Banana Bread (Nigella Lawson)

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This is simply delicious banana cake. The texture is moist with rum fragrant from the soaked raisins. If you are banana bread lovers do give this recipe a try :)

Pear and Cinnamon Cake

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I'm glad I still able to bake something to support Cook Like A Star hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids after back from holidays. This cooking and baking event last till end of December and I have bookmarked few recipes to try.

Banana Rolled Oats Bar

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Looking for something sweet for breakfast? Do consider this high fibre banana rolled oats bar. This bar is overwhelming with the flavour of banana. It is moist and crumbly similar to muffins texture. With the used of rolled oat it gives chewy bites along with the sweetness from raisins and chips. I substitute some portion of flour with whole wheat flour and wholemeal. I also added some ground flaxseeds to make it healthier.

Carrot Cake with Frosting (The Pioneer Woman)

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I have few carrots in fridge and was thinking to make carrot cake. I searched the carrot cake recipe in The Pioneer Woman site and found this. This is an easy recipe. All you need is get ready the ingredients, mix and bake. In order to make it healthier I replace white sugar with dark brown sugar; replace half portion of all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. I bake half of the recipe in 7-inch baking pan. As for the icing I reduced to half as well. As usual I reduce the amount of sugar. Do adjust according to your liking.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (Delia Smith)/ Birthday Cake

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This year no fancy cake for my birthday boy. Since I wanted to bake carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, I take easy way out try on Delia Smith Saturday Carrot Cake  I can't believe with easy mix and stir method yields such moist and yummy cake. Not forget to mention is a healthy type of cake.

To please my kids, I added cocoa powder and chocolate chips. They go well together. As for the topping I scatter some pistachio nuts on cream cheese frosting. I am happy with the 'Not So Perfect' birthday cake. Not only easy for the baker (me) but also 'go easy' to our tummy too :)

Adapted from Delia Smith Saturday Carrot Cake with modification
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
~Carrot cake
(A)
75 g peeled and grated carrot (about 1 medium-sized carrot)
75 ml vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

(B)
80g all-purpose flour 
30g oatmeal flour (grind from instant oatmeal)
(Replace for 110g plain wholewheat flour)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

60g soft brown sugar
handful of chocolate chips

~For the topping
50g soft cream cheese
25g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
10g icing sugar, sieved

Some pistachio nuts (crushed)

Methods:
1. Grate the carrot straight into a mixing bowl. Add in oil and beaten egg. Stir to combine. Set aside.

2. Sift all the dry ingredients into another bowl. Add in sugar and chips. Slightly stir to combine well.

3. Add the carrot mixture into dry ingredients bowl. Fold and stir well until everything is well mixed. Scrape the batter into lined 6' round pan.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 20 minutes or when cake tester came out clean. Remove from oven and leave the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before turning the cake out and stripping off the paper.

5. Once the cake has cool completely now is time for frosting. To make the topping, combine the ingredients in a small bowl and beat until smooth. Spread it thickly on the top of the cake and decorate it by scatter some crushed pistachio nuts on top. 

I am submitting this post to 

~ Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior's Cookin w/ Luv

~ Recipe Box#32 hosted by Bizzy Bakes

~See Ya In The Gumbo hosted by Ms. enPlace

~ Cook Like A Star organised by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids together with co-hosts, Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out and Mich from Piece of Cake.

Christmas Log cake

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I can't believe I make log cake! I actually pretty excited looking at my 1^st log cake. I used to think making log cake is hard as its look. Not until I read a log cake recipe in Carol blog.

 

Basically log cake is 'upgrade' version of Swiss roll :D With some extra effort the ordinary Swiss roll become outstanding festive looks cake. As we know the price of log cake selling outside is not cheap. If you used to bake Swiss roll and want to bake something for coming Christmas do consider this.

