as usual, It's been ages since i've last updated anything. this time i'm going to share an alteration of a classic sponge recipe that (so far) has always worked for me.


The sponge recipe- i got it off a friend who (i think) got it off an alex goh recipe.

120g caster sugar
10g ovallete
4 medium sized eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence or any flavour
120g flour (low protien@cake flour@super fine flour)
20mls water
20mls melted butter @ corn oil

method:

1. beat caster sugar, ovallete and eggs until light and fluffy. this may take around 5 minutes or more even when using an electric stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
2. mix in the vanilla essence @ desired flavour.
3. sift the flour and add it in small batches to egg and sugar mix, alternating with small amounts of the water. do not over mix, mix only enough to combine ingredients- alternately you can fold in the flour in water with a spatula to prevent overmixing.
4. lastly fold in the oil or melted butter.
5. to create the rainbow layers, divide the mixture into as many colours that you want to. I did four because i didn't want the layers to be to thin - it would make handling the cake harder.
6. mix in the desired colours, try not to overmix.
7. if baking the whole sponge, i would usually leave it for about 40 min - 50 min in a 180C oven (no fan) or 160 with fan.
8. for baking layers, i'd leave it for about 15-20 mins, same temperature.
9. once baked, remove from tin and cool. cooled layers can then be iced.

ideas for icing the cake

• fresh whipped cream - sweetened with icing sugar or not, which ever you prefer
• cream cheese icing
• butter cream
• choc ganache

i like to leave the rainbow layers exposed on the outside, so you can see the layers without cutting the cake.

In the quest for even more chewy cookies, I found this recipe and tried it out. Kiddies love it (read: niece, nephew, daughter, self). Very easy to make and very little ingredients.

A few lessons learnt

• make sure to use caster sugar and not granulated sugar- completely changes the texture if you use granulated.
• the temperature and timing is crucial to produce the perfect balance of chew and crunch.
• upon removing from oven, the cookies will 'deflate' giving the flat look and maintaining the chewy center.

ingredients:
125g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
125g plain flour
35g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

method:

1. preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. line several sheets with baking paper
2. beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add in the egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. sift in the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat until well mixed.
4. with dampened hands, roll walnut-sized pieces of dough into smooth balls and place on baking sheet, spaced well apart.
5. bake in a preheated oven for 10-12min or until set. leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

My latest project - sewing, has been keeping me out of the kitchen. No longer am I flipping through the recipe book repeatedly day after day, no longer is my oven being turned on for hours day after day. And if any baking has been taking place, it's certainly not a new recipe that i can share; or the other possibility of my cooking not turning out well enough to share with others.

But every once and a while, my taste buds tingle for some sweet or savoury bakes- hence i hit the kitchen once again. this time, my tummy brings me to bake a batch of brownies. If you have every watched a show called 'Baking Made Easy' on BBC (i think), it gives good cooking tips, and this time, i found the tips on making brownies rather useful.

• good brownies should be crispy on the outside and goey chewy on the inside
• try to keep the egg whites as fluffy as possible by gently folding in choc mixture
• line tin with extras hanging over the side- makes removing the brownie from tin much easier

ingredients:

100g butter, plus extra for greasing
150g plain chocolate
1 tsp strong instant coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
175g caster sugar
4 eggs seperated
icing sugar for dusting

method:

1. preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4. grease and line the base of a 20cm/8inch square tin.
2. place the butter ans chocolate in a bowl and stir over a low heat until melted.
3. leave to cool slightly, then stir in coffee and vanilla. add the almonds and sugar and mi until combined.
4. place the egg yolk in a separate bowl and beat together lightly, then stir into the chocolate miture.
5. whisk the egg whites in a separate large owl until soft peaks form.
6. gently fold a large spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining until fully incorporated (according to the show i mentioned earlier- you can pour the choc mixture slowly into the side of the egg white bowl to avoid pushing air out of the beaten egg whites.)- spoon into greased tin.
7. bake in the preheated oven for 35-40min. leave to cool in tin, then turn out, remove lining paper and cut into squares.
8. dust with sifted icing sugar before serving.

yumyum... bite sized treats. another recipe from the 1001 series. had to make good use of the piping bags and nozzles I had put so much effort into getting.
however, i didn't use the correct measurements for the choc sauce, so mine ended up slightly thick. maybe someone else who tries it can try the correct recipe and tell me if it was meant to be thick or slightly runny.


