Tuesday, 12 January 2010

Carrot Cake With Banana and Dates...yumms!

Wired rose that I learnt in December......
And the Carrot cake that I made over the weekend... it is different from the version that you usually find! This one is rustic, dense, rich with the crunch of carrots in it. My entire family loved this encluding my children, my children only love va va vanilla cuppies! No, this hasnt got golden syrup in in, but it has bananas and dates! Here's the recipe....
2 cups plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt, I used himalayan rock salt that has been rocking my entire kitchen :)
3/4 cup finelychopped walnuts, I used 1 cup which makes the cake richer!
125 g butter, heated just to melt
3/4 cups dried dates, chopped finely
3 ripe bananas, I used 1 1/2 cups pisang emas yang masak ranum, mashed well
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cups Greek yoghurt, I used buttermilk that I made myself, because I think the concept of having yoghurt and buttermilk in the recipe is the same ie to stabilise the baking powder!
2 large eggs, whisk lightly
200 gm cream cheese
125 gm butter
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice, if you like, I loike!
Preheat the oven to the temperature that you usually use, line 2 8x8 cake tin with parchment paper and butter well.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. stir in the walnuts and raisins if you want, set aside.
Stir the dates into the melted butter, spreading the dates, add the sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine the bananas and carrots. stir in the date, sugar butter mixture. whisk in the buttermilk and eggs. add the flour mixture and stir until everything is well incorporated. Divide into the 2 cake tins, bake for about 50 minutes. Serve with cream cheese....
Tell me if you don't like this one!

Monday, 11 January 2010

She Who Must Be Obeyed!

Alhamdulillah Azura had completed her first cycle of chemo. As of Friday, when the medicine was taken off, she complained that she was really exhausted and mentally down.. I reminded her to forget all that and it is a path that she has to go through...Saturday, there was no readings whatsoever on her white blood cell, and yesterday there was some reading....it is a sign that her body is recovering, alhamdullillah! She needs that before the next cycle of chemo! I attribute all these good signs due to a lot of faith and doas and doing the do's and don'ts as a cancer patient. Tq Dalilah for sharing the path that you have been given in your book, it is indeed very helpful!

Okay, some cake stories....
Doing these two cakes brought back memories of how I have gained my knowledge as a legal counsel! Not that you have to have those skills in order for you to bake, ha ha! But, the above cake was a Carrot cake ordered by L who was a secretary to my previous boss Datin RAR. You see, before I joined the legal fraternity, I worked in a bank which shareholders are predominantly armies. Then, my path changed when I decided to join this organisation, but at that time it was anchored by a different management.

From Datin I learnt to read between the lines, be meticulous, know my law well, know where the full stops and comas should be, work long wee hours...I also got a taste of a boss who has a penchant to scream, in fact it was after the last howling from her that could be heard throughout the entire division and the very demanding hours, I decided to take a sabbatical for two plus years...now, Datin is still my friend, when I threw in my letter that fateful day, she called me for two weeks without fail to persuade me to stay, and that trend of asking me to return hasn't stopped ever since. Datin is a very kind person at heart, I figured her strange behaviour is all due to work pressure, yes Datin I can teman you for teh tarik (she loves teh tarik) or coffees at Coffee Bean or nasi lemaks at Madam Kwans, but let's just remain this way! Being your prodigy has somehow made me to behave a milder version of you when I deal with technical guys now...but I do it with a smile! Thank you L for the above order, inshaallah next year I'll do more cucu figurines with a nicer background...at the time of doing the cake, I was battling an emotional meltdown you know due to what.
And this....well, it has been many months that my present boss Pn S has been hinting that she wanted to order cakes from me, but I sort of thought that if at all I will bake for her, it will be when I no longer work for her. But, last Monday she text ed me (so, I can't avoid anymore, avoiding her text message would mean that I am very rude!) wanting me to bake a Devils Food Chocolate Cake with Valrhona chocolate for her husband's birthday. She didn't want anything fancy, so I threw in the teddy to spice up the cake........I wouldn't want to talk much about my present boss, but suffice to say that I am still working with her...and tempting her with my cakes :-) and the knowledge and experiences gained from my previous boss made my work a breeze......
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