Birthday Chocolate Carrot Cake

 

During my kids' birthdays, I usually make it a point to at least bake them a cake. It is more of my birthday gift for them. But sometimes it is a little bit of a dilemma for me on what kind of cake to bake. Why? Because I usually have my own idea of what cake I like to bake and how I will decorate the frosting. But it is not my birthday! That is what I usually forget, lol. They have their own preference on what kind of cake they want. So my "selfish" personal ideas are thrown out of the window, lol. 

Anyway, what matters most is them. What they want and what they like. After all, it is their birthday! So this time, it was my son's birthday. (this post was late) I asked him what he wanted and he told me specifically to bake a Chocolate Carrot Cake! 

At first I thought, does chocolate go well with carrots? I tried to discouraged him but to no avail. He searched the net and found some recipes. Ha! I would not have known there is such thing as chocolate carrot cake, lol. 

Finally, I found one recipe online and tried baking it. I was skeptical that maybe it won't taste that good. I thought, " Here we go! Another experiment." But I was surprised how it turned out. Everybody liked the cake! I was amazed, too, how moist and good the cake was.  Another experiment gone great. This will be one of my fave cakes to bake from now on.

(Cake was frosted with milk chocolate cream cheese frosting. Decorated with chocolate bits on the side and some chopped walnuts.)

My First-ever Blueberry Cheesecake!

Conquer your fears! That's the motto that came to my mind today after I've tasted my first-ever baked blueberry cheesecake. I've been wanting to bake a cheesecake for more than a year now, but my fear of not making it right stopped me from doing it before yesterday. All I could think of was that, what if I mess it up, the ingredients will be wasted. I have also the tendency to get discouraged right away, so if I don't make it right the first time chances are I won't be motivated to do it again. So I've planned to do it and then chickened out, so it was postponed and postponed until this week I decided to try it out, no matter what the outcome is.
So yesterday, I finally had the guts to do it. I researched on various sites on cheesecake recipes and got my cookbook to get some tips on how to bake a great cheesecake. I combined the different ideas I read and put it into fruition in my recipe.
Being a first-timer, I had some mishaps along the way,Lol! I forgot to grease the pan with a cooking spray before putting the crust mixture. I already tried pressing the crust on the pan when I read on my cookbook to at least spray the pan first so when you take out the crust it will be easy and the cake won't stick. So I have to take out the crust mixture from the pan and do it all over again. Sprayed the pan and then put the crust mixture and pressed it into the pan,voila! Done with the first part, a little problem but I'm learning along the way.
I was a little worried at first with my mixer because I have only a hand mixer. I didn't know if it could handle mixing a thick mixture like the cream cheese. Because I remembered with my previous hand mixer it overheated,LOL! Well what did I expect with a $10 dollar mixer,lol. Anyway, it fared well to my surprise, I guess becuase it has more power than the previous one,thank God. So another worry solved.
Everything went well with the cream cheese mixture and the crusy so I started baking it. I was so excited about it that I keep opening the oven. I was afraid it might get burnt. But later on I realized my mistake. Opening the oven a lot will make the top of the cake crack, from what I've read. Another lesson learned for a first timer, so I made a mental note to make
research on how to prevent cracks on my cheesecake next time. but it wasn't such a major issue though, I got lucky I was planning on a blueberry topping, so the topping covered the cracks. So my cheesecake seemed perfect to look at with the topping on it:-)
The hardest part in baking your cheesecake for the first time is the waiting. I had to wait overnight before I'll be able to know how my cheesecake taste like. the reason for the long wait is because I have to refrigerate the cheesecake first. But the wait was all worth it, my husband said. This morning when we tasted it, it was very good. It came out really well, was very creamy.I was so happy it turned out as I expected it to be. It may not be visually perfect but the taste was divine. It goes well with coffee!:-)
So I guess, I conquered my fear and made the right decision. And now I can't wait for my next cheesecake adventure!
Here are a couple of photos of my masterpiece. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake with Choco Glaze

I made this chocolate cake for New Year's Eve. It is a two-layer chocolate cake with caramel in the middle of the layers. Then I pour fudge chocolate glaze on the cakes. And lastly, decorated it on top with chocolate-dipped strawberries. Yummy! The family liked this fudge glaze better than the usual buttercream frosting.