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!

Brazo de Mercedes

Brazo de Mercedes is a rolled meringue filled with lemon flavored custard and is no doubt one of my all-time favorite cakes.  Just the thought of that rich custard filling and the melts-in-your-mouth soft meringue makes me salivate.  Luckily i don't have to travel a thousand miles to the Philippines to grab one from Goldilocks bakeshop because here in Fremont, we have 2 branches less than 7 miles from our house.

But for the past few days I've been thinking about making my own brazo de mercedes.  I searched online and stumbled upon a recipe from panlasangpinoy.com that guarantees how easy it is to make.  It only requires 6 ingredients which I already have in my pantry and with the step-by-step cooking video, i decided to give it a try.  Here's my not-so-perfect end product:

Taste is perfect; appearance is a big FAIL 'coz my meringue did not rise. 

Obviously, i need to practice more.  For that, i am calling this "brazo de carmela" hehehe  But the taste? YuMmY...!

Give it a try, you might do better than me.

race track cake

To celebrate my son's 2nd birthday i made my first ever fancy cake: a race track cake.  It's a chocolate sheet cake recipe copied from the back of hershey's unsweetened cocoa box frosted with 7-minute white frosting which i colored green. I would have wanted a darker shade of green to mimic grass but instead came up with a lighter one which is still ok.  For the race track i outlined number '2' and flooded it with chocolate fudge frosting topped with crushed oreo chocolate chip cookies to resemble dirt. Then i used white jimmies candy sprinkles (i chose the long ones) to create the track. Sooo easy!

I topped the cake with new cars toys and surrounded the side with oreo cookies to cover the imperfection... they look like tires too, don't you think?  Then i added a California plate with his name on it (the letters i had to stick one by one which explains why they are not perfectly aligned). It was a party just for the three of us and he had fun licking on the oreo cookies, the chocolate frosting and "driving" his cars on the track. He loved it! Talk about eating your cake and playing with it too!

Now, our 2-year old is licensed to drive us crazy! ^_^

Happy Birthday baby!!!