pinoy cheese cupcakes

french-pressed coffee and pinoy cheese cupcakes for breakfast straight from my oven. hot, moist and crisp!

• Here is the recipe from food.com
• 1 3/4 cups flour, sifted
• 8 ounces sweetened condensed milk (1/2 of 14 oz can)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract (optional)
• 1/2 cup Velveeta cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup cheddar, shredded

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs and orange extract using electric mixer
4. Pour in flour mixture in thirds adding 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk in between (beginning and ending with the flour mixture)
5. Add in grated Velveeta cheese and blend well.
6. Put in muffin cups 3/4 cup full only.
7. Top with grated cheddar cheese. I prefer to press the grated cheddar cheese down the dough to avoid spilling over the muffin cup.  This will avoid the muffin from sticking to the pan and makes cleaning easy.
8. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes (check your muffins after the 20-minute mark)
9. Remove from oven and top with more grated cheese if desired.
10. Stays moist for 1 week in room temperature covered in tight lid container.

Marble Cake

Husband's recurring request: marble cake.  He is not a fan of layered cakes with lots of icings or frostings so a marble cake is, by far, the closest to a fancy cake that he'd crave for.  This is my 3rd attempt and while I admit it's still not perfect, it is hands down wayyyy better than the first two cakes i made in terms of taste, texture and appearance. 
















Not perfect because i'm still not satisfied with how i swirled the vanilla and chocolate together to create the marbled effect.  I want (no, demand!) equal amounts of both on every slice, not just a streak of chocolate.  But it tasted really good, thanks to Martha Stewart's website for the recipe.  I don't have dutch-processed cocoa powder (it's so hard to find one) so i used regular unsweetened cocoa powder instead.

MARBLE CAKE

(Martha Stewart's recipe)

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Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder
2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature (if you don't have buttermilk you can easily make one: just mix 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.  stir and let sit for 5 minutes then use in any recipe requiring buttermilk.  You can also use white vinegar instead of lemon juice but i haven't tried it yet.)


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Set aside 1/3 of the batter.
3. In a bowl, mix cocoa and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved cake batter; stir until well combined.
4. Spoon batters into the prepared pan in 2 layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard. To create marbling, run a table knife (or wooden skewer) through the batters in a swirling motion.
5. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cake from pan and cool completely on the rack. Cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Share and enjoy!

cassava cake

I've been craving for a slice of cassava cake for a long time and have reached the tipping point. so i gathered all my ingredients which i have - i always stock up on frozen cassava and macapuno strings just in case - and got busy with it while my son was taking his afternoon nap. Here's my simple recipe, anybody can do this!

CASSAVA CAKE

Ingredients:

2 bags frozen cassava, thawed

1 can (12 fl. oz) evaporated milk

1 can (14 oz.) condensed milk

1 can (13.5 fl. oz) coconut milk

1 bottle of macapuno strings

4 large eggs, beaten

1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix cassava, evaporated milk, coconut milk and 2/3 can of the condensed milk (set aside remaining 1/3 for the topping)

3. Add eggs, macapuno strings and vanilla. Add butter last. Mix well.

5. Pour in a greased 9x13 baking dish and bake for 50 minutes

6. Remove from oven and spread evenly the remaining condensed milk on top and bake for another 15 minutes or until brown. 

8. Cool completely and cut into squares.

That's it. So E-Z! Sometimes i want it with a "burnt" topping effect so i bake it longer, 20 minutes instead of 15. Also if you're bringing it to a potluck party, you can line the baking dish with a banana leaf (you can get frozen banana leaves from any Asian store) for an authentic filipiniana appeal.

Enjoy!