Maple Syrup Walnut Cake

Hello lovelies,

I think it's been a long time since my last cake post, but seriously since my sugar free challenge I don't eat cake that much, I baked 2 cake so far one was the pistachio cake and this week was a maple syrup cake and both are still in my fridge. so please someone eat them for me, I can't do it alone and I just can't stop baking.

Maple syrup is a big part of any Canadian but I have to say I have it once in a while with my breakfast pancakes and that's all. they come in a huge variety from very cheap ones that taste like sugar and water mix to a very fabulous ones which tastes like heaven :)

So if you want to have a good tasting cake ( not something that hurts your throat) search for a rather medium to high quality syrups. oh and something else, I modified the original recipe for 2 main reasons: first, the cake is too dry so I added 1/4 cup milk to it, I highly recommend doing that since it does not hurt the texture of the cake and  slightly increase its moisture.  second was I used much less sugar for the glaze which was still plenty of sweetness so I encourage you to do the same ;)

Now enough of me rambling and let's get down to baking, shall we:

Ingredients for the cake:

1 cup of pure maple syrup

1 cup of sour cream

60 gr unsalted butter melted

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 large egg

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

3/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt 

First thing first heat the oven to 350 F. then mix the butter, maple syrup and sour cream in a bowl, till they combine. 

Add the egg and milk, and mix them till they become thick and creamy. 

Add the rest of ingredients and mix them well together with a spatula. pour the batter into a square pan.

 And bake for about 35-40 minutes or till the stick comes out clean. now take it out of the oven and let it cool down. 

Now the cake is ready, time to make the glaze.

Ingredients for maple glaze:

3/4 cup icing sugar

3 tablespoon pure maple syrup

6 tablespoon milk

Mix everything together and when the cake is still warm, using the wood stick or fork pock some holes in it so the glaze absorbs into the cake. after having enough holes, pour the glaze over the cake and let it cool down. 

As I said this cake has different kinda sweetness to it because it is mostly form maple, highly recommended for maple lovers or people with sweet tooth :)

Hope you try and enjoy it as well,
Have a great Wednesday everyone :)

Mania

Tres Leches Cake

I baked this cake long long time ago and I posted it once but for some reason blogger ate it, I did not know it was that good. anyhow I contacted them several times, mainly to ask "where is my post" where they did not answer any of them. so I kinda did hunt Google for a a few weeks and saw a lot of people had the same problem as me and they did not know to just wait for them to fix the problem or they should just redo the post. now it's been over 2 months and I think if they wanted to fix it, it should 've been done by now. so on side note I really dislike (close to hate )blogger and the way they handled their shut down situation. 

I think I baked it at Cinco de Mayo weekend. it is a Spanish cake that I had once baked by one of my friends (she is originally from Venezuela ) and it was SO good. it is not like any ordinary cake, so moist and due to its ingredients it has a very special taste. If you never had these, you need to try; believe me it is worth it :)
I will now stop rambling and start the recipe. it has 2 steps one is the cake preparation and while the cake is baking or cooling you have time to make the topping.
Ingredients for the cake :

1 cup sugar
5 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder


First heat the oven at 350 F and grease your pan,best would be a rectangular one ( like 13x9 inch)  

Then in a large bowl, mix egg yolks with  sugar  and mix till they become a light yellow color ( for about 5 minutes), very gently add the milk, vanilla, flour and baking powder. mix them well at low speed or with a spatula, then set aside. 

In another clean bowl, beat the egg whites till they form peaks.make sure to use clean mixing handles.  

Gently add the egg yolk mixture to the egg whits and mix slowly with a spatula. then pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean from the center. take it out from the oven and let it cool down on a rack. 

Ingredients for the topping:

1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup  whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoons dark Cuban rum ( you could skip this one though)

1/2 cup of whipped cream + 2 tablespoon of fine sugar  ( already mixed and thick)

In a large bowl, mix the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, cream, vanilla extract, and rum, whisking until well blended. the result is a liquid cream, it is not dense. 

Once the cake is completely cooled, poke the cake thoroughly (every 1cm) with a toothpick, just be careful not to tear the cake. this whole is for the topping to absorbs to the cake. put  the cake  a baking sheet to prevent the syrup all over the place. very slowly pour the syrup over the top of the cake, and let it absorbs then pour again to prevent the overflow. then use the tick version of whipped cream and spread it all over the surface. 

