Majulah Singapore, Award and a Banana Hazelnut Cake

Yesterday was Cooling-Off Day. You might think that the temperatures here in Singapore are climbing to an all-time high and yesterday was a day specially designated for Singaporeans to cool off. Nope. That is not the purpose. Instead, it is the election heat that has been going on for some time. Cooling-Off Day is a day (first time in history) where no campaigning is allowed and voters have this whole day to exercise their thoughts and think of the greater picture for the future of Singapore.

This year, 2011, is a year that marks the turning point in Singapore politics. With the advent of online social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, political awareness spreads like wildfire these days with the uploading of rally videos and speeches. Instead of the latest celebritity gossips about who's in and who's out, the General Election has became the hottest topic in coffee-shop talks.  

What marks the difference between this election and previous elections is that Singaporeans are becoming increasing aware of government policies, affairs of state and the importance of this General Election. This is one phenomenon which I gladly welcome. After all, we need to be more concerned about the well-being of our country as a whole instead of remaining politically apathetic. 

It is the responsibility of every voter to vote wisely. After all, it is our votes that determines the direction that Singapore will head in. As a Singaporean, do you want new amenities for your constituency or would you be more concerned with the bigger issues at hand? These are questions we need to consider thoroughly. Utimately, it is up to individuals to think and decide.    

This was meant to be posted up in my previous posts but it somehow slipped my mind. I would like to thank Angel from Cook.Bake.Love for presenting this award to me. Thanks a lot for the encouragement, Angel. 

Now, back to my baking escapades. I was first introduced to this Banana Hazelnut Cake when Edith brought it along for a bloggers meetup. After savouring a slice of the cake, I was impressed and was full of praises for it. When I have a craving for banana cakes these days, this recipe would come to my mind.

This is the second time I have made this cake. Previously, the cake turned out fluffy but it was slightly underdone. After turning it out of the cake tin, the cake collapsed on one side. I should have baked it longer and let it cool for at least 15 minutes in the tin to allow the structure to firm up a little before turning it out.      

To avoid the same mishap, I used a loaf tin lined with baking paper and ensured that the cake was fully baked before it was turned out. After the cake was done, I could easily lift the cake out without the need for the cake to cool in the tin and to allow for the structure to firm up.

There is a noticeable difference in texture this time round as the crumbs are more tightly packed. Nevertheless it was tender due to the addition of sour cream. I had followed the original directions and mixed the ground hazelnuts with the creamed butter. Previously, the ground hazelnuts was mixed with the flour and other dry ingredients. I also observed that I performed more folding of ingredients by hand previously but relied more on the mixer when it comes to incorporating ingredients this time round. That could have affected the crumbs.

Taste-wise, it is also different from the first attempt since I am using a different brand of sour cream, butter and a different variety of banana. In terms of appearance, I like how the cake bakes to a nice golden-brown hue and the black streaks that are signature to any mouth-watering banana cake. 

Banana Hazelnut Cake (recipe adapted from Precious Moments)
Serving size: 10.5 x 6 inch loaf or 9 x 3 inch round cake. Yields 15 - 20 slices
Taste and texture: Dense or fluffy depending on method of mixing. Carries a rich banana fragrance with a faint nutty note.
Equipment and materials:

• 10.5 x 6 inch loaf tin or 9 x 3 inch round tin
• Balloon/wire whisk
• Spatula
• Handheld/Stand beater
• Baking paper
• Wire rack
• Toothpick/wooden skewer
• Flour sieve
• Measuring spoon set
• Mixing bowls

Ingredients:

• 240g over-riped bananas, mashed
• 225g unsalted butter, softened 
• 220g caster sugar
• 75g ground hazelnut
• 150g eggs, lightly beaten and at room temperature
• 265g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 200g sour cream, at room temperature

Making the cake:

Preheat Oven - Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift plain flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl. Add in the ground hazelnuts. Whisk the mixture with a wire whisk to loosen the mixture and to allow the ingredients to be evenly distributed.  

Cream butter - In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (as mentioned in how to cream butter). 

Adding eggs to creamed butter - Add eggs to creamed butter in 3 additions, making sure each addition is well incorporated before adding the next. The mixture should be smooth. At this point in time the batter should be wet and creamy due to the addition of eggs. 

Alternating flour mixture and sour cream - Add in 1/3 of the dry ingredients to egg + creamed butter mixture. Fold with a wire whisk or use a beater to mix on medium low speed until dry ingredients are incorporated. Scrap sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula and mix in the stray ingredients. Next add 1/2 of the sour cream and fold with whisk/beat with mixer to combine.Scrap sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula and mix in the stray ingredients.

Repeat the process of mixing the dry and wet ingredients alternately, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. It should be as follows:

1. Firstly, add 1/3 of dry ingredients
2. Add 1/2 of sour cream
3. Add 1/3 of dry ingredients
4. Add remaining 1/2 of sour cream
5. Lastly, add remaining 1/3 dry ingredients

Folding in mashed bananas - For the final part, mix in the mashed bananas with a spatula or wire whisk, ensuring mashed bananas are well distributed.

