Pecan tart

This is very easy to make and taste so good. I baked this few weeks ago and my family loved it.

Ingredients:
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup golden/light corn syrup
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
6 tablespoon butter,melted
1 1/4 cups chopped pecan nuts
1/3 cup pecan nut halves

For the pastry
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon superfine sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg yolk
3-4 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

Direction:
1. To make the pastry, sift together the flour, super fine sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and rub in using your fingertips or pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Blend egg yolk and whipping cream, and stir into the flour mixture.
3. Form the pastry into a ball, then roll out and use to line a 23 cm/9 in pie dish. Trim and flute the  edge neatly and chill for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat a baking sheet in the oven at 200 degrees C/400 degrees F.
Lightly whisk the eggs and salt. Mix in the sugar,syrup,lemon juice and butter. Stir in the chopped pecan nuts.
5. Pour into the pastry case and arrange the pecan halves in concentric circles top.
6. Bake on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 160 degrees C/ 325 degrees F and bake for 25 minutes more.

Italian Buttercream

I've been thinking to open a bakeshop in my country in the near future and I've been wondering where  can I get a meringue powder  to help stabilize the icing because I am not really sure if the store there already carry this kind of baking product. Then,a day before my class I remembered that when I was attending the baking vocational class in high school, my instructors' icing recipe was made with egg whites...so I decided to use that kind of icing on making basket weave as you see on the image beside this. It happened that accidentally burned my sugar and water and it smells like caramelized sugar which my instructor was  so intrigue to know what kind of icing I made since it smells so good. I responded her that I it's the Italian butter cream and accidentally burn my sugar and that's the smell you smell. She then added..oh smells so good. Oh well, I think the accident turns out good. Anyways the recipe I use is as follows:


Ingredients:

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tiny cubes at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
5 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1. In a bowl of a stand mixer, place egg whites with cream of tartar and 1/4 cup of sugar nearby.
2. Heat 1 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Heat over high medium heat until sugar is dissolved
3. Meanwhile, whip the whites at high speed until soft peaks from approximately 5 minutes. When the egg whites are frothy, add the cream of tartar. Gradually add the 1/4 cup remaining sugar.
4.When the sugar reaches 240 degrees F, with the motor running, pour it into the egg whites, very slowly, in a thin stream, to avoid cooking the eggs. Raise the speed to high, and continue to whip the mixture has cooled to room temperature between 10-15 minutes.
5. Stopping the motor between additions, add the butter one lump at a time and continue beating until mixture smooth and fluffy, approximately 12-20 minutes.
Note: It will look like ricotta cheese for a while..just keep beating.
6. Once it is smooth, stir in flavorings if desired.

Apple Pie

Pies.... Pies...... Pies.....never baked before???this is the most easy pie recipe you can learn.   Most of the times I don't peel off the skin of the apples  not because I am too lazy to do it but its because  my mother-in-law said that we can get  nutrients on the skin too and that's the reason why....Benefits on not peeling your apples, it saves some of your time and it taste good too. When you eat, you cannot really feel the apple skin  because I cook the apple on this recipe.

Ingredients:

6 cups apples, slice in cubes

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

a pinch of salt

1/4 tsp ground all-spice

2 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup butter

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven at 400 degress F.

2. Warm your skillet and put 1/4 cup butter.

3. Mix sugar and spices in a large bowl and add apples. Stir to coat.

4.Pour your apple mixture into your warm skillet with butter and simmer it  for 5 minutes. Turn off the oven and mix the flour and corn starch.

5.Fill pastry lined 9" pie pan. flute edges or use fork to make a decorative edge then pour the apple mixture in a pie pan lined with pie crust.

 Note: If using a second crust do not flute the edges until second crust is in place. Seal the top and bottom crust together by moistening the bottom crust with a little sprinkled water before topping with the second crust; then flute the edges together. Make several slits in the top crust with a small knife for steam to escape.

6. Bake at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes.

Note: this is my topping pie recipe without using second pie crust.

  1/2 cup brown sugar

  1/2 cup flour

  a pinch of salt

  1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

  1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

   1/8 teaspoon ground all-spice

  1/4 cup butter

Mix together and cut in 1/4 cup butter. Sprinkle over apples in a pan and bake on the above given oven  temperature.

