Archives

Carrot Pineapple Cake

Love love this cake!!!!!! Must try this one….it’s so moist and you wouldn’t taste the carrot at all which mean is good for those who dislike carrots πŸ˜‰ And what’s best is that this cake tasted even better the next day. Why is that?? According to me, after the next day the spices sit in longer so it makes the cake tastier.

Next good trait from this recipe that no mixer is needed. Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and voila…..

Got this recipe in Allrecipes. Definitely a keeper!!

Here is the recipe with some minor modification from me and also I followed some reviewer suggestions.

Serves 12 (Original recipes serves 24 but you could adjust that in the website). OMG I’m babbling too much!!

Ingredients:
– 1 cup all-purpose flour
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon-
– 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar (I used brown sugar)
– 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup apple sauce)
– 1-1/2 eggs (I used 2 medium eggs)
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1 cup shredded carrots (I used 2 cups)
– 1/2 cup flaked coconut (I omitted this one)
– 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
– 1/2 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

For the cream cheese frosting:
– 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
– 2 tablespoons butter, softened
– 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (I used 1/2 cup)

Directions:

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan (I used 24cm round baking pan)

– Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Make a well in the center and add sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix with wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in carrots, coconut, walnuts and pineapple.

– Pour into 9×13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Don’t panic, the center will sink a little. Allow to cool.
(somehow mine didn’t sink in the centre)
– To make the frosting: Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the confectioners sugar and beat until creamy.

Happy Lebaran!!!

To celebrate Lebaran I invited some friends over today. Hesti and Ratna from Belgium were staying over the weekend so they helped me with the food…hehehe long labour until 12am at night πŸ˜‰ mumpung tenaga gratis toh πŸ˜›

l to r; me, Hesti, Sarah, Oliv, Dina, Inne.

Marcel and Peter.
The table of feast. The menu was lontong cap gomeh; lontong, opor ayam, sayur lodeh, sambel goreng kentang ati. There were also sambal bajak, bubuk kedelai and krupuk for the condiment. Then for the snack; I bought sumpia ikan, butter cookies. I also made putri salju and one bowl chocolate cupcakes. For dessert I made fruit cocktail pudding with vanilla vla and Sarah dkk brought green grapes.

Putri salju recipe was from NCC. It was superb, melt in your mouth as soon as you put it in. Will translate the recipe to English as soon as I have time :s


Another one I made for accompanying coffee and tea, one bowl chocolate cupcakes. Very easy and fast to make yet very delicious.

Sayur Lodeh
Original recipe from my mother

Ingredients;
– 250gr long beans cut like a match stick
– 250gr labu siam (what is this in English?) sliced like a match stick
– 1 block of tofu cubed and deep fried half done
– 12pcs shallots
– 6pcs garlic
– 3 red chilies (more or less depending on personal taste buds)
– 2 bird’s eye chili (more or less depending on personal taste buds)
– 2 cm galangal bruised
– 3 pcs salam leaves
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp dried shrimp paste
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– 2 tsp dried shrimp (ebi) fried
– 200 ml thick coconut milk
– 1 ltr water (more or less depends on how thick or thin you want the end result)
– some oil for stir frying

Directions;
– Grind shallots, garlic, chilies, salt, dried shrimp paste, sugar, dried shrimp into a paste.
– Fry spice paste until fragrant, add galangal and salam leaves.
– Add water and coconut milk, wait until it boils.
– Add long beans then after five minutes add labu siam.
– After the vegetable is soft add fried tofu.
– Stir now and then and cook until it’s all done.

Sambel Goreng Ati (Stir Fried Chicken Liver Sambal)
Original recipe from my mother

Ingredients;
– 250 gr chicken liver cubed
– 250 gr chicken giblet cubed
– 250 gr potatoes cubed and deep fried
– handful of petai sliced into two
– 6pcs shallots sliced
– 4pcs garlic sliced
– 3 red chili sliced
– 2 bird’s eye chili sliced (more or less depending on personal tastebud)
– 2cm galangal bruised
– 3pcs salam leaves
– 200ml thick coconut milk
– some oil for stir frying

Direction;
– Stir fry shallots, garlic, chilies until fragrant.
– Add chicken liver and giblets, stir until turns color.
– Add salam leaves, galangal and coconut milk.
– Add potatoes when coconut milk is boiling.
– Lower the heat and cook until the coconut milk has reduced and dry.


