Black and white cake

This is a left over story from the Easter day. We didn't do much on Easter day so we let our son and his friend decorated the easter eggs. They seemed to have fun together; playing and giggling. That day was a beautiful day as well. In Erie, where we live, spring starts very late. Even when the calender has officially announced spring season, somehow we still get some snow or even just cold weather

I made black and white pound cake the other day. This cake is sort of a marble cake and the way we make is just like baking a marble cake.
I made this marble cake a while ago and I thought I want to try something new. The recipe requires 10 eggs and those are lots of eggs, therefore only one slice of cake a day should be enough for me.

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Black and white pound cake
Recipe from the ultimate book of baking.

4 1-ounce squares semisweet chocolate
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups (4 sticks) butter, at room temperature
31/3 cups sugar ( I used 3 cups sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
10 eggs, at room temperature
confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a 10-inch tube pan with wax paper and grease. Dust with flour and spread evenly with a brush.

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler, or in heatproof bowl set over a pan of hot water. Stir occasionally. Set aside.

In a bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. In another bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 2 at a time, then gradually in corporate the flour mixture on low speed.

Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan.

Stir the chocolate into the remaining butter, then spoon into the pan. With a metal spatula, swirl the two batters to create a marble effect.

Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-45 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes, then unmold and transfer to a cooling rack. To serve, dust with confectioners sugar.

Hope you enjoy this great spring as much as I do!

M&M double chocolate brownies

Sorry I've been away from my blog for awhile, life was bringing me to the other direction. It has been pretty hectic here.

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I am longing for spring, raining and foggy most of the time lately. The temperature is still cold but I thankful it hasn't been snowing for awhile now. Rain fell pretty hard last week end. We were trapped in the house just relaxing. The sound of rain drops somehow turned my mood toward baking again, as well as my hubby and son were asking me about something good for dessert. While they were playing I spent time in the kitchen alone making brownies. Chocolate is always become our family favorite. That explain huh why my diet doesn't work.

M&M double-chocolate brownies
Adapted from family circle magazine

¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 ounces (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanila extract
1 cup chopped pecans
1 bag (12 ounces) chocolate chips (2 cups)
M&M candy

Heat oven to 350F. Line 13x9x2-inch baking pan with nonstick foil.

In large glass bowl, heat butter and chocolate in microwave on high for 2 minutes; stir until smooth. Let stand 5 minutes to cool slightly. Whisk in sugar, eggs, flour and vanila. Stir in pecans and half of the chocolate chips (1 cup). Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle with remining 1 cupa chocolate chips and M&M

Bake at 350F for 35 minutes, until top is dry to the touch. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Lift brownie from pan with foil. Cut into squares and serve.

Marble Cake

It wasn't a pleasant week for Erie as the weather channel kept telling us about approaching snow storms. This weekend it seemed like everyone was out cleaning the snow from their walkways and driveways, this of course included myself!. Bummer!! my snow blower was broken. I had to shovel by hand. It took me almost 3 hours to finish all my drive way. Of course I didn't shovel for 3 hours straight though. If I did, I would probably be in the hospital with a bad back. Wondering where was my hubby? Poor thing he had to work. OH, probably he was lucky then as he didn't have to shovel snow.

My lovely son was being so helpful. While I was shoveling the snow he helped brushing snow of my car. Tried to build a snowman too but didn't work as the snow was way to wet.

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As we came inside the house, the marble chiffon cake was waiting for us. I made myself a tea and a hot coco for Nathaniel. Then spend the rest of the day being lazy by watching tv, playing game. Just want to be inside keep us warm. Then my son felt sleep, yippy...! being outside it was totally wiped him out! THEN, finally mommy has time for her self alone.

I have been making this marble chiffon cake for many times but I lost interest to post it with many different reasons. One of them as I took food photo it doesn't come up well enough, you know very hard to find good natural light in this time of year.

