Southern Coconut Cake with a hint of Love!

Few weeks ago Kek Alunan Kasih was a hit among food bloggers. Everytime I opened one, this cake will take its pride to be the first on the list. And almost every bloggers has tried it. I was one of them too, of course. There's just something about the layering that made me attracted to.

But I change the recipe. Instead of using the original ingredients for the batter, I opted for a Southern Coconut Cake recipe. I don't know why I did that but I was pretty sure mainly because people commented the cake was nothing more than a butter cake. I always wanted something more and so I disobeyed.

The original Coconut Southern Cake calls for 4 1/2 tsp of baking powder. That were heaps of baking powder, I know. And so I thought it would raise pretty high. So I plan to bake it in two different pans.

To my horror actually it did not raise as high as what I expected. My heart sank. Nobody likes a kempis cake. And I baked it for a kenduri tahlil for my dad. I brought it along anyway to JB, went to Tesco and bought almond slices, heat it in the microwave until its brown, take it out and arranged it nicely on top of the cake so that I can cut it in big square like a brownies.

I like the taste actually and it was a hit among the guests. But maybe because they were attracted to the colours (like what my sister said).

One thing about the cake is it is fragile and crumbly! Few minutes after cutting and arranging the cake for the kenduri, it turns into this;

But it was a good good cake. Maybe one day I will try the original version.

Southern Coconut Cake ala Alunan Kasih

Adapted from AtenderCrumbs and Pn. Mastura Yasak

5 egg whites

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups cake flour

2 cups sugar (I reduced the amount)

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup coconut milk

Cocoa powder

Food coluring

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius.
2. Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk lightly. Add the 1/2 cup of milk and vanilla and mix well. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat the dry ingredients with a paddle attachment on a low speed to remove any clumps. Add the butter and coconut milk and continue beating until combined.
4. Raise the speed to medium and continue beating for another 2 minutes.
5. Add the egg mixture in two or three addition.
6. Divide the batter into three bowl. Add colour onto each bowl and mix well. Pour the first layer into the pan, sieve cocoa powder all over the batter (make sure you cover everything), pour the next colour carefully, sieve cocoa powder and pour the last layer on top of it. Give it a tap or two then bake it for 30 to 40 minutes.

ps: you don't have to bake it in two pans like me. Silly me :(

My first attempt of a layer cake...

I'd never bake a cake lapis before. My bf's mom somehow is a pro when it comes to baking a Sarawak lapis cake. She gave few different types of the cakes last eid. And so I decided to try baking one. But this is an Indonesian lapis cake. Kan?

Anyway, the cake was hideous. I know. I totally forgot to press it to eliminate any bubbles! Only when I baked the last layer only I remembered about it.

I brought the cake to Sabah for X'mas or makan-makan during our family gathering and we forgot to take it out from the fridge, soooooo................ I can't explain how it tasted like!

It was supposed to be a higher cake but I don't know what went wrong, I only managed to get about an inch high. Cake lapis terpenyek. Cis. And I think it was a bit dry and less sweet.

Hopefully when I bake my second lapis cake tonight, everything goes well *fingers crossed*

And if you insist on knowing which recipe did I get, here. But I won't give up. I know it is not easy to make a layer cake and so I will try to bake it again and again until I get it right :) What a spirit! Hahahaha.

And this is not a nugget!

I came across with the recipe from 17 and Baking. I googled it again and again just to make sure everything is right. And I just bought two new baking pans from my holiday in Sabah and I just really need to bake something to try the new pans.

And so I decided to bake this.

The pans were not as good as I thought it would be :( The mini bundt cakes were nothing like the mould. And it made the crust sort like a nugget-crust. A breadcrumbs.

But the cakes were good. But the scent and taste of the lemon juice was too strong to me.

Cruze Farm Buttermilk Pound Cake

Adapted from 17andbaking

1 1/2 cup butter

3 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup buttermilk

juice of 1 lemon, strained

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius.
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Beat butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in vanilla essence.
3. Mix in the flour alternately with buttermilk in 3 batches. Stir in lemon juice.
4. Pour into pan and bake for 75 minutes (mine is less).

ps: I know it is very hard for you to find a buttermilk. Just mix full cream milk with half lemon juice or 2 tbsp of white vinegar, let it stand for 10 minutes and you will have your homemade buttermilk.