Ingredients:
choux pastry:
70 g butter - plus extra for greasing
200ml water
100 g plain flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten

cream filling:
300ml double cream
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

choc sauce:
125 g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces
35 g butter
6 tbsp water


baked profiteroles

method:

1. preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6. grease a large baking sheet. sift the flour.
2. place butter and water into a pan and heat gently until butter is all melted. bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and immediately add in the flour, beating well until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball.
3. leave to cool slightly. beat in enough of the eggs to give the mixture a soft dropping consistency.
4. transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm plain nozzle and pipe small balls onto the baking tray.
5. bake in a preheated oven for 25 min. remove from the oven and pierce each ball to release steam.

for the filling:

1. place the cream, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whip together.
2. cut the pastry balls almost half way and fill with the cream.

to make the sauce:

1. place the choc, butter and water in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water (double-boiler) and heat until smooth.

assemble:

1. pile the profiteroles into individual serving dishes or into a pyramid on a raised cake stand.
2. pour the sauce over and serve.

This recipe is highly recomended for those who want to eat muffins but don't prefer the denser texture compared to cakes, those who want to EAT but are highly calorie-conscious and those who want to find another source for getting their mandatory 5-a-day.


I personally feel that these muffins make a perfect breakfast or tea time snack and doesn't take too long to make. Don't be fooled by the low-fat business- it doesn't taste low-fat as far as my tastebuds are concerned. And as always, muffins are best when eaten fresh- warm out if the oven, but a day-old muffin is totally fine. As long as there are muffins, who's to complain?


Source: 1001 cupcakes etc series

Ingredients:
225 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp allspice (I omitted this)
115 g caster sugar (I wouldn't bother measuring- The recipe calls for only 6 tbsp in the mix -the rest is to be sprinkled on top)
3 large egg whites
3 tbsp low-fat margerine
150 mls thick low-fat natural yoghurt or blueberry-flavoured yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
85 g fresh blueberries

Method:

1. preheat the oven to 190C/ gas mark 5. line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and half of the allspice in a large bowl. Add 6 tablespoons of the sugar and mix well.
3. Place the egg whites in separate bowl and whisk together (lightly whisk). Add the margerine, yoghurt and vanilla extract and mix well, then stir in the blueberries until thorouhly mixed.
4. Add the fruit mixture to the dry ingredients, gently stiring ntil just mixed- do not overmix.
5. spoon into the paper cases and sprinkle the remaining sugar and allspice over the uncooked muffins.
6. bake in a preheated over for 25 min or until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch. leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to wire rack to cool.

Never knew that you can make cheesecake from sliced-cheese. Always thought of them as a savoury snack, good to put in sandwiches and such.
This however is very yummy, kind of reminds me of Cotton Cheese cake I had once back home (mahal tuh). Not to sure if they are the same!

Got the recipe off one of my new favorite blog haunts - K.Nor @ Secubit Garam

Still need to work on the presentation, still learning the basics of cooking.



from : K.Nor@SecubitGaram

Ingredients:
4-5 slices of sliced cheese
200 ml fresh milk
70 g butter
70 g plain flour (sifted)
70 g caster sugar
4 medium sized eggs
a few drops of vanilla essence

Method:

1. tear up the cheese and place in a pan with the milk. heat over medium fire until the cheese has fully melted, stiring frequently. add the butter and stir until melted. take off heat and allow to cool slightly.
2. seperate egg white and egg yolk. beat the whites with sugar in an electric mixer ntul it form the consistency of meringue.
3. in a seperate bowl, beat the yolks until light and fluffy and whisk into the milk-cheese mixture. add the sifted flour, bit by bit, beating in between making sure there are no lumps.
4. finally, add the meringue mix into the milk-cheese mix and add a few drops of vanilla essence. fold in mixture gently until well combined.
5. grease and line a 10inch cake tin and add cake mixture into tin.
6. bake at 170C for 20 min and reduce heat to 140C for the next 40 min. - bake in a bain marie. (place in a larger tin filled with water)- to obtain a nicer consistency.

