Fluffy soft Banana cake

That bunch of bananas have been lazing on the kitchen top for 2 days. I regretted getting such a big bunch forgetting that bananas ripe way too fast in our tropical weather. Banana is one of Baby Kwok #1 favourite fruit. He can eat them EVERYDAY for breakfast - No, he does not find them boring. He even told me he would not mind having them again the next day (on repeat mode).

As a mum, I would not want my children to overly indulge in one particular food. I hope they can widen their food choices and learn not to be as fussy as the mum (oppss) during her younger days. Vegetables still a tough one to conquer for Baby Kwok#1 but well, at least he eats the really soft broccoli without any complaint (well, maybe one or two). Baby Kwok #2 is more adventurous with food but she seems to be really fussy lately! Used to love eating meat and now spitting them out! Grrrr..... I hope it is just the teething phase.

Anyway, back to banana - So not to waste those bananas, I baked a banana cake! I was not expecting much praise from Prince Charming because 1. He does not really like eating banana as much as his son do. 2. He has been complaining to me about his weight. He was with all praise for this banana cake!!!! I should have asked him to draw 4 numbers for me :X

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To make this, you will need:

• 2 ripe Bananas, Approx 220g
• 85g Sugar
• 100ml Oil (I used canola oil)
• 3 egg Yolks
• 1 tsp Vanilla powder
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 150g Cake flour

• 3 egg Whites
• 25g Sugar

1. Mashed the bananas finely and set aside. Preheat your oven to 180°C
2. Sift the dry ingredients (Flour, Baking powder & Vanilla powder)
3. In a bowl, beat the yolks and sugar till it turns pale yellowish. Slowly add in the oil and mashed bananas. Continue to beat till well combined.
4. Add in your sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Ensure there are no lumps.
5. In a clean dry bowl, beat your egg whites till frothy. Gradually add in the sugar and continue beating it till it reaches Soft peak stage.
6. Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture and incorporate into the banana mixture. Pour the mixture back to the remaining egg white and fold well.
7. Pour into a cake tin and tap against the table top to release bubbles.
8. Bake for approx 35-40 mins or when skewer comes out clean. 

Still alive.. the blog i mean :)

Although I have not been posting much recently, I did not give up on my kitchen or rather my oven.
Have been on/off doing some small bakes for the kids, family and friends. Trial tested a few macarons recipes but failed (feet visible but uneven or macarons did not rise the way I wanted), went for a Macaron class that specialized in Character macarons (Tsum-Tsum, Monster Inc, Totoro etc).

I have to say - most of the time I was busy figuring out the best/perfect Macaron recipe that works well for me because being someone who is on the visual side - I have my own expectations on how I would like my macarons to look like.

Prince Charming has been really supportive because for every batch of Macrons that I baked - It means he has to be the 1st guinea pig to sample them (Giggling) and then down a few weeks, you hear him complaining that he gained a few pounds (LOL), and to my pleasant surprise, I also have my little royal supporter - Baby Kwok #1!

It is amazing that every time I put on my baking apron, his eyes sparks and started his reasoning with me on why he should help me out in the kitchen. Technically, I love to have him baking with me but theoretically I preferred not to. I had previous scared to death experience where we were baking halfway through and he opened up the oven! Of course, I was not worried about failing the bakes but I was so afraid that the high heat coming out from the oven might hurt him. I guess I'll need to wait till he is much older before I brace enough courage to let him do some simple baking with me again.

Anyway, not a good writer so I shall stop my typing here. Pictures shall do the talking ;)

Pineapple tarts using Sonia's recipe. Love the Melt-in mouth texture!
Shared this recipe with my colleague who went crazily addicted to them.

The famous Ogura cake. Referenced Jennie's recipe but made some modification.
For mine - I replaced milk with Chocolate Soy milk and added Cocoa powder.

One of the Macaron recipe that I tried. Feets were visible but just not the kind that I wanted :/
Batter was undermixed as well - See the "nipples" on each macarons?

