Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all fathers! My daughter made this cake this morning for her daddy, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. She made the cake and I made the frosting, and daddy did the eating.. !! We helped daddy with the eating, of course!! hahaha!

We made only half a recipe and have reduced the sugar too. Since the hubby is avoiding nuts, I have replaced the nuts with raisins. The cake is baked in a 7" square baking pan and took 33 minutes to bake till done.

And for half a recipe of the frosting, I have used only 1 cup of powdered sugar instead of two cups, (meant for half a recipe), and it works out great to a spreading consistency.

Cake is moist, soft and delicious! (You did a superb job, girl!) Goes perfectly with cream cheese frosting. Yummy! Thumbs up from daddy and everyone!

Happy Father's Day!!

** my adjustments for half a recipe is listed in blue. I've used a 7" baking pan.
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
(adapted from "Betty Crocker : The Big Book of Cakes")
Cake :
1-1/2 cup granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
1 cup vegetable oil (1/2 cup)
3 eggs (1-1/2)
2 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon baking soda (1/2 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon baking powder (1/2 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon vanilla (1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon salt (1/4 teaspoon)
3 cups shredded carrots (5 medium) (1-1/2 cups)
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (replaced with 1/2 cup raisins)

Frosting :
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened (120 gm)
1/4 cup butter, softened (30 gm)
2 to 3 teaspoons milk (1 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon vanilla (1/2 teaspoon)
4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar (1 cup)

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with shortening or cooking spray, lightly flour. (for half a recipe, I've used a 7" square baking pan, greased and lined with parchment paper)
2. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla and the salt; beat on low speed 1 minute. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour batter into pan.
3. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. (Using a 7" square baking pan, the cake is done at 33 minutes).
4. For the frosting : In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable. Frost cake. Store covered in refrigerator.

I'm linking this post with 

Cook-Your-Books #24 @ kitchen flavours

Lemon-Zucchini Pound Cake

This is a lovely cake to enjoy with a cup of tea. Zucchinis and lemons in a buttery, moist cake, yummy!

A slice (or two!) is wonderful with a cup of warm tea.

Freshly grated zucchinis, these are later squeezed to drain out excess juice, and there's a lot of juice!

I made half a recipe and used my half-size Nordic-Ware bundt pan. I made a simple glaze by omitting the half-and-half and uses a lesser amount of sugar. 

With, moist, buttery, and almost velvety-like crumbs texture, this cake is simply delightful. Your kids would not know that those speckled bits are zucchinis! Give this cake a try, I'm sure you would enjoy it as much as I did!

Lemon-Zucchini Pound Cake
(adapted from "The Big Book of Cakes", Betty Crocker)
Cake :
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
4 eggs
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup shredded zucchini (about 1 medium), squeezed to drain

Glaze :
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter softened
1 tablespoon half-and-half
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease 12-cup fluted tube cake pan with shortening; lightly flour.
2. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl, beat 1 cup butter with electric mixer on medium speed about 2 minutes or until creamy. Beat in 2 cups powdered sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well on low speed. Stir in 2 teaspoons lemon peel 2 tablespoons lemon juice and the zucchini. Spoon batter into pan.
3. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes, remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, heat all glaze ingredients just to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes. Drizzle over cake.

Kitchen Flavours notes:
*** for half a recipe, I used 3/4 cup powdered sugar. For the glaze, I used 1/4 cup powdered sugar, half tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon lemon juice, omitted the half-and-half.

I'm linking this post with 

Cook-Your-Books #22 @ kitchen flavours

Rainbow Cupcakes for Mothers' Day

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HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 A tribute and memory to our beloved mom.
With love, from your daughters.

These pretty rainbow cupcakes, are very moist with soft, tender texture. Yummy! Perfect for any occasion!


Happy Mother's Day to all mothers! Wish you a lovely day with your family!

