Tag Archives: dessert

May16

Coconut Balls Recipe…..

Posted on May 16, 2017 by samoorstuff

I had posted on my Instagram a late night picture of what I was going to make to tame my sweet craving….

Now i’m big on desserts and baking but at such a late hour i didn’t have the luxury of time and wanted to just have something sweet…. That takes less than 20 minutes to be devoured!

First Measure all the required ingredients…. You’ll need

Next step is basically Mix ALL ingredients in a food processor until it begins to fold in on itself creating a dough like look.

Using a tablespoon or a mini ice cream scooper ( My personal choice!) Drop the balls of the dough onto parchment paper. ( you could just eat scoops out just like that if you want too!! )

Optional Garnish: To fancy up the balls you can sprinkle the balls with more lime zest.

Freeze the balls for at least 5 minutes if you’re in a hurry….ideally 10-15 minutes will make them completely firm

At this point you have two choices…. Eat the whole batch (totally doable!!! I know) or be a little more sensible and have a few and store the remaining in a ziploc or air tight container in the freezer…..

** You can totally substitute Lemon for the lime!

Making Life Memorable with sweet bites

Sep17

Date Cake & Caramel Sauce

Posted on September 17, 2014 by samoorstuff

Date Cake & Caramel Sauce

The amazing thing about living in Kuwait is that there’s always fresh dates. Tasty and sweet!!

We have a great Palm tree in our garden that blesses us every summer with dates.

Off course with that blessing comes a big responsibility of having more dates than one can handle…. To that I dedicate this fabulous Date Cake that my mother is very famous for and I’ve made it my own.

Enoy!!

DATE CAKE
Ingredients
1 cup Butter                      1 ½ Cup Flour
1 Cup Icing Sugar           1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Egg                                    1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Cup boiled Water         ½ Tablespoon Baking Soda
1 Cup Pitted Dates

Instructions:
Step 1 Preheat oven to 300ºF. Spray baking pan with vegetable pan spray and coat with 1 tablespoon flour.
Step 2 In a bowl, Soak Pitted dates in the boiled water.
Step 3 Blend butter, icing sugar & egg
Step 4 Add remaining ingredients (except date & Water) to the butter mixture. Blend well. Add Date & Water mixture & mix until all combined.
Step 5 Bake 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.
Step 6 Pour Caramel Sauce over cooled cake.

CARAMEL SAUCE
Ingredients
1 cup Sugar                             1 tablespoon Yogurt
½ Butter                                   ½ cup Milk
1 teaspoon Baking Soda     1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly until it becomes thick & brown.
Pour over cooled Date cake.

This cake is so good that it’ll no doubt be Making life Memorable every bite you take.

Sep10

Cafe Bazza

Posted on September 10, 2014 by samoorstuff

Cafe Bazza

It’s such a beautiful sunny morning in Kuwait that you can actually walk to your car without feeling scorched today.

A great day like this is a great excuse for a day out for breakfast… As soon as I drop of the girls to school I call my husband and we make a date out of it before we both heads out to work.

Our latest addiction is Café Bazza in Bneid Al-Gar. Close to home & my work that it’s not going to make me late.

A taste of traditional Kuwaiti food in a historical time warp. With the seating like an old “Gahwa” (traditional old coffee shop) with the modern TV playing old Kuwaiti shows and plays on silent while the radio plays old songs that bring butterflies to your stomach remembering the past.

For those that didn’t live that era it’s equally intriguing to see and hear things from a past you haven’t experienced.

A vast selection on the menu our choice was difficult to make.

My choice was the exquisite “Cheesy Omelet” a delicious combination of eggs, Spinach and Kraft cream cheese (Jibin glassat)

OHHH the rich creamy taste of processed cheese I must say was sublime with the healthy twist of spinach was hard to beat!

My husband was craving the “Qima” a traditional minced meat stir fry (7amsa) with green peas, onion, tomato and what I assume is Indian spices. All on a brick oven bread made like a pizza.

Off course all this wouldn’t be complete without Hummus for dipping.

All this accompanied by traditional Tea with milk in a little pot for one.

We truly had a “big feast” of a breakfast as Jennah would say.

So the next time you’re wondering where to go out for breakfast as early as 7am I would highly recommend that Cafe Bazza be your choice.

The amazing thing is that if the Bneid Al-Gar location is not close enough to you they have several other locations like Salmiya, Avenues, Abu Halifa and A2Z.

Off course you are not limited to breakfast their menu has a variety of lunch/Dinner & Dessert. We do intend to take the girls one day for a full blown meal.

Here’s to Making Life Memorable one meal at a time!

Sep5

One week down!!!

Posted on September 5, 2014 by samoorstuff

One week down!!!

OOOHHHHHHOOOOOO!!!

We survived the first week of school chaos. Between the traffic, figuring out classes, getting the new uniforms and settling into routine I think we did pretty good.

I’m jumping for joy as to how convenient this year is going to be with both girls having the same schedule and I don’t need to spend 4 hours a day on the road from one location to another.

