100th post + belated blog birthday

100th post. Can’t believe that I have gone this far with my blog. I can still remember how excited I was when I got my oven at my new place. My growing collection of baking pans and moulds. My ready stocked pantry of eggs, butter, flour and chocolate. My first serious camera. Quite an achievement in a year. The first cake I made was banana cake. It was fool proof because the recipe simple calls for everything to be mixed together by hand. The result was okay, but I have since moved on to better banana bread recipes. This time, I decided to go back to basics and whip up another banana bread. The recipe is from one of my favourite sites Gourmet. Like most banana bread recipes, this one is easily done. I didn’t add any nuts this time as my mom ain’t a big fan. Also, I scaled the recipe up 50% because the first one I did was kind of small. We prefer our loaves big and tall I also added slices of banana on top they sank in during the baking and now it just looks like a pretty crack!

Banana Bread
(Adapted from Gourmet)

2/3 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 ½ cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3 very ripe medium bananas

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan and line bottom of pan with wax paper or parchment, then grease paper.

2. Mix together milk and lemon juice and let stand until milk curdles, about 1 minute.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

4. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until combined, beat in bananas until combined. (Mixture will look curdled.)

5. Add flour mixture to banana mixture alternately with milk, mixing at low speed just until batter is smooth. Stir in walnuts. Pour into loaf pan and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of bread comes out clean, about 1 hour.

6. Cool bread in pan on a rack 20 minutes, then invert bread onto rack. Remove paper and turn bread right side up on rack to cool completely.

Waste not

I think that the financial crisis and the possibility that I may get axed any time made me a more thrifty person. Okay, I still spend quite a fair bit of cash each month, but I try to save in little ways. Like buying second hand novels instead of brand new ones. Going to the library more often. Buying (a little) less clothes. And not wasting my over ripe bananas. Bought a bunch of ripe bananas a couple of days back. By today, they were a little to soft for our consumption. Instead of throwing them away, I told mom that I will make a cake out of it instead. I skimmed through my various cook books and felt that the usual banana bread was too boring. I decided to make a banana chiffon cake instead. The chiffon cake is light and moist, with bits of banana clinging on to the crumbs. So simple yet so good. You would want a slice too, won’t you?

Banana Chiffon Cake

3 ripe bananas (about 2/3 cups)

6 eggs, separated

200g cake flour, sifted

¾ cup & 3 tbsp fine sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

100 ml vegetable oil or safflower oil

25ml water 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1. Separate the eggs and place the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Cover with plastic wrap and bring them to room temperature. (It is easier to separate cold eggs)  

2. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F) and have ready a 10 inch (25 cm) two piece tube pan (ungreased). Mash up the bananas, leaving some small bits for the extra bite.

3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk the flour, sugar (minus 3 tablespoons), baking powder, and salt.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the banana, egg yolks, oil, and vanilla extract.  Beat about one minute or until smooth. Add the water bit by bit, with the mixer on low speed.

4. Pour the batter into a large bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, with the mixer on whisk attachment beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.  Gradually beat in the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  With a large rubber spatula or wire whisk, gently fold the egg whites into the batter just until blended (being careful not to deflate the batter). 

5. Pour the batter into the ungreased tube pan and bake for about 60 – 65 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert the pan and place on a bottle or flat surface so it is suspended over the counter.  Let the cake cool completely before removing from pan (about 1 1/2 – 2 hours). Serves 8 – 10.

Clearing out the old stuff

I am clearing out all the bits and pieces of stuff in my treasure trove of ingredients. Leftover handful of chocolate chips, a quarter pack of cranberries… you get the idea. Since I also have a bunch of very ripe bananas sitting around, I made some cupcakes with all the ingredients. I used quite abit of sour cream in it, and the cupcakes turned out super soft and fluffy. Nice! Will be bringing them to office tomorrow. Hope my colleagues like them as much as I do

Update! My colleagues loved them very much! Here is the recipe as requested!

Kitchen sink banana cupcakes

 

1 ½ cups sour cream

¾ butter

3 cups flour

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup mashed bananas

1/3 cup cranberries

Handful of chocolate chips (or as much as you like!)

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

Flavourless oil (eg. vegetable oil, or canola oil)  

 

1.       Preheat the oven to 175C (350F), with rack at center position. Grease your 12-cup muffin tray or line with paper liners.

 

2.       Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together. Working with a mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter to break it up. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure it combines before adding the next one. Scrap the sides if needed.

 

3.       Lowering your mixer speed, mix in the bananas. Lastly, mix in half the flour mixture, all the sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture. If the mixture seems abit dry, add in some flavourless oil (eg vegetable oil), 1 tablespoon at a time. I added about 2 tablespoons in mine, but see for yourself before adding. Stir in the cranberries and chocolate chips quickly.

 

4.       Fill the cups up to ¾ full and bake for about 20 – 25 minutes, or until the stick inserted into the centre of the cupcake comes out clean. Makes about 18 cupcakes.