can ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Classic Carrot Cake (page 122), be an energy bar?
my canoe club is hosting the first race for this season, and i was asked to develop a recipe for energy bars. here is my take:
“I am sorry, and I don’t want to sound arrogant or bashing. I prefer a banana rather than energy bars. Don’t let the pretty oats, cranberries, or synthetic chocolate coating fool you; energy bars lacks texture as cardboard, sticks to my teeth, and uses the most inexpensive and low quality processed ingredients you can think of wrapped in a candy wrapper for a huge profit sale. I do have a recipe for a sugar free whole wheat carrot cake, contains honey. And we can bake this into individual bars or mini muffins and call it carrot energy bars?”
may 2010 bring better results! this is what happens when you omit the carrots for ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Classic Carrot Cake (page 122).
p.s. and i though my last posting for this take would be the last one!
addition: as most of the world had already welcomed the new year, i sit alone in Hawaii waiting for near 12 more hours! i have spent part of these hours finding the best place to store my new cake knife that xmas brought: how about above my large stainless steel cake tray? doesn’t this resemble a fruit with a steam?
this new year party, i am doing something new: my canoe club is taking us out to the ocean to watch the city fireworks with a different frame view! previous pot luck at the dock, i am bringing Basic Sourdough Bread and italian tuna. here is a picture plus some batteries been charged for the many flashlights i need to bring tonight:
just a couple photos while measuring the frosting ingredients for ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting (page 122). the sun hits my kitchen in december… take that!
december 26th and it is never too late looking for the ultimate gift for someone special or for yourself! for the chef who has every tool or gadget, there probably is one thing he/she may still wish for: the BOSCH Universal Kitchen Machine. when my BOSCH Universal Kitchen Machine arrived, i felt i found something i never knew i was missing all my life! i wish everyone to know this. if you have the opportunity please share my experience!
i use the blender attachment of the BOSCH Universal Kitchen Machine to make ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting (page 122). it works like magic, making a frosting perfectly smooth and emulsified that reminded me of mayonnaise! note that the BOSCH has an 800 watt motor with high rpm, the blender attachment may be as fast as a food processor; the frosting turned luscious and smooth.
a detail i found amazing, is that this blender won’t turn on unless the cover is in place. i’ll never live to hear my grandchildren say: “grandpa used to make a huge mess on the kitchen ceiling when turning the blender on without the cover.”
frostings that use white chocolate are extremely easy to make… if you pay attention to temperatures. adding too cold ingredients to melted white chocolate risks seizing into little chunks. instant read digital thermometers are many an very affordable nowadays, once i was quoted that this tool is the #1 indispensable thing i could not live without.
below are some progress photos, checking temperatures with my fabulous instant read thermometer, my youtube guests piping the perfectly smooth frosting on little financier shaped cakes, from ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Classic Carrot Cake with Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting (page 122).
what is your favorite cupcake shape? texan, standard, mini, or financier? if you haven’t made cupcakes with a financier cake pan, please buy, borrow, or steal one!
financiers are finger sized rectangular loafs about 3-inches long by 1-inch deep by 1-inch wide. financiers are elegant, fit between your fingers like second nature, and feed cleanly in your mouth.
financier pans, specially the ones made of silicone, bake perfectly even, crisp, and moist. i make financiers with just about any type of cake recipe, it always work without any adjustments to leavening, but be sure to bake only for 1/3 to 1/4 the time compared to a full size cake.
here are my ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Classic Carrot Cake with Dreamy Cream White Chocolate Frosting (page 122).
of course, everyone says that carrot cake frosting makes carrot cake, but i urge you to try this carrot cake naked, recipe from ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Classic Carrot Cake (page 122).
it has the classic taste and texture of traditional carrot cake, however moist, packed with flavor, yet with an amazing balance of spices. it even has a secret ingredient: cocoa. it is moist without using an excessive amount of oil. it packs a lot of carrots, making me think this should be the only way i enjoy eating carrots!
we had 10 lbs of carrots to shred, we had 7 graters to test. we baked ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Classic Carrot Cake (page 122), calling for coarsely shredded carrots.
for carrot cake, we LOVED the coarse or extra coarse graters. for fresh carrot salad, we loved the ribbon grater with its extraordinary and time saving bi-directional blades. the ribbon model also makes beautiful chocolate shavings to top cappuccinos!
here is a closeup of the beautiful shredded carrots when baked on the cake:
mi niece helped style the cake. we placed a single layer of jewel quality mac nuts on the bottom of a 7″ round pan, prior to adding the cake batter. then, after the cake was baked and unmolded, we quickly plucked up the mac nuts. we followed the recipe as written, except using mac nut oil instead of safflower or canola, and…. making a 4x batch which filled the 6qt ka mixer to the very top rim (my sister and i felt utterly most proud, she is an architect working for civil engineers, together with my baking-to-the-0.01-gram objection, we spent a few days going back and forth computing the exact amounts of cake we needed for her holiday gift bake). the lbs of carrots were mixed by hand on what i call a baby wash tub (i think my mother used this to bathe me). enjoy these progress pictures, i find rewarding watching how knowledge is transferred between a teacher and a student and viceversa, baking alone is no longer fun! (my sister was the dishwasher and also enjoyed reading the sunday newspaper)
my sister just informed me that she needs to make 10 more large loafs, but now we will use my new BOSCH Universal Kitchen Machine. here is a preview of this jewel piece of machinery, popular in Europe for many decades. i ran a test batch of bread dough to determine the power levels. the picture doesn’t give proper judgment to how beautiful this machine is, as i was told that its provocative curved lines were designed by porshe.
soundtrack: apple iphoto ‘09 theme music, ken burns
when making a 4x recipe of ROSE’S heavenly CAKES: Classic Carrot Cake (page 122), you need 8 tsp of cinnamon. what do you think will happen if instead of 8, you use 9? i don’t think there is such thing as a cinnamon cake!
maybe i can’t count, but for a fact, when measuring anything more than 3 tsps, i forget the count! NOT ANYMORE. in a small bowl, i add the tsps as i measure the incrementing weigh with my MyWeigh MX-500 pocket scale.
this is what i voiced aloud when measuring 8 tsps of cinnamon: 1 tsp is 2.3 gr, 2 tsp is 4.6, 3 tsp is 6.9, 4 tsp is….. and so on…..7 tsp is 16.1…. and 8 tsp is 18.4… don’t you think this gives you 100% assurance?
moreover, i needed to measure 8 tsps again for a second batch, but seemed that i was running low of cinnamon. so i weighed what i had left, 13 grams, then right away i knew i wouldn’t have enough to even start counting.
