Chocolate Banana Cake

This is my other half's favourite cake and he will always, like always requests for this for his birthday without fail.  So every year, I will bake this at least once just for him.  This cake can be a bit tedious if you are not used to it because you need to first bake the chocolate sponge, prepare the filling and then the chocolate glaze.   However, it is worth all the time and do not be stingy on the bananas.  

This is another small one I did with a bit of easy decoration to hide the not so perfect bottom ^_^

The frosty whip cream powder that I used www.frostyboy.com.au

Chocolate Sponge:

( A ) 

30g cocoa powder
½ C hot water

( B )
4 yolks
65g fine sugar
130g self raising flour 
1/2 tsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

( C)
4 egg whites 
100g fine sugar 

1. Dissolve cocoa powder in hot water and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl add in egg yolks, oil, sugar and whisk them till lemony in colour

3. Add all the dry ingredients and melted cocoa powder and mix till well blended
4. In another bowl beat egg whites and sugar until soft peaks
5. Add egg white into (3) in 3 parts and gently mix till you do not see any streaks
6. Bake in 9" round tin at 180 C fro 40 munutes
7. Invert the tin immediately onto a wire rack after removing from the oven

Filling for the Cake:
( A )
350g non-dairy whip cream powder (I used Frosty Whip cream powder but you use whichever powder whipping cream that you can get at the supermarket or baking supplies store)
1 C fresh/UHT milk 
1 tsp vanilla essence 

( B )
55g cocoa powder
45 g icing sugar

( C )
2T espresso

( D )
1 T gelatin
¼ C hot water
Soak gelatin in hot water and stir till dissolve.  Heat it a bit if it is not dissolving enough or well then put it aside till ready to use.

1. Sift (B) and put aside

2. Whip (A) till well mix then slowly add in (1)
3. Then add (C) followed by (D) and whip till stiff and you do not see any streaks

4. Refrigerate till you are ready to use it

* Frosting:
1/3 C cocoa powder, sifted
120g cream 
45g fine sugar 
60g butter
1 T oil

Enough ripe bananas (about 10 or more depending on size) and halved them lengthwise

1. Heat cream over double boiler and then add cocoa powder, sugar and mix till sugar dissolves and mixture is well blended

2. Remove from fire and add in oil and butter, stir till both are incorporated nicely into the mixture

3. Leave it aside to let it thickened before using.  

* It is recommended that you make this earlier so that the frosting will thicken nicely and it will be easy to glaze the cake

Assembly
1. Slice cake into 3 layers

3. Sandwich each layer with filling and bananas

4. Coat the whole cake with filling and chill in the fridge to firm up the filling 

5. Once the filling is firm up, pour the frosting on top of cake and let it flow down using the spatula to smoothen it

6. Smooth the side of the cake and decorate as needed 

7.Chill it again before serving

Assembly
Slice cake into 3 layers. Sandwich each layer with filling & banana. Lastly coat the whole cake with filling & chill in the fridge to firm up the filling . Lastly pour the frosting on top of cake & let it flow down. Smooth the side of the cake.
I did not follow the exact recipe from the book. I altered it to suit my son and his friends taste. They want the cake slightly sweeter. That's why you see the alteration in the brackets

As for the ** 350 g Non-diary whip cream for the filling, you MUST use the type that have to add liquid before whipping. I use Hanan's Whip Deelite Base. The recipe book did not specify and many people end up with very watery filling. The filling should be very thick and spreadable.
It happened to me when I made the cake the second time. I din know the difference and end up with watery filling. I save the filling by adding cornflour and more gelatin and cook it over a double boiler. It will still be good but the filling will lose volume and be much darker.

Assembly
Slice cake into 3 layers. Sandwich each layer with filling & banana. Lastly coat the whole cake with filling & chill in the fridge to firm up the filling . Lastly pour the frosting on top of cake & let it flow down. Smooth the side

I did not follow the exact recipe from the book. I altered it to suit my son and his friends taste. They want the cake slightly sweeter. That's why you see the alteration in the brackets

As for the ** 350 g Non-diary whip cream for the filling, you MUST use the type that have to add liquid before whipping. I use Hanan's Whip Deelite Base. The recipe book did not specify and many people end up with very watery filling. The filling should be very thick and spreadable.
It happened to me when I made the cake the second time. I din know the difference and end up with watery filling. I save the filling by adding cornflour and more gelatin and cook it over a double boiler. It will still be good but the filling will lose volume and be much dar

Wok-baked Easy Banana Cake

I have been trying to bake easy cakes using the wok after watching a demo done by the saleslady when I purchased the wok she was selling.  You might think that it will have a steamed cake texture but surprising it doesn't.   However the top will not brown as much like the sides and bottom.  Controlling the fire is the key to get a nice bake, yes I have burnt a couple when the tried it the first few times.   So as practice is important :)

So I finally got my hands to work again using the wok.  With the balance bananas that I have in the fridge and using my food processor, this is what I got.   You can use a blender if you do not own a food processor. Very convenient and easy.