Puto Cheese

Last night, we attended a Filipino-American Christmas party.As usual we have to bring a dish to share so I decided to make this tiny steamed dough and we called this "Puto Cheese" in my native tongue. Someone asked me last night why this is so little...I responded to her, it's because I made a Filipino size and she laughed. Each piece of my puto cheese is good for 2 bites for petite people.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

1 cup whole milk (room temperature)

2 large eggs (room temperature)

1/4 cup butter (melted)

1 tsp. vanilla

cheese (cube or shredded)

food color (as you desired)

Directions:

1.  Put your steamer with 3/4 full of water on the stove and let it start boiling.

2. Sift all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.

3. Put all the liquid ingredients together in a another bowl.

4. Beat the dry ingredients using the stand mixer and then, add the liquid ingredients one at a time until all the ingredients is being incorporated.Add food color (as you desire)

5. Pour the butter on the prepared muffin pans or  plastic puto cheese molds and put cube or shredded cheese on the middle top of the butter and steamed it for about 8 to 10 minutes.

6. Serve it warm.

Chocolate Ganache

                                                                                                                                                             

   I baked and decorated this cake for my friends' birthday. My hubby and friend loved the simplicity of its decoration  and above all they loved the taste and texture of the cake . By the way, I was using my chocolate cake recipe you can find on this site. I was glad that I was thinking out of the box that day.

 This ganache can be used in two ways, as a filling or poured over the cake. To use as filling, refrigerate it first at least 1-2 hours, if possible more than that. What I did on this cake was, I spread the ganache over the cake using a spatula  and put a portion in a pastry bag enough to use for decorating my cake border.

                                                                                             

Ingredients:                                                         

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

8 ounces semi-chocolate chips

2 tablespoon light corn syrup

Directions:

1. Cook the heavy whipping cream and chocolate chips in the top of a double broiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.

2. Remove from the heat and stir in the corn syrup.

3. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for about 1 hour. If using for filling, soften until pourable in a double boiler over medium heat.

Enjoy and Have Fun Baking!

Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the best peanut butter cookies I've ever baked...It was so good... my mouth is watery by just thinking and looking the images of this cookies right now. I wanna have a piece with a glass of milk..hmmmm..hmmmm....

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter flavor shortening
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt

Directions:
1.Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

2.Combine sugar, peanut butter, shortening,milk, salt and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg just until blended.

3. Combine flour and baking soda .Add gradually to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

4. Bake at 375 degrees F for 7 to 8 minutes or until just beginning to brown and set. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet before removing to foil.

* Dip fork in flour, flatten dough slightly in crisscross pattern.

Enjoy and have fun baking!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

We bought bananas 2 weeks ago and it didn't preserved well as what it was..so I decided to do something about it rather  than throwing them in a trash can. Well, I can make banana muffins or banana bread out of this... as I was talking to myself that day and finally  I decide to make banana bread because it involves lesser work to do. This recipe is pretty much high fiber and it's good for you. By the way, my husband is on whole grain, vegetables,fruits,low salt and low sugar diet so I always make it sure I'm baking something good for him and his diet.He's been on this diet for more than a month now and guess what???he already lost 20 pounds.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 cup barley malt

4 egg whites

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

 1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tbsp. flax seeds

1/4 cup steel cuts

1/4 cups 10 grains

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups mashed bananas

1 cup walnuts

Directions:

Cream butter, salt,barley malt and apple sauce; add egg whites and mashed bananas.

Stir in sour cream.

Put this together in a bowl:whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour,flax seeds,baking soda,steel cuts,10 grains and walnuts; add to butter mixture.

Divide the butter in two and pour into greased 9x5 loaf pan. Bake in 350 degrees F oven for 1 hour or until done.

Enjoy and have fun!

Red Velvet cake

The beauty of Autumn just left and the white snow flakes that almost covered the ground just came. I made this cake for my co-workers few months ago and this is my second attempt of decorating my  cake using fondant. It was fun, I was happy with the outcome.  Red velvet cake is one of my favorite cake. My first piece of red velvet cake was during our wedding here in the States, which was made by my hubbys' best friend. From that day on....red velvet become my favorite especially with cream cheese frosting...hmmmmmmm....hmmmmm..hmmmmm.



Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tbsp red food coloring ( 1 ounce)
1 tsp white distilled vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the 3x91/2 inch round cake pan.
2.In a large bowl sift together the dry ingredients and in another large bowl whisk together all the liquid ingredients using hand or stand mixer about 1 to 2 minutes till incorporated.
3.Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients about 1 minute or till just combined. Don't over beat.
4. Divide the cake pans.Place the pans in the oven spaced apart and bake it for about 30 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the middle pulls clean.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and put on the cooling rack for 30 minutes, preferably 1 hour, then run a knife around the side of the  pan and invert the cake unto the plate and cool completely.

Enjoy and have fun!

Cream Cheese Frosting

This is the cream cheese recipe I used for my spice cake. Cream cheese frosting is also great for your carrot cake and this is the only frosting that gives very tasty flavor on your carrot cake and very easy to make. You can add food coloring on this too like what I did on my football cake, I add blue  for my colts color and green for grass. Enjoy and have fun.


Ingredients:
16 ounces cream cheese
8 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1.Put the cream cheese and butter in a bowl of a stand or hand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and paddle at medium speed until creamy, approximately 20-30 seconds.
2. While the motor is running, pour in the vanilla, and sugar a little at a time about a minute after the last addition.
3.Use right away or refrigerate in an airtight container for up 2 days.

4.If you will use it to decorate a cake, refrigerate first for about 1-2 hours so you can get the consistency that you want.

Very Moist Spice cake

One night when my mother-in-law came home from work she asked me to make a cake for her boss 50th birthday and I was honored to do it. So without any hesitation, I said yes. I will make him a cake and it happened that I just bought a new football pan and I thought his cake with be in the shape of a football since most people here in Indiana is a fan of colts. My mom also mentioned to me that he loves cream cheese frosting so his  cake would be a spice cake with cream cheese frosting. After I baked the cake I tried to put  brown color on my cream cheese frosting but I didn't turned out good so I changed the plan right away to have colors of colts blue and white and it turns great. This recipe is so wonderful.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
4 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground all spice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 cups brown sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your 9-by-13 inch pan.Whisk dry ingredients and spice in a large bowl.
2. Mix milk, and vanilla extract in another bowl.
3. Beat butter and brown sugar together on slow then medium speed of your electric mixer until incorporated then add eggs one at a time.
4. Add 1/3 part of dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the milk mixture. Do this again and again till you mix all your dry and milk mixture with the rest of the ingredients.
5. Bake until a cake tester or toothpick inserted and comes out clean about 40 minutes. Set a pan in a wire rack for 30 minutes, preferably an hour before removing it from the pan.

Enjoy and have fun baking!

Chocolate Mousse

Baking  and decorating is such a work that needs plan and vision. This is wasn't my plan for decorating my cake for this year thanksgiving but my plan  A didn't work much as what I thought so I have to do a plan B. My plan A was just to pour the chocolate ganache on the cake but  it didn't work well so my plan B was to ice the cake with chocolate mousse which worked good too. I baked two layers of  my chocolate cake recipe and frost the middle with chocolate mousse and drizzle it with chocolate ganache then fresh strawberries.



Ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon brewed cafe de munde

Directions:
Put the cream, sugar, cocoa, and coffee liqueur in a stainless-steel mixing bowl.
Blend with a hand mixer at high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving.

chocolate cake

My niece birthday is approaching and our gift is her favorite chocolate cake. But the night before her birthday, I started making my sugar flowers and let it set overnight and be ready on the following day. She also loves strawberry so I decided to surprise her cake with a strawberry in it. It was my first time to put fruits in a cake so I don't have any idea what will happen nor I don't have any idea how thin or thick should I slice the strawberries. I decided to slice the strawberry in half and put the strawberries on top of my chocolate fudge filling before putting the second layer and ice the entire cake. After decorating the  cake, it looked good at first but after few minutes, I noticed that the right side of the cake started to fall off. I was disappointed and worried but i don't have time to do it again, we need to go out that day and have lunch with the rest of the family. I was very disappointed of what I did. My husband said,  maybe you need to slice the strawberries a little thinner. Oh well, I said, I can't do anything about it anymore. So I decided to let the falling part of the cake face on the wall so when she gets in the house she won't noticed it. The plan was very successful because when she blew the lighted candle, she then said...oh my God, I blew so hard that made the cake fell off...It was so funny and everything just went alright.

