All Entries Tagged With: "Cake"
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
Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe on Denman, Vancouver
You guys remember Rey? Well … if you remember, he’s the one who promised to bring us on a culinary adventure of Filipino cuisine. Rey is a Filipino community advocate and he wanted to create awareness of the third largest visible minority community in Vancouver by encouraging the creation of local Filipino content on the internet.
Last month, Rey introduced to us the Chinese Filipino food by bringing us to Little Ongpin in Richmond. In the second leg of the adventure, Rey next introduced us to Spanish Filipino food.
The Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe is located on Denman in Vancouver Westside. We were met by Mari and David, who opened this delightful outlet with their daughter since October 2008. So this place is just 6 months new. Mari and David are both of Spanish descent from the Philippines. Mari told us she is a chocolate lover … and the place was started out of her love of chocolates! She’s so friendly and approachable that I can see that she connects to her customers very well.
I was told by Rey that pure Spanish Filipino makes up only 2% of the population in the Phillipines. Despite the low number, the Spanish has a lasting influence in the Filipino culture having colonized the country for 333 years. That is why most of the Filipino names are Spanish names.
When Rey suggested Dulcinea and raved about their Hot Chocolate, we initially thought “what’s the big deal”? We soon changed our perception of hot chocolates after this experience.
The name Dulcinea came from the name of Don Quixote’s true love in the novel of the same name. We had always thought that Dulcinea was pronounced as Doo-See-Nea. A big sign on the wall says “Doo-see-nay-ah”. You learn something new everyday. The name Dulcinea means overly elegant sweetness — a perfect name for a chocolate cafe.
Dulcinea started off as a Spanish Chocolate Bar in the Vancouver Westside neighborhood. Mari told us that the place evolved quickly since they started six month ago … from starting to serve tapas, then soup, sandwiches … and Dulcinea took life on its own when customers requested for certain food and Dulcinea responded.
We went to Dulcinea at 4PM. It’s an odd hour, I know but Rey wanted us to treat this like a Merienda. I had always heard that the Spanish culture has a really odd day … like taking a nap after lunch, having dinner at 9:30PM and Meriendas in between meal times.
We half expected the place to be empty at 4PM and thought that Rey suggested that time because Mari and David would be the least busiest. We were amazed that even at 4PM, Dulcinea was packed … with people … having … Merienda! The crowd actually taper off at about 5′ish.
This is it … the above is what Dulcinea is famous for. Their signature Hot Chocolate which is called the 1528. It is a shot of thick chocolate. It is like the espresso of chocolates … but much more thicker. Any thicker it would not be drinkable! Even the spoon provided is designed to scrap off the thick chocolates from the sides of the cup.
The 1528 costs $2 per shot. If you have never tried it before, go to the counter and ask for a small sample. They pass out samples and once you take a sip, you’ll probably want one for your own.
Now … if you want a solo cup of the 1528 … listen here … FOR FREE … just go and tell Mari, David or whoever at the counter that “Chowtimes Loves Xocolatl” and you will receive a solo cup of the 1528. Serious! I suggested to Mari and David that they put in a little fun promotion to benefit readers of chowtimes and was surprised to hear a yes from them. I suggest you know what a Xocolatl is (see below) and how it is pronounced (pronounced as choco-latl).
Consider this is like Suanne and I buying you a cup of hot chocolate. :-)
Update 05-Apr-2009: The offer for the free 1528 had now expired. Mari and David expressed their thanks to everyone who had taken time to visit their store and tried the 1528. However, Dulcinea will continue to offer samples of the 1528 (just not a solo cup of it). There could be more offers coming. Just stay tuned. I hope those who had the 1528 enjoyed it!
Oh … 1528 … that is the year that the Spanish took cocoa from Mexico and shipped it back to Spain. That year was the start of Europe’s love of chocolates. Nice name, I thought.
If you’re not into thick hot chocolates, there is the Classico … a more watered down version but still really rich and creamy.
I had the Hot Chocolate with Chai. These are not very large cups like I am used to (i.e. we drink Milo at home and we make really big cups and gulp them down real fast). Here I find that I took my time to savour every sip.
The Xocolatl (how do one pronounce that again?) is quite exciting. I’ve never seen a dried chili served with hot beverage before. This one is a hot chocolate with chili nutmeg and cinnamon. The chili wasn’t that hot. Be brave and go try that one. You’ll probably love the contrasting flavours here.
What’s chocolate without fondue? It’s something about fondue that makes it the favourite of just about everyone. I think it’s because it’s a fun food to have with friends. We noticed that the grapes were frozen … not sure why only the grapes were frozen while the banana and strawberry wasn’t.
Besides the delightful hot chocolates, Dulcinea has absolutely the best cakes and pastries one could find in Vancouver. This is coming from our resident cakes fan, Suanne. Our fav has got to be the Lava Blanco above which is chocolate mousse with white choc inside of it.
Instead of ordering each item by itself, we actually ordered the sampler which gives us a little of everything we wanted.
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.
Steamed Fatt Ko
This post is for Carol. She asked for a recipe of steamed cake. I’m not sure if this is exactly what’s in her mind but nevertheless, as Chinese New Year is approaching, steaming some Fatt Ko seems to fit the festivities. Fatt Ko in Cantonese sounds like rise and high which is what Chinese wishes one another during Chinese New Year.
The Fatt Ko did not rise as much as it should be because I ran short of the double-acting baking powder. Anyway, I love the taste and texture of these Fatt Ko.
Ingredients
Starter:
- 200g Hong Kong flour (I used all-purpose flour)
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 150ml water
Dough:
- 250g Hong Kong flour
- 20g double-acting baking powder (I used only 12g as that all I have in my pantry)
- 160ml water
- 200g brown sugar or gula melaka (I used brown sugar)
If done properly, the Fatt Go should rise very high and the top will split. The Fatt Go is a little chewy and denser than it should be. It also has a yeasty flavour to it as Nanzaro said it’s like eating Man Tau (in his words, eating Char Siu Pau without the char siu).
Click on Read More for the instructions.
Eggless Brownie
When I met up with Karen Dar Woon at the Squash workshop, I asked her if she has a recipe for Eggless Brownie which Dalia requested some time earlier. Karen gave me this recipe.
This is more like a rich chocolate cake as it lacks the density of a brownie made with eggs. Nevertheless, Nanzaro had made this a couple of times himself as he likes this Eggless Brownies.
Click on Read More for the recipe.
Danish Brovst Dream Coffee Cake
For dessert, Charlene, Frank and Karen made this Danish Brovst Dream Coffee Cake. As it was Minoo’s birthday, this cake also serves as her birthday cake.
This cake has a topping of baked coconut flakes which resembles little ant and hence this cake is also known as “ant cake”. This cake is dense and sweet.
Ingredients
- 250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 50g (about 3 tablespoons +1 teaspoon) butter or margarine
- 300g (about 1.5 cups) sugar
- 4 eggs
- 200ml milk
- 3 teaspoons (15ml) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Filling:
- 125g (1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons) butter or margarine
- 100g grated coconut
- 250g brown sugar (275ml packed or 1 1/8 cup packed)
- 50ml milk
Click on Read More for the instructions.