What you need:

2 cups self raising flour,sifted
1 cup sugar
4-5 medium banana
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil or melted butter
Vanilla essence

What you do:

1. Blend eggs and sugar till almost double in volume
2. Add banana and pulse till blended
3.Add the flour, pulse a few times till flour is incorporated into the egg mixture
4. Lastly add the oil and pulse till well blended
5. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan
6. Put it into the pre-heatead wok (preheat at high for about 15mins with cover on) lower the fire to low or low medium and let it cooked for 20-25 mins making sure you check every 10 or 15 mins7. Once the top is not sticky and skewer comes out clean, turn off the fire and leave it for about 5 mins before you take the pan out

8. You can serve it as it is or drizzle with melted chocolate or icing of your choice.

Happy trying !

Chocolate sponge with cream cake

I made this cake for my youngest daughter's 7th birthday last November as she requested for a simple cake for her birthday.  Initially she wanted to share it with her friends but changed her mind at the last minute.  Her sisters and herself got to enjoy this cake all by themselves :)

This is pretty much a versatile cake. I chose to use peaches because my kids love them.   The recipe is adapted from the book 'Dessert's Tempation, Wendy's Delights'.  I would recommend that you use a very good quality cocoa powder.


What you need:
(A)
20gm cocoa powder
60ml hot water

(B)
100g superfine flour/cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
40g caster sugar

(C)
30g melted butter/oil
4 yolks
30ml milk

(D)
4 whites
40g caster sugar
1/6 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

1 can peaches, strain and keep the syrup
150g whipping cream (more if needed), whipped till stiff

What you do:
1.Mix cocoa powder and water until mixture turns into paste like
2.Sift flour and baking powder together then add sugar, mix well
3.Pour melted butter, yolks, milk and cocoa mixture into dry ingredients and stir with a whisk
4.Beat egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
5.Add half of egg white at a time to (3), fold gently after each addition
6. Pour batter into a greased 8 inch cake tin and bake at 180C for 30-35mins

To assemble
1. Cut cake horizontally into 3 layers
2. Brush layer with the syrup
3. Spread cream on each layer and arrange peaches on top.
4. Place another layer and repeat (3) until the last layer, cover the whole cake with the balance cream
5. Decorate accordingly

Chill before serving.

Oreo Mini Donut

So I bought a 7-hole donut maker last year and kept it in the storeroom for a couple of months before I decided to use it recently.  This is one of the makers that I have bought and I still have another one which I have yet to open and try :-P

Anyways, since i got bitten by the baking bug BUT a tad bit lazy to use the oven, I took the opportunity to use this instead.  So this is how it looks.  I can honestly say that I really like this gadget.  Great to prepare fuss-free snack for the kids.  

I bought a mini-donut book recently 'Mini Donuts' by Jessica Seggara.  I would say the recipes are pretty good and simple to make.  The first recipe I tried was this Oreo Donut.

You can see the naked donuts and after the makeover.  The kids love them and with the fact that it is bite-size, it was easy for them to pop it into their mouth :-D.

What you need:
Donut
1 1/3 C all purpose flour
1/2 C cocoa powder (use good quality cocoa powder)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C yogurt (original uses sour cream)
1/2 C milk
1 large egg
3 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Icing
1 1/2 C powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 Tbsp heavy cream
some chopped oreos

What you do:
Donut
1. Whisk egg and sugar till fluffy, add the other wet ingredients except milk and mix them till well blended
2. Sift all the dry ingredients and add into (1) alternate with milk ending with dry ingredients
3. Mix till there are no lumps
4. Preheat the donut maker and fill the indentations 3/4 full and bake according to the manufacturer's instruction

Icing
1. Mix all the ingredients till you get a thick consistency.  If mixture is too thick, add additional milk/cream 1 tsp at a time till you get the consistency to your liking
2. Dip each donut into the frosting and sprinkle some chopped oreos.  Let the frosting set before serving

Enjoy !