Opor ayam (Chicken in White Curry)
This recipe is originally from my mother but since I had few too many instant opor spices I decided to use those to save some time (lazy-mode-on)

Ingredients;
– 1kg chicken pieces
– 400ml thick coconut milk (1 can)
– 400ml water (to thin the coconut milk as coconut milk from the can tend to be really thick)
– 12pcs shallots
– 6pcs garlic
– 2cm turmeric
– 2cm ginger
– 1 stick cinnamon
– 5 kaffir lime leaves
– 2 lemongrass
– 5 nutmeg
– 1 tsp salt
– some oil for stir frying

Direction;
– Grind until smooth shallots, garlic, turmeric, nutmeg and salt.
– Stir fry the mixed spices until fragrant in a big stewing pot.
– Add pieces of chicken, stir until the chicken turns color.
– Add water and coconut milk, stir throughly.
– Bruised ginger and lemongrass add them to the pot along with kaffir lime leaves.
– Lower the heat and stew for an hour until the curry has thickened a bit.


My plate πŸ™‚ Btw the lontong I made with instant lontong in a plastic bag, pop them to boiling water for 2-3 hours, drain and they are done.


Fruit Cocktail Pudding with Vanilla Vla

Ingredients;
– 1 sachet agar-agar powder (10gr)
– 1 can cocktail fruit
– 1 can mandarine orange
– 750 ml milk
– 60gr sugar

Direction;
– Put agar-agar powder, milk, sugar and syrup water from the canned fruit in a pan.
– Cook it in low heat while keep stirring it until it boils.
– Turn off the heat and pour it in the pudding mold which has been soaked in cold water for some time (This so later it would be easy for you to take the pudding off the mold)
– Leave it cool in room temperature and when it cools down transfer it to the fridge until ready to be eaten.

as for the vanilla vla, I bought instan vanilla vla in a package as here Dutch people love to eat them for dessert. But as they are a bit too thick for pudding I thinned them with a little bit of milk (Thanks to Hesti for the brilliant idea)

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

When I first saw this recipe at Vania’s Blog I thought how easy, just mix everything in a bowl.

Here is the recipe. Originally from Martha Stewart.

Makes 2 dozen

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 large whole eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup warm water

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 standard 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners.
Into the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Attact bowl to mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; add the eggs and yolk, the milk, oil, vanilla and warm water. Beat on low speed until smooth and combined, about 3 minutes; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divided batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake come out clean, 20-25 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool slightly. Invert cupcakes onto the rack; then reinvert and let them cool completely, top sides up. Frost cupcakes with buttercream, swirling to cover and garnish with chocolate curls.

Cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 day.

Hesti and Lusi's B'day Party

These are the cupcakes that I made especially for Hesti and Lusi’s b’day party. Thank you to Maki who allowed me to use her idea for the buttercream. I followed her instruction that she gave me through YM. She said she got a picture of how the buttercream should look inside the piping bag before you pipe it out. But her monitor was having a problem so she couldn’t send it to me. So based on her information I imagined in my head how I should do it. And it wasn’t that difficult at all. Mine was too dark I think. Yeah thanks to the dark lighting in the kitchen I couldn’t really see the real color when I colored the buttercream. But I was happy on how they turned out though of course not as perfect as Maki’s cupcakes.

As for the cupcakes I wanted to make something different. Something cheese and fruity…After flicking through my recipe collections I stumbled upon this cupcake recipe in my Sedap Magazine. The oroginal recipe was called Yoghurt Cheese Cake.