Cover it and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours before you serve.

As I told you this no ordinary cake,I am sure you won't be disappointed. I already made plans to bake this after my sugar free challenge is over.

Enjoy!
Mania

Orange Almond Cake

Ok, you must figured out by now that I have an obsession with Almond in baking. I just love love love it in all forms like ground almond or paste or essence. it add a special taste so I try almost any recipe that I come across and has some sort of almond in it. this was one of them. this is a gluten-free cake also. I made this to our weekly group meeting and everyone was going crazy over this cake. so it must be pretty good ;)

now let's get to the recipe :

Ingredients :

2 large oranges which have been boiled

6 eggs, lightly beaten

250 gr of ground almonds

250 gr of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Comment:I boiled the oranges the night before and allowed them to cool overnight before I prepared the cake the next day
Boil the oranges, covered with water in saucepan for 2 hours.

Fist thing first put the oven at 350 F and grease your pan. I used a regular 9 inch round pan.

let the oranges cool ( or do the same as I mentioned in comment up there).once they cooled, cut them and remove any pips and chop into rough pieces, including the rind.

put the orange pieces in a food processor and press its bottom 2-3 times then add the eggs and mix them well together again with food processor. 

Mix the ground almonds, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and add the orange mixture to the bowl and mix all together.Pour the batter in your pan and bake for 45 mins to 1 hour.

Once cooled turn it out on a cake rack and dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy!

Mania

Citrus Almond Pound Cake

This could be the best citrus cake I ever had in my life. it is so good. I've been noticing that I say that in most of my posts, well the truth is that I baked or cooked stuff in the past that were not delicious and ended up in the garbage bag right after. I never right about those recipes because it would go like that:

" mix this with that, let it cook and then put it in the garbage because it tastes awful" !! so what kind of a recipe that would be !? the ones that I post here are the ones that I enjoyed and I think worth a try so yes they're sooo good :)

so now let's get down to baking, shall we:

Ingredients:

12 tablespoons of butter, cubed, at room temperature

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup orange juice

3 cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

7-ounce tube almond paste ( about 200g)

7 large eggs

4 teaspoons lemon zest

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

First preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease  Bundt pan ( or any pan you like) and dust with flour.   

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  in another bowl beat almond paste and  2 cups sugar with electrical mixer until smooth. Add the butter and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the zest and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Spread batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until tooth-stick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly. 

For making the citrus syrup, heat lemon juice, orange juice and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar in a small saucepan on low and cook until the sugar dissolves.

Poke deep holes in the the cake and pour the syrup over top, letting it rest for 30 minutes in order to let the juices soak in. Remove from pan and serve at room temperature.

It's better to put it in the fridge for about an hour or so and then serve it. it has a sweet sour taste because of citrus and very soft texture.  you won't be disappointed :)

Till next time :)

Mania

Yummy Carrot cake :)

Personally, I am not a big fan of carrot cake, I think carrot should be used in soups or generally in cooking not baking. I had tried carrot cake before, always was "naaaaaah,... I don't know...!" but this recipe was tried by one of my lovely blogger friends ( Juliet) and she claims that among 3 different recipes she tried this one is the best. since I trust her  judgments on cooking and baking subjects, I decided to try it myself.

It is the best carrot cake I ever had, so soft and delicious. without further do let's get down to baking, shall we.  

  

Ingredients for the cake:

2 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of  cinnamon  

1 teaspoon of ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of butter at room temperature

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 of water

2 1/2 cup of shredded carrot ( about 8-9 carrots)

1 cup of toasted crushed walnuts 

Ingredients for cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup of cream cheese at room temperature 

1/2 cup of butter at room temperature

1/4 cup of whipped cream ( 35%)

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

First heat up the oven to 350 F, and grease your baking pan and dust with flour.I used a 9" Bundt cake pan. 

Then in a bowl mix all the dry ingredients except sugar( flour,baking powder,baking soda,cinnamon,ginger,salt and walnuts) and set aside. 

with electrical mixer, mix butter and sugar till they get to a fluffy cream ( about 3-4 minutes), then add eggs one by one and mix between each one for about 1 minute. at the end add vanilla, water and carrots and mix for about 2 minutes. lastly add the flour slowly and try not to overdo the mixing so the cake would rise well in the oven . 