An overload of apples are always expected at home once autumn comes- They're cheap in the supermarket and you just can't resist grabing a bag, or you probably went apple picking and couldn't stop yourself from picking just a bit too many or something completely unavoidable but highly welcomed such as a visiting friend bearing a basket of apples .
whatever the reason: i'd usually whip up a batch of Apple crumble for several afternoon teas. (fyi, i'm too lazy to make apple pie, and i know: they're eating apples not cooking apples- but i really couldn't be bothered, anything is better than waste)


But I never expected it to happen in the dead of winter. even after making these muffins, I still have a bunch of apples waiting to be eaten. Good thing they last a long time in this weather.
Didn't feel like making apple crumble this time. After flipping through the recipe book, I decided to make a batch of apple struesel muffins for breakfast with extras for my husband to bring to uni for his officemates.



I think it's a good way to finish up apples, and would probably be better if served with a dollop of whipped cream.


Ingredients:
280g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
115 g soft light brown sugar
250g cooking apple (I just used whatever apple available- i think with cooking apples you'd get a stronger apple flavour)
2 eggs
250 ml milk
6 tbsp sunflower oil

Streusel topping:
50g plain flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
35g butter - cut into small pieces
25g soft light brown sugar

method:

1. preheat oven to 200C/gas mark 6. line a 12-hole muffin tin.
2. to make the streusel topping, place the flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the butter and rub it until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. stir in the sugar and set a side.
3. to make the muffins, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. stir in the sugar.
4. peel, core and finely chop the apple- add into the flour mixture and stir together.
5. place the eggs in large bowl and beat lightly, then beat in the milk and oil.
6. make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients, stir gently- do not over mix.
7. spoon mixture into muffin case and scatter the streusel topping over each muffin.
8. bake in a preheated oven for 20 min or until well risen, golden brown and firm. leave to cool in tin for 5 min and then cool on coolong rack.

For my nieces 3rd birthday, I decided to try my hand at baking and decorating cupcakes. The recipe is real simple: basicly similar to a victoria sandwich.



cupcake recipe:
225g butter, softened
22g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour

method:

1. preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. line 2 x 12-hole bun tins with 24 paper baking cases.
2. place the butter, dugar, eggs and flour in a large bowl and beat together until just smooth.
3. spoon mixture into paper cases. (make sure you only fill half full so they dont rise to high- it helps when decorating them)
4. bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 min or until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.
5. transfer to a wire rack to cool

once the cupcakes are cool, you can start to decorate them.

to make the icing:

175g butter, softened
350g icing sugar

place the butter in a bowl and beat ntil fluffy. sift in the icing sgar and beat together until smooth and creamy.
A tip: if you don't have a splatter cover for your mixer, wrap a tea towel arond it while it mixes the icing sugar, so it doesn't fly all over the place.

to decorate:
spread the icing on top of each cake and decorate as you like with edible sugared flowers, sweets, choclate shapes, dried fruits, sugar strands, cake decorating sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, coloured writing icing, candles and candleholders.

This recipe is such a classic muffin recipe, that almost every coffee shop you enter, you're sure to find it. Blueberries are not particularly in season this time of year, so they might be quite expensive. Fortunately the store had a half price offer- hence the blueberry muffins I made for breakfast.