Went for a Macaron making class with one of July 2013 mummy. :)

It was a tedious class - My neck was so sore from looking down for 3 hours!

Saw a video on Facebook and decided to attempt it for breakfast because it is so simple!

Original recipe calls for Tomato puree as the spread and mashed Avocado for borders.

Mine was a simplified version -Tostitos Creamy Spinach dip as the borders, egg and Swiss cheese.

Another recipe that I tried for Macarons - Love the feet but the macarons were not even. Some of the

sides had no feet and they were hollow. Prince Charming took a bite and it went down his shirt.

Now.. here is my perfect Macarons (in my personal opinion)! Love the feet and overall.

Easier than most recipes and it managed to survive in a humid environment!

Same recipe with different flavors - This was a green tea buttercream

This was Chocolate buttercream! The texture of these Macarons were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Now that I mastered the art of making Macarons, Prince Charming requested for them to bring to work. I used the egg tray to store these macarons :)

Beard Papa's style Cream Puffs

On the very last day of 2014, apart from spending quality time with Baby Kwok #1 ( Opps.. Baby Kwok #2 was with her babysitter) I actually did something that was not intended to!

I.....Made....Beard Papa's style.....CREAM PUFFS!
Prince Charming and Baby Kwok #1 are both fans for Beard Papa's cream puff mainly because of the cookie dough shells. They are pretty expensive in my opinion - $2.50 for a normal custard filling and $3.80 for a speciality flavour (e.g. Durian)

With a cost for about 5 pieces of Beard Papa's puffs, I easily made about 11 puffs which means its almost 50% savings! Cheapo mummy on the run! LOL!

Anyway, I was really happy with the puffs because my family enjoyed them and I get good reviews on how it looked like the ones from Beard Papa! Something to make the last day of my 2014 so worthwhile!

Note: Custard cream and Cookie Dough should be made in advance before you start preparing for the shells.

To make these, you will need:

Shells

- 120g Butter

- 3/4 cups of Water (Approx. 170ml)

- 1 tsp Salt

- 1 tsp sugar

- 1 1/3 cups of Sifted Flour (Approx. 190-200g) 

- 5 Eggs (Mine is about 58g each)

1. In a pot, add water, butter, salt and sugar. Bring to boil and ensure that the butter are distributively

    melted.

2. Remove from heat and add the flour into the mixture. Stir well and ensure that the batter is lump 

     free. Put onto the stove to further cook. Cook for approx. 2 mins.

3. Stir well and let the steam go off from the mixture before adding in the eggs. Remember to add 1

     egg at at time so that the mixture corporates well.

4. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto a tray lined with baking paper. Add the Cookie 

     dough over the mixture. 

5.  Bake for 22-25 mins or until puffs are raised nicely and golden.

Cookie Dough

- 30g Butter

- 1/3 Cup Icing Sugar (Approx. 50g)

- 1/3 cup Plain flour (Approx. 50g)

- 1 tsp Baking Powder

- 2 Tbsp Veg oil (Optional)

1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.

2. Combine the dry ingredients into the melted butter and mix well till it forms a dough.

3. Keep the dough in a ziplock bag for later use.

Tips: If you realised that your cookie dough is dry just before applying to the shell mixture, add in 2 tbsp of Veg oil and combine well with the dough. 

Custard Cream

- 3 Cups Full cream milk

- 1/2 Cup of Flour (Approx. 70-80g)

- 1/2 Cup of Sugar ( Approx. 110-115g)

- 4 Egg Yolks

- 30g Butter

- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

- 1 Cup of Whipped Fresh cream

1. Beat the yolks with about 50ml of the milk.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the sugar. Add the yolk mixture to it.

3. Mix well and add in the remaining milk.

4. Cook over stove on medium heat till the mixture get thicken. You should be able to see ribbon

    trails when you stir the mixture. It should look like a normal custard cream but slightly thicker. The

    thick consistency will ensure that the custard filling will not flow out from the shells while pipping.