Pour the batter into your pan and cook for about 30-35 minutes or till a wooden stick comes out clean form the center of the cake. 

When it is ready, take it out of the oven and let it cool down for about 15 minutes and then transfer the cake out of the pan to the cooling rack. 

when the cake is cooling down, you could prepare the cheese frosting if you like.

Cream cheese frosting:

First in a bowl mix the cheese and butter well ( remember they should be at room temperature). when they get kinda fluffy add vanilla and mix for about 4 minutes. then add the cream slowly and mix till the cream gets nice and thick. It's that simple :)

When the cake is cool, spread it with cream cheese frosting. the cream part is completely optional but it make a huge difference in the taste of the cake.

So for any carrot fan out there, this is really delicious; try it ,you won't get disappointed :)

Enjoy!

Mania

Orange cake

This cake is my hubby's favorite, so he kind of requested it few days ago. so I went through my notes looking for an orange cake recipe. I had a few of them but I chose this one. It turn out to be such a delicious cake with strong taste of orange. if you are a fan of orange you would love this. so let's get down to baking:


Ingredient for the cake: 

250 grams unsalted butter

250 grams  sugar

4  eggs

Zest of an orange 

250 grams  flour

100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

1 cup of raisins

1/2 cup of ground walnuts 

First preheat oven to 350 F and grease your cake pan or cover with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar well, until they become light for about 4-5 minutes.then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Add raisins and ground walnuts to the flour and then mix them with eggs and butter mixture and also zest and beat well. Slowly add the orange juice, mixing well. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until an inserted stick comes out clean. Leave in the cake tin for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and leave to cool on a cake rack.

This is one of my favorite cakes, as I said if you are an orange fan you would love this :) Hope you try this and  enjoy!

Love,
Mania

Coffee Cake Muffins

Coffee-and-cake is one of my simple pleasures. I personally love to have my tea or coffee with something special ( like cake or a good biscuit or even slice of chocolate) and if there is nothing to have it with, there is no reason  for to drink a coffee or tea either. Few days ago I came across a post in MSN that gathered 9 different recipes for coffee cake ( courtesy of Martha Stewart). I am planning to make them all soon and see which I like the best. because you know I can't get enough of cakes :). Almost all the cakes here have 2 steps of making, one for the topping and one for the cake itself.

So let's start with baking the first one called "Coffee Cake Muffins". 

Ingredients:

Streusel Topping: 

Brown sugar:  1 cup

All-purpose flour : 1 cup

Salt: 1/2 teaspoon

Ground cinnamon: 1/2 teaspoon

Chilled unsalted butter ( cut in small cubes): 1/2 cup

Muffins: 

Unsalted butter : 1/2 cup

All-purpose flour : 1 3/4 cup

Baking Powder: 2 teaspoons

Baking Soda: 1 teaspoons

Sour Cream: 1 cup

Sugar : 1 cup

Vanilla extract: 1 teaspoon

Eggs: 2 large


Prepare streusel topping:
In a medium bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon. then mix the butter ( cut to small pieces) to the rest of materials until mixture resembles large coarse crumbs;put them in fridge until ready to use. 
Prepare the muffin:
First preheat the oven to 350F. in a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder and baking soda and set aside. using an electric mixer ( on medium speed) beat together butter, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. add the eggs one by one until well combined. then put the mixer at low and add the flour to the rest. 
I used baking sheets for muffins; if you don't want to use them , grease the pans before loading them. add half of the batter to the muffin pan, top it with a layer of streusel mixture, then put the remaining batter and top it with streusel again. 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. after they become ready coll them on wire rack for couple of minutes. these muffins are so moist and favorable,I really liked its texture. Hope you try them and enjoy with your tea or coffee.

Love,
Mania

I wish everything was as simple as my "Simple Cake"

This cake is from my mom's recipe's book and it is named just " simple cake". because it is a very simple, simple cake ; not as easy baking but as not having any special ingredients and just being a base cake.

I made this cake so many times and form time to time I do my own special thing to it; like in place of milk I add apple juice with cinnamon spice turning it to an apple cake or added orange juice or coconut milk. really you could do your own thing to it.

