Quay Po Cooks: carrot

Showing posts with label carrot. Show all posts

Friday, August 20, 2010

Carrot Cake - Featured at Bakeolicious on 10 Nov 2010

This is an all time favorite cake of my family and friends. My dear friend Diana asked me for the recipe last week and I just got to bake this cake today and here it is:D

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar.
2 cups sieved all purpose flour.
1 tsp. salt.
1 tsp. Cinnamon, ½ tsp Nutmeg
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed.
1 tsp. baking powder.
1 tsp. baking soda.
3 cups finely shredded carrots
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil.
2 tsps. vanilla.
4 large eggs.
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts are good, but any nut will do).
1/2 cup raisins.

Method:
1. Grease and flour or lined with baking sheets a 8” x 3” round tall pan.
2. Stir together dry ingredients.
3. Squeeze out some of the juice from the shredded carrots
4. Now add to the dry mixture, the carrots, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
5. Beat about 2 to 3 minutes until well mixed.
6. Stir in the nuts and raisins.
7. Bake at 325 degrees for about 50 to 60 minutes.
8. Cool on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting with Sour Cream

2/3 cup icing sugar
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup sour cream

Seive the icing sugar and set aside. Beat 1/2 cup sour cream and cream cheese in large bowl until well blended. Add 1 tea spoon at a time the icing sugar. Spread frosting over cooled cake.

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.