This muffin recipe comes out of the 1001 -cupcakes etc series, one of my favorite books- lots and lots of baking ideas and picture ideas too. Recipe books to me, should be filled with pictures. howelse are you to know wether your cooking turned out! better yet, are there any books that include the taste as well? :D


I also found these tulip muffin cases at the store - so now muffins can be easily presented- just like the ones they sell at coffee shops.

I also love these polkadot cake cases, makes the muffins look fun!

Ingredients:

6 tbsp sunflower oil
280 g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
115 g light brown sugar
125 g fresh blueberries (or frozen blueberries)
2 eggs
250 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
finely grated rind of 1 lemon

Method:

1. preheat oven @ 200C/ gas mark 6. grease a 12-hole muffin tin.
2. sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. stir in the sugar and blueberries.
3. place the eggs in a large jug/bowl and beat lightly, then beat in the milk, oil, vanilla extract and lemon rind.
4. make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. stir until just combined: do not overmix. spoon the mixture into the muffin tin.
5. bake for 20 min or until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch. leave to cool in tin for 5 min then serve warn or transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

A few days ago, I braved through the snowy day, up a hill, pushing a stroller all the way to a hardware store. Don't ask why I choose the snowy day of all days, but you may ask why. It's because I wanted to buy a pastry pipping nozzle.. I looked all over the city, but could not find the few that I wanted. So because i've been promising myself i'd make eclairs one fine day for over a month, I finally woke up that snowy morning and said.. why not make eclairs on a not so fine day!


It's simple enough but it pretty tedious, and I guess it needs a lot of practise or a very delicate hand to make it presentable. As usual, my food may not look it's best, but hopefully the recipes I share with you here are good ones- those that turned out for me.


Ingredients
Choux Pastry
70 g butter, diced plus extra for greasing
150mls water
100 g plain flour
2 eggs

Pastry Cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
300ml milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Icing
25 g butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder
55g icing sugar

Method:
for the choux pastry:

1. preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6. grease a baking sheet. sift the flour.
2. place the water and butter into sace pan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
3. bring to boil and remove from the heat. immediately add in the flour, beating well ntil the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball.
4. leave to cool slightly, then gradually beat in the eggs to form a smooth, glossy mixture.
5. spoon into a piping bag fittes with a 1cm/1/2 inch plain nozzle. sprinkle the baking sheet with bit of water and pipe eclairs 7.5cm long, spaced well apart. (i made mine shorter so i got more)
6. bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or ntil crisp and golden. make a small slit at the side to allow steam to escape, and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

while the pastry is baking, make the pastry cream

1. place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat until creamy and thick. fold in the cornflour.
2. heat the milk in a pan until boiling. remove from heat and pour into egg mixture while whisking.
3. return to the pan and continue to heat until thick and glossy. add the vanilla extract and mix. allow to cool completely.

for the icing:

1. melt the butter in a seperate pan and mix in milk
2. remove from the heat and stir in cocoa powder and icing sugar.

to assemble:
split the eclairs lenghtways and pipr in the pastry cream. spread the icing over the top of the eclair. leave to set.



p/s: it may look sweet and toothaching, but honestly it's not. all in all, there's very little sugar used in comparison to other desserts, none at all the pastry.

courtesy of Mat gebu @ Dapur tanpa sepadan
My favorite fruit to have in the house are bananas. I think I have rambled on about how great bananas are and how they are extremely handy when you have small kids in another entry. I'm not going to do that here again.


Instead, I'm going to ramble on about how great this cake is! it really2 is. The original recipe from Mat Gebu can be found here. I found out about this recipe from my sister who tried it out first. She said it was really nice, so immediately, I wanted to try it too. however, the ingredients called for OVALLETTE; a baking ingredient that I think acts as a cake stabilizer- not widely available in UK (correct me if i'm wrong). I tried looking for alternatives but could not find any. So if anybody knows what I can substitute it with, please let me know.


how did I get my ovallete to make this cake? Well from malaysia of course, specially brought by visitors over the holidays. Limited supply, so I'm keeping it for when I truly find a recipe worth making.

