What's on MY PLATE

We have here some Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling 🍪
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Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 cup soft butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup oats
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots
- 1 cup desicated coconut
- 1 cup raisins
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For the filling:
- 200g cream cheese
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
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- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C)
- In a large bowl (or stand mixer), cream the butter, brown & granulated sugars together until light and fluffy
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well
- Stir in the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined
- Drop the batter using a tablespoon on lined baking trays (or grease them well) Note: the dough will spread while baking
- Bake for 9-10 minutes
- Let cool for 5 or so minutes on the baking trays, then remove to cool completely
- Once the cookies are cool, make the filling by whipping all ingredients together until smooth.
- Find two cookies that are similar in size, add the filling in between them
- Make a nice cup of tea or coffee and enjoy the cookies!
- Refrigerate the remaining cookies
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We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here a beautiful Spiced Bundt Cake with a Brown Butter Glaze - one of our favorite treats!
The cake is also so yummy on its own without the glaze! 🍰

Spiced Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Glaze
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Ingredients (for the cake):
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or essence)
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 and 3/4 cup of flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons ground ginger (or to taste)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 cup oil
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Instructions (for the cake)
- Preheat your oven to 350° (180°)
- Prepare your baking tin (either a bundt tin or a large-ish square tin) by generously greasing the bottom and sides with shortening and then dusting with flour.
- Put the eggs, vanilla extract and sugars in a bowl and mix (with a hand mixer) until the mixture is light and foamy (about 2-3 minutes).
- Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix very well until the mixture is smooth (don't worry that the mixture seems runny).
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and place it in the oven (with the rack in the middle) and let it bake for 35 - 40 minutes.
- Let the cake cool, then turn it out of the tin and add the glaze (don't glaze until the cake is completely cooled).
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Ingredients (for the glaze):
- 1/3 cup of butter (not margarine)
- 1 cup of icing sugar
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Instructions (for the glaze):
- Put the butter in a small stovetop pot and place the pot on the stove with medium to high heat under it.
- Let the butter melt and constantly stir it until the butter turns a dark amber color. The butter might foam up, so make sure you keep watching the color of the liquid underneath and not the foam on top. This process of browning the butter should take about 5 minutes.
- Once the butter is browned, take it off the heat, let it cool for a minute or two, then add the powdered sugar to the pot.
- Stir it well and make sure there are no lumps of sugar.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cake.
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Once the cake is done, enjoy a slice with something hot to drink!
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We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here Beka's Rich Chocolate Cake & Raspberry Cream 🎂
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Chocolate cake Ingredients:
- 2 and 1/2 cups of flour
- 2 and 1/2 cups of sugar
- 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp espresso powder
- 1 cup oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup mala (or sour cream or Greek yoghurt)
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
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Mix all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately - then mix them together until well mixed.
Bake the cake in either two 9 inch rounds or one 9×13 sheet pan (butter the sides and line the bottom with baking paper).
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-35 minutes (until toothpick comes out of the center clean).
Once cakes are cooled, remove from the tins and frost with any desired frosting!
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Raspberry Cream ingredients:
- 4 punnets of raspberries
- 500g of whipping cream
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or more to taste)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Whip the whipping cream - when it looks close to getting firm, add 2 punnets of the raspberries, the sugar and vanilla. Keep whipping the cream until it firms up a bit, being careful not to overwhip! Use the cream to ice your completely cooled cakes. Add the extra raspberries for decoration.
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We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

Quite a few have asked for the ingredients to cook along tomorrow evening - here they are!
See you at 8pm!