5.  Add in the butter and vanilla extract and stir well. 

6. Cover with a cling wrap touching the surface of the mixture. This will prevent a thin film from 

    forming on the surface while cooling.

7. Before pipping, mix the fresh whipped cream into the custard cream. The texture would be like of 

    a thick melted ice-cream. It pretty taste like Ice-cream too :)

To assemble:

1. Ensure that your shells are fully cooled before you start pipping the custard filling

2. You can use a toothpick to poke a small opening at the sides of the puffs OR if you find that a 

     hassle like how I feel (actually I am just being lazy), simply use a long pipping tip to create a   

     opening while pipping the cream.

3. Dust the cream puffs with icing sugar before serving OR you can choose to serve them cold. I

    popped my puffs into the freezer for about 3 hours and they tasted like ice-cream puffs! 

To end this post, I like to wish all my readers a HAPPY 2015! May 2015 be a better and fulfilling year for all of us and till then, may I be blessed with more baking posts (If the little ones allow). Hahaha!

To-Bake List 2014/15

Made from Scratch Strawberry cake

http://thekitchenmccabe.com/2014/10/09/made-scratch-strawberries-cream-cake/

Neapolitan Cupcakes

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/09/neapolitan-cupcakes/

Mini Brownie Butter Cakes 

http://rasamalaysia.com/mini-brownie-butter-cake-recipe/

Starbucks Cupcakes

http://natventures.tumblr.com/post/18062563920/starbucks-cupcakes

Strawberry Shortcake

http://roxanashomebaking.com/strawberry-shortcake-cake-recipe/

Rose Buttercream Cake

http://thecakeblog.com/2014/02/rose-water-buttercream-cake.html

Copycat Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/01/copycat-krispy-kreme-doughnuts/

Strawberry Custard Tarts

http://www.deliciouseveryday.com/strawberry-custard-tarts/#_a5y_p=1376486

Happy Teacher's Day 2014

Ordered a batch of honey for Baby Kwok #1's teachers in school as their Teacher's day gift. However, got a shock at how mini they were so Prince Charming suggested baking something to go along with the honey. Had a big bag of Granola sitting in the fridge so I thought, maybe a Granola fruit muffins but ended up, I forgotten to add in the granolas! 

Been getting really forgetful nowadays. Anyway, the muffins were also Baby Kwok #1's breakfast as well as Prince Charming. Both gave their thumbs up for the muffins! I ate one and was also surprised at how flavourful these muffins were. The best thing that I ever heard from the Prince Charming "Hey, they looked so cafe styled and they really taste so good. Like those we get in Starbucks or angmoh bakery!" 

On a side note, I should have been more generous with the crumble toppings. They were so so so good and goes so so so well with the muffins!

Look at those mini honey! 

Love these cupcake liners and toppers that I got from one of the online shop :)

Baby Kwok#1 loves those cubed size plums! 

They were organic and taste really fresh!

To make these:

Muffins

• 195g All purpose flour (US metric 1 1/2 cup)
• 65g Caster sugar (US metric 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 Egg (approx 55g)
• 100g Milk 
• 70g Oil
• 2 Organic plums, cut into bite size

Crumble toppings

• 60g Butter, melted
• 45g All purpose flour
• 50g Brown coarse sugar

1. Combine the dry ingredients together and set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 200°°C
3. Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the crumble toppings and mix till it resembles crumbs like mixture.
4. In a mixing bowl, mix egg, oil and milk. Add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Mix in your plums and mix gently. Pour your batter into a pipping bag
6. Line your muffin tray with cupcake liners. Snip a slightly bigger opening on the pipping bag 
7. Pipe the mixture into the liners. Sprinkle the top with a generous amount of crumble toppings.
8. Bake the muffins for 20 ~ 22 mins