Healthy moist carrot cake with crumb topping.

Coffee cake is the casual everyday cake with that distinct crumble toppings. 

It does not actually contains coffee in it, only it is often eat with a cup of coffee.
Carrot cake, on the other hand, is often served with cream cheese frosting.

Today, I decided to make a hybrid. 

Carrot cake x Coffee cake?
So we get both =D

Carrot cake doesn't taste like carrot. Don't worry. 

It taste more like err slightly spiced cake. 

Light cinnamon cake.
In fact, carrots acts as sweetener here and it give the cake a pretty orange flecks.

The carrot cake recipe I'm sharing gives a delicious, moist, flavorful cake.
Yes, I have to share it, because it's just so good I can't stop at a slice.

*I used sour cream to give extra moistness and dense texture to the cake.
For a healthier version cake, I chose reduced fat sour cream.
So that I can have extra slice minus the guilt. Heh.

*I've reduced the amount of brown sugar and increased grated carrots for a lighter and tender sweetness.
And I used brown sugar instead of white because I prefer the flavor better and more importantly,
brown sugars compliment and brings out the flavor of cinnamon, so well.

*I've also lowered the baking temperature to 160 degree Celsius, which then takes longer time for the cake to bakes, because I love a fat, round and tall cake.
To yield a deeper cake, a lower temperature and longer baking time makes sure that the center is cook through before the outer dries out.
It also produces finer crumb cakes.

Healthy Moist Carrot Cake with Crumble Topping Recipe:- 

Crumb Topping:

40g Brown Sugar
20g All Purpose Flour
25g Chopped Walnuts
1 - 1/2 Tbsp Canola Oil

Mix together until crumbly.

Carrot Cake:
*This is a quick cake method, ie mixing a bowl of dry ingredients with the wets. 

150g All Purpose Flour 

2 tsp Baking Powder 

1/2 tsp Baking Soda 

1 tsp Cinnamon 

 80g Brown sugar 

120ml Canola Oil 

2 Eggs 

120g Reduced Fat Sour Cream

120g Grated Carrots.

1.Preheat over to 160 degree Celsius.

2. Shift all the dry ingredients and mix well.

3.In another bowl, mix sugar and oil together.

4. Whisk in eggs, one after another.

4. Pour the mixture to the dry ingredients bowl.

5. Fold in sour cream and of course, the star ingredient, Carrots! Mix until just combined.
6. Pour into a 5-inch spring-form pan and sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the batter.

6. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until skewer inserted in the center and comes out clean. 

Voila.

The result?

Crunchy on the top, moist and  rich on the bottom.

Perfect with a cup of fresh brewed coffee.

#satisfaction

Privileged.

"You just glides through, every time."

You have no idea how many times I've heard this. 

That's why, my friends,

 you would know why I have no idea what it's like to work for every single thing.

Macarons, with feet!

Macarons! 

Aren't they pretty? Comes in lotsa different colours and flavours. 

Pistachio, Coffee, Chocolate, Rose, Green Tea, Passion Fruit, Raspberry, you name it. 

I've even tried truffles.

And of course, my favorite is still pistachio.

Now don't get confused with macaroons!
 You can find macaroons easily at any Tesco outlet, and they look nothing like these colorful shells!
Macaroons are English, Macarons are French.

And if you Google them, you ll learn that they are only made up by 4 simple ingredients.
That's right. 4 simple ingredients.
Caster sugars, Icing sugars, almond meal and egg whites.
You do the maths.
But they are all sell at relatively high price.
Their price range can go from 1 pcs RM3++ to 1 pcs RM12++ in Malaysia.

After a few attempts of trying to make them, I think I know why!
 Making macarons at home can be a real pain in the ass!

 It's no where near a forgivable recipe, always about the precision in  measurements,
the folding process, the temperature of the oven, this and that!

You know what they say, we are all a macaron foot-fetish when making em.
I've given a few attempt, they always turn out either burnt, flat or cracked.
NO FEET!

They always disappoint me!
Until after I've come back from Paris last December
.

Guess I did learnt something new from my second Paris Trip.

So here's mine! 

Like finally! Finally a successful one with feet, ie the ruffled skirts surrounding the shells. 

Hot pink macarons with chocolate ganache filling. 

Heh. 

 Because of the low temperature and high humidity in my house, 

my macarons while resting on the baking trays NEVER forms a thin layer on top. 

That's my major problem.

No thin layer, no feet!

Got my trick! 

