Mini Bunny Carrot Cake

Yes… Baked a carrot cake again. But, a little difference. I got a set of baking modes as my birthday gift this year. I just used them once. I like them a lot, but the only thing is not every has this set. And it is difficult to be reference. There was a small group hold last night. Instead of cutting and serving to people, bake a small cake will be perfect to serve. And one of my baking modes is mini bunny. Bunny and Carrot… Perfect.

Last time, I found out it is really hard to mix everything in after adding flour. I tried a new sequence that it is easier. And, I has tried lots of cream cheese icing recently. But, I got my best one yesterday. I think I will use this for my future baking. Enjoy my mini bunny carrot cake.

Oven Temperature Setting: 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: 25~30 minutes

Recipe: 11 Mini Bunny Carrot Cake

 

Steps of Carrot Cake

(1) Add egg and sunflower oil into a bowl. Whisk wet ingredients.

(2) Add sugar, baking powder, and spice into the egg mixture.
(3) Add flour into the batter gradually. Well-incorporated everything before adding more flour in.

(4) Then, add grated carrots and chopped walnuts into the batter. Incorporate them well.

(5) Pour the batter into the mini bunny mode. Bake it at the pre-heat oven at 170C/325F/Gas Mark3 around 25~30 minutes.

 

Steps of Cream Cheese Icing

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Mix butter and soft cheese well

(3) Add icing sugar into the cheese batter. Well-incorporated all ingredients. Leave in the fridge that it will be easier to spread

 

 

Steps of Assembly

(1) Cool down the cake at least 2 hours. Cut the mini bunny in the half.

(2) Spread the cream cheese icing on the slicing side. Then, close them together.

 

Using this mini baking mode is really good for party. Everyone can just grab whatever they like. There are lots of mini baking modes sold in the UK because some parents like to bake with their children and enjoy the time. Anyway, me… just enjoy my moment in the kitchen.

Cottage Pie with Parsnips

Cottage pie is a very traditional meal that there are always fresh or frozen one sold in shops. I have eaten cottage pie on some parties. The taste varied a little. But, the essential of cottage pie is beef mince fried with some vegetable covered with mashed potato. Then, bake it. There are some beef mince, vegetable, and potato. Then, that it. My lunch is cottage pie. But, my potato is very small it will not be thick enough. I still have some parsnips so that I decide to use mashed potato and parsnips. It is cooking that there is no rules for here :D

Baking Temperature Setting: 220C/450F/Gas Mark 8

Baking Time: 20~30 minutes

Recipe: Serve 2~3 people

 

Steps of Cottage Pie

(1) Chop all potato and parsnips into small pieces. Prepare a saucepan. Place all potato and parsnips into the pan. Add 1 tea spoon of salt. Keep boiling them until it turns tender. It takes around 10~15 minutes

(2) When potato and parsnips are ready to be mashed, dry the potato and parsnips. Place them in a dish. Before mashing potato and parsnips, add butter, milk, and another 1 tea spoon of salt in. Mix them. Then, mash potato and parsnips. Set Aside.

(3) Prepare a fried pan, place onion into the pan. Stir a little

(4) Add chopped mushrooms into the pan. Stir a while. Cover the lid. Use medium heat to cook around 3 minutes

 (5) Then, add beef mince into the pan. Fried the mince until it turns golden. Then, add 1 tea spoon and 2.5~3 table spoon of soy sauce into the mince. Mix all of them. Simmer it until the gravy turns thick. Set aside

(6) Place the mince into an ovenproof dish (around 7 inch).

(7) Spoon the mashed potato and parsnips over the top of mince.

(8) Use a fork to decorate mashed potato and parsnips with lines. Send it into the pre-heat oven at 220C/450F/Gas Mark 8 until the topping is golden.

 

I like to eat cottage pie a lot. Because there is everything in one dish. Last year, I always prepared a lot for my exam season. If you don’t have lots of time to cook every day, try cook more and freeze it. When you want to eat it, just send it to the oven. Less than 40 minutes, you will have a tasty cottage pie. Enjoy it.