Ingredients:
Eggs: 4
Sugar: 1 3/4 cup
Milk: 1/2 cup
Butter ( at room temperature) : 3/4 cup
Orange zest: 2 teaspoon
Walnuts (toasted and crushed): 1/2 cup
Raisins ( coated with flour): 1/2 cup
Baking powder: 2 tea spoon
Flour: 2 1/2 cup
Coco powder: 1 table spoon

First step like always heat up the oven to 350F and grease your pan ( or cover it with waxed cooking sheets). in a mixer, mix the eggs with sugar for about 3-5 minutes or till they get light-yellowish color. slowly add the milk and butter. mix for a few seconds, then stop the mixer. add the raisins, walnuts, mix with a spatula. add the flour and baking powder. mix again. now pout half of your batter in the pan. mix the rest of the batter with coco and pour the brown batter on the top of the whit ones. smooth the surface. now you could add something on the top ( definitely something in light color, to contrast with coco) like shredded coconut or sliced almonds. bake the cake for 40-50 minutes or till the stick comes out clean. when it is done, take it out form the oven and let it cool down on a rack. then slice it as you wish and enjoy!

Love,

Mania

Date- Walnut cake

I was going through the book called " Williams-Sonoma CAKE" by Fran Gage and was looking at this recipe. the cake seems quite dense and due to its ingredients  it is quite filling too. so decided to make it for our trip to the cottage. looking at the page, I noticed I don't have all the materials so I made my own modifications to it, having no idea how it would turn out. but it was quite good actually and there is place to modify it like adding more date or if you like 1 tsp of coco powder.

This is a lovely book which I highly recommend to any cake lover like me!

Ingredients:
Pitted dates, roughly chopped:  1 cup
Walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped : 3/4 cup
Coconut shreds: 1 cup
Flour: 2 cup
Salt: just a pinch
Baking powder : 2 tsp
Cinnamon: 1 tsp
Eggs : 4
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Milk: 1/2 cup
Melted butter cooled to  room temperature : 1/2 cup

First turn your oven on to 375 F, oil up an loaf pan ( or any other shape pan). In bowl mix the dates, coconut shreds, walnuts, salts,  flour and baking powder and set aside; in another bowl  mix the eggs with sugars till they get to a  light yellow-ish color. add the milk and melted butter to the eggs mix slowly  for few seconds till you get a soft mixture. then add the rest of ingredients in the other bowl to the eggs batter. mix them all using a large spatula.

Put the batter in your pan and bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes. check before taking out that your stick comes out clean from the center of the cake ( you know how).
Take it out and let it cool down on a wire rack. after it is completely cool take form the pan and cut it as you wish.
This cake is quite easy, delicious and rich; perfect for winter times.
Enjoy!

Mania

Pineapple Torte

So this Saturday I was going through my recipes and looking for something exciting to bake, and I came across this one. I never made it before actually and  I gathered  notes of recipes a long long time ago! so have no idea where it is from.

Ingredients for the Cake:
Eggs: 7
Sugar: 7 tablespoon
Flour: 5 tablespoon
Ground walnuts: 10 tablespoon
Baking powder: 2 teaspoon

Preheat your oven to 350 F and cover the bottom of a  9 inch round pan with wax paper. separate the egg yolks and in a clean bowl mix the egg whites with sugar till stiff. add egs yolks one by one and mix in between. then add walnuts, flour and baking powder slowly till they are all mixed together. pour the batter in your pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes.

In meanwhile let's make the cream.

Ingredients for Cream:
Eggs :3
Corn starch: 2 tablespoon
Flour: 2 tablespoon
Sugar: 1 1/3 cup
Milk: 2 1/4 cup
Vanilla sugar: 6 teaspoon
Butter : 1 1/4 cup
Pineapple : sliced as much as you like

Put a sauce pan on the medium low-heat and heat the milk. mix eggs and sugar,add corn starch and flour and mix all with boiling milk. reduce the heat and mix the batter till the cream thickens. take off from heat and cool it down a little bit. cut butter to small cubes and add to the rest one by one and mix them well until nice and creamy.
Back to cake; now your cake in cooled down, cut from the middle. sprinkle the cake surface with pineapple juice. spread half the cream on the cake and cover it with completely with pineapple. then cover them with the rest of the cream. put the other half of the cake on top. you could use the same cream for the top of the cake or use white whipped cream.
cool down the cake for about an hour in a fridge and let the cream and pineapple taste absorbs to the cake ; then it is ready to serve. you could use any type of fruit you like ( pear, apricot, peach, you just name it).
Hope you try this and enjoy !

