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.