Foods for You

I remembered every birthdays my family and I would celebrated, we would buy a birthday cake. We often order the cakes at a local bakery made with fresh fruits, and spread with a light and airy cream frosting. In the middle between the layers of the cake was the fruit filling and the cream frosting. The cream in between the cake made it so moist and soft, even after a few days. Yet this birthday was for a special person, so I decided to bake a cake myself. Instead of assembling the cake with a middle layer filled with fruits and cream, I placed the fruits and cream frosting all on the top.

Ingredients:

6 eggs separated
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoons vinegar
1 1/2 cups all purpose baking flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Seperate the eggs into egg whites and yolks.

2. Beat the egg whites starting out slowly. Add the salt, and gradually add in the 1/2 cup of sugar. Beat the egg whites until it forms a nice firm peak. A firm peak is when the ridges are firm and holds its shape on the mixer. ** Add in the vingear when a firm peak has not formed.

3. Beat the egg yolks and add in the 1/2 cup of sugar till light yellow.

4. Add in the oil, water, and vanilla to the egg yolk.

5. Fold in the flour and baking powder to the egg yolk. Then add the egg whites.

6. Grease a 9 inch diameter pan and pour the batter into the pan.

7. Bake at 350 F for about 25-30 minutes.

8. After it is done, let it cool to allow to frost the cake.

9. Mix the heavy whip cream and vanilla pudding mix. Beat until it forms a stiff peak. A stiff peak is when the mixture is thick enough to spread and holds itself firmly.

10. Make a simple syrup for the cake by heating a pan to combine the 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoon water.

11. With a spatula or brush, stroke the simple syrup throughout the cake so it stays moist.

12. Using a spatula, spread the cream frosting. Start with a big slab of cream in the middle and work your way outwards. Using a serrated knife, clean off any edges.




13. Decorate the cake with fruits in any fashion desired.

Tips and Notes:

* If you want to have a middle layer of fruits and cream frosting, cut the cake in half. Using a kitchen string tied around the cake and placing toothpicks at certain locations to cut. It is best to firmly hold the top layer, and use a serrated knife for this procedure. Add the cream frosting to the bottom layer, but leave about a 1/2 inch gap around the bottom gap so the cream won't squeeze after assembling the top layer. Add the fruits after spreading the cream. Place the top layer on and spread the cream frosting. Make sure to spread the sides so the layers stay.

* Use any fruits you desired. I used strawberries, raspberries, and kiwis. Others have used cantaloupe, honey dew, or clementine.

* It might be easier to spread the cake of you cut a thin layer of the crust cake on the top.

* On the sides of the cake, you can decorate with fresh fruits or sliced almonds to give the cake its crunchiness.

* It is not an easy task to beat egg whites. It is highly recommended to use a mixer to reduce any work.

Ingredients:

1 1/9 cups butter
2 1/4 cups self rising flour
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
2-3 cups durian pulps
1-2 tablespoons milk

Steps:

1. Mix the butter and the sugar until light and creamy

2. Stir in the eggs.

3. Fold in the flour. Mix well.

4. Add the durian pulps and mix well.

5. Pour into greased pan.

6. Bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes.

Tips and Notes:

* This is the first time that I used self rising flour, and this flour is a simplified version of the combination all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you do not have any self rising flour, you can off course use all purpose flour and add about 1 teaspoon each of baking powder, baking soda, and salt. However, I highly recommend that no salt be added because this can cause the cake to be too salty. I did not really like the self rising flour because it made the cake a little salty.

* Durian: I like to put extra durian in my cake so that each bite has a piece of durian. However, if you don't like too much durian, but just enjoy the smell of durian, then you should just use 1/2 cup of durian.

* Rememeber to beat the eggs before adding it to the butter and sugar mixture if you do not have a mixture.