Mania

International weekend in our kitchen , part 1: Italian cake

This weekend I tried 2 new recipes, both were from (http://julietgabriel.blogfa.com). Juliet is such a talented girl and I just could go through her blog for hours, I really admire her talent and always think "oh how she can find time to do all these things!"

She writes in Persian but anyone can use her blog, thanks to Google of course :).So Juliet, thank you dear for sharing these wonderful and delicious recipes and wish you all the best.

The first post will be about the cake (part1). it is a simple cake which is originally from Italy; it requires 2 steps of baking: one for the cake itself and another for the chocolate topping. you could use any type of topping or nothing at all, your choice.as Juliet said in her post this is one of those cakes that are perfect as birthday cakes too. ( oh, here is the direct link of the cake from her blog :http://julietgabriel.blogfa.com/post-172.aspx)

Ingredients for the cake:
Eggs at room temperature  4
Milk at room temperature  1/2 cup
Vanilla 2 teaspoon
Flour 1 3/4 cup
Baking powder  2 teaspoon
Salt 3/4 teaspoon
Butter close to room temperature 16 tablespoon

First step like always is to turn your oven to 350 F and cover your pan with wax paper. in a bowl, mix eggs, milk and vanilla with electrical mixer at low speed for about a minute.
In a food processor mix flour, baking powder, salt ( which are sieved already) with sugar for very short time ( about 30 s). cut the butter in small pieces and mix them one by one with the rest of the dry materials at low speed.
mix one cup of the egg and milk mixture  with the rest of the materials in food processor for about 10 s. increase the speed slightly ( now at medium speed) and mix for a bout a minute. add the rest of the milk and egg mixture and mix for about 30 s. if some materials are still unmixed and attached to the side of the bowl, stop the mixing and add them to the rest with a spatula and mix for another 40s.
pour the batter in your pan and bake for about 25- 30 minutes, before taking out the cake test if it is ready by a knife or fork (you know how).
take out the cake from the pan and let it cool down. now lets make the chocolate topping.

Ingredients for chocolate topping:


Chocolate any type at your choice ( I used the semi-sweet baking chocolates, )  400 gr
Whipped cream 35%   1 1/2 cup
Honey 3 table spoon
Vanilla 1 teaspoon

Put the chocolates and cream in the cooking pan ( at low heat) till the chocolates are melted and mixed with cream. just be careful not to boil the cream. after they are mixed, remove from the heat and mix the honey and vanilla with them and mix perfectly for about 3 minutes ( with electrical mixer or non-electrical ones) . put the cream in the fridge for about an hour and every 15 minutes mix it so the cream thickens. after an hour you can mix the cream with mixer for about few minutes but mine was already thickened here and was ready.

By now your cake is completely cooled down. you could divide it to half, cover the between with cream and the put the top half on. then pour the rest of the cream on the surface of the cake.

So as a final note, I have no idea why this is called Italian cake, I tried and  look into some recipes of popular Italian cakes to find the exact name but could not find any that similar to these; still looking though. however if you make the cake you will see that the texture of the cake is the same as all Italian cakes. hope you make this and enjoy!

Mania

Cake Roll filled with pastry cream and fresh fruits

This is one of  the easiest and fastest cakes that involved pastry creams in my opinion. I went to a baking class for a few sessions in the summer when I was 12 years old ( it was really fun for me)  and this was one of the cakes that I learned to make there. the lady that was teaching us, had a cooking book ( written in Persian of course) called "آشپزی گلچین" which I still have and use it.
now enough with chit chat here is the recipe...

For the cake :
eggs at room temperature 6
sugar 6 tablespoon
flour 5 tablespoon
orange zest or vanilla


For the cream:
35% whipped cream 1 1/2 cup
fine sugar  1/2 cup ( if you don't have fine sugar go to the comments # 2 at the end of the post)
crushed walnuts, sliced banana and sliced pineapple (optional)

First step, heat up the oven in 300 C. take a big pan  (tray-ish pan) and cover it with wax paper.oil up the both sides of it.