Here's my recipe for most of my chocolate cake that I bake.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups brewed coffee

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups butter

2 large lightly beaten eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup baking cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

In a large bowl, pour the brewed coffee and stir the sugar and butter until melted.

Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, cocoa,baking soda, baking powder and salt. add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Pour into a greased and floured 15 inches x 10 inches x 1 inches baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely in a wire rack.

chocolate chip cookies

I've been  baking cookies for months already. The taste was good according to my taster at home. but I was always disappointed with the shape of it, it looked like a chocolate hills of Bohol,Philippines. I wanted a round cookies just like what they sold at the store. There were times that I thought of not baking cookies forever.I was disappointed, then one day, an idea of...what if I will shape the cookie dough to a tiny ball before dropping them onto the greased cookie sheet, and let see the result?That I idea gave me a brighter hope and I was so excited to see the result. To my surprised after baking the first batch, my newly baked cookies  just looked like what they sold at the store.I was overwhelmed and I couldn't believe for another accomplishment of  my baking world. What a day!  This is the recipe I used for my chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 (12oz) package semi-chocolate chips

2 cups chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar (brown and white sugar) until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.

Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop dough by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheets.

Bake 10 minutes or until edges are firm.

Enjoy and have fun.

Buttercream icing



cake that I ice during my class

 While I was baking a cake, I told my husband that I will not make an icing for my cake. He responded with this word....WHAT??? that's not right...cake should always have with icing...I responded with REALLY???? he said.REALLY. that would be muffins if there's no icing not a cake. (hahahahaha)
Anyways here's my recipe for a buttercream

( Stiff Consistency) used for decorations such as flowers with upright petals like rose

Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid white vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla or almond flavor
7-8 tsp. milk or water
1 lb. pure confectioners' sugar
1 tbsp. meringue powder
pinch of salt

Directions:
Cream shortening, butter flavoring and water.
Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or until creamy. makes 2 1/2 cups.
(Don't over beat)

Note:

Stiff----used for decorations such as flowers with upright petals like rose
To check your consistency: Place a cup of icing in a 9 oz. cup,3 3/4 in tall and about 2 3/4 in diameter. Then insert a spatula all the way into the center of the icing and if the spatula will not move even if you jiggle the cup.

Medium---use to create stars, dimensional decorating. borders and flowers with petals that lie flat
How to convert stiff consistency into medium consistency???
Just add 1 tsp of water or milk for each cup of stiff consistency (21/2 tsp of water or milk for the whole recipe) Mix until well blended.

Use the same test as for stiff consistency but in medium consistency, will move slightly and start to lean when you jiggle the cup.

Thin---use for writing and printing, leaves, icing a cake
To convert stiff consistency to thin consistency, add 2 tsp of water or milk for each cup of stiff consistency icing (5 tsp of water or milk for a full recipe) Mix until blended.

Use the same test as of stiff consistency.
the spatula will fall over when you jiggle the cup.
When making thin consistency icing for writing and printing, add 1/2 tsp of Piping Gel per cup of thin consistency icing. It will add stretch to the icing to make writing and printing easier.

Peanut butter cupcakes

Peanut butter???I am not fan of it...I bought peanut butter last week its because I wanted to bake peanut butter cookies but today while enjoying my day off....I was thinking to try baking peanut butter cupcakes. I used my basic cupcakes recipe and just add some other stuff to make it healthier and tastier.

By this recipe, you can bake 24 delicious cupcakes...
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 whole wheat flour
1 tsp.baking soda
2 tsp. lemon juice
a pinch of salt.

Directions:
Mix together brown sugar, butter, peanut butter, eggs, milk and vanilla using hand or stand mixer.
In another bowl combine all the sifted dry ingredients and pour into the butter mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared pan, filling two-thirds full. Bake in 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees or until lightly golden. Transfer muffin-pan cups to a wire rack to cool slightly.
Frost it with butter cream and serve.


Enjoy and have fun