2 tsp. vanilla (1/2 tsp)
4 c. flour (1 c)
5 c. blended oatmeal (1 1/4 c)
2 tsp. baking powder (1/2 tsp)
2 tsp. baking soda (1/2 tsp)
1 tsp. salt (1/2tsp)
24 oz. chocolate chips (6 oz)
1 (8 oz.) grated Hershey bar (1/4 oz)
3 c. chopped nuts (3/4 c)

1. Blended oatmeal: Measure and blend in blender or food processor to a fine powder.
2. Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together with flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add chips, candy and nuts. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies. Recipe can be halved or quartered and the size made smaller. Possible to get four dozen of a 1 1/2 inch cookie from quartered recipe.

Bulgur Champorado "Chocolate Porridge"

When I was a little girl, most morning we have this champorado. It is like rice porridge but is flavored with cocoa or chocolate and enjoyed with lots of evaporated milk to make it creamy. I didn't like it that much as I could remember because it tasted too sweet for me, and it wasn't much creamy according my likes. My mom is using an organic cocoa powder back then, and also glutinous rice to make the porridge thick, I don't recall that she's adding any evaporated milk too. 

When I started working, my co-workers would usually buy this for their afternoon snack, and I got hooked too specially when the weather is cold and rainy. I started cooking champorado for my own family lately but I made few modifications. 

Because glutinous rice is hard to find in Jeddah, I have modified my champorado using bulgur wheat which I think is healthier because it is packed with lots of fiber, iron and protein instead of the carbohydrates from glutinous rice. My kids loves them and could eat it for the entire day if I would permit. 

Here is my recipe:

1 cup bulgur wheat

4 cups water

3 tbsp dark cocoa powder

6 tbsp sugar or more according to your preference, I like the taste of dark chocolate so I prefer less sugar

1/2 tsp of vanilla

1. wash the bulgur and boil it in 4 cups of water. Once it starts boiling lower the heat and simmer it until the bulgur has cracked open or soft enough and the water has decreased according to your preferred consistency. It will not get sticky nor thick like the glutinous rice do.

2. Once the bulgur is cooked and the consistency of water is achieved add the cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla and let simmer for 5 minutes. It is now ready to serve. Put it in bowls and serve with evaporated milk or powdered milk for creamy chocolate milk flavor. 

Another variation you could try if you don't have cocoa powder is substituting  2 small Hershey's chocolate bars, break it to smaller pieces to melt faster. It gives it creamier and more chocolaty taste.