Finally, This cake is really good that I made it twice in two days - one for just the three of us (my 1 1/2 yr old daughter probably ate a whole 1/4) and the next day for guests.


Ingredients:
250g plain flour*
1 tsp soda bicarbonate*
1/2 tsp salt* (* mixed and sifted)
15g ovallete
150g caster sugar
5 eggs
125g butter - melted and cooled
100g corn oil (I used vege oil)
225g extra ripe banana -mashed

Method:

1. preheat the oven to 175C. grease the cake tin with butter and coat with flour- shaking off excess.
2. mix sugar and ovallete until combined. add all of the eggs and mix on high speed until well risen, white and fluffy.
3. lower speed and add mashed banana.
4. add in the flour a bit at a time, alternating with melted butter and oil.
5. pour into cake tin and bake for 55- 60 min.
6. wait until completely cool before removing from tin. dust with icing sugar and cut to serve.

first of all, I appologize for the plainess of the pictures. I had a stack of cream cheese (soft cheese) and sour cream in my fridge and has wanted to make cheesecake for about 3 weeks, but i never got around to it. with the expiry date for both items looming near, i finally pushed myself to make the darn cake!

unfortunalety, the recipe I was used to using went missing! I looked all over the net trying to find it again (honestly, i didn't put that much effort into it) but i just couldn't find it. serves me right for not writing down the recipe properly.

In the end, this recipe is sort of a cut-and-paste recipe. I took a little from allrecipes, from nigella's kitchen and some from memory.


Ingredients
for the base:
200g digestive biscuits
50g soft butter

for the filling:
2 packets soft cheese
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup caster sugar

for the topping:
250mls sour cream
100g dark chocolate chips
30g soft brown sugar

= for a 10 inch springform tin

oh please forgive my mixed measurements, i did say this was a cut-and-paste recipe!

method:

1. preheat oven to 180C. lightly grease and line cake tin.
2. in a food processor, grind the biscuit until it forms crumbs. melt the butter and add to the biscuit crumbs. press the mixture into the bottom of the tin and bake for 10-15 minutes.
3. in a bowl, combine all ingredients for filling and whisk until well combined. remove tin from oven and pour filling mixture over the base.
4. bake for 50-60 min until the top of the cake is set. the filling should be slightly jiggly while the top is set.
5. remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. in the mean time, prepare the topping by heating the sour cream in a pan over low heat. add the sugar and chocolate chips and whisk until well mixed.
6. pour the topping carefully over the cheesecake, making sure not to break the surface. place the cake back into the oven for 10 minutes
7. cool the cheesecake in its tin, when the cake is cool enough, continue to set in the fridge overnight. before removing from tin, bring the cheesecake out of the fridge well before needed, just to remove the chill (not until gloopy warm) - it makes it easier to take out.

1. 

review:

• this cake is yummy.. slightly sour the first time i tasted it, so next time i'd probably add another packet of soft cheese to the filling.
• prepare to feel fat when eating, but in no way guilty! hehe.

Most of the recipes I found online to make marbled cake (the ones I was attracted to anyway) involves using ovallette, something not readily available here in UK.
After searching and debating with myself (lawan kemalasan), i decided to make an altered recipe found on the All Recipe website.


A winter tip: if you want to make something using butter that needs to be softened, take it out of the fridge WELL ahead of time (i.e the night before or even the day before) and make sure you leave it to soften somewhere warm the whole time! not like me who left it in the kitchen that was cold like the fridge the entire night ...DOOOH!!

ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter - unsalted (if using salted, omit salt)
3 cups plain flour*
1 1/2 tsp baking powder* (*sifted together)
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs- lightly beaten
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:

1. preheat oven to 180C. grease a cake tin with butter and dust with flour, shaking off excess flour.
2. cream butter and sugar until light light and fluffy. add the eggs a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until well incorporated.
3. Add the flour and milk, alternating a little at a time. (i.e add 1/3 of flour followed by 1/3 of the milk and beat well and repeat until finished)
4. place 2 1/2 cups of the batter mix into a medium sized bowl and sift cocoa powder into mixture. mix together with whisk.
5. place batter into cake tin, alternating between plain and cocoa batter. drag a spoon through the batter a few times to create a marbled effect.
6. bake in the oven for 1 hour @ 180C. leave to cool before slicing and serving.

still need to work on creating the marbled effect!

