Steam Moist Cake

Don't throw rotten eggs at me...sorry sorry...i know i did not update my blog that often. I was telling my cousin the other day, should i shut my blog as i can't afford to bake every weekend and blog about it. Well, she said "You can always blog about your family and friends...not necessary only your cakes and cookies"

But i won't live up to my blog name rite? DUmb Baker....suddenly DUmb Life...hahahahahha....ok folks...rest assured...I'm not going to shut my blog. No Worries, Be Happy :)

Happy Labour Day Everybody!

My family and relatives will be having a gathering makan tomorrow. Here's what I'm going to contribute. A Steam Chocolate Moist Cake. The recipe is adapted from http://cookingcrave.blogspot.com/2009/03/chocolate-moist-cake.html. The cake looks so yummy that you can eat it right from the screen. This website was actually recommended by my cousin Sue Sue.

Well, i have just finished steaming the cake, yet to top it with chocolate fudge topping. I shall post up the photo tomorrow and shall blog about the feedback from my family members tomorrow. Stay tune!

Pak Thong Kou

The weekend was hot hot hot!!!!! I have never sweat this much in my entire life (well...except for the PE classes during primary and secondary school).

It's a good thing that the weather is warm...perfect condition for proofing the bread dough or whatever dough you wanna proof. I chose to make the authentic Chinese sweet dessert (or breakfast for me...hehe!)....the "PAK THONG KOU"

I remember vividly that my grandma used to buy this sweet cake for me every Sunday morning for breakfast. There used to be a van packed with all sorts of homemade Chinese sweet cake that goes around the neighborhood where i used to live. I never fail to shout for the driver to stop so that i can buy my favourite sweet cakes and fill up my little stomach...mmmm...yum yum....well..those were the days! Kids now don't get to experience the good old times we had been through....oh well...thanks to the ever rising crime rates!

Anyway, enuf said....here's the recipe...enjoy folks!

Ingredients:

• 220g rice flour
• 160g caster sugar
• 380-400ml of water
• 1 tsp of yeast
• 1 tbsp of warm water

Method

Mix the yeast and warm water and set aside. In a pot, mix the rice flour and sugar. Pour the water over the sugar and flour and stir continuously. Bring the pot over low fire and continue stirring for about 3 minutes. (DO NOT BOIL THE MIXTURE!!!!) Strain the mixture into a baking/steaming tray. Let the mixture cool down for a while. Stir in the earlier prepared yeast mixture. Cover the tray with cling wrap and keep the tray in a warm place (a microwave oven is a good place) for proofing process (about an hour for a hot weather like Malaysia....). When the mixture has bubbles surface, the mixture is ready for steaming. Steam the mixture over rapid boiling water for about 25 minutes. Leave the cake till completely cool before slicing it. Enjoy the sweet cake with a cup of hot green tea....yummmz!

Lemon Cream Cheese Cake

Have you tried the Lemon Pound cake from Starbucks? It's absolutely delicious! It's just me again craving for rich cakes but with the current economic situation going downhill, i just can't bring myself to spend $$$ on cakes anymore. It's cheaper if you just bake them yourself. For anticipated bakers, this recipe is the one for you if you're looking for a rich lemoney cake.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz. of cream cheese, softened
• 150g of butter, softened
• 1 cup of sugar
• Rinds of a lemon
• Juice of a lemon
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/3 cup of flour
• 1.5 tsp of baking powder

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175 DC. Beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time and mix well. Scrap the sides of the mixing bowl from time to time. Add in lemon rinds and juice. Mix well. Lastly, add in flour and baking powder. Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.

* I sprinkled some chopped almonds on the cake batter before baking it. It's yummy....crunchy on the surface and soft inside* =^=

Marble Cheese Chocolate Cake

I was confused. How am going I to name the product? Marble Cake? nope coz it contains cheese. Marble Cheese Cake? nope, coz it's not entirely a cheesecake per say. How about Marble Cheese Chocolate Cake? Ha! Yes..it gotta be this because it's a chocolate cake base but with some cheese for the marble effect.

