Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A Variety Of Carrot Cake Recipes To Suit Every Taste Bud

It doesn't have to be difficult to make a delicious homemade carrot cake recipe, and I'll show you exactly how with this tasty recipe right here! Out of all the carrot cake recipes I have tried, this homemade carrot cake recipe is one of the easiest and also one of the most delicious. Your kids will surely love and enjoy this yummy sweet and healthy treats.
When I was growing up I remember my mother telling me to eat carrots because they were good for my eyes, since she knew that I detested eating carrots in its plain form, she began experimenting with them. It is only because of the effort that she put into each recipe that today I relish carrots. Here are some carrot cake recipes that might help instill the same love for carrots in your children.

Vegan Carrot Cake

Required Ingredients
  • 2 cups of grated carrots
  • 1½ cup of raisins
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1½ teaspoons of cinnamon
  • 1½ teaspoons of allspice
  • ½ a teaspoon of cloves
  • 1 a cup of sugar
  • ½ a teaspoon of salt
  • 3 cups of flour
  • 1 cup of soymilk
Instructions
  • First preheat the oven to 350 °F.
  • Gently simmer the carrots, raisins, water and spices in a medium-sized saucepan for 8 to 10 minutes.
  • Then add the sugar and salt and cook for more than 2 minutes.
  • Once that is done, remove from heat and cool completely.
  • Now take a large bowl and combine the baking soda and flour in it.
  • Add the carrot mixture and the soymilk and combine nicely.
  • Grease a 9*9 inch baking pan and then pour in the batter.
  • Bake this mixture for an hour.
  • Your carrot cake is ready if the toothpick comes out clean.
Low Fat Carrot Cake

Required Ingredients
  • 6 white eggs
  • 1⅓ cups of white sugar
  • 1 cup of applesauce
  • ½ a cup of skim milk
  • 1½ teaspoon of vanilla extracts
  • ¼ a teaspoon of ground cloves
  • ½ a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons of baking soda
  • 1 cup of whole-wheat flour
  • 1 cup of all-purpose flour
  • 1 can of crushed pineapple with juice
  • 2 cups of shredded carrots
  • ½ a cup of chopped walnuts
  • ½ a cup of raisins
Instructions
  • First take a large bowl and beat the egg whites in it.
  • Slowly beat in the applesauce, skim milk, sugar and vanilla.
  • Then stir in the dry ingredients in this order. First put in the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and flour.
  • Now stir in one ingredient at a time, beginning with the pineapple (with the juice), carrots, walnuts and raisins.
  • Pour this mixture lightly into a lightly greased 9*13 pan.
  • Bake this in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
Wheatless Carrot Cake

Required Ingredients
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 lemon
  • ⅓ cup of marsala or white wine
  • 2 cups of grated carrots
  • 1 cup of groundnuts
  • ½ a cup of cornmeal (preferably not coarse ground)
  • ½ a teaspoon of baking powder
  • ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • ½ a cup of lemon or orange juice
Instructions
  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  • Now separate the eggs, remove the lemon rind and chop, grate the carrots and also grind the nuts.
  • With that done, beat the egg yolks and sugar until it is thick and light colored. Measure enough lemon juice, marsala and wine to make ½ a cup. Add this and the chopped rind to the yolk mixture and mix this well.
  • To the yolk mixture also add carrots and groundnuts.
  • Take a separate bowl and mix cornmeal, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and stir this into the yolk mixture.
  • In a large bowl beat egg whites to firm peaks. Now gently fold the yolk mixture, ⅓ at a time, into the whites taking care not to deflate the whites.
  • Once all that is done, pour the mixture into the prepared van and bake it until a cake tester or table knife stuck into the center comes out clean.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Strawberry Cake Is One Of The Most Exotic Ways To Delight The Taste Buds

A strawberry cake is among the most enchantingly tasting cakes. It’s a cream filled cake that actually tastes so great. Milk is incorporated in the elements which makes it creamier. Sugar and egg can also be put into its elements to really make it nicer. Its bread consists of chiffon cake – an even and creamy cake full of strawberry fruits. This strawberry is even caramelized and placed like a filling from the cake. The icing and also the toppings comprise strawberry. It is simply usual to locate ground strawberry fruits combined with cream and offered because the icing. The fruit can also be the main one giving the attractive color pink towards the cake.