Cinnamon coffee cake is an ideal match when drinking coffee. The wonderful smell of the cinnamon sprinkled throughout the cake as you enjoy your nice cup of coffee makes life worth anything. This cake is not too sweet, but moist and sweet enough to pair with coffee or by itself. I love going to Starbucks, and when I order my strawberry frappicuno, I would also want to order some sort of coffee cake to eat while I'm enjoying my frap. Now you can have Starbucks in your very own home. All you need is the few ingredients to make this cake, and your cup of coffee.

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons powdered sugar ( Optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and greased pan with nonstick spray.

2. Mix together the butter and 2 CUPS of sugar until light and creamy.

3. Add one egg at a time. Then add the sour cream and vanilla to the butter mixture. Mix until well blended.

4. In another bowl, combine the baking flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. Add half of the dry ingredients ( flour mixture) to the butter mixture. Mix well until well blended. Then add the other half of the flour mixture. Mix well.

6. In a small bowl, combine the leftover 1/4 sugar, cinnamon, and brown sugar.

7. Pour half of the batter into the greased pan. Than sprinkled half of the cinnamon mixture. Pour the remaining batter mixture into the pan. Than pour the remaining cinnamon mixture into the pan.

8. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until when insert a toothpick, it comes out clean.

Tips and Notes:

* Powdered Sugar is optional. This makes the cake taste a little sweeter.

Pound cakes are every one's favorite because of its buttery texture that makes it so sinfully delicious. It's an easy recipe to make, and also an easy dessert to let our imagination run wild. After all, cooking should be fun, right? I called this classical pound cake because of its simple, but yet great original taste. This recipe can be made in no time, but at the same time this recipe is easy for creative minds to elaborate on. Pound cakes are great to pair with ice cream and fruits. However, I still enjoy eating this cake by itself and tasting the buttery texture of this cake.

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening or oil
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all purpose flours
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Cream the butter and vegetable shortening together until light and fluffy.

3. Add sugar to the butter gradually.

4. Add eggs in to the butter. Only add one egg at a time.

5. With another bowl, add all the dry ingredients together ( flour, salt, and baking powder).

6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter bowl. Blend well. Alternate adding the dry ingredients with milk to the butter bowl. By this, you start with flour so you will finish with flour. Mix well.

7. Mix in the vanilla extract and mix well.

8. Grease and flour the pan. This will prevent the cake from sticking to the pan.

9. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 1-1 1/2 hours or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Tips and Notes:

* Although having a mixer is better for making cakes, you can always mix and blend everything by hand. The result is still spectacular.

* If you do not have a mixer, I suggest that you beat one egg in a small bowl. After whisking that egg, you would than put it with the butter mixture. This will prevent any unwell mixing. Continue this process for the other 5 eggs.

1 tablespoon oil
1 14 oz. condensed milk
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar

Steps:

1. Wash the mung beans thoroughly and soak them for at least 3 hours. The longer you soak them, the easier it will be for you.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F.

3. Place the mung beans in a sauce pan with water. Water should be about half of the sauce pan, but not more than that. Boil the mung beans and keep an eye on it by stirring it constantly. When it boils, you can bring the heat to medium-low. Cook the mung beans for about 30 minutes until the mung beans are smooth.

4. Drain the mung beans afterwards. Take a chopstick or spoon and stir the mung beans until it is liquid and in a puree form. At this point, the mung beans are very liquidy and if you use a strainer the liquid of the mung beans will flow down. Let the mung beans cool down after you have completed making the mung beans paste.

5. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together first. Whisk until you form a pale yellow foam.

6. Mix in the cassava, coconut milk, condensed milk, and the puree mung beans to the eggs and sugar.

7. Coat the pan with oil. Even it out with a spatula if necessary. If you don't evenly coat your pan with oil, it will be hard to wash the pan later!

8. Pour the batter into the pan. Even out the batter in the pan using a spatula or by shaking the pan lightly.

9. Bake the first 10 minutes at 350 F. After that, lower the temperature to 300 F for another 20 minutes.