Separate egg yolks and whites. in a clean bowl, mix the egg whites till they are ready ( to test it, move the bowl the egg white should not move at all). put them aside. in another bowl mix the egg yolks and sugars till they become soft yellow.add orange zests.
Very slowly pour egg yolks in the egg whites and gently mix them. after that, pour the flour little by little and gently mix  the batter.pour the batter in your pan and  spread them evenly in your pan and soften the surface.

Put it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. be careful if you over cook it it becomes dry and it won't be easy to roll it.after it's done, take out the pan and let it cool down.

Meanwhile, you can make the cream, pour the whipped cream and fine sugar in a bowl and mix them till the cream shape up ( to check that when you take out the mixer and the cream come out with a peak).

Cover the cake with a waxing paper and roll it once just to make sure it is soft enough to roll. separate the cake form the waxing paper. cover it completely with cream, fruits and walnuts.

Roll the cake and let it cool down in the fridge.

Comments:


1- If you feel that you over cooked it and it is hard to roll it, take a clean, close to the size of your cake and slightly wet it with water. and spread the cloth on your cake and try to roll it with cloth. the moisture from the cloth helps softens the cake little.

2-Maybe you don't have fine sugars at home right now, so here is what I do all the time ( I never bought fine sugar). take sugar and put in the coffee grinder ( any type would do) grind the sugar for a few seconds and voila your fine sugar !

3- If you want you could cover the roll cake with white, chocolate cream or any other styles you like. if you want to leave it like the way I made,here is what I did. usually the side that is stick to the was papers does not come smooth as the other side of the cake. so you could turn and put the cream on the wax paper side ( of course after you removed the papers!) and leave the soft side outside. just to make everything more beautiful.

4- I did not make mine as a complete circle, but when you roll it you could adjust the shape, which I probably should have done!

Hope you try this and enjoy :)
Mania

Coconut Cake

I got the recipe of the cake from my mom's recipe's notebook. it is all in her handwriting which she collected over the years.

the cake is very simple and easy, I didn't take a picture because we were going to our friends' house after and I was kind of in hurry.

-  eggs at room temperature  2 

- sugar 1/2 cup

- coconut milk  3/4 cup

- cooking oil     1/2 cup

- baking flour  1 cup

- yellow cornmeal  3/4 cup

- baking powder 1 teaspoon

Optional for topping ( personally I did not make this, cause I taught the cake was sweet enough for my taste):

sugar 1 cup

water 1 cup

now to baking:

first first, heat up your oven at 375 C, cover your pan with cooking papers . then to next step.

first in a mixer at high speed, mix the eggs so they become almost white or soft yellow. then add the sugars and mix for about 2 minutes. then add the coconut milk, cooking oil, flour , all dry materials, once at a time and mix for little in between.

then pour the cake batter in your pan and put it in the oven for about 30-40 minutes ( when the stick comes out clean).

Optional step: put the sugar and water in the cooking pan and heat it up till all the sugar and solved in the water and thickens a little bit.

when the cake is ready, let it cool down and then add the cover the whole cake with your sugar juice.

Have a great day everyone :)

Mania

Almond Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes....emmm almonds :). I used the recipe from Gastronomrr's guide. it is very simple and delicious, enjoy!
Ingredients: 
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs, separated
1-1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup almond paste
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup whole milk

2/3 cup ( or as much as it covers the whole surface of the cake) sliced almonds with skins ( I used the ones without skin)
confectioners sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan, line the bottom with a round of parchment paper, and butter again.
In a bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl ( or a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment), beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
In the 3rd bowl (or remove the whites and used the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), at medium speed, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the almond paste and remaining sugar; continue to beat until will mixed. Add vanilla and egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. put the mixer on low, alternately add the dry ingredients, then the milk, and finish with the dry ingredients. By hand fold in the egg whites, half at a time, until just combined.

Pour batter into cake pan and smooth top. Bake for 20 minutes. Cake will be raw at this point. Scatter the sliced almonds on top of the cake. Be careful not to move the cake too much while adding the almonds. It's best to do so right in the oven. Continue to bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cake cool completely in pan.

Enjoy :)
Mania