Red Velvet Cake Made with Beetroot

For me, red velvet cake is always considered as a very elegant cake. Because of it beautiful red color, it lets people image to eat red velvet cake with a cup of coffee or tea in the high-end restaurant. I would like to bake red velvet cake for ages, but I gave up because I didn’t want to poison myself to eat red food coloring. I know it can be replaced by beetroot. I always forgot to buy it. So, I have no chance to bake it. Last Saturday, my friend gave us some beetroots. I thought, Oh… Yes… My red velvet cake… Finally, I can bake it by myself. I used beetroots so that I didn’t use vinegar and buttermilk to have the reaction. So, here you go.

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: 40~45 minutes

Recipe: A 7” Round Baking Dish

 

Steps of Red Velvet Cake

(1) Prepare a small saucepan filling a half full with hot water. Place a bowl over the top of saucepan, but not touching the water. Break dark chocolate into small pieces and place into the bowl. And cut butter into small cubes and place into the bowl. Switch on the small heat. Stir the chocolate and butter until it is melted. Remove the bowl from the pan. Set aside.

 (2) Place eggs and mashed beetroot into another bowl. Mix them well

(3) Add flour, baking powder, and sugar gradually into mixture. Make sure incorporate all ingredients before adding more flour and sugar in.

 (4) Add chocolate mixture into the beetroot mixture. Well incorporate all of them. Pour into the baking dish. Send it to a pre-heated oven at 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 and bake around 40~45 minutes.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Insert the cake tester into the middle of the cake. If there is no batter left on it, it means it is ready)

 

Steps of Cream Cheese Icing
(1) Place soft cheese, butter and icing sugar into a bowl. Mix them well. Leave in the fridge around 30 minutes to be set. It is easier to spread.

 Steps of Assembly

(1) When red velvet cake is ready, cool the cake completely on a rack. It takes around 1~2 hours.
(2) Slice the top off of the cake
(3) Spread the cream cheese icing over the top. And, place some strawberries or chocolate on the top of cream cheese icing as the decorations.

 

Hee… My dreamy cake… Red Velvet Cake. Just feel like it is a cake, but it is SUPER HEALTHY cake. Bake with beetroots. How is your idea? Enjoy it.

Traditional Baked Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is a very common and classic dessert in the UK. Lots of food manufacturers sell cooked rice pudding that you can open and eat it right away. I didn’t notice this kind of dessert after being here 6 months. I was so hungry one day because of 6 hours classes. No lunch break. My classmate passed me one rice pudding. I thought… It is something like yogurt… then… I was surprised how YUM it is. The texture is quite like Taiwanese rice pudding cooked by black rice so I like it a lot. I have cooked rice pudding by slow cooker. Traditionally, it is cooked by the oven. Of course, I would like to share it.

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2; Baking Time: Around 70 ~ 80 minutes

Recipe: A 9” round baking dish

 

Steps

(1) Wash and dry the rice. Place them in the baking tin.

(2) Prepare a saucepan, add 50 g sugar in.
(3) Add cream and milk into the saucepan. Use a medium heat to cook it

(4) Add butter into the saucepan. Stir it until it is melted in the milk. Cook all the creamy sauce until there are some tiny bubbles form around the edge of the saucepan. Then switch off the heat.

(5) Pour into the baking dish. Send it into the pre-heated oven at 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2. Bake around 70 ~ 80 minutes until rice turns soft and pudding is creamy. And there is a golden surface on top.

 

 

Rice pudding is very creamy consistency with a crust over the top. Everyone has their own way to eat rice pudding. Some like to eat in HOT, some like to eat in Cold. Some like eat with jam, some like to eat with ice cream. For me, I like to add some oats and fruits over the top and eat it. So, enjoy it.

Potato Pancake

Actually, it was funny when preparing potato pancake. I was reading a recipe of potato scone then I though… WOW… it is very interesting… Normally, we see scone or cheese scone or scone with some dried fruit. Potato scone??? No… It totally triggers my interesting… I put it in my to-do listing. Then, I discussed with my friend, why not have a brunch. I can cook potato scone. Both of us though that it is a good idea. When we had our first bite, we LAUGH… It is potato pancake instead of potato scone. But, it is still very tasty. Eating with bacon, sausages, egg… Very perfect for the brunch.