I'm linking this post to Bake-Along. Please visit my baking buddies, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and all our friends who has baked along with us in the linky below :

For our next Bake-Along, we will be baking Seeded Crackers, recipe from Williams-Sonoma : Essential of Baking, or here. The linky will start on 29th May until 7th June. Everyone is welcome! 

A friendly reminder when linking to our blog hop :

1. Please mention Bake-Along event in your own post linking direct to any of the hosts' post (Joyce, Lena or Zoe)

2. Please link only new and current post, related to the current bake or theme provided by us. Unrelated post will be deleted.
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Somewhere Over The Rainbow Cupcakes
(adapted from : The Big Book of Cupcakes, Betty Crocker)
Cupcakes : makes 12
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar (I use 2/3 cup)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon coconut extract (did not use this)
3/4 cup canned coconut milk (not cream of coconut)
yellow, green, red and blue liquid food colour

Frosting :
1-1/2 cups unsalted butter or margarine, softened (I use 3/4 cup)
6 cups powdered sugar (I use 1-1/2 cups)
dash salt (omit this as butter is salted)
5 tablespoons milk (1 tbsp)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract (omit this)
multicoloured candy sprinkles, if desired

1. Heat oven to 350F. Place paper baking cup in each of 12 regular-sized muffin cups.
2. In small bowl, mix flour and baking powder; set aside. In medium bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter and the granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after addition. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon coconut extract. On low speed, alternately add flour mixture, half at a time, and coconut milk, half at a time, beating just until blended.
3. Measure about 3/4 cup batter into each of 5 small bowls. For yellow, stir about 6 drops of yellow food colour into batter in first bowl. Tint second bowl green, with 6 drops of green food colour ; third bowl red, with about 8 drops red food colour ; fourth bowl blue, with about 10 drops blue food colour ; and fifth bowl purple, with about 8 drops red food colour and 3 drops blue food colour.
4. Spoon scant tablespoon of yellow batter into each cup, smooth to edge of baking cup with back of spoon. Repeat with green, red, blue and purple batters. (fill cups to 3/4 full)
5. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack to cool.
6. In large bowl, beat 1-1/2 cups butter, the powdered sugar and salt with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 tablespoons of the milk, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract. Add remaining milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until frosting is smooth and spreadable. Beat until fluffy.
7. Pipe or frost about 1/4 cup frosting onto each cupcake. Sprinkle with multicoloured sprinkles.

kitchen flavours notes :
I've made the full recipe and yields me only 9-1/2 cupcakes. Any changes I've made are listed in blue.

#42/100

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"Choo-choo Train" Birthday Cake

Ask any kid what they would like to have for dinner, the answer is most likely one of those fast food. I asked my son what he wants for dinner and he immediately said "PIZZA"! I knew he would say that! Since yesterday was my son's birthday, he got his wish. We went to Pizzahut for dinner. After that, we had his birthday cake at home.

Made him this "Choo-choo Train" birthday cake which was taken from Betty Crocker's "The Big Book of Cupcakes" and they called this "Snow-capped Gingerbread Train". Since mine is not as beautiful as the one in the book, I'll just name it "Choo-choo Train" birthday cake!  :) 

I just made the basic chocolate cupcake instead of the gingerbread cupcake. The frosting is Cream Cheese frosting. The decorations I used are Smarties, gummy sweets, marshmallows, pretzels sticks for the joining of the wheels and cheezels for the rims of the wheels.

He was happy with his birthday cake. Guess what he reached for first as soon as he has blown the candles? Marshmallows !

My baby is 9 years old! And next year there will be two numbers to his age! Oh my, we are getting older too!   : o)

Chocolate Cupcakes
(adapted from "The Big Book of Cupcakes" by Betty Crocker)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup hot water
2/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
3/4 cup shortening
1-1/2 cups sugar (I use 180gm)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350F. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. (I got exactly 8 regular muffin size and 12 mini cupcakes).
2. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder, set aside. In small bowl, mix hot water and cocoa until dissolved; set aside.
3. In large bowl, beat shortening with electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl occasionally. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, alternately add flour mixture, about 1/3 of mixture at a time, and cocoa mixture, about 1/2 at a time, beating just until blended.
4. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans; place on cooling racks to cool. Frost with desired frosting.