Adapted with slightly modification from Carol Christmas Log Cake
~ Log cake

Ingredient:
(A)
4 yolks
20g castor sugar
30g vegetable oil
30g milk

55g cake flour
15g cocoa powder

15g almond flour

(B)
4 whites
½ teaspoon vinegar (or lemon juice)
45g castor sugar

Method:
1. Whisk yolks and castor sugar till well combine. Add in vegetable oil and milk. Mix well.

2. Whisk in the sifted cake flour and cocoa powder. Follow by almond flour. Whisk till well combine.

3. In other bowl beat the whites till foamy. Add in 1/2 the castor sugar and vinegar. Continue beat till glossy. Add in the rest of castor sugar. Beat till stiff form.

4. Spoon 1/3 of the stiff whites into yolks batter. Fold to combine. Pour the yolk mixture into the remaining whites bowl. Fold till well combine.

5. Pour the batter into lined and greased swiss roll pan (I'm using 30cm x 36cm). Smooth the surface with scraper. Give the pan some tap to remove big bubbles.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes. Increase the temperature to 200C and bake further 3-4 minutes.
* I'm using steam bake method. Bake by placing a pan with hot water at the bottom of oven.

7. Once cooked, transfer the cake by lifting the baking paper (edges) to wire rack. Leave to cool (about 5 minutes).

 

8. Invert the cake and gently remove the baking paper. With a knife cut 2 lines (at the beginning of rolling point) but the cake is still attached to each other. Spread the filling (refer recipe below) evenly on the surface. Leave 1-2cm remain unspread.

9. Hold the cake with both hands and roll gently. When the swiss roll is rolled up, make sure the ending portion facing downward. Keep the roll in the refrigerator at least 2-3 hours before use.

 

~ chocolate whipped cream filling
Ingredients:
200g dairy whipping cream
60g semi-sweet chocolate (reduced from 100g)
 

Methods:
1. With hand mixer (low speed) beat the whipping cream till thick, at the stage where can be used for spreading (careful not to over beat!). Keep inside fridge while working on chocolate.

2. Cut chocolate into small size and put inside heat proof bowl. Melt the chocolate by placing the bowl in low simmer water. It is ready when chocolate start melting.

3. Remove from heat and stir till all chocolate melted and smooth. While melted chocolate is warm, mix into chilled whipped cream. Whisk fast till all combine.
*Chocolate must be warm or it will harden and can't mix into whipped cream.
 

~Chocolate ganache
Ingredients:
200g dairy whipping cream
100g semi-sweet chocolate
1 tablespoon honey

Methods:
1. Cut chocolate into a mixing bowl. Bring half of cream to boil. Pour into diced chocolate bowl. Add in honey. Stir quickly till chocolate melted and smooth.

2. Add in the other half remaining cream. Mix till well combine. Keep at room temperature till ganache become thick to use.

 ~ Assemble

1. Remove the chilled swiss roll from fridge. Cut a slice of cake from both sides (diagonally not straight; about 2cm thick).

2. Place the cut slices of cake on the cake to form log (use chocolate ganache to stick; make sure the cut side is clean from ganache). Refer here for pictures shown.

3. Carefully apply chocolate ganache to the cake. Use fork to form the pattern. Decorate the cake as you wish. The cake can be kept well in fridge for 4-5 days.

I'm submitting this post to

~ Aspiring Bakers #26 – Creative Christmas Motif Bakes! hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies 

~Recipe Box #28 hosted by Bizzy Bakes

 

~Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior's Cookin w/ Luv

 

Wishing all a very Happy Holidays and

Merry Christmas !