Coffee Cake

Zanna, my friend baked a coffee cake. And I also wanted to baked a coffee cake :p Because I know eventhough I ask for a slice of it, it would be long gone before it reaches me. So.....

Found this recipe from The Pioneer Woman ages ago. Bookmarked it then finally had the courage to try it last week. Anyway, if anyone found The Pioneer Woman Cooks book, please please please let me know. Or better, buy it for me! Thanks.

Coffee cake is not really a COFFEE cake, silly. It is called as coffee cake well, because the people from west countries eat this cake (or any cake) in the morning for breakfast with coffee or evening (with tea/coffee). Just like how we dipped our Ping Pong cream crackers, they did that with their cake. Hence the coffee cake (Whats the necessary with the explanation? *cough* because I used to get confused before. Things happened; I search for any coffee ingredients in the recipe!)

If you look into the recipe, you can see that it uses white eggs beaten until fluffy and folded in into the batter at the very last step. Believe me, its totally worth it! Although you can't feel your hand afterward from all the high speed hand whisking frequency (mine wasn't. Because I forced Obe to do it for me!).

The cake was soft. Super soft! Very very soft! Get it? But I do recommend you to use lesser sugar both in the batter and also the topping.

Good luck!

The Best Coffee Cake Ever (as claimed by Ree)

Originally from Thepioneerwoman

Cake:

3/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar (please, reduce the amount!)

3 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup milk

3 eggs white, beaten until stiff

Topping:

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cup brown sugar(less less less!)

2 tbsp cinnamon powder

1 cup walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius.
2. Sift together flour and baking powder. Whisked egg whites until stiff.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture and milk alternately in 3 batches, begin and ending with flour. Fold in egg whites. Do not over beat.
4. Combine together all the topping ingredients in another bowl using your bare hand (unless you have a pastry cutter) until crumbly.
5. Pour the batter on your pan (I used 8x8x3) then sprinkle the topping on top of it.
6. Bake 40 to 45 minutes.

Remember, use LESS sugar! And I am serious.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

I baked this somewhere in November. Hehe ya I know! I have so many recipes to post yet no time at all to spare for blogging.

I am back from the holiday. The whole family had so much fun, but only if my brother and his wife were there too.

So anyway, back to this cake. One of my friend was a big fan of my cakes. She came to my open house during Raya and completely blew of after tasting my cheese cake and straight away begging me to bake for one of her friend's birthday. And so, the business began.

I baked this during Raya. And she asked for the exact recipe. But I know I had to try some other recipe that yield almost the same cheesecake but even better when you tasted it. I googled and found one.

The original recipe uses 3 boxes of cream cheese. I should use just two because of the price of the cake that I sold (you really need to be good in adjusting the ingredients with the price) so I altered some of the amounts and ingredients.

And sorry. I totally forgot where did I get it. From Allrecipe.com I guees?

White Chocolate Cheesecake (Version II)

1 cup shortbread crumbs

3 tbsp wugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cup white chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup cream

2 package of Philadephia cream cheese

1/2 sugar (or less)

3 small eggs (must be small, gred B or less)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Mix shortbread crumbs, 3 tbsp of sugar and melted butter in a medium bowl. Press mixture into a springform pan (I used 6").
2. Preheat oven to 165 degrees celcius. Melt white chocolate with cream in a heatproof bowl over a simmering water until smooth. Remove from the heat.
3. Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until well blended. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well after each addition. Add in vanilla essence and melted chocolate. Mix well.
4. Pour over the crust, smooth the top.
5. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Let it stand in the cooling oven for 4 hours. When its cool, cover with a cling wrap and refrigerate overnight before removing the pan.

I am sucks when it comes to decorating!

ps: I seriously don't know how the cake tasted like. I asked my friend and she loved it, as always!