My cousin and cousin sis in law invited my family for CNY open house party on Chor Mm (30th January 2009). They were way too generous as they invited all of my other relatives as well and food was solely sponsored by them. I felt shy..because i was not only eating, but i was taking money (ang pows) from them too. So i offered to bake a Cheese Brownie for them initially. My plan turned sour as at the very last minute, when i checked my kitchen's cabinet, i had only about 20 grams of cocoa powder left!!! Mom was suggesting me to replace cocoa powder with Milo instead...=.=

Mom....Cocoa powder is unsweetened....and Milo is too 'milky' for my recipe. SO i ransacked my recipe books....hoping to find something with cheese and something that can utilize the 20grams of cocoa powder. Ha! Found it! Anges Chang's Baking Made Easy book!

Verdict: Oh well...no one really gave me a comment...i did not eat a single slice of the cake because of my irritated throat...but i guess it was a good catch on that night because the cake was pretty much whacked by the entire Wei clan.

CNY Goodies

GONG HEI FATT CHOI! CHOI YUN KWAN KWAN LOI! TAI KAT TAI LEI! SUN TAI KIN HONG!

Happy Chinese Moo Moo Year everybody! Did you guys have a yummylicious reunion dinner? An ultimate celebration on the 1st and 2nd day of new year? You guys sure did!

As for me, *sob sob*....I had watery porridge from Chor Yat till Chor Mm. How about that? It all started on the night of CNY eve. I felt a lump in my throat...but didn't give much thoughts to it. So after reunion dinner, i went over to my grandpa's house and continue munching on cookies. Half an hour later, my bb came and took me to his cousin's house to gamble. Heaty food + non stop yelling and shouting during gambling made me a sick dog for the next 5 days. I had throat infection, fever and voiceless.....! So lessons learnt, go slow on CNY cookies before the festive begins....don't greedily gobble down the food like me.

Anyway...sad stories finished....let's share what have i contributed for CNY. My fellow blogger friend, JenJen, has been writing a lot of CNY food posts. The minute i saw her homemade MOMO (melting moments), I just couldn't take it anymore. To the hell with my painful throat, i took out my 'ka chang' (ingredients & utensils) and start baking. You won't believe how easy it was to make the MOMOs. It took me slightly over an hour to make 2 containers of the MOMOs. And believed it or not, the MOMOs were gone in just a snap. It was so good and so addictive! Even better than those pineapple cookies! For avid fan of melt in mouth cookies, please click the link above...100% no regrets.

Next, please join to welcome the ultimate labour of pain but damn worth trying Horlick Layer cake. I've been longing to try out this recipe (courtesy of Jen Jen also) a year ago. However, lame excuses got in my way (weather too hot...will sweat a lot if i stand too long in front of the stove; i'm too fat now...maybe later;....bla bla bla bla) and so the day of making the layer cake postponed till this year's Chinese New Year. It wasn't hard to prepare...and it wasn't hard to make it either....it's the long steaming process that is making me go cuckoo....Hahaha....but like Jen said, the 4-5 hours labour of pain will not fail you. It's yummy, moist, no words to describe. The cake smells like coffee, taste like Horlick on the first bite, coffee on the second bite and gone into your stomach....it's so delicious that you just can't wait to dig in the next piece again and again.

Low Fat Mango Cake

Hi folks….

Welcome to dumb-baker’s 2008 first ever baked cake in LA. Guess what? Since I have put on a lil weight in just mere 6 days….which is total nightmare to me…but still craving for dessert (omg…I just gotta cease this stupid crave right now….otherwise I’ll be putting like what…20 pounds in a month?)…I cleverly came up with this low fat moist mango cake.

Why mango by the way? Coz it was on promotion in the food mart…99cents per piece. So I picked up the bright red piece (the juicy & ripe one)…and I’m all set to go home and begin the baking journey.

Here’s what you need:
¾ cup of apple sauce (no sugar added)
½ cup of brown sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp of baking powder
½ cup of mango puree
1/3 cup of cube mangoes

Method:
Mix apple sauce and sugar till dissolve. Add in the eggs, one at a time, into the apple sauce mixture. Blend in mango puree till well mixed. Sift in flour and baking powder into the wet mixture. Using a wooden spatula, mix the dry n wet ingredients till just well combined (do not over mix or risk having a flat damp cake). Stir in mango cubes and pour the batter into a non stick baking pan. Bake the cake in preheated oven of 325 F or 170 DC for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Serve the cake warm with a scoop of frozen yoghurt of your choice!