Marble Chiffon Cake
recipe is adopted from Rumah Manis by Fitri.

1/3 coco powder
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups + 3 tbs granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbs vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
7 eggs (separate between white and yellow)
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp grated zest of a lemon

Direction
In the bowl mix together coco powder, hot water, 3 tbs granulated sugar, 2 tbs vegetable oil. And put a side.

In the other bowl mix together flour, salt, baking powder, granulated sugar. Put a side.
Whisk well egg yolks, water and vegetable oil. Pour into flour mixture and mix them together with electronic mixer. And put it aside.

Using electronic mixture blend together white egg and cream of tartar until white fluffy (soft peak). Then pour this batter into egg yolk mixture. Stir them well with hand whisk.
Take 2 cups of batter and pour it into coco powder mixture. Whisk them well.

Add 2 tsp grated zest of a lemon into remaining white egg batter. Mix them well.

I use regular cake baking pan by brushing margarine then sprinkle flour after. First, pour about 1 cup of white egg batter into a cake pan. Then add about 1 cup of chocolate batter on the top. Do repeatedly.

Then with a fork, gently draw swirls through the batter to marbleize it. Don't over mix or you will not have that wonderful marble effect.
I did over mix little bit so you know how the result comes up. Quite disappointed.

Bake to 325F for about 70 -75 minute of until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Also thank you for wishing me happy birthday dear friends.

and

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Chocolate Bananas Bread

Looking out the window it looks gloomy and soon the day will turn to dark as I blink my eyes. So much things to do outside though, perhaps cleaning the yard from falling leaves or making scarecrow for Halloween decoration. But none of them I am willing to do so today, mmm let me blame the weather as an excuse.

During fall session like this often bring me to bake more than usual. I just love the smell in kitchen after baking. You know, when you are baking cake or cookies then you open the oven door that smell oh .. I can't describe it into the words. I can smell the holiday feeling is coming soon.

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This time I am posting about Chocolate Bananas Bread. I loose count how many time I have been making this bread. You can tell that I love this recipe so much. Why? It simply because it is so easy to make ( you know I am fond of easy step recipe) and so delicious! The recipe is adopted from Fitri “RUMAH MANIS”.

Chocolate Bananas Bread

50 grams walnut ( I don't use)
250 grams flour
30 grams coco powder
200 grams granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
salt
80 grams chocolate chip
2 eggs
115 grams margarine (unsalted) melted
3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
vanilla extract

Direction

Preheat the oven 350F

In a big bowl mix together flour, coco powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Put it a side.

In a separated bowl, use the whisk to stir together the mashed bananas, eggs, margarine and vanila extract. Then slowly add mixture flour. Lastly add walnut and chocolate chips.

Bake for 45 – 1 hours or insert the skewer into the center of the bread. It should come out clean.

Have a pleasant Sunday!

Fruity and White Chocolate

Let’s we are not counting how much calories on your dessert! Especially, if we are talking about chocolate. As long as we don't eat it too much that should be good.

BERRIES are the theme chosen by Susan from Food Blogga, she is the host of Sugar High Friday #45. This is my fist entry for SHF. As you may know, berries are easy to find now day in the grocery store and the price is not bad at all. Their season is here and I better purchase them before the season is over and the price will go up.

I was thinking what kind of dessert I need to serve on the table tonight. I just don’t feel to shop at the grocery store specially to make something new from the recipe book. Instead I look around on my pantry and refrigerator. Then I found white chocolate chips and mixed berries fruits.

What you need to make this fruity chocolate dessert is very simple.
Mixed berries (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry or grapes)
White chocolate chips
Triple chocolate syrup

Direction:
To melt the chocolate; boil the water in the sauce pan and place aluminum bowl on the top of it. Pour chocolate chips in the bowl and stir it slowly until all the chocolate melted.

Pour the melting chocolate on the muffin mold. Then refrigerate until harden.