 

Apple-Pie Cake (Martha Stewart)

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I want to bake with apples. Apple pie seems a bit trouble as need to prepare the pastry. Apple cake seems not much different with ordinary cake that I used to bake. How about apple pie cake? What is that? This is the first thing I asked myself after seeing this recipe in Martha Stewart apple recipes collection. Actually it is a sort of pie with buttery pastry bake in cake tin. In between pastry there are some apples slices. Do you think it looks like a piece of cake too :D Pie or cake doesn’t matter as long as it tastes good^^
 

The pastry is easy to make. Just incorporate the butter with flour into breadcrumb and this will be the pie pastry! How hard could it be? I make this apple pie cake with half of the recipe into 7" round pan. Since green apples are used the filling it is a bit sour to my kids liking. They like the pastry and asking me to used red apples instead in future :D I enjoy this pie cake. For me everything goes well.  

 

I bake in the morning and serve in the afternoon. It is still crumbly and yummy. Do bake and serve. I would say it is best to serve on the same day.

Adapted and slightly modified from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
(A)
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
80g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

(B)
2 medium apples
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon corn flour

Methods:
1. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Put in butter and rub until the mixture forms pea-size pieces.

2. Press 2/3 of the mixture onto bottom and 1 inch up the side (I used 7' round pan and seems not quite cover the side :P).

3. Peel apples, cut into thin slices and place in a bowl. Toss apple slices with remaining teaspoon cinnamon, corn flour and lemon juice. Put them in the prepared pan. Pressing down gently as you pack them in.

4. Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture on top.

5. Bake in pre-heated oven 180C for about 25 minutes or until golden brown on top. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, and let the cake cool in the pan to set. Serve at room temperature.

I'm submitting this post for this month

~Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior's Cookin w/ Luv


~Cook like a Star, Martha Stewart, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

World's Quickest Yeasted Coffee Cake

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I'm glad I make this quick yeasted cake. It really easy and quick! The result is amazingly yummy! Of course being served while is warm and at the same day. I omit nuts as feel lazy to do the chopping. The topping mixture of buttery syrup and cinnamon sugar create crunch texture. For me I think the topping is the 'soul' of this world's quickest yeasted cake. Definitely can’t omit the topping :D

I like Lena's idea of baking the dough in muffin cups. Small dough means more crunchy topping! Kind of having baked doughnuts. Like other friends I cut down the amount of sugar. Since is best to consume at the same day I half the recipe. Half portion ends up five standard sized muffin cups.

This recipe is keeper for me. I definitely like to serve them to my guest. If you are new in baking I strongly recommend this recipe. You can't go wrong if you follow the recipe. Remember not to pour hot milk and butter mixture (after heat up) over the yeast as it will kill the yeast and cause 'stone' yeasted cake :D

 

Adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman (refer Kitchen Flavours for full recipe)
I bake half the recipe and reduce the sugar according to my liking
Serves 5 (about 40g dough each)

Ingredients:

~cake/dough

90g whole milk
1 tablespoon (15g) unsalted butter

2 teaspoons (10g) instant yeast
105g unbleached all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
 

~topping

1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

   

1 tablespoon (15g) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup (I used corn syrup)
1 tablespoon brown sugar

 

Methods:
1. Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan until the butter is melted and the milk is very warm to the touch. Pour into a large mixing bowl and whisk in the yeast to dissolve. Stir in the flour and salt and beat with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until form sticky dough.

 

2. Divide the dough into 5 portions (about 40g each) and place each portion into lined muffin cups.

 

3. Combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Press the dough lightly with spoon to get even surface. Then sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over the top.

4. Melt the butter for the topping. Combine the melted butter with corn syrup and brown sugar. Stir to mix. Spread over the dough. Sprinkle nuts (if you are using) evenly across the top.

5. Place the muffins in cold oven. Turn the heat to 180C. Bake about 20 minutes until the cake is golden and set in the center. Let cool slightly and serve warm.
 

I'm sharing this recipe at :

~Recipe Box 18 hosted by Bizzy Bakes

~My Sweet and Savory hosted by Chaya Selig

~ Bake-Along hosted by Joyce, Kitchen Flavours, Lena, Frozen Wings and Zoe, Bake for Happy Kids.

