FIA Recipes: Mango Japanese Cheesecake

FIA (famished in Arabia) is a group of food bloggers, you can find links to their blogs by clicking on FIA tab. Visiting each site has become a morning ritual and it's kinda good and bad for me - I end up hungry after each visit  and my list of recipes to try has piled up. 


With a whole lot of recipes to try it'll be a waste if they only end up printed and not created at all. That's why I decided to try at least 1 recipe a month from FIA.

Delivered: Bag & Shoe Cake

I accepted a cake challenge for a friends birthday with a red and black color theme. G had a particular cake design in mind-a red shoe and red bag with some black outline on top of a carrot cake. With two weeks to prepare I searched net and found lots of help watching youtube and blog tutorials on how to carve a bag cake and shape a shoe. PinkCakeBox tutorial on high-heel shoe and ChefGRFX bag tutorial helped me to complete the cake as well as the lovely cakers over at CakeCentral. 

A Girly Cake Challenge

My friend G requested that I make a girly cake for her birthday, a shoe and bag cake. *gulp I got excited and scared I haven't done anything like that and I have always refused friends request to make them some cute fondant cake. Sad to say i'm not artistic not like my mom and sister, I can't for the life of me draw a straight line without a ruler. G insisted that she wants me and no one else to make the cake for her because she knows I can do it. A little voice inside me whispered "ofcourse we can do it" and so I told her to give me a day or two to decide but to not worry in case I wont be able to do the cake I have a friend who has been making fondant cakes. 


Searched the web for inspiration, tutorials, and read forums that would help and encourage me to make the cake. I told hubby C about it and he too was convincing me that I can do it and that he would help. And so I agreed. I showed G several cakes on flickr and agreed on the look.


I have exactly two weeks to practice and prepare the cake. Below is my very first purse cake and beside it the sole of a shoe. Though the cake is not perfect I am overly happy how I managed to make one which actually look like a purse (I think). 

What have been little V doing while I'm working with the cake? Well we bought him his set of crayola dough. Before I start with my work he gets to work first shaping his dough and using animal cookie cutters to make shapes. I always remind him that his dough is not a fondant and he can't eat it. About after an hour or two he declares he's finish with his work and it's time for me to do mine. He get's his stool and stand beside me while I work asking a whole lot of why and what for. (i'll take photos of him with his play dough and post it soon)

Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frostings

This chocolate cake recipe that I found online is a favorite amongst friends and my boys ofcourse. Easy and yummy.

Moist Chocolate Cake

• 2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• ¾ cup Cocoa Powder
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1 cup Oil
• 1 cup Brewed Coffee
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla


a) Sift together dry ingredients. Add oil, coffee, and milk. Whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Whisk until well incorporated. Mixture will be quite runny.
b) Grease and flour desired pans. Pour batter into pans and bake at 325 F for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
c) Let cakes cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to cool completely.

Frosting is just heaven sent! It will require a whole lot of time to cook but its worth the wait.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

• 1 cup Cocoa Powder

• 2 cups Sugar

• 3 cups Milk (I use Full Cream)
• 1/2 cup Flour
• 1/2 cup Butter, softened

Sift Cocoa Powder, Sugar, and Flour then add Milk and butter. Cook on a double broiler. Stir occasionally to remove lumps and when mixture starts to thicken, stir more often. Cook until thick enough to spread on cake. Allow icing to cool down a bit before frosting cake.

*both recipes I found online, and I'm still looking for the link