Recipe: Around 8” Potato Pancake

 

Step

(1) Wash and peel all potato. Chop it into small pieces. Prepare a pan with boiling water. Place all chopped potato into the pan and add 2 tea spoon of salt in. Keep boiling around 12~15 minutes until potato is soft to be mashed.

(2) When potato is ready. Pour over all the water. Then, add butter and milk into the pan. Mix a while. Then, mash the chopped potato. Then, place mashed potato into a big bowl.

(3) Prepare beaten egg, flour, baking powder and another tea spoon of salt into the bowl. Mix all ingredients well

(Selena Kitchen Talk:
*This dough is very sticky because of mashed potato. Don’t worry about the sticky dough
**We ate with sausage and bacon which are salted food. So, I only add 1 tea spoon of salt in my potato dough. If you eat without anything, you can consider to increase the amount salt to 2 tea spoon.)

(4) Prepare a fried pan. Add some oil into the fried pan. Switch to the small-medium heat. When it is ready, place the dough into the fried pan. Fry one side until it turns golden. Turn another side. Again, fry it until it turns golden.

 I always like to try some new things for my cooking. So, I am not surprised when potato scone turned into potato pancake. It is the most amazing thing for cooking. You never know what it is if you try new things. Enjoy it.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I would like to do sticky toffee pudding for ages. Last time, I flied back to Taiwan, I had a very tasty sticky toffee pudding. This is what I wanted to do. So, I studied this recipe for ages. Actually, the salted caramel sauce was prepared for my sticky toffee pudding. But, the day I was going to prepare it, my friend brought some apple crumble to us. So, I just put my all baking things back to the cupboard waiting for another day. Finally, I did it yesterday so that I can’t wait to share it to people

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: around 30 minutes

Recipe: A 7” round baking tin
(Butter needs to put at temperature at least 30 minutes before using it)

 

Steps

(1) Place egg and milk in a bowl. Whisk it into a light yellow mixture

(2) Add flour and baking powder into egg batter gradually. Mix the batter well before adding more flour in.
(3) Add Light Muscovado Sugar and coffee extract the batter. Mix them well

(4) Add soft butter into the flour batter. Well incorporate all of them

(5) Mix chopped walnuts into the cake mixture. Pour the batter into the baking tin, and then send it to the pre-heating oven at 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 baking around 30 minutes.

 

When serve it, drizzle a spoon of caramel sauce. And place a vanilla or toffee ice cream over the top. Don’t worry if it will be too sweat. This cake is designed to eat with caramel sauce so that the cake itself is not sweet. Of course, you can eat without anything.
I tried to eat it in HOT and COLD yesterday. Personally, I prefer to eat in HOT. It is very chewy. Enjoy the wonderful baking work.

Baguette

I did a baguette once when my friend and I to have a picnic in the summer. The taste was good, but it looked like a fat baguette. Yes, I didn’t use couche (a flour-impregnated towel) to shape my baguette when it doubled the size. Okay… I am not a professional baker that I didn’t have so many tools for my baking. But, I keep thinking how to use the existing tool to bake a good shape of baguette. Then…Hee…Follow me… Then… You will find out my brilliant idea.

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 220C/428F/Gas Mark 8. Baking time: 20~25 minutes
Recipe: 1 Baguette (around 40 cm length)

 

 

Steps of Baguette

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Place flour and salt into a bowl. Mix it well.
(3) Place instant yeast into the flour, and then mix it into the flour

(4) Pour 150 ml water into the bowl. Mix everything to come together.

(5) Move the dough into a table with a little flour. Knead olive oil into the dough.
(6) During the kneading, knead the rest of water into the dough gradually.
(7) Shape it into a ball and put it back to the bowl. Place it in a warm place to double size. It takes around 1~2 hours

(8) When the dough doubles the size, squeezing the air out. Roll it into a long stick, around 35~40cm

(9) Put it on the parchment paper. Then, use two clips to hold it to shape the dough growing up. Leave in a warm place for another 40 to 60 minutes

(10) Just before sending it into the pre-heated oven. Dust flour over the top. Then, slash over the top. And then, send it to the oven and bake around 20~25 minutes until the surface turns golden and crispy

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Put a baking dish into the oven when pre-heating the oven. And then, boil the water. Before send the baguette into the oven, pour the water into the hot baking dish. There will be lots of steam. It can help the surface of baguette turns crispy.)