Banana Cake Bread - Vegan Style

Have i ever confessed that i have soft spot for local fruits? I can polish off 2 medium size of papayas, half watermelon and 4 bananas at one go. I just don't know why but i LOVE these fruits to bits! It's a must have weekly intake for me.

Mom brought back a big comb of banana one day....and most of the bananas are becoming overly riped. Ha...perfect timing for a banana cake. As usual, i google for a new banana cake recipe...but then...i stumble across this website. This vegetarian blogger is actually a dancer who has a big heart for baking. Her peanut-butter-banana-cake-bread photo drove me nuts because it was soooo tempting and it's eggless!!!!! Without hesitation, i copied down all the ingredients needed and hurried to the kitchen.

I altered the recipe a lil as i did not have a bottle of peanut butter at home and my house has only peanut cooking oil. What i did was, i melted the butter and replaced 1/8 cup of canola oil called in the recipe with 1/4 cup of melted butter. I added pure unsweetened thick soy milk to get the correct consistency of the cake-bread batter prior baking.

Verdict : Awesome!!!!! So moist and so healthy! This is a superbly easy & fail proof recipe. Definitely a keeper!

Ma Lai Kou

What's not to be missed in my list of food whenever i visit a restaurant for Dim Sum? Ma Lai Kou of coz! The best ever Ma Lai Kou ever i have eaten was when i was still in the states studying. The dim sum was all prepared by the HOngkies...and man! You can feel the orgasm rushing down all your blood vessels the moment you have the hot steaming cake melts in your mouth. The second best Ma Lai Kou i have ever eaten can be found at a little hawker stall situated in front of Fatty Mok Restaurant in Salak South Garden, KL. Opens every night....rain or shine! Remember to get them in Pandan Flavor...it's the best!!!!!
But what if you are craving for a Ma Lai Kou at 1 o'clock in the morning?

Told you guys I'm a sucker for desserts and snacks at anytime of the day...or rather...any random time of the day! Haha! I tiptoed from my bedroom down to the wet kitchen and closed the kitchen door....just to make sure i won't send my dad down from his bed with a baton in his hand (thinking there's a thief in the house...huhuhu).

I have actually tried this recipes a few times and i shall say, it's as good as the one sold in the little hawker stall. But the best is still the one i have eaten in US.....damn...die die must go and eat again in December. So girls, this recipe comes handy whenever you want to please your ahem....in laws...hehehe! Happy trying!!!

Ingredients :

• 100g plain flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 70ml skim milk
• 30ml water
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 20g of melted butter

Method:

Sieve the plain flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add in milk, water, vanilla essence and an egg into the bowl of flour and mix well before adding the other egg. Stir in the melted butter till the mixture well incorporated. Pour the batter into a lined muffin tray / baking tray / steaming bowl. Steam the batter on high heat for 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Moist-Wet-Lembap Carrot Pineapple Cake

"Eat more carrots....then you no need wear glasses anymore....wear glasses no pretty ooo u know..."




Sounds familiar? Haha...yeap carrots are rich in Vitamin A, certainly keeps the ugly specs at bay. For more info, do drop by this website to learn about the goodness in carrots.

Anyway, i saw this yummy carrot cake photo and i drooled over the photo. I told myself "Sam....you must buy carrots tonight...rain or shine....GET THE CARROTS AND WHIP UP THE CAKE"

The cake turned out moist...i mean very superly moist. I guess the main culprit is the pineapple...i used fresh pineapples instead of the canned type...probably the pineapple was overly juicy? Hence the moistness of the cake! As the owner of the recipe said, without the pineapple, the cake would be perfect.

But if you're like me, luv moist cakes....DO NOT EXCLUDE THE PINEAPPLE!!! Happy trying!!!

Steamed Fruit Cake...again!!

