Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

It’s been awhile!!!  At my old residence the oven stopped working :-(.   Luckily we move out and now have a new place with a working oven :-).  This is the third time I have attempted Carrot Cake.  First time the recipe I used (from the Edmonds Cookbook) had too much baking soda & it was disgusting!!  The following recipe I have to say is the best Carrot Cake I have made to date.  The cake is moist, flavoursome and the lemon icing adds a slight tang to the sweetness of the cake.  The carrots are coarsely grated as I  like to taste & see the carrot.  I have tried this recipe with walnuts  (just as good).   I  put more nuts than the recipe states (about a cup & a half)  coarsely chopped. I like the chunkiness of the nuts in the cake.   I halved the icing sugar for the icing as I found it to was too sweet for my liking. This recipe is from the cookbook Commonsense Baking

Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing Recipe Here

Spinach & Feta Filo Pie

Ever tried a recipe once and found it to be so good it would be added to your usual dinner meals.?  That’s exactly what I experienced with this pie!!! The recipe is out of  Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals Cookbook. It helps to have a frying pan that can also go in the oven to save on dishes & messing about. I am sure transferring to a pie dish to bake in the oven will do just as well.  The pie is delicious!! I was afraid the pie would be too eggy.  But having the freshly grated nutmeg in the filling makes all the difference.  I used reduced-fat feta as I find the taste not as salty as regular feta.  I have tried using parmesan instead of the grated cheddar cheese.  Although there is not much taste difference I did notice the mixture to be less creamy, which is surprising since it’s only 50g grated cheddar!  I made this pie initially for a bake-off session in May & received rave reviews.

I recommend watching the below before assembling the pie, I wish I did !!!

Spinach & Feta Filo Pie Recipe Here

Garlic & Chive Mash

Potato Mash is my favourite food.  Simple, I know but when you can’t help

yourself …you just can’t help yourself to loving potato mash.  The first time I tasted this recipe I could not go back to boring one dimensional potato mash.  This potato mash is so smooth & tasty I do not need to add any more margarine or salt & pepper.  The recipe below I change a bit from the original as I always have stock cubes on hand rather than liquid stock. The chives I have added as optional – I don’t always have fresh chives on hand & the mash still tastes just as good.  The original recipe I found in the Winter 2010 edition of Family Circle.

Garlic & Chive Mash Recipe Here

Butterscotch Cookies

last year when my friends & I started our bake-off  series, I tried a number of biscuit recipes.  This one didn’t make it to bake-off,  it’s a nice plain biscuit with chunks of butterscotch chocolate in it.  When mixing the flour in, it always looks like it won’t mix in but keep going with a wooden spoon & it will come together quite nicely.  I always find it hard not to nibble on the biscuit dough as I am putting the dough balls on the trays before baking. I also pretend the amount of butter in these biscuits isn’t all that bad.  I found this recipe in the winter 2010 family circle magazine.

Butterscotch Cookie Recipe Here

Instant Vegetarian Lasagna

This instant vegetarian lasagna I first made 10 years ago & originally was a recipe on the back of a San Remo instant spinach lasagna sheet packet. I must have been the only one that brought the spinach lasagna sheets as they stopped making them some years ago. The recipe use to be on the San Remo website but has since been taken off. Not sure why as it is extremely tasty!!! I even served this lasagna to a friend that was afraid of kidney beans (as she thought kidney beans were actually mini kidneys 🙂 for the record they are NOT little kidneys they are just another bean) & the lasagna won her over. The bechamel sauce can take a while so if you have a kitchen assistant handy I recommend using them to whisk the sauce till it thickens while you continue with the vegetarian sauce. The lasagna freezes well, but in my household it doesn’t stay in the freezer for long.

Instant Vegetarian Lasagna recipe here

South East Asian Curry Paste (from Scratch)

The recipe for this curry paste is from Annabel Langbein’s cookbook “The Free Range Cook”. It’s so easy as you put everything in a food processor & it’s done.  The recipe makes four cups of curry paste which is ample.  I usually use two cups of the paste to make a vegetable curry & freeze the rest.  I have also given the curry paste as a gift with a recipe attached on how to make a curry with the paste, now my friends want some more!!!  The paste will also be great on fish baked in the oven for 10 minutes as it has a lot of coriander in it.  The shrimp paste in the recipe I brought from an asian grocer.

South East Asian Curry Paste Recipe

Warm Peach and Almond Dessert Cake

Got a can of peaches in the pantry  want to make something out of it?  This dessert cake is simple & quick to make & very delicious!!!!  I used the recipe from the October 2010 super food ideas magazine.  Instead of using frozen raspberries I have been using frozen berries as I always have them on hand in the freezer.  Any left over custard can be used when serving.  The recipe says the dessert serves 12 – that would have to be 12 very small slices I feel that I always have enough for six serves.

Warm peach and almond dessert cake recipe

Making My Own Bread

Making my own bread came about from one of the bake-off challenges.  I only managed to get the basic white bread recipe right &  make it now & then.  I love how the bread doubles after every proving stage & how little ingredients is in it.  The bread is great as toast with vegemite yummo!!!  The bread I make tends to have a “rustic” texture which I like.  I have been flavouring the bread with Olives & Rosemary which I add in the second proving stage.  The recipe I use is a tweeked Jamie Oliver recipe from his cookbook “Happy Days with the naked Chef”.  I also tried to make Jamie”s Sourdough bread recipe & it turned out really bad the dough smelled like vomit, I think the yeast died.  Maybe one day I will try the sourdough recipe again & have some success.  I would also like to try my cousin’s Rewana bread which consists of making a “bug” from potatoes & ends up making a kinda sweet &  savoury bread.

Basic Bread Recipe

My first cupcakes – Tiramisu cupcakes

About this time last year I baked my first cupcakes.  Instead of choosing a basic recipe I chose to make Tiramisu Cupcakes with a Coffee-Marsala Syrup & Mascarpone Frosting.  The recipe I tried is from the Martha Stewart website.  Making the cake part was interesting as I had never used a real vanilla bean before.  I’m glad I did as the cake was delicious with a light & fluffy texture.  The Marsala syrup I should have used more on the cakes & not have worried about how strong it was on its own.  The Mascarpone frosting was easy & was absolutely delicious.  My favourite frosting yet!!!!!!!!  It did take a bit of time to douse the cupcakes with the syrup.  I tested the cupcakes on a team of hockey girls with rave reviews!!!  The recipe is at http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/tiramisu-cupcakes