Who doesn't like chocolate? Most of the recipes I try are all choclate based. Obviously I love chocolate.

If you've tried the chewy cookies from Mille's cookies, and you happen to like them, you should definately try out this recipe.

A few things before you start, the cookies appear very uncooked when removing from the oven, but if you leave them to stand for a minute or so on the baking tray, and then leave them to cool on a wire rack until completely cool.. they sort of set and become chewy.



Ingredients:
115g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
125g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
280g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300g chocolate chips (dark,milk, white.. what ever you please)

Method:

1. preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and line several baing sheets with baking paper
2. place the butter and sugar in alrge bowl and whisk together until pale and creamy
3. whick in eggs and vanilla extract into the mixture until smooth.
4. sift in flour and soda bicarb and beat together until well mixed
5. stir in choc chips
6. drop 12 large spoonfuls of mixture onto the baking sheet, spacing them WELL apart
7. bake in preheated oven for 15-20 min or until set and golden brown.
8. leave to cool on baking sheet for 2-3 min, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

For my husbands birthday, I made two different cakes. The first was a Chocolate Chiffon Cake (which I'm still trying to make work - will update with results once I really succeed!) because he has long asked for a light spongy kind of cake. The second was a cake I wanted to make so I could decorate it with icing.



So this is the second cake I made. A Victoria Sandwich with Lemon Buttercream Icing and a strawberry jam filling. I know the filling and icing don't really go together, but I had limited ingredients so whatever's there will have to work.



Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
175g butter, at room temp
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g self-raising flour
pinch of salt

Method:

1. preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4
2. grease two 8inch sponge tins and line with grease proof paper
3. cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until pale, light and fluffy
4. add egg a little at a time, beating well after each addition
5. sift the flour and salt and carefully add to the mixture, folding in with spatula
6. divide the mixture between tins and smooth over with spatula
7. place on the same shelf in center of oven and bake for 25-30min until well risen, golden brown and beginning to shrink from sides of tin
8. remove from oven and allow to stand for 1 min
9. loosen the cakes from around the edge of the tins using a palette knife. turn the cakes out on a tea towel, remove paper and invert them onto a wire rack - avoids wire rack line on top of cake
10. when completely cool, sandwich together with jam.

review:
traditionally the sandwich is decorated by sprinkling icing sugar over the cake
for the filling, other options are buttercream icing (but a bit sweet) are whipped cream sweetened slightly with a bit sugar.
for the topping, you can use buttercream icing or even melted chocolate

I'll add the recipe for basic buttercream icing

225g butter, softened
1 tbsp cream or milk
350g icing sugar

1. beat butter and cream
2. gradually sift in icing sugar
3. beat until smooth

I replaced the cream/milk with 1tbsp lemon juice and added a few drops of yellow colouring to make a lemon buttercream icing.

The thing with bananas in UK is that once they are ripe, the skin turns spotty and black really2 quickly. So it looks like the banana has gone super super ripe and squishy. But in fact, the inside is still firm and not the least bit bruised.


I have wanted to make banana loaf so so long, but bananas in my house always run out before they reach the right ripeness to make the loaf! The deceving spotty black skin doesn't help either; the moment the banana lookes like it is almost going bad, the fruit itself is still good to eat just like that.
This time, I didn't care. Ripe enough or not.. it's going to turn into banana bread! So I ended up with a sore arm trying to mash still firm bananas and a banana loaf that had banana lumps in it!

I got this recipe off the AllRecipe website and altered it slightly.



Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas
• a handfull of chocolate chips
  

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack

(source - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx)

Review:

• It is definately a good recipe. tasty and full of flavour.
• You can opt for making it without wholemeal flour and it might turn the bread a little lighter then how mine turned out.
• I added a handfull of chocolate chips just for the sake of it. bananas and choclate = yum!
• You can also try adding pieces of walnuts or even some coconut for a little change.

The original recipe is actually called Rum & Raisin Muffins. I decided to change it around a bit after watching a kiddy cooking show makin tea and raisin loaf. So instead of soaking the raisins in rum, I soaked them in hot plain tea.

This is the second time i've made this, mostly because the ingredients are almost always available at home.. just oil, milk, raisins... as opposed to some of the other recipes using sour cream, double cream etc2. It makes baking possible even when your food stores are running low.



Ingredients:

200g raisins
3 tbsp hot tea
6 tbsp sunflower oil
280 g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
115g soft dark brown sugar
2 eggs
200ml milk

Method:

1. Dry bowl: sift flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate, salt. Mix in sugar.
   
2. Wet bowl: mix together lightly beaten eggs, milk and oil.
   
3. mix wet and dry bowl contents. add raisins and stir gently, mixing only until just combined.
4. spoon mixture into muffin tin and bake in a preheated oven (200C/gas mark 6) for 2o mins. (10 mins for mini muffins)
   
5. leave to cool for 5 min in tin and serve warm.
   

Review:

• Like I mentioned before, I repleced rum with tea. I can't compare the taste, but it still tastes good.
• Don't add any sugar to the tea as it raisins are usually sweet enough.
• I also added a handful of walnuts, just to give the muffin more substance as I only had half the amont of raisins. (also because I was finishing up all the little bits left over)
• I made half of the mixture into MINI MUFFINS (as in the pics) and the other half into normal sized muffins, and because of that, I cut up most of the raisins, just so the mini muffins wouldn't be to full of raisins.

Don’t you just love the smell of a fresh cup of coffee in the morning? It’s one of those smells that everybody can’t resist taking another sniff of, like freshly mowed grass after the rain or delicious foods baking in the oven. Speaking of baking and coffee, this recipe is the perfect idea for a teatime.. a perfect coffee and sugar fix.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp instant coffee granules
• 2 tbsp boiling water
• 280 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 115 g soft dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200mls double cream

TOPPING

• 300mls whipping cream
• cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

1. Dry bowl: sift flour, baking powder, salt. stir in sugar.
2. Wet bowl: mix together lightly beaten eggs, double cream, oil and dissolved coffee (mixing the instant coffee granules with the boiling water)
3. mix wet and dry bowl contents and stir gently, mixing only until just combined.
4. spoon mixture into muffin tin and bake in a preheated oven (200C/gas mark 5) for 2o mins.
5. leave to cool. just before serving, whip the cream and dollop on top of the muffins and dust with cocoa powder.

My daughter loves bananas. Who doesn't? It's especially handy when you have little kids and you want to go out. It's like an instant meal, no need to wash, no need to wrap.

As your kids get bigger, they still love bananas, but sometimes you just need to get a little more creative in the way you present them with their '5-a-day'.




For the full recipe, I'll re direct you to the original page that I got it from ... here or here

Review:

• absolutely yummy
• less sugar is more (the recipe's a bit sweet)
• the riper the banana the better
• sprinkle chocolate chips on top just before baking to give them the full-of-chocolate-chips-but-actually-none-inside effect
• I need more chocolate in mine as the marbled effect is not very evident. (me? not enough chocolate? huhu macam tak percaya)

Wanted to make muffins like the ones we always see in coffee shops.
Found this recipe and the picture in the recipe book looked absolutely delicious. Tried to make them too, but the pictures probably aren't as good.

Method:
preheat oven to 200C or gas mark 6.
line a 12-hole muffin tray
sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
stir in sugar and white choc chips.
place eggs in a large jug and beat lightly, then beat in cream and oil.
make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients.
stir gently until just combined, DO NOT OVERMIX.
spoon the mixture into paper cases.
bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until well risen and firm to the touch.
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 min before removing.