Tomorrow I'm meeting my cousin bro for prayers day to respect our departed relatives. He asked, if he can try some of my homemade steamed fruit cake....hu hu hu....of coz! A fanatic baker me....jump at every opportunity i have to bake! hehe... and so...this is my third attempt...also my most satisfied steamed fruit cake. The moistness is there...the fluffiness is there...the color is there!!

Hope my cousin bro and cousin sis in law (psst....a good cook) enjoy this cake as much as i do! For recipe, kindly click here.

Dinner for 4

Haiya....why am i in office working??!??! All because i have exhausted my annual leave. So what do you do when you go to office and your boss is not around? Happy hour time of coz!!! It's blogging time...kekek

First day of Raya...bb brought his cousin and his cousin's partner over to my house for mahjong's session. Since daddy and mommy are away for holiday, i took up the chef responsibility for the day. My mom is too generous. She bought all the ingredients for me and all i need to do is cook...i don't need to purposely drive out and start picking which chicken is nice, which veges is good...bla bla bla...

My meal preparation started on Tuesday night. I marinated some chicken wings with Teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and dashes of pepper overnight. The next day, i placed the wings on a baking tray threw some butter on it, drizzle some sauce from the marination...baked the wings for about half an hour.

While waiting for the wings to be readied, i cook up some Mapo Tofu...this is superbly easy. All i need is just some minced pork, a cube of tofu, some soy bean paste (Taucu) and some pounded chili paste. I prefer my tofu spicy, so i actually added generous amount of the chili paste to the Mapo Tofu. Heh...bb was complaining the tofu is too spicy.

Next, i stir fry some green vegetables and added a tablespoon of Chinese wine to taste. I also stir fry some french beans with shrimps.

Ha....a typical Chinese cuisine cannot be completed without soup. I made a pot of anchovies soup base and threw in some preserved vegetables, tomatoes, carrots and sour plums. Yea...i made the "HAM CHOI Soup"....yummy...

Although I'm a pure genuine Chinese....ya pure genuine (just in case u may doubt that I'm of mixed blood...hahah) my meal will not complete without dessert. Hu HU HU!! Early in the morning, i baked a tray of Cheese Brownies...oh my god...this is heavenly good! After i have cooled the freshly baked brownies on the dining table, i transferred the brownies to the fridge and chill it. When i served the guests of the day with the brownies, holy mama, both cousins (bb and his cousin) requested to ta-pau the brownies. Hehe...thanks thanks thanks for your endless support. Keke...paiseh paiseh...

Ok...to cut story short, I'll leave the pictures talk the story :)

p/s: Not enuf...i also steamed some fruit cakes...in conjunction of Hari Raya...hahahaha!

Mapo Tofu with extra chili!

Baked Wings......mmmm

Cheesy Brownies.....sinfully deliciooooussss!

Last but not least......the Steamed Fruit Cake...moist and rich ;)

Steamed Fruit Cake

The Malay festives is here! Wishing all Muslim visitors "Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir Batin".

I noticed lately that a lot of supermarts & hypermarts are stocked with loafs of fruit cakes. From what i understand is during the fasting month, all Muslims will break their fast with some thing sweet, hence the dates and fruit cakes bazaar.

I have a lovely Muslim colleague who made fruit cakes for sale. According to her, she actually steamed the cake for 4 hrs!!! How tedious! And she said the water must be boiling hot prior steaming the cake and each addition of water into the steaming wok/pot must be boiling hot. That is why, buying homemade fruit cake can actually cost a bomb...

I have tasted my colleague's steamed fruit cake and was totally amazed by the moist texture...the kind of melt-in-mouth. I'm not a fruit cake fan, maybe because most of the time, the cakes i bought are kinda dry in texture and the culprit behind it could be the baking process.

But because I am totally swept away by the yummy steamed fruit cake, I decided to give it a try on steaming a fruit cake. I found this lovely recipe from thestar.kuali...a truly superb recipe. However, i ran out of sultanas, and here's what i substitued with : cherries, prunes & organic raisins. Although the time needed to steam the fruit is only half the time my colleague does, but it seemed darn long to me. I practically stood in front of the stove for the last 30 minutes, couldn't wait to dig in the fruit cake.