Rosette Cake

I can't believe we are almost towards the end of 2012 .. today is 12.12.12, what a wonderful date.  Here, many couples are getting married today just because of the number.  Sweet huh :)

 

So I have  been busy lately that I didn't have the time to update my blog.  I know it has been collecting dust and I feel soo guilty.  So today I am putting up something I did for my youngest daughter who turned 6 last November.  Initially there was no plan to bake anything as her birthday was a day after we got home from our very short vacation.  But as usual, mommy got a bit guilty and did last minute shopping for her goody bags and made this simple chocolate sponge with whipped cream cake to share with friends at the childcare centre.

 

No time for elaborate looking piece, so I decided on a simple rosette cake.  It is so girlish just like the birthday girl :)

The side view of the cake.

It is not a big cake, just a  9 inch but enough to feed about 20+ kids :)   Chocolate sponge was a recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cake, german chocolate cake.  Easy and good.  Do try it if you have her book.

 

Fresh Fruit Tart

I love anything with fresh fruits especially tarts.  I just had to make one for myself eversince I saw those tarts from Fruit Paradise.  So I finally gather my mojo and made this which was a couple of months back :-P   I have not personally tried any of the tarts yet as the branches are simply out of my way.  So after talking to my colleagues about it, checking with them the texture, the filling and surfing the net for details, I decided to make a vanilla custard filling with layers of sponge cake and fresh whipped cream.  Here is the final product which did not look like those at Fruit Paradise at all *LOL*

I choose easy fruits; peaches and kiwis.  I actually wanted to pile more fruits but I messed up the whipped cream and could not risk the fruits sliding off the tart.  Anyways, it was a very delicious and refreshing dessert.  Everyone loved it.

This is how it looks like.  You see the crust, custard filling, a layer of vanilla sponge, whipped cream and peaches, another layer of vanilla sponge, whipped cream and the fruit toppings.   It is not difficult to make but can be bit tedious.  Better to prepare the sponge and crust a day earlier so you won't get so stressed up and mess up the tart.  Let me know if you are interested in the recipe :D

 

Dark Chocolate Dessert Cake

My least creative cake that I baked for my colleagues in the office yesterday night :-D  It is a very simple recipe and is taken off the back of a cadbury dark cooking chocolate wrapper.  I would say that not only it is easy, it tastes real good too.   I used dark ghana whittakers chocolate but you can use any good quality dark chocolate for this.  However, I would recommend that you add maybe 2T of sourcream/buttermilk or yogurt for extra moist texture.  

Flour famous banana bread

I made this lovely banana bread a few weeks ago for my sister who was going back to Shanghai.  We usually have this deal, I got her to buy some stuffs for me from Shanghai and I in turn will bake for her some cakes or stuffs to bring back.  Good thing was that my dad bought some bananas which I used for this banana bread.

I kind of like the idea of taking a photo of the baked good with the book.  It gives you an idea how the end result will look in comparison with the photo from the book.  So here it is.  Unlike most banana bread that only requires you to mix the wet & dry ingredients, this one needs you to whip the eggs and sugar till fluffy hence the texture of this bread is more cake like and light.  The recipe as follows:

Moist, Chewy, Fudgy Brownie

I am not  a great fan of brownies.  But I was looking out for a chewy , fudgy brownie for another friend and thought of giving this recipe a try.  An online friend shared this recipe a few years ago and it has always been in my to do list but it got shifted down as months passed.  Honestly I am glad that made it.  It is really that fudgy, chewy and dense, good for those who love fudgy brownies :-)

Caramel Peanut topped Brownie Cake

I was in a mood to bake last weekend and was thinking of baking something 'different'.  After going through heaps of baking books, I decided to try this and was truly delighted with my choice :-D 

Egg White Brownie

What to do with excess egg white and dark chocolate?  Ended up making this and it was truly delicious simply because I used valrhona 85% and 70% chocolate and butter ! The last time I made this I used oil and some other brand of chocolate (can't remember though) and I thought it was just ok.  So do indulge in some good chocolates if you can or at least get a 70% chocolate :-)

Although the recipe you can get it from my previous post here, I will just type it out for you again with the ingredients that I used for this.

Easy Nutella Brownie

This easy recipe was shared by an online friend and not only that is easy to make, it's a lovely brownie. It is really easy that even your kids can do it to with minimal supervision :-D How not to when it requires only 3 ingredients and no mixer is needed.

