Banana Upside Down Cake

Hi all, just another quick post. This recipe is from Tasty

I have copied over and pasted recipe from Buzzfeed for convienience.  However, you want to visit the link above for their quick video.

INGREDIENTS
Servings: 6-8
4-5 ripe bananas
3 eggs
½ cup oil
½ cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 cups flour
½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2-3 bananas, sliced
Vanilla ice cream

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.
In a large bowl, mash the ripe bananas.
Add the eggs, oil, sugar, and cinnamon, mixing until evenly incorporated.
Add the flour and mix until the batter has no large pockets of flour. Set aside.
In a pot over low heat, melt the butter, then mix in the brown sugar until dissolved.
Bring up the heat to medium, cooking until the mixture starts bubbling.
Remove the caramel from heat and pour into a greased 9×9 baking pan.
Lay the banana slices evenly on top of the caramel.
Spread the banana bread batter on top.
Bake 40-50 minutes.
Cool until the bottom is barely warm and use a knife to loosen the edges from the pan.
Place a plate upside-down on top of the pan, then invert the pan, flipping the banana bread onto the plate.
Slice, then serve with vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate cake

My little one is all grown up but he will always be my baby, even if he turns 21 this week. Prior to making his Chocolate cake, I had to get his approval as he is a tad fussy with his foods. I was not allowed to make buttercream frosting, use any fresh cream or god forbid that I put any fruits on it, even if it was choc coated strawberries. I did get an okay for salted caramel sauce. I was not allowed to use thick caramel from cooking sweet condensed milk. Who doesn't like sweet condensed milk? I secretly put this in his Milo and he loves it! Shhhhhh! So my revenge was, going overkill on the chocolate decorations, toppings, heheheh.

The salted caramel was prepared earlier, I always have a batch ready made for any occassion. I learnt to make this at a previous macaron class with FoodIam.

So here is the simpole recipe which I followed from Taste.com. There are loads of recipe there but I am sticking to the classic simple recipe for the fusspot ;)
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/20016/classic+chocolate+cake?ref=collections,top-10-chocolate-cake-recipes

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups (200g) plain flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa ( I used Organics Greens Cocoa, they are the best I know) 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
• 225g unsalted butter, softened, chopped 
• 1 cup (220g) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup (125ml) milk
• Chocolates for decorations
• 1 tsp of glucose (I add this instead of butter to ganache for shine)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line a 24cm round springform cake pan.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Set aside.

3. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (don't let bowl touch water). Cool slightly.

4. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. With beaters on medium speed, add vanilla, then add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour in cooled chocolate and beat until well combined. Beat in a third of sifted ingredients, followed by a third of the milk. Repeat until all ingredients are incorporated, beating until smooth.

5. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for 45-55 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto rack to cool completely.

6. To serve, spread the ganache over the top and sides of the cake using a hot palette knife, then decorate with chocolates.

7. To make chocolate ganache: Melt 150g chopped good-quality dark chocolate with 125ml heavy double cream. I heat my cream, stop prior to boiling point and pour over chocolate melts and leave it for few minutes to melt. I then stir them up and added a teaspoon of glucose to make it super glossy. I have heard that you can also add butter. 

And there you have it! A chocolate cake! I even got a huge smile from the boy! Best pressie ever!

Choc Cherry Cheesecake

Summer is upon us and there are an abundance of cherries everywhere you go. I bought some from the local cherryman on the way back from work last week. He was parked next to the servo and I knew I just had to stop. All I could think of when I saw the cherries was, "Should I make a choc cherry galette or a choc cherry cheesecake ?"

The cheesecake won, when I bought some Philly cream cheese blocks, which were on specials during my xmas grocery shopping.

This recipe is from http://www.taste.com.au
Ingredient

• 250g biscuits crumbs (I am using my baked Gingerbread men cookies for crumbs for the Xmas theme)
• 125g butter, melted
• 500g cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
• 300g sour cream
• 300g cherries, pitted, halved
• cherries and icing sugar, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced. Grease a 5.5cm-deep, 24cm (base) springform pan. Process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter. Process to combine. Press mixture over base ofprepared pan. Cover. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating to combine. Beat in cocoa and sour cream until just combined. Fold in cherries. Spread over biscuit mixture.