With the season of strawberries around, strawberry cake filling is one of the most exotic ways to delight the taste buds! Are you wondering what strawberry cake filling is? Well, imagine a normal cake filled with yummy strawberries and strawberry sauce, that's what is called strawberry cake filling! Any cake can be added with strawberry filling, but the taste of strawberry will be brought out if you add the strawberry filling to non-flavored cakes like simple yellow cake recipes or white cakes, etc. It is entirely your wish, if you like to eat chocolates and strawberries together, then you can try any of the following strawberry cake filling recipe with chocolate cake also! Now let's learn to make strawberry cake filling, from the following recipes.

Recipe #1
Ingredients
  • 2 cups hulled strawberries, crushed
  • 3 tbsp boiling water
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp cold water
  • 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
  • ½ cup whipping cream
Process

Add sugar to the hulled strawberries and set them aside. In cold water soften the gelatin and once it is softened, add boiling water and stir until the gelatin dissolves. Add the dissolved gelatin mixture to strawberries and let cool. Now whip the cream, until its stiff. When the strawberry mixture is of syrup thickness, add the whipped cream to it. Refrigerate until it sets.

Recipe #2
Ingredients
  • 1½ tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 pints ripe strawberries, hulled, sliced in ½ if large
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
Process

Make a puree of half of the strawberries in a food processor. While blending, add honey, lemon juice, maple and vanilla; until it forms a smooth sauce. Now add the remaining strawberries and crush until chopped, do not make it a liquid.

Recipe #3
Ingredients
  • 1 lg. angel food cake
  • 1 tsp almond flavoring
  • 1 (8 oz.) container whipped cream
  • 1 can milk
  • ⅓ c. lemon juice
  • 1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen strawberries, thawed and undrained
Process

First cut 1 inch slice of the angel food cake. Reserve it. Make a tunnel, by scooping out the center. Leave 1 inch at the bottom of the cake. The center cake which you had removed, cut that into pieces. Except strawberries, mix all the other ingredients and reserve 1½ cup. Add the cake pieces to the whip mixture and fold in strawberries. Now fill the tunnel with cake and whip mixture. Replace the top layer which you had removed. Cover the cake with reserved whip mixture. Refrigerate for chilling. When chilled, decorate with fresh sliced strawberries and almond slices (if wanted).

Recipe #4
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 ½ - 3 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen, if using frozen thaw and drain)
Process

Take a large sauce pan and mix all the ingredients. Cook until the mixture thickens, over medium heat. Let it cool completely. This was one of the easy strawberry cake filling recipes. You can make it whenever you want, and that too in just a couple of minutes!

These were some of the easiest strawberry cake filling recipes. If you want, you can also add any of your favorite flavors to it, but make sure that the yummy taste of strawberry is not lost.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Birthday Cake To The Person's Heart


Birthdays are incomplete without cakes and to make the cake appealing to one's eye, it has to be designed in a way where it catches everyone's attention. Cake designs have always been a part of constant change thus leading to a lot of variations but at the end of the day, the design should be closest to the person's heart for whom it is being made for. There are endless possibilities but the cake has to be designed with the age and preferences of the person in mind.

If the birthday boy or girl is a sports freak, then the design can be of a cricket bat, a football or rugby ball or in fact a stadium. For your kid's birthday cake you can get your baker to design a cake that resembles the child's favorite cartoon character or sports star. Irrespective of the gender of your child, you can get the cake in the shape of a mermaid, airplane, ship, pirate or colorful clown. If it's a girl then you can design the cake with a real doll on the cake, to be precise a Barbie. Gadgets like computers or laptops or I-pods can also be interesting for young adolescents. If your kid likes to read, you can also order for a cake that looks like a book, specifically a Harry Potter one.