Oh my god. I love it! Truly amazing recipe by Amy Beh. My dad luvs it too (he's an ardent fan of fruit cake...:S) but he said if i could cut down the amount of sugar used, the cake would have been perfect. So peeps, take note ya if you don't have the sweet tooth.

Recipe Extracted from Kuali. com

Ingredients
200g butter
180g castor sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
200g mixed fruits

Sifted
265g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70g castor sugar
60ml water

Method
To prepare caramel:Cook sugar in a saucepan until the sugar turns golden brown. Remove saucepan from the heat and pour in water. Stir to dissolve the sugar until a caramel is formed. Set aside to cool completely. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in the essence. Fold in sifted dry ingredients and add in mixed fruits. Add the caramel to mix. Turn batter into prepared cake pan and cover the top with a piece of aluminium foil. Steam over rapid boiling water for two hours or until cake is cooked through when tested with a wooden skewer.

Blossom Chinese Cake

A new cake species ar?

Haha....it's non other that our very famous "Fatt Koe". I'm just trying to make it sound sophisticated...okay i know it's not.

The last time i tried to make a fatt koe...it didn't blossom that well...in the end, it looks more an ordinary steam cake rather that a smiling chinese blossom cake. I was demotivated.

Came Tuesday (19/8/08), flipped through The Star newspaper and i saw this recipe. Don't know why, i was so eager to try out the recipe. Guess what??? I DID IT!!!!! The moment i uncovered the steamer, all cakes were blossomed and smiled at me!

The only down side of my fatt koe is the color. My colleague asked me if it's yam fatt koe (no...it's not yam...it's just the blue+red coloring). My senior manager asked me if the cake is expired....hence the color (*slaps head*)

Minutes later, they were enjoying the fatt koe albeit the poor first impression of the fatt koe.

Thank YOu So Much AMY BEH!!!

Chocolatey Swirl Vanilla Pound Cake

Me : Wake up! Stop snoring! Come out on Friday night for a drink. Don't eat also nevermind. Sama sama diet...keke!
Fair Banana : Am not snorin. Tryin to get me with your baking again? Hai yoh. Fine. But then it has to be somewhere where can just sit n drink.
Me : What do you want? Cookies, brownies or cake? Choose 1. Don't be greedy.
Fair Banana : I almost want 2 say all. Erm i think cake. Thanks.
Me : Made you a chocolatey swirl vanilla pound cake.
Fair Banana : Oh great. Telling me what it is has gotten me thinking 'bout it more.

This is how i always bribe a good friend of mine to come out for a meal or drink. Haha....yea....she's a freak consumer of breads, cookies, brownies...all sort of confectionary goods. Anyway, i had actually intended to bake a simple marble butter cake...but then I don't always get to meet this good friend of mine. So may as well, just spend a lil more time and bake something better. So i dug out my King Arthur recipe book and found a vanilla pound cake recipe. I tweaked the recipe a little to make it into a Chocolatey Swirle Vanilla Pound Cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 cup of granulated sugar (DB used only 3/4 cup of sugar)
• 3 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 + 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
• 4 large eggs (DB used 5 small eggs)
• 3 tsp of cocoa powder
• 3 tsp of milk

Method :

Preheat oven to 180 DC. Cream butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract and salt together for about 2 minutes. Add in flour and continue mixing. Mixture will appear somewhat paste-y in texture. Add in eggs one at a time and ensure well mixing after each addition of egg. Allocate 3 tbsp of the cake batter into a small bowl. Add in cocoa powder and milk to the small bowl and mix well. Pour half of the vanilla cake batter into a prepared baking pan. Add in dallops of the cocoa cake batter onto the vanilla cake batter in the baking pan. Be careful not to crowd the chocolate cake batter in the baking pan. Top the chocolate cake batter in the baking pan with the remaining vanilla cake batter. Smooth the surface of the cake batter with a scrapper. Using a chopstick, twirl the cake batter to create a swirl effect on the cake. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Verdict : Simply delicious! Moist and Yummy!

