Dense Mango Cake

My mom asked me to bake a cake for our birthday dog, Kobie. I wanted to make a chocolate cake but then chocolates are considered poison for dogs and i wanted Kobie to have a bite of his birthday cake. So i decided to make a MANGO CAKE. It's all fine, i doubled check everything to see every ingredient is good for the dog, and humans to eat. hehe.

I wasn't able to take pictures since I'm in a hurry and Kobie seems hungry already. teehee.

DENSE MANGO CAKE

Ingredients:
>  3/4                   cup                   melted butter
>  1                      cup                   refined sugar
>  3                                              eggs
>  1                      cup                   mango puree
>  1                      cup                   sour cream
>  1                      cup                   chopped dried mangoes
>  2  1/4               cup                   all-purpose flour
>  1                      tbsp                  baking powder
>  1/2                   tsp                    salt

Note: In the absence of sour cream, a cup of (250 ml) of all-purpose or heavy cream combined with 1 tbsp of white vinegar or calamansi juice

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 325 oF. Grease the sides and bottom of a 9-inch baking pan with butter or vegetable oil shortening.

2. In a bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs, mango puree, sour cream, and chopped dried mangoes, and beat until smooth and blended.

3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Then add to the butter mixture, stirring until there are no more traces of flour.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until the top exterior of the cake is firm and dry when touched.

5. Cool on a cooling/wire rack before removing from the pan.


Here's how the cake looks like after i decorated it. :P

Red Velvet Pancake with Cream Cheese Glaze

For my whole life, I have been eating ready-made pancakes and I was satisfied with it. Now that I have been passionate with baking, I wanted to make my own pancakes from scratch, and my, it was just so easy! I never realized how something so good can be done as easy as doing it in ready-made mixes.

I decided to make a RED VELVET PANCAKE. Yep, it's red and it's yummy. I have been making a LOT of red velvet cupcakes and i decided, why not make it into pancake! So here it goes.


Ingredients:

• 2 cups         All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tsp            baking powder
• 1/2 tsp         salt
• 2 tbsp          cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp          sugar (optional)
• 2                  eggs
• 1 1/2 to 2     cups  milk
• 2 tbsp           room temp butter plus for cooking 
• 1 tsp             vanilla
• 2 tsp             red food coloring   

Procedure

1. Mix together the dry ingredients. Make sure to sift them all.

2. Beat the eggs into 1 1/2 cups of milk. Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Then stir in the 2 tbsp of butter.

 

3. Gently stir the milk mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to moisten the flour; dont worry about the few lumps. If batter seems to be thick, add a little more milk.

 4. Add 2 tsp red food coloring. You can add a few tsp of red food coloring since it wont affect the taste of your batter. In this mixture, i added 4 tsp of red food coloring to get my desired color.

You can transfer your batter in a pitcher to pour it easily into the pan, like this!

5. Use a little butter or oil each time you add batter. Always pour at the center of the melted butter. Adjust heat. Usually the first batch will require higher heat than the subsequent batches. Flip it in about 2 to 4 minutes as long as you see the sides begin to form and bubbles appear in the center of pancake.


What is a pancake without some sugary sauce right? Instead of using the typical syrup and butter, I used CREAM CHEESE GLAZE just like in Red Velvet Cupcakes!

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces            cream cheese, room temp
• 1/2 cup              powdered sugar
• 1 tsp                  vanilla extract
• 3 to 4 tbsp         milk

Beat cream cheese until very creamy. Beat in powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Combine. Add more milk to get desired consistency. Drizzle in the pancakes.

I have to cut the sides of the pancake 'coz i hate it. So here's the finished product!

M&M's Cookies

M&M's Cookies. I didn't use chocolate chips, that's why. I'm so hungry I just need to whip up something from ingredients available at home. So I made these and took the opportunity to blog it as my first entry. Hurrah!

Anyway, cookies. Probably the easiest I made so far. I always like cookies that are chewy and chocolatey but then I don't have the best ingredients in hand so I just improvised.

Now, how to make these babies:

You'll need :

• unsalted butter, melted for greasing
• 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup margarine/butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 55g/2 oz caster sugar/refined sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 125 g/ 4 1/2 oz of M&M's 

Instruction:

1. Preheat oven to 180oC for 15 mins. Line and lightly grease baking sheets. Set aside.

2. Beat the butter and sugar (both the brown and refined sugar) with mixer or wire whisk until smooth.

3. Stir in vanilla extract and egg. (You can also add 3 tbsp of liquid glucose to help improve texture of your cookies, making them extra chewy :P). Mix until well-blended.

 4. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder. Add gradually and do not overmix. Stir until blended or until there are only a few traces of flour. Add the M&M's.

5. Drop cookie dough by tablespoons or a scoop making sure you have enough spaces apart since these cookies will grow as fast as Yao Ming.

6. Bake in a preheated oven about 10 - 12 minutes or until the sides are golden brown in color (the center of the cookies should remain soft)

And there you have it! Easy as pie. Although, i couldnt say that since I haven't tried making pies yet. Aha!

There you go teddy. 

Aaaaaand he's full. HAHA