Off course with that I had to have some sort of celebration at the end of their first week.

The girls decided that they wanted to go out for ice cream after school and that’s exactly what we did.

The funny thing is they insisted on having a big dessert.

We therefore went to Chilis (one of our favorite restaurant choices) Conveniently there’s one located at Al-Mohalab Mall next to their school.

They ordered the Chocolate Molten cake with ice cream while I was having the BBQ Chicken Salad. After about 4 bites of their dessert they looked at me and said “Can we share your salad”. I am truly blessed that my children eat healthy and would actually turn their dessert away and devour a salad.

I must have done something right!!

We then walked around the mall, went into makeup stores and put lip gloss on. Went into The body shop and tried almost everything that had a “TRY ME” sticker on it. And just giggled all the time.

Then it was time to head out before the security had enough of us!

Next choice was the infamous “Color Me Mine”

We are addicted to that place and soon will run out of choices of what to paint because we pretty much painted almost every mug, plate, bowl that they have.

The trick about what I do at color Me mine to make my money worth while is that the girls MUST choose something useful.

We used to do the figurines but then I just have a shelf full of “STUFF” and at the rate we go I’m going to run out of space. So it must be something we can use. Therefore we have plates of different sizes, bowls and mugs!

Let me tell you we can spend so much time there it’s crazy.

Now that the girls are older they really take their time and it’s not just about painting with colors over each other.

Trust me we have a bunch of Icky brown bowls from mixing colors. Now the girls chose colors wisely and start to make designs on their ceramics.

I was especially impressed with Zeenah on how she was handling her cup and taking her time in making it pretty.

By the end of this day we had a calm ride home, talking about what a wonderful day we had.

I am so privileged to have girls that appreciate me and here’s to “Making Life Memorable” as a family!

Sep26

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Posted on September 26, 2013 by samarhajjaj

Chocolate Fudge Cake

I love this cake because it’s extra moist so if I bake it a day in advance it doesn’t dry out by the time I serve it at my girls’ birthdays.

I also use this same recipe as I do my vanilla either 24 cupcakes or 2 layered cake.

Ingredients:
2 Cups flour
1 3/4 Cup Sugar
1 teaspoon baking Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Salt
1 3/4 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Shortening
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 Eggs
3 Squares (3 ounces) Unsweetened Chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven 175 degrees C (350 degrees F)

Melt the Chocolate in a saucepan at low heat mixing continuously. Make sure you don’t “cook” the chocolate. Remove from the stove and let it cool.

In a bowl mix all ingredients except egg & Chocolate with an electric mixer until completely combined.

Add Eggs and chocolate and mix for an additional 2 minutes.

For cake use two 9inch round pans (greased & floured) Bake fore 30 minutes

For Cupcakes Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool before frosting.

Sep24

Vanilla Cake

Posted on September 24, 2013 by samarhajjaj

Vanilla Cake

My standard Vanilla Cake works well in making either a 2 layered Cake or 24 cupcakes.

It’s really a classic recipe that’s beyond basic but perfect in every way.

The reason I like this recipe is because it’s not too sweet which makes up for the sweetness of the frosting.

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 cup Butter (Softened)
2 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Eggs

Directions
Preheat oven 175 degrees C (350 degrees F)

In a bowl combine All ingredients except Eggs.

Mix with an electric mixer until it’s all combined.

Add Eggs one at a time and continue mixing.

For cake use two 9inch round pans (greased & floured) Bake fore 30 minutes
For Cupcakes Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool before frosting.

My favorite ButterCream frosting will elevate the taste to the next level!

Special “Butter” Tip
If you’re anything like me and have to make a cake in between your other daily plans then you generally don’t have time to let butter come to room temperature and be naturally softened.

Use this tip! Slice butter into several cubes and microwave for 20 seconds at a time until its soft but not melted. It’ll also make it easier to measure.

Aug16

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Posted on August 16, 2013 by samarhajjaj

Lemon Chiffon Cake

This is about the fluffiest and tastiest cakes that I enjoy making. One that many have asked for the recipe….so happy baking and Enjoy!!

INGREDIENTS
7 eggs
2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cooking oil
3 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to a 325 degree F ( 175 degrees C)

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Make a well in the center of flour mixture. Add oil, egg yolks, lemon peels, vanilla, and 3/4 cup cold water.

Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat on high speed for about 5 minutes or until smooth.

You’ll find that it’s thick….I have the best helpers that will demonstrate the thickness of the batter in this video.

Thoroughly wash the beaters.

In a very large mixing bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed.

Keep beating the egg whites until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight).

Pour batter in a thin stream over beaten egg whites; fold in gently.

Pour into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan. I use the nordic Ware star bunt pan.

Bake in oven for 65 minutes until top springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert cake (leave in pan); cool thoroughly. Loosen sides of cake from pan; remove cake.
cake-edit

Makes 12-16 servings.