martha's red velvet cakes! not red enough

there's me, the world and red velvet cakes..
seriously.. the indonesian isnt familiar with red velvet cake, when i brought the cupcakes version of this red velvet cake to campus today, i had to explain what the hell is red velvet cake, over and over.. but they LOVED it!!

i feel so silly if i looked back to couple years ago when i started this baking craze and baked my first red velvet cupcakes without knowing how it tastes, yessss, i didnt know how it tastes until few months ago when i had my first red velvet cupcakes in london, they tasted BLEH fyi.. too sweet for my liking :( and at the almost same time, my good friend tasted the famous red velvet cupcake from the famous sprinkles in L.A, she couldnt like anything more :D

okay, imagine me, rookie baker even rookier than now, without any clue about what red velvet except that it looked red and so good.. total silly! the result was a wreck cake!
but after this martha stewart's recipe red velvet cake is an easy peasy, heehee..
the cake is so moist and... VELVET-y! i love martha!
the only problem was only the red color, it wasnt red enough. but still! me liiiike red velvet!

red velvet cupcakes (cake)
Makes 24

* 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
* 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
* 2 large eggs, room temperature
* 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
* Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
5. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

frost them with your favorite frosting, i frosted the cake with my own cream cheese frosting creation and the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream (no pictures of the cupcakes)

baked donuts! not homer simpson's donuts for sure

hmmmmm..donuuuuttt..
i always love those donuts in the simpsons, you know? pink glaze and sprinkles? we dont have that kind in jakarta.. krispy kreme is new in town, well, they got into indonesia like couple years ago and became a hit ever since. dunkin donuts? yes, we have that and loosing the shine. krispy kreme beats them! ah, another donut brand is called j.co and the stores are limited to asia only.
which one is my favorite? hmmm.. lets see... i grew up eating dunkin donuts, the plain sugar and strawberry jelly is my favourite, my brother the king of picky eater loooves the strawberry jelly so a dozen of jelly donuts is still make a regular appearance in my house.
how about krispy kreme? i fall in love with the glazed donut, french crullers and chocolate cake donut but IM FAT and i wont making my self even fatter by eating those. j.co? gah! its love hate relationship. so i think krispy kreme is my favorite.

now about these baked donuts.. its good, dense and not soft at all.. nothing like the deep fried ones, but these are healthy so.... what to say? but good thing, my brother (the non-picky eater) gobbled them fast :D

BAKED DONUTS
adapted from here, lovely blog!

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granuated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs,beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp sour cream

1:Preheat oven to 325 F.Sieve flour and baking powder in a medium bowl then combine with sugar.
2:Beat egg one at a time with milk,oil ,sour cream and vanilla extract until well blended.Then combine with flour mixture,mix vigorously until well blended.
3:Lightly spray donut pan with non-stick oil if not using non-stick pan.Pour batter into molds up to 2/3 full.
4:Bake 8-10 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.Remove from oven and let it's cool down before glaze or cinnamon and sugar if desired.
5:Decorate with your favourite topping.Serve as snack.

carrot cake, not my first!

my first date with carrot cake was in milan, two years ago and it wasnt really a carrot cake.. it was muffin. before that, my opinion about carrot cake was 'YUCK!' carrot is for soup not cake!
i bought my first carrot cake, sorry, muffin in autogrill cafe near pizza duomo, that cafe filled with tourists because simply italian dont drink coffee from autogrill (CMIIW?)
that first bite of carrot muffin and im hooked! the next day, well, the next time we found autogrill cafe, mom bought all the carrot muffins they have. dang! we snacked them all the way from milan to venice. we're saved!
so when i got back home to indonesia, i looked for carrot cake or muffin or whatever in few cafes here in jakarta but frankly, i dont like them, totally hate it! they tasted YUCK YUCK YUCK! time flew and i forgot. but not that total marvelous carrot muffin i had in italy.
then i spent last summer in swansea, wales and had not-so-good-but-quiet-okay carrot cake from a cafe inside debenhams. not-so-good-but-quiet-okay carrot cake is not what i expected, it couldnt cure my love-sick for an autogrill carrot muffin. i was dissapointed.
but nooooo.. this is a happy ending story, dont worry! at the very last minute of my summer holiday, i found the perfect carrot cake, it was from starbucks at dubai airport, i bought the last slice and ate it on plane, HOOKED HOOKED HOOKED!!! it was superb! of course different from the ones i had in italy but equally great! the cream cheese icing was a bit cheesecake-y and the cake was just perfect! i loooved it! that carrot cake was my summer lovin'

first thing i baked after i landed home is a carrot cake, i googled the recipe with 'starbucks carrot cake' as a keyword and guess what? found it! so i made carrot cake with that recipe plus the cream cheese icing. the result? well... it was good, different from any other carrot cake i've tasted, but not great.. for my liking at least because some people gave a good review about that carrot cake.
so the quest continued and i landed in my favorite kitchen, SMITTEN! and she once again score it!! her carrot cake is the great (though not perfect) cake for me and my mom liking, oh have i told you about my mom and her issues? well, i'll tell you about it some other time, just want you to
know.. she's a picky eater, QUEEN OF PICKY EATER gosh, how i hate her!

the cake is dense and moist, more like the one i had from debenhams. this time i skip the icing part just because my mom hate cheese! yes people, she hates cheese! and butter too! weird!
but the most important thing is i finally found the great carrot cake recipe (yet so far) and mom been asking me to bake more. YAY!

carrot cake adapted from smitten kitchen (thank you deb!)
original recipe here

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated peeled carrots
1 teaspoon of all-spicce
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350&176;F.

Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time then vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them.

To make a carrot layer cake: Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans instead of cupcake molds. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely.

i'll make them with raisins and walnuts next time!