Super Easy and Super Soft, Moist Chocolate Banana Muffin

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One evening I want to prepare some breakfast for my kids. However it is too late to bake bread. Since I have some very ripe banana in the fridge make me think of this Super Easy and Super Soft, Moist Banana Muffin. In order to please my kids I added some cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Here come the new look of the ordinary banana muffin :D

Ingredient :

(A)
2 eggs
90g light brown sugar
90g vegetable oil
60g milk
1/8 tsp salt

(B)
190g cake flour
10g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
260g medium banana (about 6pcs), mashed

1/2 cup chocolate chips

(C)
Some chocolate chips on top

Method:
1. Whisk the eggs and sugar till combine.

2. Add in vegetable oil, milk and salt. Whisk to combine.

3. Add in sifted cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk to combine. Make sure do not over mix.

4. Add in the mashed banana and mix well. Lastly the chocolate chips.

5. Spoon the batter into lined muffin cups. Sprinkle chips on top. Bake at 180C for 20-23 minutes. Cool on rack and serve!

I'm sharing this recipe at

1. Recipe Box # 9 hosted by Bizzy Bakes

2. Full Plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Trio Flavours and Colours Butter Cake/ Steam Bake

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After the duo flavours of butter cake here come three flavours in one cake! After adding the cocoa and pandan flavour into the batter I spoon the batter alternatively into the baking pan. Just try something new and end up this pattern. LOL

Adapted and slightly modified from Annatay

Source from Jane's Corner

Ingredients: (In L23cm x W13cm X H8cm pan) 

(A)

150g butter

50g margarine

130g castor sugar

(B)

4 eggs

250g cake flour

2 tsp double action baking powder

4 tbsp milk (about 60g)

1 tsp vanilla extract

(C) Cocoa mixture

5g cocoa powder

* Dissolve all 1 tbsp hot water. Set aside

(D) Pandan flavour

1 tbsp homemade pandan essence

few drops of pandan flavour colouring

Method:

1. With electric mixer, cream (A) at medium speed till light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time. Make sure the egg is well combined before the next one.

2. Add in the sifted flour in 3 batches. Beat in with low speed. Lastly add in milk and vanilla extract. Continue mixing till well incorporate.

3. Remove 1/2 portion of the batter and divide into two portions. Add in the cocoa mixture and pandan flavour respectively. Mix till well combine. Set aside.

4. Assemble by layering some of the plain batter at the bottom. Then spoon the cocoa and pandan batter as shown into the baking pan. Repeat the layering (including plain batter) till finish.

5. Fill a pan with some boiling water and place at the bottom of oven. Bake the cake at middle rack in preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes (steam bake). Remove the water and bake at lower temperature 150C for further 15-20 minutes or till cooked.

6. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.

Cocoa Condensed Milk Pound Cake/ Steam bake

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This cake is one of my and my kids favourite. I had baked this for many times. The original recipe is condensed milk pound cake. If you like some chocolate cake, give this recipe a try! You will love it!

 

This time I added some coffee powder as coffee is this month We Should Cocoa challenge special ingredient!

I'm submitting this post for this month challenge We Should Cocoa hosted by Lucy of The KitchenMaid. 

Ingredients:

(A)
125g butter
40g castor sugar

(B)
120g condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp instant coffee powder

*Dissolve with 1 tsp hot water and set aside

120g cake flour

50g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

 
(C)
2 eggs

(D)

Some chocolate chips

Methods:
1. With the electric mixer beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add in vanilla extract, coffee and condensed milk. Beat till well combined.

3. Add in the sifted flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Beat at low speed till incorporate.

4. Put in eggs, one at a time and beat till well combined.

5. Pour into lined baking pan. Sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips on top.

6. Fill a pan with some boiling water and place at the bottom of oven. Bake the cake at middle rack in preheated oven at 180C for 25 minutes (steam bake). Remove the water and bake at lower temperature 150C for further 20 minutes or till cooked.

7. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.