(For regular size, bake for 20-25 minutes and for mini size, bake for 12 to 16 minutes)

Cream Cheese Frosting 

1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 to 3 teaspoons milk

4 cups powdered sugar (I use about 3 cups)

1. In large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla and 2 teaspoons of the milk with electric mixer on low speed until smooth, beat in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.
2. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting is too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.
3. Leftover frosting can be tightly covered and refrigerated up top 5 days or frozen up to 1 month. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature to soften; stir before using. Frosts 24 cupcakes (about 2-1/2 cups).

Decorations :

Assorted candies (such as candy-coated chocolate pieces, round chewy caramels in milk chocolate, chewy fruit snacks, licorice twists, hard round peppermint candies, fruit-flavoured ring-shaped hard candles and gumdrops)

Pretzel sticks

Sample-size cones

To Assemble Train :

Make Cream Cheese Frosting, reserve 1/2 cup frosting for decorating. Frost cupcakes with remaining frosting leaving one regular size cupcake unfrosted. Place 5 regular cupcakes on serving platter. Cut unfrosted cupcake in half; place upside down at front of train as shown. Attach mini cupcakes to both sides of train with frosting and connect with pretzel sticks. Add additional cupcakes to front and back of train as shown. Decorate with candies, pretzel sticks and cone, as desired (attaching with frosting as needed). 

Peppermint Twist Cupcake for Happy Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !

Something to ponder ! I have shared this last November,  now is a good time to share this again!

4 YEARS OF AGE Y My Mommy can do anything! 
8 YEARS OF AGE Y My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE Y My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE Y Naturally , Mother doesn't know that , either!
16 YEARS OF AGE Y Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE Y That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE Y Well , she might know a little bit about it.
35 YEARS OF AGE Y Before we decide , let's get Mom's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE Y Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE Y Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

Made this cupcake for Mothers' Day. Here's to all Mothers!

I'm sharing this with
Sweets For A Saturday over at Sweet As Sugar Cookies
Cookbook Sundays over at Mom's Sunday Cafe
Sweet Tooth Friday over at Alli n Son
Bake With Bizzy over at Bizzy B. Bakes


Peppermint Twist Cupcakes
(adapted from "The Big Book of Cupcakes" by Betty Crocker)
Makes 24 cupcakes
For the cupcakes :
 2-3/4  cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening or butter
1-2/3 cups sugar
5 egg whites
2-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/4 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
red paste food colour


For the Peppermint Frosting :
5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
6 to 8 tablespoon milk


For Garnish :
red food colour

1. Heat oven to 350F. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
2. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In large bowl, beat shortening with electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/3 cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl occasionally. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, alternately add flour mixture, about 1/3 mixture at a time, add milk, about 1/2 at a time, beating just until blended.
4. Spoon 1-1/2 cups batter into small bowl; stir in 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract and paste food colour to make red batter.
5. Into each muffin cup, spoon about 1 tablespoon white cake batter. Top with about 1 tablespoon red batter, then 1 tablespoon white batter. With table knife, draw an "S" in batter of each muffin cup to swirl batter.
6. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks to cool.
7. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, 1 teaspoon peppermint extract and 6 tablespoons milk with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until smooth and spreadable. Spread scant 2 tablespoon frosting on each cupcake.
8. With tiny paintbrush, "paint"  liquid food colour in swirl pattern on frosting on each cupcake. (I just mix half the frosting with red food colour, put both the white and red frosting in a piping bag and pipe out a swirl pattern)

My Notes :
~ for half a recipe, I only got 9 cupcakes.
~ I use 100gm sugar for half a recipe for the cupcake, the rest of ingredients; just use half from original
~ for the frosting; half from the original