Kids would also love animal cakes like an alligator cake or an elephant cake, butterfly, cat or a dog cake. Car, bulldozer, police cars, bikes would also be a good idea for cakes. Even train or tractor cake would be innovative. A superman insignia or spaceship designed cake can also be a favorite with kids. For kids birthday cakes you can also try making a fish as a design, it can be a flounder or school of fish. Cakes can also be designed in the shape of burgers or hotdogs, candies, fruits and even drinks. There are various things that you can think of and gift your loved ones.

Birthday Cake Designs for Adults:
When it comes to adults the design does not matter much, the flavor is more important. Another characteristic of cakes ordered for adults is that they have alcohol as an ingredient, mostly rum. Still in the case of women, they would certainly like floral designs and men would definitely like something based on sports. In case of adults, naughty birthday cake designs can also be considered like a playboy bunny or the TV remote that he loves the most or his car keys that he always forgets. Similarly in the case of women it can be her stilettos or her purse that can be used humorously.

Birthday Cake Photos:
There are various sites on the Internet that help you to get a fairly good idea of how the design would look after you have made it or bought it as a cake since you can view clip arts which show you the colors and the designs quite vividly. It's always better to view those clip arts and get a printout of it so that you can show it to your baker and he can understand your concept better if there's something new that you are trying to do. Or else you can try the designs for birthday cakes given in this article.

If you really want to add some zing to the birthday that's approaching, you can either prepare a birthday cake yourself or order for one but do remember if you are ordering one, confirm with them a week in advance since all the good bakeries remain fairly busy and might just lose your order. Therefore to be on the safer side it is better to recheck and if you are making it yourself make a dummy cake before the final one, to correct any flaws it may have.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Tips To Make Pool Party Cake Easier

The coolest part of the party was the cake, modeled after the above-ground pool in their backyard in New Hampshire. Make this cake and we guarantee your guests won't hesitate to plunge right in.

Ingredients
        1/2 gallon quality ice cream (any flavor)
        1 1/3 8.5-oz. pkgs. fudge sticks (chocolate or peanut butter)
        2 cups heavy cream
        1/4 cup sugar
        1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
        Blue food coloring
        Gummy rings
        Gobstoppers
        Paper umbrellas
        Plastic figures
        Licorice
        Decorators' frosting

Instructions
Step 1 Begin by making the ice-cream base of the pool cake. Let the ice cream soften at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes, then ask your kids to help you spoon it into an 8-inch round springform pan, souffle dish, or plastic container. Pack the ice cream into the mold and smooth out the top. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Step 2 After the ice cream has frozen solid, unmold it by dipping the container quickly into a pan of hot water; if necessary, you can also loosen the edges of the ice cream with a knife. Invert the mold onto a large plate and carefully lift off the pan to reveal the ice-cream cake.

Step 3 Your kids can then carefully place the fudge sticks (we alternated plain and chocolate-peanut butter) along the sides of the ice-cream pool cake, the cookies will resemble the panels of an aboveground pool. Return the cake to the freezer while you prepare the whipped cream.

To make the blue whipped cream waves, pour the cold heavy cream into a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until the cream begins to thicken and soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until stiff. Mix in several drops of blue food coloring. Frost the top of the frozen cake with the blue whipped cream, then return it to the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes or until set.

Next, let your kids turn the cake into a bustling pool with gummy ring inner tubes, Gobstopper beach balls, paper umbrellas, and plastic swimmers. Add a licorice ladder with licorice rungs (use decorators' frosting to glue it together).

Now it's time to take the plunge into the pool cake. For best results, serve it immediately and do not let it stand at room temperature for long. Store leftovers in the freezer. Feeds 10 to 12 hungry swimmers.

Tips:

To add variety, you can layer different flavors of ice cream or mix in candies (chocolate fish, anyone?). The trick is to loosen the ice cream without melting it, so don't hold the mold in the hot water for more than a few seconds. Ask your children to work quickly while they place the chocolate cookies around the outside -- otherwise, they'll have a melted "pool" of ice cream. For foolproof whipped cream, chill the bowl and beaters in advance. Take the kids with you to buy pool accessories at a party supply store, suggests Gail. "They have a better concept than we do about what makes good pool toys."