 

The shape of baguette is better than last time. The taste is still very good. But, I need to practice how to slash again and again. Hee… And probably, it should be rolled longer next time. If I do again, I’ll share my practice. Enjoy it.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Caramel sauce is very useful that it can be used on bread, your coffee or tea, and of course… my favorites… DESSERT :D  If I am going to prepare caramel sauce, I’ll prepare salted caramel sauce. Adding a little sea salt in will enrich the whole taste. It doesn’t just sweet and flavor. Salted caramel sauce can make everything a little different. Only 4 ingredients and 5 steps then you can have your own salted caramel syrup. But, the only problem is that cooking caramel needs patience… A lot of patience… Too much heat will burn our sugar and it is not we want it ^O^ 

Recipe: Around 600 ml

 

 

Steps of Salted Caramel Sauce

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Add all sugar into a fried pan. And then, cook it in small heat. Stir it every 5 minutes.
(3) After caramelizing all sugar, add butter into the pan. Stir it until it melts.

(4) Add cream into the pan. Keep stirring it until it becomes smooth and golden.

(5) Add sea salt into the caramel sauce. Mix all ingredients well

 

It is very easy, isn’t it? Few ingredients and steps than we have our own homemade salted caramel sauce. Believe me! It is tastier than the one you purchase at any shops. Enjoy it.

Bolognese Lasagna

My lovely friend did Bolognese last week. When she cooked it, the smell of Bolognese was full of the house. I asked her how to cook it. Surprisingly, she roasted tomato before starting to simmer the sauce. I think this one more step enriches the flavor. My friend used Bolognese with spaghetti. Doing some different cooking. How about cook Bolognese with lasagna sheets?

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 200C/392F/Gas Mark 6

Baking Time: around 45 minutes

Recipe: Serve 4 People

 

Steps of Bolognese

(1) Wash tomato and halve all of them. Place them on a baking plate

(2) Drizzle some Olive oil over the top. (I used 2 table spoon, totally)
(3) Drizzle some sea salt and black pepper over the top. Send it to the pre-heated oven at 160C/320F/Gas Mark 3 for an hour.

 

(4) When it is ready, place all roasted tomato into a bowl. Then, juice all by a kitchen blender.

 

(5) Prepare finely chopped garlic clove and onion and chili pepper. Place around 2 table spoon of olive oil into a fried pan. Switch to medium heat. Place chili pepper and clove into the fried pan. Stir for around 1~2 minutes.

(6) Place chopped onion into the pan. Stir for a while. Cover the lid and cook it around 5 minutes.

 

(7) Place beef and pork mince into the pan. Fried the mince until it is colored.
(8) Prepare the gravy. Pour gravy and tomato sauce into the fried pan.

 

(9) Add tomato puree and grated carrot in. Mix all ingredients well. Boil them. And then, simmer it for around 2 hour.
(10) At the last 30 minutes, add sliced mushroom into the sauce. Mix it well. When it is ready, cool it a little bit. Set aside.

 

Steps of Assembly

(1) Cover the Bolognese sauce at the bottom of a baking dish

(2) Add 2 lasagna sheets over the top.

(3) Cover the Bolognese sauce over the lasagna sheets. And then, drizzle some grated cheese over the top
(4) Repeat step (2) and (3) until using out all lasagna sheets.
(5) Cover the Bolognese sauce over the lasagna sheets. Use the rest of grated cheese over the top. Cover with a kitchen foil and send it into the pre-heat oven at 200C/392F/Gas Mark 6 for 25 minutes. Then, uncover the kitchen foil and cook for another 15~20 minutes until the surface turns a little golden and brown.

 
Learning how to cook Bolognese sauce can do lots of different meals. Although Italian people may disagree this, I use that for pasta, pastry, rice, or bread. Enjoy this Bolognese sauce and I’ll share how to use this sauce on another cooking next time :D