Carrot... I like!

What's your kind of carrot cake? The savoury kind with dark sauce, preserved vegetables and fried with an egg which you can find at your hawker centre or the slice of soft and moist cake filled with sultanas and walnuts and topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting that you can find at most cafes, or at my place.

Oh yeah, I'm a sucker for good carrot cakes and even though I found a place which sells damn good carrot cakes (even better or on par with Cedele's), I prefer to bake my own because I can substitute in gluten free flour and make everything edible without a consequence, at least to me.

Mmm mm! A strong dose of cinnamon, a good handful of sultanas and a chokeful of chopped walnuts is definitely enough to get me going.



Here's my recipe for my healthy carrot cake:

2 cups self raising flour
3 tspn cinnamon
3 tspn vanilla essence
1/4 tspn nutmeg
1/2 tspn salt
4 eggs
3/4 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sultanas
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 cup grated carrots

1. Mix eggs, sugar, apple sauce, oil and vanilla essence
2. Sieve flour, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg
3. Stir in 1. into 2.
4. Mix in grated carrots
5. Stir in chopped walnuts and sultanas
6. Bake in oven at 175 deg C for 50 minutes or toothpick comes out clean

Of Kaya rolls and Chocolate cakes

I still remember the taste of a kaya swiss roll Qin bought a year ago. It was moist, rich kaya spread between fluffy sponge cake rolled and sliced into pieces small enough to pop it whole into your mouth or to savour a bite or two. Utterly delicious. So imagine my delight when she said that there was a bazaar at her workplace again! There were stalls selling cakes, nonya kuehs, swiss rolls and other goodies! And of course, the stall selling the kaya swiss roll was there and I got her to get a box home *wide grin*


The kaya swiss roll is really very tasty! The rich custard-like kaya carries the pandan flavour very strongly yet not too sweet so that you can still taste the eggy flavour. Yummmmmmmmm.



Other than that, Qin got a Chocolate Truffle Cake (not from the same stall tho). It was really good too! Oh man, what a sinful day... but who cares.



And last but not least, OR NEE!!!!!!!!!! The pics at Blue Plate already had me yearning for some for quite awhile and when Qin called to say she bought some, I was grinning widely inside. Uhm, yummy yummy.

I initially wanted to take a picture of the box which came with the kaya swiss roll but apparently it got thrown away. But what a pleasant coincidence when I saw this on the papers laid on the table for dinner! There was an article about good cake shops located in Singapore :)



Yup, the kaya roll came from Rich and Good Cake Shop. I had heard about a cake shop at Kandahar Rd but I never knew it was this one. Other than kaya rolls, other flavours include durian, chocolate and strawberry and some others which I couldn't recall (the flavours were printed on the box). Pop by down whenever you have the time because the cakes are too good to be missed!

Big China

Everyone knows that Mid Autumn Festival is around the corner, to us floggers though, we call it Mooncake Festival! Wahahaha. Mooncake is one of the savory chinese traditional desserts which I love and with all the new flavours pouring in, sometimes its easy to get distracted from the traditional taste. And thus I shall present to you... *drum roll* Tai Chong Kok (Da Zhong Guo) Confectionary!

This traditional stall at Alexandra Village turns into a mooncake factory this time of the year churning out hundreds and hundreds of traditional baked mooncake in lotus or white lotus filling. Even though I prefer snow skin mooncakes, I felt that I should grab a few after hearing my buddy Des complimenting the mooncakes from Tai Chong Kok Confectionary. Due to the festival season, the stall only sells baked mooncakes with lotus and white lotus fillings and w/ or w/o egg yolks. Of course, the little piglet moulds are also available.





The filling is mildly sweet unlike some mooncakes where you can get a toothache just by biting into one. The taste of the crust is also not overpowering and the crust is quite soft and when eaten together, the smooth texture mixes really well with the filling. However, what I feel is distinctively good is the egg yolk. First of all, its not too salty and it retains moisture despite being baked. The mild saltiness also creates a nice balance with the sweetness of the lotus paste. Overall, the mooncake may not be exceptional. However, if you want to get a decently good mooncake at a reasonable price (SGD 5-7 range), you may want to check out the stall.

Address:
Blk 122. Bukit Merah Lane 1. #01-62. Alexandra Village. Tel: 62708994
Tai Chong Kok Confectionary (Opp Alexandra Village's claypot laksa)