Christmas Baking Galore! Part 2

It's Christmas eve and everything is ready and packed. So while relaxing and having a much deserved rest I have decided to continue the Christmas baking special, I have started yesterday.

Today, I was feeling more creative and decided to properly package my Apple Nut Loaves for my friends and family. I used labels which I have printed off of Missy Ballance's blog, which I came across in Pinterest. Make sure you stop by her blog, she has amazing ideas and such a cute site: http://missyballance.typepad.com/crafty_carnival/

So here you go: Apple Nut Loaves packaged just like large chocolates :P

Dry ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon (you can use a tad bit more if you like the cinnamon taste)


Wet ingredients:

4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sugar (this will melt with the wet ingredients)

4-5 apples
1 cup  nuts.
( I use more apples because I love a cake which is laden with apples but the recipe officially calls for 4-5 apples. As nuts, I usually use walnuts but this time decided to use hazelnuts instead and I love the combination better.)

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (approx. 350 F)

2) Sift all dry ingredients and mix well.

3) Combine the wet ingredients and the sugar. I manually whisk the wet ingredients until the sugar has dissolved but you may choose to use an electric mixer. As usual, I remind you to not over do the mixing!

4) Incorporate the well sifted, mixed dry ingredients together with the wet ingredients. Once you have a nice batter simply fold in the apples.

5) The nuts can be mixed into the batter with apples or else you may choose to just sprinkle the top of the cakes with nuts. Or you can do both :P

5) Pour the batter into appropriate non stick, well greased baking sheets. I have bought paper containers for these and since the batter is so thick they baked nicely without leaking out of the paper. The best thing about this batter is that it can be made into muffins, loaves and even cakes, you can choose whichever.

6) Bake for about 1 hr but be careful, just like the pumpkin loaves the smaller the size of the containers, the quicker the cakes will bake. In fact mine baked in about 45mins, whereas when I baked a large cake it took slightly longer than an hour.

My advice is to keep an eye on whatever you are baking, even the make of your oven might determine how long things take to bake. Use the toothpick to make sure the middle is well baked.

Christmas Baking Galore! Part 1

Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I'm super glad to have my first reader! The lovely Emily from http://www.52mantels.com/ I am so honored that you have joined my blog! My aim is to create a great, informative blog as yours :) a long, long way to go I know!

I have spent today baking and preparing little Christmas treats, which I originally wanted to give as gifts to my loved ones but I changed my mind since I could not find the appropriate packaging to do so. Instead, I will be placing each item into platters, which will be ready to be serve.Obviously except for the loaves which I will be wrapping up in plastic and labeling.

For today's installment I am going to share the recipe to one of my favorite loaves ever! Pumpkin and Apple Spice Loaves. Here is how to make these delicious, flavorful loaves, which will have everyone 'oohhh' and 'ahhh' at every morsel! And the wonderful smell you will have while baking these, will have the neighbors knocking at your door!

Pumpkin and Apple Spice Loaves.

Wet ingredients:
3 cups pumpkin puree (I make mine from scratch by chopping finely and boiling fresh pumpkin)
3/4 cup oil
4 large eggs
2 1/4 cup sugar (which will melt nicely with the wet ingredients)


Dry ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. ginger
Last but not least about 4 apples peeled and finely chopped.

Crunchy toppings:
5 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. flour
3 tbsp. oats (optional)
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp butter

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (I think it should be about 350 in Fahrenheit).

2) Sift all the dry ingredients and make sure that they are well mixed, no one likes to find those pesky patches filled with baking soda :P

3) Mix all the wet ingredients and beat till the sugar is more or less melted. I usually use my hand and very rarely use an electric whisker/mixer but its up to you just make sure you don't over mix as that will make the loaves/cakes tough.

4) Fold the apples into the wet mix. The more apples you use, the more the cake will come out moist but beware as you don't want the apple to overpower everything else. It will turn out as being an apple spice loaf instead! Again, it depends on your personal taste, those who might prefer the pumpkin flavor to be stronger can just omit the apples altogether or reduce to 2 apples.

5) With a wooden spoon, add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stir batter until the mixture is well blended. This is a watery batter so do not worry about it being too loose, it will bake nicely!

6) Spoon the mixture into non stick, well greased little loaf tins or into one large loaf tin or even into muffin cases (depending on your preference).

7) At this point, you can prepare the crunchy topping by mixing all the ingredients together and just sprinkling on top of the loaves before placing them into your oven.
*If you want a healthier alternative you can simply ignore the crunchy topping and use sunflower seeds instead.

These babies bake in about 40-50mins. depending on the size of tin you have used. Remember the smaller the tins and faster the batter will bake so if in doubt just keep and eye on those edges. To be sure that they are well baked, simply insert a toothpick into the middle. The toothpick should come out clean.

That's all for today folks! Until next blog update, may I wish you happiness and peace.
Spicy, warm thoughts heading your way,
Maggie.

And so it begins....

Here we go... the first blog post in the history of my life! I must admit I have thought about this step for ages as I tend to take things a bit too seriously and I did not want to start something I could not keep up with. 


There is soooo much I need to learn about blogging, including how to make my blog simple and neat looking; but I guess practice will help me in that. I want my blog to include all the things I enjoy the most in life, including crafts, baking, cooking and photography.


 I always considered myself as a jack of all trades but master of none and I was quite content with that label. As I grew older this began to frustrate me, so I decided to just do what I loved and become the master of these things.  On the top of my mastery list at the moment, you will find my baking skills :) haha my mum is one proud mamasita!!! Throughout my teens, I remember her telling her friends how worried she was about my future, since I was not capable or the least interested in girly things. In her Filipino accent she would hassle about how I did not know how to clean or use the washing machine or worse of all .... couldn't even boil some rice without burning it!!! 


Well, things have changed tremendously since my teen years and now I truly love all the girly things in life and pots


Welcome to all the undomesticated goddesses out there. You don't need to be born a cook, chef or baker but you can work hard at refining you skills and making your loved ones happy and a tiny little bit overweight!!


Girly and pink thoughts,
Maggie