Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Don't you just hate it when you are craving for something and you know that nothing can satisfy that craving until you make it yourself? Well, I found myself baking in the kitchen in the middle of the night doing exactly that.

This is the best carrot cake recipe that I have encountered. This recipe is from Delores Custer, a food stylist who came to Manila a couple of years ago (2007, I think) to teach a short seminar about food styling. Anyway, I know that I blogged it here somewhere but I didn't publish the recipe. This Carrot Cake is very moist. I made some adjustments on the frosting, as you may notice in my pics, the frosting is not very fluffy since I had to drastically cut the sugar to prevent it from being too sweet. More sugar makes the frosting prettier and fluffier though.

Custer’s Carrot Cake



Ingredients
2 cups cake flour, sifted
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups shredded carrots
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Line cupcake tins and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
4. Blend in vegetable oil.
5. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then mix in carrots and vanilla (by hand or with an electric mixer.)
6. Pour batter into 3/4 full into prepared cupcake tins. Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Mine baked perfectly at 18 minutes.
7. Let cool completely then frost with cream cheese frosting.

Note: The batter will rise up and bubble a little bit while baking. Filling cupcake tins only halfway worked better for me. Less of the the "lava" effect but resulted in a smaller daintier cupcake.



Cream cheese frosting (My version)

1/2 bar cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) Butter, room temperature
1 1/4 confectioner’s sugar, sifted (or to taste)
1 tsp vanilla

1. In a medium bowl of an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter until creamy.
2. Gradually add sifted confectioner’s sugar and vanilla, mixing well until smooth and of spreading consistency. This will take a while to really come together, about five minutes or so.

Enjoy!

Beef Pares

If you haven't eaten in a street side carinderia or Goodah, you probably wouldn't know what a Beef pares is. "Pares" be definition, means "pairs" in Tagalog. I have no idea why this dish got its name because when I ordered it the first time, there was no other dish with it except the lone "pares" with rice and some clear soup. Maybe it's best paired with rice, duh!



Anyway, hubby likes this dish and I've made it several times in the past. This is a very easy recipe:

1/2 kilo Beef Ribs
1 Star Anise
2 Bay Leaves
Chopped onion
Chopped Garlic
1 to 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 to 2 Tablespoons Sugar

1. Boil Beef with star anise and bay leaves until tender about one hour on a pressure cooker, longer in a stovetop.
2. Separate beef from broth and set aside. Discard bay leaves and star anise.
3. In a separate pan, saute onion and garlic. Add the stock and some soy sauce and sugar. Mix well.
4. Add the beef and simmer for a few minutes. Add cornstarch dissolved in a little bit of water to thicken.

I pared it with some baby corn sauteed in garlic and oyster sauce which wasn't a very good combination with the Beef Pares.

I guess, the Beef Pares really does go well with just rice and some clear soup :-)

Hap Chan in BF

There’s a newly opened branch of Hap Chan in BF where Shakey’s used to be. Hubby and I tried Hap Chan after mass last night.

It was still quite early. Barely 7:00 p.m. when we arrived and the place was packed. That’s a good sign. Or so I thought. Hap Chan has been in business (in other areas) for quite some time now. I remember dining in one of their QC restaurants way back when I didn’t have a blog yet. I remember liking their dimsums.

Hubby had the Noodles with beef ball, pork ball and shrimp ball, which he liked. The base was chicken soup so it was quite safe and palatable but nothing special.



Hubby and I shared the Jellyfish with Century Egg. This is a cold salad of sorts with the jellyfish marinated in sweet, sour and spicy dressing which turned out to be more spicy that sweet and tangy, the jellyfish tasteless.



I ordered the Crispy Oyster Cake which turned out anything but crispy. This soggy oniony mess was a huge disappointment both in taste and texture. The omelet was way too oily and tasteless, the oysters too small and too few.



Even hubby’s Mango Sago, failed miserably on many levels. One, the tapioca was still frozen. Second, there was no fresh mangoes in it. Third, it was sour.



Our dimsum orders of Beef Ball and Shrimp Siomai failed to be delivered to our table and had to be cancelled by my irate hubby.

Hap Chan BF, though new and full, may fail to win loyal customers in the future. The service was excruciatingly slow, orders unfilled, wrong billing are among the problems encountered by us and our neighboring tables. There were many irate customers last night who only got their orders after waiting for half an hour, wrong orders, bills took too long to be given to them.

There’s another Chinese Restaurant in BF called Toho Antigua, which may fail in the beauty and presentation department but, they do pass the food taste and quick service criteria with flying colors.

For Chinese food in BF, I suggest you spend your money in Toho Antigua instead, better food and quicker service for practically the same price.

