Vanilla Pound Cake
So one of my colleagues, Josephine, just graduated with a masters a couple of weeks back. When she came a few colleagues from her unit decided to throw her a small party. One of my colleagues asked me to make a cake but due to time constraints and a bit of laziness I decided to make a simple pound cake. I reduced the amount of sugar that was used in the original recipe and still felt it had a tad bit too much sugar but most people who ate it said that the amount of sugar was just right. Well you be the judge. HAPPY BAKING!!!
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups of sugar
- 1 cup of butter
- 5 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 3 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup of milk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Mix sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.
Beat with an electric beater on low to mix all the ingredients well. Then beat on high for about 5 mins Put the beater on low, add the flour and baking powder, alternating with the milk.
Spoon the batter into a greased baking tin Bake for 1 hour. Cool, dust with icing sugar. HAPPY EATING
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/vanilla-pound-cake/
Special (Black Bean) Brownies
So when I first saw this on Pinterest sometime in April the “pinner” called them special brownies, I just had to see what made them so special. When I went over to Tia Tofu I found out what made these brownies so special BLACK BEANS!!!!
Can you imagine that? Baking with Black beans!!!!! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? Plus how do you bake with no flour????? GOSH! Was I shocked or what. I thought it was weird that someone actually sat and discovered that you can bake with beans instead of flour. But…….me being Wangeci I got curious and just had to try it. I wanted to “see” what the brownies tasted like how weird they would taste coz of the beans although the blogger at Tia Tofu had said that you could not taste the beans.
So I first thought that black beans are what we (Kikuyus) call Njahi (black bean with a white strip)
Njahis- DO NOT USE THIS
So in my mind as I thought that I would EVENTUALLY get round to baking these I would be using Njahis. When I did a Google search the black beans did not really look like Njahis. So when I went to buy groceries at the City Park Hawkers Market I asked one of the ladies who was selling if they knew what black beans were and she did not seem to know. After consulting a few people one said that there were some “new” beans being sold but they were dry. So I got some.
Black beans-dry
Black beans-boiled
Well first forward to about a week later and I tried them and boy was I SURPRISED! They actually tasted like brownies. I loved them. I gave them to a few people; two of the people I shared with had no idea that I used beans. The first one liked it, said it tasted great and when I told them it was beans she was QUITE surprised. The second person also did not know it was made of beans and she liked it too but said it was too chocolatey (but they’re brownies so….) again she was quite surprised that it was made of beans. The third person my gal Liz knew I was baking with beans. Her first reaction, I think was, they’re gooooddd….. but they taste funny..aah not funny just different but they are good. So she liked them too.
So verdict…..These will make you great and healthy brownies. I personally love them. HAPPY BAKING!!
Ingredients
- 425gms of black beans, boiled and drained (you can use canned)
- 1 cup oats
- ½ cup cocoa
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup stevia/sweetlow/ or any diabetic sweetener. I used sugar though because I did not have this buts better to use the diabetic sugar to reduce calories and refined sugars.
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 ¼ cup of coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons of oil (nothing too string smelling)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup chocolate chips (optional, I did not use)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Put the black beans, oats, cocoa powder and baking powder in a food processor until its flour like ( there shouldn’t be any bean pieces)
Transfer the mixture into a mixing bowl and add the coconut milk, oil, vanilla and sweetener. Stir in the chocolate chips
If you do not have a food processor like me, put in all the ingredients (save for the chocolate chips and pulse for about a minute at a time. Stopping to give the blender a break. Do this till the mixture is COMPLETELY smooth.
Pour batter into a greased 8×8 pan. Bake for 30 mins
If you want to add some icing try this Peanut Butter Frosting. HAPPY EATING!!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/special-black-bean-brownies/
EASY SAUSAGE ROLLS
I love pastries. Only problem with them is how fattening they are but………………who cares as long as your mouth is happy you can go to the gym later right? RIGHT. Now on to the first problem…..it is so HARD to get a decent pastry in Nairobi! Most places you go to the pastries are too “bready” not soft enough, not buttery enough as in they just don’t melt in your mouth! Well because of this I’ve been thinking of learning how to make my own pasty for the longest time but I had two miserable solo attempts( I will post my failures soon) and I have decided to get some classes. Anyway before my attempts to make my own pastry I made this little sausage rolls using store bought puff pastry. They were a real hit. I tried them again last weekend when I had visitors over and they were the first items to run out. When I made them last weekend I did not have the store bought pastry and my attempts of making my own had failed so I used this dough recipe and they stilled turned out quite good. I would still go for the puff pastry but if you’re pressed for time or find the store bought one too expensive then try the easy recipe you will not be disappointed. HAPPY COOKING!!!
Ingredients
- 1 roll of store bought puff pastry (you can get this at the frozen section of the supermarkets)
- 400gms spiced sausages (pork, beef or chicken)
- ½ a medium onion
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 tablespoon of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
- Small bunch of dhania (Coriander)
- 1 egg
- A little milk
- - See more at: http://africankaya.com/easy-sausage-rolls/#sthash.VvVDR4gA.dpuf
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
Put the butter in a pan cook the onions till they are golden brown. Remove and set aside to cool
Skin sausages and put the meat in a large mixing bowl. Mash up the sausage meat with your hands. Add the onions, breadcrumbs, garlic and dhania to the sausage meat. Mix it all up with your hands
Roll out the pastry.
Shape the meat mixture into a long sausage and place it along the long edge of the rolled out pastry leaving some space at the end of the pastry.
Roll the pastry to enclose, cut of the long roll and seal the edge with a fork. Repeat this till all the meat is done. Cut the roll into smaller sized pieces of your choice.
Mix the egg and the milk
Place the rolls on a baking sheet seam side down. Brush with the egg misture.
Bake for 20-25minutes until golden and slightly puffy. Serve warm. HAPPY EATING!!!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/easy-sausage-rolls/
