Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Easter has just passed. I just now have the time to post a original Easter favorite : The Carrot Cake.
This past week I got inspired by Debby Maugans's book " Small-batch baking", to bake less especially when it's just the two of you.
The carrot cake recipe that I use is inspired by a recipe from www.joyofbaking.com. I took that recipe and halved it, so there will be no leftover cake to be thrown away.

Carrot Cake

Makes one 8inch 2-layers cake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup walnuts/pecans,chopped
•  1+1/4 cups carrot, finely grated
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable/canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray with oil 2 8inch cake pans and line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper.
Chop the walnuts and set the aside. Peel and grate the carrots and set them aside.
In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat eggs for about 1 minute. Add sugar gradually while beating it, for about 3 minutes. Add oil in a steady stream and then vanilla extract. Pour in the flour mixture and beat everything just until incorporated.
With a spatula, fold in grated carrots and chopped nuts.
Evenly divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Take it out of the oven and let cool down in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. After this, invert cakes onto the wire rack and slowly peel the parchment paper off. Let sit until they cool down.

Cream cheese frosting

Makes about 2 cups, enough to frost this cake

• 1/4 cup of butter/shortening, at room temperature
• 8 ounces (230 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until well blended. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating on low speed until fully incorporated and smooth. Beat in vanilla extract.

To assemble the cake just put the first layer on a serving plate, frost with cream cheese frosting the top of the first layer. Put the second layer on top of the frosting and then evenly spread remaining icing on the top and sides of the cake. You can add sprinkles, or decorate it with little carrots or whatever you want.

Oven Baked Barbecue Ribs

A couple of weeks I was shopping for groceries at my local Aldi ( loooove that place ) and I noticed that they had Boneless Ribs. I personally do not like any meat that is on a bone, but my husband loves ribs, so I decided to buy them.
A few days ago I was looking in the freezer trying to figure out what to make for dinner and found the ribs. I did a quick search on Google for a few recipe ideas and decide to make something. I live on the top floor in a two story apartment building, so we can't use a grill on our balcony, so I had to get them in the oven.
I am very particular about the ingredients that I use. You will rarely see onion powder, or other things that can be replaced with real ingredients in my recipes.

This is the final result, and I did try to do step by step pictures, didn't really work out but whatever I have I hope it helps.

Oven Baked Barbecue Ribs

Ingredients :

• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 small clove of garlic, minced / 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, plus more for cooking the ribs
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon red wine
• 1 cup water or beef broth
• 1/3 cup tomato paste/ ketchup
• 3 teaspoons mustard ( dijon mustard is better )
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 to 3 pounds of ribs

Preheat oven at 350F. Put olive oil in a medium size saucepan on the stove on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, vinegar and wine. Let them brown a little.

Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook over low heat until it thickens. Allow to cool.

Place the ribs in a large pan. Season with pepper and salt. Add around 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and then one to two cups of water.

Roast in the oven at 350F for one hour. Drain the grease and juices from the pan. Cover the roasted ribs with the sauce and bake for an additional 45 minutes or until the ribs are tender, basting occasionally if needed.

Banana nut muffins

This is a recipe that I like making mostly for breakfast. My husband loooves muffins, especially when they are the banana nut kind. I like them because they're easy and it doesn't take much to make them. 

This is a recipe that I adapted from the www.allrecipes.com but gave it my special little something. I like moist cakes, moist muffins, moist everything and very tasteful.

Banana Nut Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1+1/2 cups of flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup of butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/2 or 1 cup of chopped walnuts/pecans
• 2 or 3 tablespoons of milk.

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

In a separate bowl, with a wooden spoon, mix butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add smashed bananas.

Add the flour mixture to the liquid one, mix until incorporated. Add milk until it becomes a little more watery. This depends on how moist you want them to be. Fold in the chopped nuts.

Pour mixture into a prepared muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out mostly clean.

First post

This is my first post on my food blog. I'm really excited.

I LOVE BAKING !

I would do it day and night if I had the money and time. 

I hope you'll find helpful hints, recipes and other good stuff on this blog.

I started this on another website but decided to move to Blogspot.

Have a wonderful night.

Kisses,

D.