I made another batch but added marshmallow half way through the baking. I am not a great fan of marshmallow but if you do you may want to, bake them in cuppies as it was really sticky and goey and I had a hard time cutting it.

What you need:
1 C nutella
3 large eggs
10T self-raising flour, sifted

What you do:
1. Mix eggs and nutella with a whisk or spatula till it well blended, it will look like a fudge
2. Add sifted flour and gently mix it till no lumps
3. Pour into a greased baking pan or cupcake casings and bake in a preheated oven at 160C to about 20-30mins or till skewer comes out clean

If you want to add marshmallow, when batter is still a bit jiggly, arrange them on top of the cake and continue with the baking.

Blended Orange Cake

It's been a while since I update this blog. Have been busy with stuffs but could not find the time to upload things that I have done over the past months. Today, I will be sharing a simple cake which was introduced by a friend. It uses orange, the whole orange minus the white bids and blend all the ingredients in. Pretty straight forward and simple.

The original recipe is taken from here but I made some changes to the ingredients and used my food processor for this cake.

Ingredients:
1 medium size orange, cut into pieces and remove the seeds and the white pith as much as possible but keep the rind intact
3/4 - 1 cup of sugar
1 cup oil
3 large eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
some chocolate chips

Method:
1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside
2. Blend together orange till almost into paste, add the sugar, oil and eggs continue blending till double in volume
3. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the flour and mix it well or you can pour the flour into the blender and pulse it till it's mixed well
4. Pour batter into greased 8inch pan and sprinkle chocolate chips
5. Bake in a preheated oven, 160 celcius for 30-40 minutes or till skewer comes out clean and not sticky

Chilled Cheesecake with oreos (update with recipe link)

Made this simple chilled cheesecake for my brother-in-law who turned 19 last month. He is into wushu and so to make it extra special, I did a silhoutte using chocolate for decoration. I had a bit of excess of the both the filling and base, so I made them into cuppies just nice for the kids :-D

I used the recipe from the nobake chocolate+banana cheesecake (CLICK HERE) I replace the biscuit with oreos instead, minus the chocolate on the base and banana.

Red Velvet Cupcake

I don't usually eat cakes that are heavily coloured, hence it took me a very long time before I decided to make these delicious cupcakes. Thanks to Chuck Hughes, after watching one episode of 'Chuck`s Day Off', I could not get this out of my mind. So I finally caved in and made these. They are very easy to make and delicious especially the mascarpone frosting. Do give it a try!

You can get the original recipe from here: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Dessert/recipe.html?dishid=11309

Cupcakes
Ingredients
2 eggs (60g each)
1 1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 C canola oil
1 C yogurt, plain
1 tsp Wilton no-taste red gel (original is 2T red food coloring)
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 1/2C cake flour (original recipe uses plain flour)
1T cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Method
1) Preheat oven to 180 °C
2) In a food mixer/processor, mix the eggs with the sugar, oil, yoghurt, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Blend until just incorporated.
3) Place cupcake papers into a muffin pan, divide the batter in the cupcake papers, pour only halfway so batter doesn’t overflow, and bake, rotating half way through, for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove and let cool.


Icing
Ingredients
1 tub mascarpone (500g,original recipe uses 2C mascarpone)
1C icing sugar, sifted
1/2C cream
Zest of 1 lemon

Method
1) In a bowl, beat the mascarpone, icing sugar, cream and lemon zests together until the mixture is smooth.
2) Spoon a dollop of mascarpone cream on the cupcakes.

White Velvet Cupcakes

This is a very delicious cake and a good way to use up your egg whites. This recipe is from Rose's Heavenly Cake book and just to add, I simply love the recipes from this book. Do get a copy for yourself :) For the ganache, I use the recipe of Planet Cake which I had some left from a mud cake that I baked earlier.

Ingredients: 90gm egg white
160gm milk
1.5tsp vanilla
200gm cake flour/all purpose flour
185gm superfine sugar (original is 200gm)
2 1/4 plus 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
113gm unsalted butter

Method:
1. In a small bowl, whisk the egg whites, 3 T of the milk and the vanilla just until lightly combined
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt on low speed for 30seconds
3. Add the butter and the remaining milk and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened
4. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1.5 minutes
5. Starting on medium low speed, gradually add the egg mixture in two parts, beating on medium speed for 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients
6. Scoop batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20 to 25minutes or until cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean at 175C.