Simpy throw them into a cool oven (not preheat) after piping out the batter, 

and turn the oven to 40 degree Celsius for 20 minutes.

***********************************************************************

Here's the ingredients:-

1. 50g Almond Meal

2. 90g Icing Sugar

3. 15g Castor Sugar

4. 50-55g Room Temperature Egg Whites (No more than that, or you'll get a runny batter!)

First of all, whip the egg whites till stiff peaks, ie glossy, thick and when you lift up the mixer, the egg whites pull off from the batter straight. That is on low speed, beat the egg whites till it forms bubble, then add in a few drops of vinegar/lemon juice (stabilizing purpose)  followed by the castor sugar, gradually.

This is known as the French meringue.There are also recipes that calls for Italian meringue, ie pouring it hot sugar syrup while whipping the egg whites. This is just too little too troublesome for me. After all, aren't we making FRENCH macarons?

The next thing to do is to sift in the mixture of almond meal and icing sugar. You won't wanna skip this step if you want a smooth surface of macarons. Discard any lumps.To make em easier to sift (smoother), I always throw the almond meal and icing sugar into the food processor for grinding first before.

At this point, you want to fold the meringue and dry mixture carefully. That is, using a spatula, scrape from the bottom of the bowl and fold up and over. This is known as the macaronage. The mixture will be very sticky and lumpy. Continue folding until a thick ribbons form.

*If you are to add in food coloring or flavoring, here's the point when you can fold in a drops or two.*

If the batter went too runny, you are over folding the mixture already, I'd say you can now throw em away and remake, cause you ll only get flat cookies.

ALMOST THERE! Scoop them into the piping bag and pipe out small little rounds onto baking papers, keeping them well apart as you are going to give the baking tray a few taps to release all the air bubbles, and they will spread out a bit here.

TIPS! Slide in the baking tray into the cool oven, and switch on to 40 degree Celsius for 20 minutes. It can take shorter time than this, depending on your batter. So long as your finger come out clean when you give the piped batter a gentle touch, you are ready to go.

FINALLY, increase the temperature of the oven tp 160 degree Celsius, after 10 minutes, you ll be too excited to see FEET! Macaron foot-fetish, remember? Bake further for about 7-10 minutes, keeping an eyes on them. And, we're done with the shells! 

Taadaa!

After you succeeded making the shells, sandwich em with whatever fillings you like.

Nutella, fruit jams, ganache, dulce de leche, buttercream frosting... 

Till then,

Good luck!

Choux à la crème

Weeee! 

Three months of holiday has been super luxurious.
Rotting at home is a very luxury things to do,
since not everyone can afford wasting time like that.

Having this very laid back days,
I've also spend a little time doing some sweet treats.

Custard puffs have always been my all time favorite, or maybe all time sweet memories.
My first bite of custard puff is from Mom's bakery, a rather famous bakery in Brunei now.

There are lotsa varieties of puffs out there,
often, more popular one are Cream puffs, where inside are filled with vanilla whipped cream.
I've tried a few nice one too,
one of which I'm impressed is Komugi's cream puffs, with very crispy choux pastry.

Being a constant user of YouTube,
I've come accross this shell choux pastry recipe from Joy of Baking.

It turns out amazing!
Soft but firm shell with very buttery flavour glazed in golden brown colour.

Taadaa!

Still got room of improvement for the look of the puffs haha.

Filled with custard cream to fulfill my huge sweet tooth.

Love it, big thanks to http://www.joyofbaking.com/

Stumble stumble.

Stumble stumble.
Looking back some old photos (4 years ago specifically) really made me burst out laughing...
And I quote from Xiao S "真的很想死"
What was I thinking!
Hahaha!

問我有沒有 

確實也沒有一直躲避的藉口 

非什麼大仇

為何舊知己在最後變不到老友 

多想一天 彼此都不追究 

相邀再次喝酒 待葡萄成熟透 

 So if you're ready, 

You know I'm here waiting for you. 

:)

一语中的！

有人說最聰明的男人就是把女人寵壞，寵得無法無天， 再也沒有人可以受得了她，於是她就離不開了。

The reasons we hold on to memories so tight...

"Yet you still value the things you've lost the most. 

Because the things you've lost are still perfect in your head. 

They never rusted. 

They never broke. 

They are made of the memories you once had, which only grow rosier and brighter, day by day. 

They are made of the dreams of how wonderful things 

could have been and must never suffer the indignity of actually still existing. 

Of being real. 

Of having flaws. 

Of breaking and deteriorating.

Only the things you no longer have will always be perfect."