Take the chocolate off the muffin mold. The chocolate should shape like muffin and lastly fill it with mix fruits then garnish with triple chocolate syrup.

Chocolate is a link to HAPPINESS. You might agree or disagree, but for me… when I feel blue and I find eating chocolate make me feel better. And the TIP is only allowing you to have one bar of chocolate Nothing More Than THAT, OR eating chocolate will end up disaster to your body!

HAPPY WEEKEND!!

Soft and chewy chocolate chips cookies

Treat myself or my family with chocolate cookies? The bottom line is to treat my hubby with chocolate. He is a crazy chocolate lover. Today’s sunny day brings me energy to do lots of stuffs, including making chocolate chips cookies.

The recipe caught my eyes when I saw the title ‘SOFT AND CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIPS COOKIES’. This is perfect for my hubby. He loves soft and chewy chocolate chips.

Then now, do I have ingredients to need to make them? Open my pantry; I am pretty much happy because I don’t have to run to the grocery store to make these chewy cookies. Not because I am not a big fan of grocery stores, it is just because the thought of bringing my son to shop made me think twice to go to the grocery store.

Here is the recipe for chocolate chips cookies taken from Martha Stewart website.

Makes about 3 dozen
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

“COOKIES……!” that his voice when seeing those cookies on the cooling racks. They are just soft and warm as they have just came out from the oven. He can’t wait until cookies get little bit cooler. Mmmm….. Yup, when it is about chocolate chips cookies my hubby definitely acts like my two years old boy!! LOL

The cookies look pretty thin, mmm I am not sure why. I think I don't drop tablespoon size balls of dough on the baking sheet.

“Lapis Surabaya”, Our wedding anniversary cake!

It is called “LAYER CAKE” in English. I have wanted to make this cake for so long but something always comes up therefore I am not able to spare time to bake this cake.

In order to celebrate our 7^th anniversary, I decided to make this layer cake, a small and a simple cake just for three of us. I decorated it with melted chocolate and chocolate wafers along the side. I put three flowers made from fondant on top and touch it up with sprinkles.

This recipe is taken from FITRI, her blog name is RUMAH MANIS. Many great Indonesian and Iran recipes are available there.

For this recipe, you need:

Ingredients:

15 large eggs (you only need 3 white eggs)
125 gram of all-purpose flour
1 tbsp of chocolate powder
185 gram of granulated sugar
150 gram of melted butter
1 tsp of vanilla essence
½ tsp of salt
Strawberry jam for gluing between the cakes

Directions:

Wisk eggs, sugar and salt until white and fluffy. Pour in flour, stir with wooden spoon to mix the flour to the eggs mixture. Add in melted butter, keep mixing. Divide the mixture into 3 parts (2 parts stay as white part and 1 part; you mix it with chocolate powder). Pour the mixture to the Lapis Surabaya pan that has been grease with butter and flour.

Bake in the oven at 350 F or 180 C for 30 minutes.

There will be 3 parts of cakes (2 white parts and 1 chocolate part). You can bake the cakes separately, beginning with the white parts, then chocolate part.

Wait until the three cakes have cooled, pile the cakes together, start with the white, then glue it with the jam then pile it again with the chocolate and do the same with the rest of the cake. Serve !

Fried Chocolate bananas

In Indonesia, it is very common to see street vendors with their small “kitchen”. They are the everyday people who sell street foods like fried bananas, fried tofu and fried vegetables.

"tek tek tek!" if you hear this kind of sound, it means that the banana seller is going to pass by. They usually bang of their frying pans with spatulas to produce that kind of sound. And if you hear this sound and want to buy this street food, you had better call him before he goes too far.

It was used to be about 20 cents for one fried banana few years ago. But I don’t know how much the current price is anymore.

Well, since those street sellers are not passing by my house, I have to make those street foods by myself. It doesn’t take time at all to make them. It is very easy and it is nice to be served for breakfast.