We have here some home made fluffy pancakes with Rebekah Dawn’s favorite syrup 🥞🍯
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Ingredients:
- 1 cup of flour
- 2 tbsp of sugar
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1/2 tsp of baking soda
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp of butter melted
- 3/4 cup of mala (buttermilk)
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First, I combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and mix together.
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Then I whisk the egg and butter into the mala and add this all to the dry ingredients. Mix it all together, but be careful not to overmix it and don't worry if there are lumps the batter. Let the batter set for 10 minutes.
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To cook, I heat my skillet to medium heat and put about a tablespoon of butter in to melt all around and keep the batter from sticking. I pour about 1/4 cups of the batter onto the skillet (I can fit 4 pancakes at a go on my skillet) (I use an icecream scoop for this bit to keep it neat!) and I cook until bubbles appear on the top (2-3 minutes). Flip with a spatula and cook the other side until browned.
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Top with butter and syrup and ENJOY!
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BEKA'S FAVORITE SYRUP EVER
(*Note: this syrup is great for pancakes but can ALSO be used to top icecream, French toast, etc!)
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Ingredients:
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1/2 cup of mala (buttermilk)
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
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First, I melt the sugar and butter on a small pot on the stove over medium to high heat. Once they're melted, I add the mala and stir. Then I take the pot off the heat, add the vanilla, then add the baking soda and stir. The syrup will foam up into a thick creamy mixture! Serve and enjoy! (The leftover syrup can be refrigerated!)
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We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some Lemon Cloud Cookies (Rebekah Dawn’s favorite!)
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2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp of butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp lemon zest
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 degrees Celsius).
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
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In another bowl, whip together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times.
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Mix in the egg and egg yolk, lemon juice, vanilla extract and optional yellow food coloring and mix until well combined. Then slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
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Pour powdered sugar into a plate. Scoop the cookie dough out and roll it into a ball, then roll the ball in powdered sugar to evenly coat. (The dough balls should be about the size of large plum.)
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Space the cookies about 2 inches apart on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for about 9 - 10 minutes (the cookies should still be a bit soft when they come out of the oven).
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Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then make a big cup of tea or coffee and ENJOY!
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We’d love to see you give this recipe a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some soft-shell tacos! 🌮 🌮

These are super quick, so easy to make and packed with flavor!
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To make the tacos, lay out a tortilla (you can buy them in the store or make them, they are similar to chapatis but tortillas are rolled out very, VERY thin and fried with very little oil!) On the tortilla, layer meat with guacamole, pico de galo (kachumbari), sour cream, shredded cheese and shredded lettuce or coleslaw if you want! (We prefer ours without lettuce!)
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Meat filling:
- 500g ground beef
- 3 tablespoons taco seasoning (I use store-bought seasoning, but it's easy to make at home! This is the seasoning that makes it taste like tacos so don't skip this step!)
(To make homemade taco seasoning, mix the following spices together: 5 tbsp. garlic powder, 5 tbsp. onion powder, 5 tbsp. cumin, 2 tbsp. salt, 2 tbsp. paprika, 1 tbsp. oregano, 1 tbsp. black pepper, 1 tbsp. corn starch. Mix them together, store in an air-tight container and use to flavor meat, soups, stews!)

Simply fry the ground beef in oil. When it is cooked, at the taco seasoning and 1/4 cup of water, mix it all together and continue frying until it's well mixed.
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Guacamole:
- 2 to 3 large ripe avocadoes
- 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cup chopped dhania (cilantro)
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper

Chop up the avocado and mash them roughly with a fork. Mix in the lemon juice, dhania and spices. It's best to prepare this just before serving as the avocado turns brown after some time.
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Pico De Galo (Kachumbari)
- 3 chopped tomatoes
- 1 small chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped dhania (cilantro)
- 1 small lime
- Salt to taste

Mix all the chopped veggies, squeeze the lime juice over it, mix and salt to taste.
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Sour cream:
- Mala
- Cheese cloth
- Colander
- Spatula

Lay the cheese cloth inside a colander (a strainer for pasta) (True story, I use an old, clean scarf in place of cheese cloth!! You just want a tightly woven, very thin material!) Pour the mala into the cheese cloth and leave it on the kitchen counter for a few hours. Every hour or so, use the spatula to scrape the mala down on the sides of the cheese cloth. After the liquid has drained, scoop out all the mala remaining in the cloth and voila! There is your sour cream! Put it in an airtight container and keep it refrigerated.
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We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some marinated baked chicken, hasselback potatoes topped with cheese and homemade Ranch dressing, and tomato, cucumber and avocado salad topped with homemade French dressing.
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This was the meal Rebekah Dawn made on her first "Cooking LIVE with Beka Dawn" - click the link in our highlights (Cooking Live) to get the recipe and watch her walk through how to make this delicious and easy meal, step by step!
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We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some butter chicken with naan bread 🥘🍞
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Prepared by Rebekah Dawn
Swipe left for more pics 👈🏽
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Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts (cut into cubes)
- 1 litre of natural yoghurt
- 500ml of mala (buttermilk)
- 1/2 cup of tomato paste
- 1/3 cup of butter
- fresh dhania (coriander)
- oil for frying
(spices)
- garlic powder (3 tablespoons)
- turmeric (2 tablespoons)
- ginger (2 tablespoons)
- chili powder (to taste)
- mustard powder (1 teaspoon)
- tandoori masala (1 tablespoons)
- coriander (2 tablespoons)
- salt (to taste)
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This recipe couldn't be simpler! Fry the chicken in oil until cooked - I am not good at measuring my spices, but I would say I probably used about 1 to 2 teaspoons of the turmeric, garlic powder, and chili powder when frying the chicken and the remainder of the spices in the sauce... but you feel free to adjust how much you use according to your taste... all I'd say is, don't be afraid of spices! •
Once the chicken is cooked, transfer it from the pan to a bowl. In a pot (or crockpot if you have one), pour the yoghurt, mala, tomato paste, butter, the remaining spices, most of the dhania (leave a bit for fresh garnish) and the cooked chicken. Simmer it all together on low heat for about an hour. Salt to taste. Top with some fresh dhania (coriander), serve with rice or naan or chapati and enjoy!!
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We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some bacon cheddar mac 'n' cheese
(from our thanksgiving meal)
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Prepared by Rebekah Dawn
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Ingredients:
2 packs of elbow macaroni
15-20 slices of streaky bacon (fried until crispy and cut into pieces)
3/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup of flour
2 cups of milk
1 cup of cooking cream
3 tablespoons of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of mustard powder
2 tablespoons of ground black pepper
1 tablespoon of chili powder (optional)
3 cups of cheddar cheese (or gouda)
Salt to taste
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Instructions:
Cook and drain the elbow macaroni according to the package directions (make sure it doesn't get too soft, keep it a little bit firm as it will be cooked again and you don't want it too mushy at the end).