Here is the recipe :
– 175gr margarin (I used butter for better taste)
– 125gr granulated sugar
– 100gr cream cheese
– 100gr yoghurt
– 4 eggs
– 180gr flour (I used self raising flour)
– 1 tsp baking powder (I omitted this because I used self raising flour)
– 1 tsp lemon zest

– Beat margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
– Add cream cheese and mix well.
– Add yoghurt, lemon zest and mix well.
– Add egg one by one alternating with the flour (and eventually baking powder) and mix well.
Do not overmix!!!
– Pour in the cupcake paper.
– Bake in the oven 180C for 20 mins.

For variations before decorating the cake I added some pieces of mandarine oranges on top of the cupcake. It made the cupcake tasted fresher and tangier.

Here is my plate at the party. The food was Indonesian of course and delicious. The choices were; rice, tempe mendoan, empal (enak bgt!), ayam rica-rica, mie goreng (ini juga enak bgt), cap cay, sambal, krupuk udang hmm what else?? Oh there were also bbq of fish and chicken but I didn’t try it because I was full already…but Whitty gobbled a whole piece of fish so it must be good πŸ˜‰


Here are some of the partygoers….acting crazy at the roof of the building. And no you are not mistaken that is really Whitty there πŸ™‚ We took him along because Lusi and Hesti were asking as a joke but we thought why not, he is still a young cat so it’s a good time to show him how to cope in different situation. And yes he was very good. Didn’t cry in the car although he was a bit nervous at the party because all of the noises and far too many people. But when we put him inside Lusi’s room he was allright meaning playing with anyone who came inside the room, eating his food (a whole big piece of fish) and of course made a little mess in Lusi’s room. Eh sorry Lus :s

Happy B’day again to both of you! hope all your wishes come true!!

Eggless Tiramisu

I made this as a dessert for a dinner with an Italian theme. The recipe was from NCC but I omit the egg because somehow I still can’t imagine myself eating raw egg :s But it turned out beautifully so don’t hesitate to try.

Recipe makes 1 square pan of 24×20 cm

Ingredients:
– 250gr mascarpone cheese
– 300ml whipping cream
– 100gr fine (powder) sugar
– 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Other ingredients:
– 1 cup of black coffee (150ml)
– 1 tbs sugar
– 150ml coffee liquor ie: kahlua, tia maria (if you like)
– 20 pcs/1 package lady fingers

Garnish:
– some chocolate powder

How to make:
– Whipped the mascarpone cheese until smooth, set aside.
– Whipped the cream, powder sugar and vanilla essence until stiff and thick.
– Mix together the whipped cream mix and mascarpone cheese, set aside in the fridge so it won’t melt.
– In other bowl, mix the coffee with sugar and coffee liquor (optional), set aside.

Finishing:
– Arrange half of the lady finger in the pan.
– Sprinkle with half of the coffee mixture.
– Pour half of the mascarpone mixture on top of the lady fingers
– Repeat this process one more time.
– Let cool in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
– Before serving it shift cocoa powder on top of the tiramisu with a tea strainer.

Tips:
– To successfully whip the cream, make sure you put the mixing bowl and the beaters in the freezer for minimum 3 hours to make them cold!!

Kue Lupis Gagal


I remember my mother always buy this in the market whenever she goes there. Then we could eat this for breakfast hmm yum πŸ™‚ Then I found an instant ketan lupis at the toko aha I could make it myself too. It should be easy just boil it in water approx 1 hours…but hiks my lupis turned out to be really soggy and not solid at all…what did I do wrong?? Search Mr. Google for the recipe..aha it turned out I had to use kapur sirih to make the lupis solid…halah halah makanya kalo mau bikin sesuatu liat-liat dulu kaleee

But I still managed to eat it anyway with grated coconut and palm sugar syrup. Oh for the coconut I used dried coconut that I dissolved with warm water. The taste wasn’t dissapointing at all. Cukuplah untuk ngobatin rasa kangen ama jajan pasar.