Every morning, my two year old son never misses eating bananas. So this time I try something different and Oh… I am just so happy because he loves it!

Ingredients:
Bananas
Square wonton skin
Vegetables oil for frying
Chocolate sprinkles
Granulated sugar
Shredded cheddar cheese

Direction:
Remove the banana peels and cut lengthwise into two parts.
Take one wonton skin and fill it with one piece of banana, one teaspoon chocolate sprinkles, one teaspoon granulated sugar and one teaspoon cheese
Wrapped nicely
Wet the edge of wonton skin with water to glue the skin together
Fry bananas in hot oil until slightly brown.

Recipe is adopted from PRIMARASA

KILLER CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

If someone ask who doesn’t like cheesecake? I will raise my hand! Yes, I know cheesecake is very popular in America. Most people like it. Somehow I question myself why I don’t like cheesecake “I don’t know” I am just not a cheesecake person I guess. BUT I love to make it!

This time I make chocolate cheesecake. Never make this cheesecake before. Reading a recipe from “Better and Garden Magazine”, this recipe really catches my eyes. I have to make it….. Let’s go! Then I never feel sorry about making this cake as most of people I served with this delicious cheesecake said “THIS IS A KILLER” just like its name!

Ingredients:
1 9-ounce package chocolate wafers, broken into large pieces, or 2 cups purchased chocolate cookie crumbs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
Dash salt
11/2 cups dairy sour cream, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
Unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)

Direction:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan and tightly wrap the outside with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Have a roasting pan ready and put a kettle of water on to boil.

For crust: Pulse the chocolate wafers in a good processor until finely ground. With the motor running, slowly add the 6 tablespoons melted butter and process just until blended. (Or combine cookie crumbs and melted butter). Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake the crust for 8 to 10 minutes or until it is set. Let cool on a wire rack.

For filling: Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of about 11/2 inches of nearly simmering water. Add the chocolate and the ¼ cup butter, and whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk in the 2 tablespoons cocoa powder. Remove the bowl from the heat, and let the mixture cool for 20 minutes.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium-high speed, in a large deep bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the salt and chocolate mixture just until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Add the sour cream and vanilla; beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl again.

Transfer the filling to the springform pan. Set the springform pan in the roasting pan, place it in the oven, and carefully pour in enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the center is almost set but still slightly jiggly. Do not overbake-the cheesecake will firm as it cools. Remove the roasting pan from the oven and let the cheesecake cool in the water bath for 15 minutes.

Remove the springform pan from the water bath and let cheesecake cool completely on a wire rack, then remove the foil and refrigerate the cheesecake, loosely covered, until thoroughly chilled (at least 12 hours or overnight).

To serve, let the cheesecake stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove pan sides, smooth sides of cheesecake with able knife, and cut into wedges. If desired, sift additional cocoa powder over wedges.

Make 12 to 16 servings.

Black Forest Cake from the BOX

HIYA... finally I get my time writing today without have to worry be bothered by my beloved son as he is busy playing with his daddy. I made this cake awhile ago but didn't have chance yet to post it.

Anyway what I like to share today is, most the time I make cake from the scratch but this time I wonder how if I make cake from the box and turn it into BLACK FOREST CAKE. How about that?

To make cake it self is very easy, I only need 2 boxes of PILLSBURY DEVIL CHOCOLATE CAKE. As cooking direction on the back of the box is only needed 1 1/4 cups water, 1/3 cup vegetables oil and 3 eggs. I bake into 2 separate baking pans to make 2 layers cake.

Brushing cherry filling in between layers cake then cover the cake with melting chocolate. Wait until the melting chocolate gets harder then I decorate again with broken chocolate. For finishing touch whip cream and whole cherry is very nice to make the cake looks more prettier.

I found this is an easy way to make black forest chocolate cake without have to spend much time in the kitchen . Especially during summer time like now??? wow.... I am not attempted to do it.

ENJOY!