In a large pot, melt the butter and to it, add the flour. Using a spoon, stir the flour in the butter continuously so it doesn't burn. Add the milk and cream and mix together - you want to end up with a nice, thick sauce. You can add some water and stir if it needs to be thinned a bit or let it boil and stir if it needs to thicken a bit. Once you have a nice consistency, add all the spices and stir them in. Finally, add the cooked macaroni and stir until it is all coated. Add the cheddar cheese and bacon bits and stir until the cheese is melted!
Serve while hot!

Note: This makes a large pot of mac'n'cheese - you can cut the recipe in half!

We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some green bean casserole 🥘
(from our thanksgiving meal)
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Prepared by Rebekah Dawn
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Ingredients:
4 large packs of fresh green beans
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
2 packs of fresh mushrooms (sliced)
2 tablespoons of butter (for greasing the dish)
3 tablespoons of garlic powder
10 strips of streaky bacon
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

(Topping)
1 cup of breadcrumbs
1 cup of grated parmesan
1/3 cup of dried, minced onion
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Instructions:
Cut the green beans into small pieces (removing both end bits) and boil them in salted water until they are VERY tender. Drain them and set them aside.
Fry the bacon until crispy and cut it into small pieces and set aside.
Fry the mushrooms in butter, with the garlic powder until very tender and then set aside.
Once all the elements are ready, mix the green beans, mushroom soup, mushrooms, bacon and cheddar cheese together very well.
Then grease a baking dish, spread the green bean mix and then top it with the bread topping (just mixed the breadcrumbs, parmesan and onions together, then sprinkle over the top). Then bake the casserole at 350° for about 30 minutes or so, until it is bubbling and hot (note: because all the elements are already cooked, you just want it in the oven long enough to heat well through and for the cheese to melt).
Salt and pepper to taste and ENJOY!

Note: This made a HUGE casserole... you could easily cut this recipe in half!

We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some deviled eggs 🥚
(from our thanksgiving meal)
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Prepared by Rebekah Dawn
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Ingredients:
12 eggs
3/4 cup of mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
3 tablespoons of yellow mustard
2 tablespoons of grain mustard
2 teaspoons of black pepper
Salt to taste
Paprika
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Instructions:
Hard boil and peel the eggs, then (once cooled), slice them down the middle and carefully remove and place the yolks in a bowl and the empty egg whites on a platter.

Use a fork to thoroughly mash the egg yolks and add all the ingredients above except the paprika. Once the filling is well mixed, drop spoonfuls of it into the spaces in the egg whites. Then sprinkle a bit of paprika over the eggs as a finishing touch! You can also top them with sliced olives or a small piece of pickle/gherkin!
Also, you can change up what goes in the filling to your taste... add bacon bits or ranch dressing or fresh dill - it is such a versatile recipe!

We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊

We have here some sweet potato casserole (Ngwaci) 🥘
(from our thanksgiving meal)
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Prepared by Rebekah Dawn
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Ingredients:
10 sweet potatoes
2 to 3 tsp. cinnamon
Butter for greasing
1 pack of white marshmallows
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Instructions:
Simply peel, boil and mash about 10 sweet potatoes.
While mashing, add about 2 to 3 teaspoons of cinnamon. Then grease a baking dish with butter, spread the mash inside, top with marshmallows and bake at 350° until the marshmallows were gooey and browned on the top - it is SO yummy!

We’d love to see you give it a try 🙂
If you do, please post a picture and use the hashtag so we can see it 😊