Orange Butter Cake

Saturday was a super rushing day for me. I had to work from morning till late noon...rushed back and gotta take a quick shower before I took my parents and bb out for dinner. Wait a minute....oh no!!!! Cake??!??! I have not baked a cake on Friday!!! Gosh....

That's it...i have no time to bake everything from scratch....so...my short cut way...ummm...yea...the Pillsburry Butter Cake Mix

Haha....aiya...no time ma..plus hor, this cake mix is really delicious...but a little too sweet for my family though. The cake mix i have has its buttery flavor, however, plain butter cake for dad's birthday? uhh....too plain!!! SO i squeezed an orange to extract its juices and pulps to compliment the flavor of the cake. Quick and Easy!!

Ingredients :

• 1 packet of Pillburry's Butter Cake Mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter (about 120g)
• Juice + pulps of an orange + enough water to make 1 cup of orange juice
• A handful of almond nibbles (optional)

Method:
Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl with a low speed mixer for 2 minutes. Pour batter into a lined baking pan and toss in some almond nibble on the surface of the cake batter. Bake the cake in preheated oven of 175 DC for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean

Verdict: Tangy Butter Cake!!!!!!! Pillsburry...never fail us :) MMmmmm Yummy

Bb's photography skill

Look how spongy and moist is the cake...is your saliva dripping now?

Green Tea Pound Cake

I'm all excited when my senior told me that tomorrow(Saturday), she will not be in office as she needed to tend to something urgent. So, how did i spend my Saturday? Sleeping? Slouching on the couch? Munching on unhealthy food? C'mon....do you think I'm such person? well yea i am...keke..oppps...just half of the day.

Finally, the next half of the day, i got my saggy butt up from the couch and started meddling with my baking utensils. Ransacked my baking cupboard, ha...guess what i found? GREEN TEA POWDER!!! Wheeee!!! Plus i have half packet of cream cheese left...i remember reading a post from LCOM about green tea pound cake...and so, i tried.

Verdict: Soft!!!! Spongy!!!! Not too sweet...just nice!!! However, i doubled the quantity needed for green tea....so my cake tasted very green...very tea...hahaha....ok what am i talking. Anyway...folks...you gotta try it to believe it! You know what i mean ;)

Steam Honey Sponge Cake

At first, i thought of making Ma Lai Kou (chinese sponge cake) but.....after flipping my through my i-can't-live-without-book, hehe...i quickly change my mind to make this steam honey sponge cake.

I remember extracting this recipe from somebody else's blog...but i really cannot remember whose blog i extracted from...so, anyway...this is truly a delicious easy sponge cake to make! It's steamed and no messy utensils to clean after.

Ingredients :

• 250g of butter
• 230g of brown sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1.5 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 300g plain flour
• 1.5 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• Baby pinch of salt

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar till mixture appear yellowish brown and smooth in texture.
2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and mix till well combined.
3. Add in vanilla extract and honey. Continue mixing until well combined.
4. Add in the rest of the sifted dry ingredients to the mixture and beat till well combined (smooth thick mixture).
5. Pour mixture into baking pan and steam over rapid boiling water for 45-50 minutes.

Verdict : Look at how moist and soft of the cake...that is how yummylicious the cake is...muahahaha...okay...i'm boasting a lil here...but hey...the cake truly taste as good as the pic displayed~ no play play oooo!

Moist Chocolate Cake

Feeling a little blue lately? No worries la....chocolate to the rescue!!!

It's Friday today....obviously happiest day of the week for me...heheh....automatically i'll bake something...and dessert for today iiiiiisssssssssssssss......

Moisty Chocolatey Cakey....that makes u go ooo la la

I adapted the recipe from Aunty Yochana...alright people....picture says a thousand words...

Bananarama

<---- Can you see the chunks of banana in the cake?


"Ah miss ar....this banana black oledi. Not good. You choose that side 1 la...better bananas!"
"I'm using the bananas to bake cake...so? "
"Oh...then you this black black 1....very ripe and sweet oledi...i charge you cheaper...RM2 per kg"
I bought my bananas for RM2....how cheap! At first i thought of making steam banana cupcake...but after getting my big bunch of RM2 banana, i changed my mind. There were like ten 5 inches long bananas all together...so I must use at least three quarter of them before they rot away. No banana cupcake? Switch to Banana Cake then! I found this banana cake recipe from Happy Home Baker's blog page. She claimed that her cake looks ugly but i personally think it's nice and appetizing...and that's what prompt me to bake this cake using her recipe.