Dark Ganache
Ingredients:
200gm dark chocolate, chopped
100ml cream

Method:
1. Heat cream till you see bubbles at the side of the pot and turn off the fire
2. Add chopped chocolate and using a spatula, stir till the chocolate is melted
3. Let it set overnight before using

Happy trying !

Cakes galore

We had a long weekend early this month due to Chinese New Year. I have been a bit busy for the first 2 weeks of February doing some baking and here are the pictures of what I did.

White Velvet cupcake with dark chocolate ganache

Delicious Red Velvet cake I did for CNY gathering

Mini cupcake cakepops with left over mud cake and ganache

Chocolate Banana cake ala Secret Recipe for my other half's birthday

Last but not least, my biggest fondant cake project. I did this for my nephew & niece's birthday. It was load of fun though.
the back view

I am not posting any recipes in this entry, let me know if you are interested :)

Chilled No-Bake Chocolate Marshmallow Dessert

I have a very bad habit of stocking stuffs which I 'think' I will need but end up being chucked for months. This is a result of it and after sifting through recipes in my collection, I decided to make this simple no-bake dessert for my mother-in-law's birthday. The wording on it was made of chocolate using a chocolate mold. The words are in malay meaning 'Happy Birthday'. BTW, this recipe is taken from a local free paper. I find the chocolate flavour is not strong enough for me even though I have increased the amount. You may want to add more bitter/semi-sweet chocolate to 100g if you prefer a stronger chocolate flavour as the marshmallow is a little on the sweet side.

Ingredients

Biscuit Base
200g chocolate marie biscuits (originally using cream crackers)
80g melted butter

Chocolate cream
40g milk
100g marshmallow
1 tbsp gelatine (mix with 20g water)
90g melted bitter chocolate (Original 80g regular chocolate)
120g whipped cream (you can use coolwhip for convenience)

Chocolate layer
130g milk
50g fine sugar
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp gelatine (mix with 15g water)

Method

1. Crush biscuits into crumbs, add melted butter and mix evenly
2. Place mixture evenly on the baking tray, press the biscuit crumb mixture to form a compact base and store in fridge for 20mins
3. For chocolate cream, melt marshmallow with milk in a water bath, mix evenly
4. Stir in gelatine and melted chocolate
5.Leave mixture to cool, add whipped cream and mix evenly
6. Pour chocolate cream mixture onto biscuit crumb base, chill in refrigerator until set
7. For chocolate layer, add fine sugar to milk, boil until all the sugar dissolves
8. Stir in cocoa powder, leave it to cool to approx. 60 degrees Celcius then add gelatine into milk mixture
9. Pour the chocolate layer onto the chocolate cream layer, chill in refrigerator until set.

Decorate it accordingly and best serve it chilled.

Happy Trying !

Cocoa+Milo Cake and Nutella rolls

This year's eid has been a rather lazy one for me. I didn't bake much but just made what I think my kids and visitors would like :-) I made these in the first week of Eid for my guests. If you notice, most of my bakes are vanilla or chocolate flavoured. My kids are not into colorful bakes, maybe they got intimated by the colours *lol* Anyways, I will update the recipe later :)

Vanilla Cupcakes for Children's Day party

My youngest daughter's school had a Children's Day celebration last Friday and the school was asking for some food contribution for the party. Since my kids love cake, I decided to make vanilla+chocolate chip cupcakes with buttercream frosting. A simple one without any swirls or anything fancy. Actually it was my decision to forgo the swirls as it will be too messy for the kids :) To make it cute, I topped it with strawberry chocolate shavings and tiny chocolate balls that comes in white, milk and dark chocolate :)

The vanilla cupcakes, I used my favourite recipe by Magnolia Bakery. I got it off the internet many years back and I can't remember the site *lol* Anyways, here it is, I added chocolate chips to it.

Recipe:

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes

Recipe from More From Magnolia by Allysa Torey

1 C unsalted butter, softened (1 cup is about 227g)

2 cups granulated sugar (I used slightly less than 2 cups)

4 large eggs

1 1/2 C self rising flour

1 1/4 C all-purpose flour

1 C milk

1 tsp vanilla extract/essence

1 C chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C degrees

2. Sift flours into a bowl and set aside

3. Cream the butter until smooth on medium speed, ad the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

5. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla

6. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat

7. Scrap down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended

8. Add chocolate chips and slowly mix it into the batter

9. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full

10.Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean

11.Cool cupcakes before frosting