Savory Cheese Cupcake

You know when you have that dreadful craving for the stuff that you used to eat when you were a child? I remember one of my favorite baked treats was a cheese cupcake wrapped in plastic that you buy in a supermarket or at a school cafeteria. Back then, there weren't any sophisticated varieties available anywhere. Well, none that I know of anyway.

I've been having that craving again. The ones in the market now are not as good as I remembered them. I baked some tonight from a vague recipe that I saw on the net. The recipe obviosly needs a bit more tweaking. The batter turned out a bit dry after baking. I watched the cupcakes carefully and tested its doneness. Anyway, I would probably cut down on the flour a little bit next time to have a less dense cupcake. The condensed milk though very yummy, was a bit too thick for the kind of fluffyness that I want. Come to think of it, the ones from my chilhood was dense too albeit shinier than my version.

In case you're interested, here's the recipe that I used:



Savory Cheese Cupcake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 can condensed milk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups all purpose flour (I suggest to add less)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese, divided

1. In a bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In another mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy.
3. To the butter mixture, add sugar and beat well.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, incorporating well after each addition.
5. Add the sifted flour and baking powder to the batter, followed by the condensed milk. Do this alternately ending with the milk.
6.Mix in half of the grated cheese. Bake for 20-23 minutes to a 350 degree pre-heated oven.
7. Halfway through baking, add the rest of the grated cheese and top. Put back into the oven and continue baking until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

These babies are dense, one cupcake is more than enough to satisfy your hunger.

The cupcakes turned out delicious, but not gourmet quality...Back to the drawing board.

Update:

Hubby liked the cupcake and woke me up when he arrived to tell me how good it was :-)

Korean-Style Beef Stew

I came across this recipe in a Good Housekeeping Recipe collection and it seemed easy enough to do. I made a few changes which I think made it better.

This is as simple a recipe as you can possible get for Korean Style Beef Stew with just a handful of ingredients usually available in your pantry.



You will need:
1 Kilo Beef ribs or Shanks (I only had shanks in the freezer). Beef ribs would work better
Salt and pepper
5 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup light brown sugar
Pink of Red Pepper flakes
2 -3 Stalks of leeks, sliced diagonally, white portion only
4 thin slivers of ginger
3 Tablespoons of Mirin
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon Sesame seeds for garnishing
Bean sprouts (on the side)

Procedure:

1. In a pressure cooker or a stockpot, cover the beef with water until completely immersed. Boil beef with salt and pepper until tender. About one hour in a pressure cooker or about 2 hours, stovetop boil. (Slow boil in a stovetop is much better).
2. Remove from heat an add soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, ginger and leeks to the beef, mix well to dissolve the sugar. Boil, medium heat, on a stove top for another hour or until the stock is reduced in half or until the meat falls off the bone.
3. Five minutes before you finish boiling it, add the Mirin, sesame oil and sesame seeds.
4. Serve piping hot with some bean sprouts on the side.

I recommend using New Zealand beef from S&R because the cows are grass fed and the meat is just sooo tender and delicious.

White Hat

Frozen Yoghurt is all the rage here in Manila. Less sinful than an ice cream but equally yummy. My favorite so far is White Hat. The nearest one close to home is located at Alabang Town Center. I love their frozen yughurt which White Hat claims to be some sort of Yoghurt gelato. Regardless of what it's called, I love love their frozen yoghurt because they have just the perfect sweetness and just a tiny hint of sourness. White hat also has the most choices of toppings from fruity, cakey and candy-y. White hat will satisfy any sweet-tooth around.



Hubby ordered something called "The Clown" with candy sprinkles, mini marshmallows and M&Ms. Very sweet toppings, just like hubby :-)



I had the more sensible one with Mangoes and Almonds. Which was very good, refreshing, fruity with a bit of crunch.



You can buy the frozen yoghurt, in small and large servings with whatever topping you like, or buy them in pints and gallons to take home.

Super Late Lunch at Cyma

Ok, I've been out of the hospital for almost two weeks now. Yet, I still find myself being poked, prodded and examined by doctors. I have one more test to go and one more ultrasound and then hopefully, it will put an answer to whatever ails me. Fortunately, looks like nothing serious.

Anyway, after being put on impromptu fasting for six hours to get a blood test, I was extremely irritable and hungry come 3:00 p.m. I was desperately craving for some good food. Cyma is my fuel of choice. I ordered the Mozzarella - Saganaki (flaming cheese) since I just loveeeeet to bits. Some salad, and my favorite Cyma dish, the Swordfish Souvlaki. Halfway through the Saganaki, I was already full but still greedy from being deprived of food for six hours. Ha ha ha.







Cyma, the absolute sosyal comfort food. Go ahead, indulge, I know you want to :-)