The cake is sooooo moist and yummy. I used two cups of banana instead of 1.3 cups. The aroma of the banana cake is sooo good....even my bb couldn't resist to take a pinch of the cake and taste as soon as i brought it out from the oven. This is definitely a keeper! Hopefully i can get another kilogram of Banana at RM2 this weekend! Can't wait to bake another one for my relatives and friends.

I altered the original recipe a lil bit....nevertheless...the cake still rocks!!!

Here's the recipe adapated from Happy Home Baker:

• 1 1/3 cups (315g) mashed banana (DB used 2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups (235g) plain flour (DB used 2 cups of plain flour and omitted the wholemeal flour)
• 1/2 cup (75g) wholewheat (wholemeal) flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (DB substituted baking soda with 2 tsp of baking powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup (185g) firmly packed golden brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons (90g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (125ml) fresh milk (DB used Low Fat Milk)

Method:

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 180 degC (350 degF). Line bottom of a 20cm (8") round pan with parchment paper, butter and flour the sides. Alternatively, you can use a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan, butter and flour it and set aside.
2. In a bowl, stir together plain flour, wholemeal flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until blended and stir in the brown sugar, butter and milk.
4. Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches alternately with the mashed bananas, and stir with a spatula until just blended. Do not over mix.
5. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with the spatula. (Optional: Stud the top of the batter with slices of bananas).
6. Bake for 55~60mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. If the surface starts to brown too much, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil around the last 15mins of baking. Depending on your oven, you may have to do this mid-way during the baking time.
7. Remove from oven, let cool in the pan for 5mins before unmold. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in airtight container at room temperatures for 2-3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

WARNING: This cake is too yummy to be stored for 1 month

Almost Vegan Coconut Cake.....

I have never been vegetarian in my life until 2 years ago, whereby i started to follow my bf to the temple. Besides weekly prayers and chantings in the temple, i am also required to practice vegetarian on every lunar 1st and 15th of the month. In the beginning, i felt a bit uneasy to omit meat in my meals (though it's only for a day)...probably due the carnivorous genes in my family. But as time goes by, I begin to appreciate the V term in my life. There are literally tens of pages/webs if you Google about the pros of being a vegetarian. In my point of view, though it's good to practice vegetarian, I don't see any harm of having meat in your meals as long as the intake is in moderation.

Yesterday, as i looked through my recipe collection file, i saw this Coconut Cake recipe. This recipe was actually meant to be a vegan recipe, but i substituted one of the ingredients and so, I renamed this recipe as Almost Vegan Coconut Cake. If you like coconut, you'll definitely love this cake. It's moist, a little crunchy texture, and most importantly, the aroma of the coconut milk which played an important role in this vegan cake. Oh, don't get turnoff with the tofu in the ingredients...trust me, you won't even know it's actually there in the recipe as u consume the cake.

The only drawback of this cake is that i find it a bit too sweet for my taste bud. You may want to reduce the amount of sugar if you are health conscious or an-absolute-growing-waistline-hater.

Recipe (yields a 9 inch pan)

• about 120g of soft tofu
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 1 cup of dessicated coconut
• 1 1/4 of cup sugar
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (i substituted this with melted butter)
• 2 1/2 cups of self raising flour

Methods

1. Combine tofu, coconut milk, dessicated coconut, sugar and oil in a food processor. Blend thoroughly to a thick puree texture.


2. Sift the self raising flour in a mixing bowl.


3. Pour the thick puree into the mixing bowl of flour.


4. Mix with spatula until well combined. The texture of the cake mixture will be rather thick and heavy.


5. Pour the cake mixture into a prepared lined baking pan. Smooth the top layer of the cake mixture.


6. Bake in preheated oven of 175 DC for 50 minutes or until cooked.

Step-By-Step Photo Illustration