Pesta Bakso

Two friends came this Saturday to visit me. One is Hanna who lives in Hamburg, Germany and the other one is Hanna’s friend Isma who is currently studying master in Delft. So I made lontong bakso again hahaha…..but we Indonesian always loved bakso and my bet right. They loved the bakso. Hanna even had 2.5 bowls if you don’t want to say it 3 bowls eh πŸ˜‰

They said serasa makan di warung aja, there were also tempe mendoan, pangsit goreng, tahu goreng, tahu rebus, pangsit rebus and es sirup πŸ™‚ So girls don’t forget to count how many tempe mendoan you had for the kassa later πŸ˜›

But stupidly forgot to take pictures of the bakso…saking enaknya…kikiki…

Do not hesitate to come again girls πŸ™‚

Chocolate Muesli Bar


Got this recipe from Aller Hande magazine, a free monthly magazine from Albert Heijn a big supermarket chain in Holland.

Ingredients:
– 50 gr butter
– 150 gr dark cooking chocolate chopped coarsely
– 1 tbs honey
– 100 gr crunchy muesli
– 150 gr mixed dried fruit
– cake form lined with baking paper

– Melt butter, honey and chocolate in the stove with a double boiler until all melted and smooth.
– Mix in muesli and mixed dried fruit.
– Pour the mixture in the cake form.
– Let stand in the fridge for at least 4 hours until set.
– Cut the chocolate bar in slices.

Melting Chocolate Puddings

I saw one program about cooking in BBC UK some weeks ago about this kind of pudding. I wrote down only the ingredients so of course when I wanted to make it I don’t know anymore what am I suppose to do with all the ingredients :p so I googled it but still couldn’t find the same recipe. But instead I found this recipe which was also on BBC UK.

Tried it and…hmm the result was quite nice though I found it was too dense sweet for my taste bud. Will reduce the amount of sugar another time.

Here is the copy of the recipe

Ingredients;

– 150g self-raising flour (used 200gr because didn’t use ground almond)
– 4 tbsp cocoa powder
– 50gr ground almonds (didn’t use this because didn’t have it πŸ˜› )
– 100g dark chocolate , roughly chopped
– 200gr caster sugar
– 175ml milk
– 50g butter , melted
– 1 egg

Sauce

– 150g dark muscovado sugar (sort of brown sugar)
– 3 tbsp cocoa powder
– 300 ml boiling water

– To make the chocolate sponge pudding, heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, ground almonds, chocolate and sugar together. Then stir the milk, butter and egg together and mix into the dry ingredients. Spoon into 6 individual ramekins or 1 big ovenproof dishes.
– To make the sauce, mix the sugar and cocoa powder and gradually stir in 300ml boiling water. Spoon this over the sponge mixture.
– Bake the puddings for 20 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 170C/fan 150C/gas 3 and cook for a further 10 minutes until the sponge feels firm to the touch
– the sauce will be lurking underneath. Serve straight from the oven with cream.

Strawberry Orange Trifle


Ever had an urge to bake something but couldn’t find a nice recipe that fits your desire? Well I had that this Friday night. At first wanted to make sponge cake then black forest cake. Spent 2 hours browsing still no recipe’s caught my mind yet. Oooo time is running late…So decided to make something simple that required no baking at all but still satisfy my needs of baking…Halah bahasane opo iki ra ngerti wis πŸ˜›

I made up this recipe. A cross between tiramisu, no bake cheese cake and triffle. Why? Because I want to finish up the cream cheese and whipped cream in the fridge. The cream cheese was from making cream cheese frosting for cupcake and the whipped cream was from making Japanese cheese cake. As you know we cant keep them long after opening the package.

Strawberry Orange Triffle

Ingredients:
– 1/2 pack lady finger or sponge cake
– 1 cup coffee
– 3 tbs orange liquor such as grand marnier or cointreau
– 2 tsp sugar
– 250ml whipped cream
– 125 gr cream cheese
– 50 gr icing sugar
– 1 can mandarine orange
– 250 gr strawberry

– Arrange half lady fingers in a bottom of a flat deep dish.
– Mixed well coffee with liquor and sugar.
– Sprinkle half of the coffee mixture on lady fingers.
– Whipped cream and add cream cheese and icing sugar
– Spread half whipped cream mixture on top of lady finger
– Arrange mandarine orange on top of whipped cream
– Repeat this one more time
– Last arrange strawberry on top