3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until centre is just firm. Turn off oven. Cool in oven for 3 hours with door slightly ajar. Refrigerate overnight. Top with cherries. Dust with icing sugar and serve. If you are feeling creative, you can make chocolate curls and laced the top with it for cherries to sit on. I was too lazy, even to break open a pack of Chocolate Flakes. Just trying to keep in simple and fast.

Note: I put mine in a water bath to bake in the oven, to prevent cracking in the middle. Just a tip I picked up from the net. A water bath is when you cover the bottom of cake pan and then sit the cake pan on hot water while baking. See my last photo below. As it turned out , my cheesecake only had a small crack in the middle. Almost perfect!

Before 

After

Madeleine Cookies

It's winter now in Australia, so I usually hibernate till work day Monday on my weekends. I do my shopping straight after work on Friday so that I can get home and spend as much time watching korean dramas and do some pottering around the house and baking. Okay, not so much the baking part though.

Few weekends ago, I watched a korean drama titled "My name is Kim Sam Soon". It's an oldie, I was watching it for the Danny oppa fix but little did I know, that I was going to be more fixated with the baking in the drama and all the lovely cakes and pastries that was featured on that drama.

I just had to buy myself a Madeleine pan immediately after that. I love that drama, it's a light comical romance with enough soppy parts to make you reached for the tissues and yet with a sudden change of scene, it would have you drooling and pausing the show, just to admire the baked stuff. This drama is so evil! So, if you haven't seen this drama, please go watch it now for the drool factor!! OMO, Danny oppa, you do get my undivided attention though in your scenes!

And so it began, I needed to bake these babies to see what all the fuss is about. Last nite, I made the batter and chill it in the fridge as per the recipe instrution, you can find the recipe and video demo link from http://www.joyofbaking.com/madeleines.html

I am hoping mine turns out edible at least. I do love Joy of Baking website. Stephanie has video demo which is a whole lot easier than reading a bunch of words. I am terrible at following manuals or word instructions, I need visual display. :) Yes, I am a bit special! LOL :)

Err Mah Gerrd!!!! I have eaten two already, second tray is in the oven now.. they taste like lemon cakes, crunchy on outside, nice and warm buttery lemon inside! So good!! So glad I have enough batter for two trays. So simple, sinful and good for you! It's got lemons! That's Vitamin C, right?

Enjoy and have a great weekend everyone! Nomnomnom! Peace out!

Accidentally Matcha Trifle

Matcha Roll Recipe from Rasa Malaysia
Serves: 4 | Prep Time: 35 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

For Swiss Roll Cake:

3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 cup fine sugar
1/2 cup cake Flour plus 2tsp matcha powder
2 tablespoons melted butter

For Filling:

1/2 cups whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
Canned red bean filling (available in Japanese or Asian grocery stores)

To make the filling: 

Whip the cream with sugar until creamy and thick. Keep in the refrigerator to chill.

To Make the Cake:

Preheat oven to 230 Celsius or 440 Fahrenheit. Line and grease a 10″ x 12″ rectangle pan.

Beat the egg yolks and 1/2 the sugar until thick and pale.  In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white.

Fold in the flour mixture and melted butter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes.

To Assemble the Cake:

Transfer the cake to a piece of parchment paper. Spread an even layer of cream onto the cake and topped with red beans. Roll the cake up from the long end. Once it is firmly rolled up, wrap it up with the parchment paper and refrigerate it for at least an hour before serving.

All instruction are followed. Having said that, my following the instructions does not guarantee that I will be successful in my baking endeavour ;)

So I had a little accident with cake breaking up when I was rolling it, so it's now a trifle ;) bahahahhahahah

See photos.

Mmmmmm still taste good though... ;)