All Entries in the "Cakes" Category
Spinach Cake
This is a healthy cake. It has green power. It has the source of Popeye’s power. This cake is great for picky kids who defy vegetables.
The whipping cream makes this Spinach Cake more attractive.
Source: unknown
Prep time: 30 minutes; Bake time: 30 minutes; Yield 1 loaf
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250g (1/4 pound) spinach, washed, drained
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2.5 cups flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup whipped cream
- 3L Pyrex dish (we used a loaf pan which takes longer to bake because we cant find a Pyrex dish in this kitchen)
Amish Friendship Bread
Lorna gave me a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter back in October. Since then, I had made three batches of this Amish Friendship Bread and shared them with 9 friends.
This Amish Friendship Bread is more cake like to me. It is moist and taste very good. The only problem with the recipe is that you’ll end up with 4 bags of starter. You’ll have to share 3 bags with your friends if you decide to keep one for yourself. When I took the starter to the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors to share with the seniors, none of them want them. For those who has so much life experiences, at one point of time, they had tried this Amish Friendship Bread and end up with excess starters that they cant give away as many of their friends already have them. So, I’m going to change the recipe a bit so that I’ll end up with only one starter to keep the bread rolling. I hope it works.
Ingredients:
To be added to the starter on the 6th day:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup milk
To be added to the starter on the 10th day:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I’m going to cut this to 1/2 cup to create only 1 starter)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (I’m going to cut this to 1/2 cup to create only 1 starter)
- 1 1/2 cups milk (I’m going to cut this to 1/2 cup to create only 1 starter)
For the bread:
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup oil (or 1/2 cup oil plus 1/2 cup applesauce)
- 1 cup sugar (I reduced this to 1/2 cup)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon (I leave this for the chocolate marble loaf)
- 1 large box of vanilla instant pudding
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract (I used vanilla)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- optional nuts, dates, dried cranberries, raisins, etc)
- 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (this is my own addition to create a chocolate marble loaf)
For topping (I left this out for my chocolate marble loaf):
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Best Cocoa Brownies
The South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors made the Best Cocoa Brownies for sales in a Christmas craft fair hosted at the South Arm Community Center. The proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Richmond Food Bank. It is a good course for the Senior Kitchen.
This Best Cocoa Brownies are not the dense type. It is light and cakey. The aroma of cocoa fills the kitchen when the brownies are being bake.
While there were 3 pairs of people working on the brownies, 2 other members made a Butternut Squash Apple Soup for lunch. Charlene also brought some bread to go with soup.
During lunch, we had an apple tasting and apple guessing game. It’s a fun way to know our apples. I can only distinguish Gala and Granny Smith. Can you name the apples above?
Click on the images above to review the name of the apples.
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cold large eggs
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
This recipe is taken from Alice Medrich and it makes 16 2-inch brownies.
Toffee Apple Cake
Chris shared this Toffee Apple Cake recipe with the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors as dessert. According to Chris, this cake is tops. The best part is we can make most out the local apples in the fall.
This Toffee Apple Cake is very moist and almost custard like. The toffee bits topping add some crunch to it. This is certainly not a dietary kind of dessert. Well, it’s ok to let ourselves indulge for a treat once in a while.
Chris and Paul worked on this dessert. This recipe serves 24.
Five Minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug
I just received this recipe from my friend, Jean. It has a very captivating title which is “The Most Dangerous Cake Recipe in the World”. I thought of sharing this with chowtimes readers.
This looks like any ordinary chocolate cake but it is made in the microwave oven in 5 minutes. What makes it so dangerous is that you can have this indulgences whenever you have a crave and it can be prepared so easily and so quickly.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons cocoa
- 4 tablespoons flour (Nanzaro preferred 3 tablespoons of flour for a more denser texture like brownies)
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
- a small splash of vanilla extract
- 1 large coffee mug
Congee Noodle House on East Broadway, Vancouver
It was one of those days.
Normally we eat in for breakfast but that one morning, we decided to eat out. We did not know where and not caring for what too. We got into the car and decided that we will just drive around and see if there is something we fancy. And oh … the criteria is, it has to be somewhere we had never been to before because we wanted to blog about it.
We drove along No 3 Road in Richmond … could not find any. Decided to cross the Knight Street Bridge and try driving northwards along Main Street … nope, nothing. It was until we got to Broadway, we decided that we’ll not be picky and just go to the next one we spot.
It just happen that the Congee Noodle House is just at the intersection of Broadway and Main. We were getting hungry already and decided, we’ll just chance it.
It sure one of the better days that morning. The sun was out … one of the rarities this winter. I so look forward to spring this year more than any other. Thinking of it now, I hardly played at all this winter.
I was kind of afraid that parking would be a problem. But it was much easier than I thought. They actually have a large parking lot at the back of the restaurant.
The Congee Noodle House is surprisingly larger than I thought and definitely busier than I imagined. I mean, I don’t really expect a congee house right at this spot of town.
You know what we love best? The music they put on. It was Sam Hui’s soft sentimental songs. Suanne has a complete collection of Sam Hui’s songs at home. Sam is the king of Cantopop and indisputed “God of Song” in the 80s … he he he … and that shows our age! Anyway, if you’re into Cantopop, enjoy this song as you read the rest of this posting.
I learned something new that day. I had always wondered why there are rice grains in the salt shaker. Suanne claims that this keeps the salt from clumping together. Is that right … you reckon?
We noticed that every table had congee — so, it would be a safe bet to order congee. As a matter of fact their menu is dominated by congee with the front page of the menu saying the following:
Congee is a popular kind of traditional Chinese diet which has been around for thousands of years. It is mentioned in many ancient Chinese books, some of which date back to the very beginning of Chinese history. One ancient record describes the preparation of a “Celestial Congee” which contains curing powers that overcome certain chronic diseases affecting the kidney and the spleen. It can also build up body health. A Sung Dynasty poet, Lu You, wrote in a poem on congee “All mortals crave for long life. They do not understand that the key lies in the present. For me who live in the vale, my philosophy is easy and simple: eating congee brings health and leads to immortality”
Nevertheless, it is totally believable that eating congee maintains good health and prolongs life. From the modern medical point of view, congee — a semi-liquid diet — regulates and enhances our appetite. it brings healthy digestion and helps the body to readily absorb nutrition. The benefits of eating congee are irrefutable.
Their congee is really smooth … the kind that they blend it to near puree-like. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Crispy Red Bean Cake
While Minoo’s Salmon and Potato Chowder is in the making, Heidi showed us how to make a Taiwanese Crispy Red Bean Cake. We had to have both the demonstrations going at the same time as it takes time for both to be ready in the 2 hours of the community kitchen. Sometimes, I could miss a picture here and there but I always try my best to capture all the critical steps.
This Crispy Red Bean Cake is crispy on the outside and yet creamy and lightly chewy inside. The trick to have a crispy crust is to bake it at higher temperature first and then turn the temperature down later so that the crust will not burn.
Ingredients
- 400g glutinous rice flour
- 4 tablespoons rice flour
- 4 tablespoons wheat starch
- 2 tablespoons custard powder
- 100g instant coconut powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 200g red bean paste
p/s: the brown sugar was missing in the photo.