Baking the cake - Bake the cake at 170 degrees C for 1 hr -1 hr 15 minutes. Check done-ness by inserting a wooden skewer into the centre of the cake. When done, the skewer should come out clean. Bake the cake for a further 5 minutes just to 'play safe' since banana cakes tend to be very moist and have weak structures.

Once the cake is baked. Lift out the cake and remove the baking paper. Allow cake to cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes:

1. Use over-riped bananas for best results.
2. If butter is not well creamed, it may curdle when eggs are added. Butter egg mixture may also curdle if eggs are cold or added too fast to creamed butter. 
3. Relying on manual folding using a wire whisk might yield a fluffier cake. 

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit (to me and the original contributor) and do re-phrase the instructions. I have taken quite a bit of effort to construct, edit and type them out. Thank you =]

Bananas about Cookies

It's a hit again. So far the score is 4-1, hits verus misses wise. I'm glad my copy of Martha Stewart's Cookies worked its charm with this banana walnut chocolate chip cookies. Other than using over-riped bananas solely for banana breads/cakes, there is a new option for me now.  

There is something about this cookie. It isn't quite the usual cookie that one would expect. Most of the time, I'm expecting cookies to be either chewy, crunchy, sandy, crumbly or perhaps sometimes cakey. This cookie doesn't fit the bill and it is more like soft and moist bite-sized banana bread/muffin.

My younger brother isn't used to this kind of texture but Stephanie says its good, tasting like cookies from Pepperidge. For me, I would give the thumbs up! Glad I discovered a different kind of cookie.

I will be submitting this entry to this month's Aspiring Bakers # 5 - Fruity March.

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies)
Serving size: 36 - 40 cookies
Taste and texture: Mini, moist banana bread-like cookies with a oaty-nutty taste.
Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Flour sieve
3) Measuring spoon set
4) Spatula
5) Mixing bowls
6) Wire rack
7) Fork
8) Baking trays/ cookie sheets
9) Baking / parchment paper

Ingredients:
240g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
160g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
75g castor sugar
75g brown sugar
50g whole egg, lightly beatened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
160g mashed, very ripe/over-riped bananas
85g rolled oats
175g chocolate chips or coarsely chopped semiweet chocolate
75g chopped walnuts, toasted

Making the Cookies:
Preheat oven - Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.

Toasting the walnuts - Toast walnuts at 190 degrees C for about 10 minutes to bring out its fragrance. Set walnuts aside to cool.

Mix dry ingredients - Sift flour, salt and baking soda into a mixing bowl. Stir with a balloon whisk to distribute them evenly.

Cream butter - Beat the butter with both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes until butter mixture is fluffy. Volume of butter-sugar mixture should increase noticeably.

Making the cookie dough - Add in beaten egg and vanilla to creamed butter mixture. Beat until well combined. Next, stir in flour mixture and beat on low speed briefly until flour disappears. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl well with a spatula.

Mash bananas using a fork. Fold in the mashed bananas to the flour-butter batter and mix well. Lastly, mix in the oats, chocolate chips and chopped walnuts with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Baking the cookies - Place heaped tablespoons of dough onto baking trays lined with baking/parchment paper, leaving some space (about 1.5 inch) between each cookie and bake for 12-13 minutes at 190 degrees C. Allow cookies to cool for about 3-5 minutes on tray before transferring to wire rack. When cookies have cooled completely, store them in air-tight containers.

Notes:
1) For a nuttier aroma, substitute 80g of plain flour with whole wheat flour.
2) Cookies are meant to be muffin/bread like. If baked slightly longer, the cookies will just turn out dry and would not be crunchy.

Baking with Bakertan - Going Bananas Over Chocolate

Good day folks! Thank you for tuning in to Baking with Bakertan =]. Today, Bakertan is going to bake a Banana Chocolate Cake.

First of all, we need some bananas. Make sure you are using overripe bananas. Notice the black spots on the bananas? This is an indication that the bananas are starting to over-ripen. Overripe bananas are sweeter and have a much stronger flavour. I am using Del Monte since they are easily available from supermarkets.

Next, we need to line the loaf tin. Cut out a rectangular piece of baking/parchment paper such that the width of the paper fits the length of the loaf pan. The length of the paper has to be long enough so that there will be excess paper jutting out when pressed to fit into the tin.

Remove the paper and oil the loaf tin lightly either with softened/melted butter or vegetable oil. Press the paper back into the tin so that it adheres itself nicely.

Meanwhile, sift the self-raising flour and the baking powder into a large bowl. Use a wire whisk to mix the dry ingredients, ensuring that they are uniformly distributed.

At the same time, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Fill a saucer with water and place the heatproof bowl over the saucer so that the bowl is sitting on the saucer without coming in contact with the water. This setup is known as a double boiler. (Oops! Bakertan forgot to take pictures on melting chocolate). Bring the water in the saucer to a low simmer (low heat please) and melt the chocolates, stiring the chocolate occasionally. Leave the melted chocolate to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Tip the softened butter and caster sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, as explained in How to Cream Butter. Once the butter is well creamed, add the eggs one by one and continue beating on medium low speed, ensuring that each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Notice that the colour of the egg-butter mixture (picture on right) has a slight yellowish hue compared to the off-white colour of the creamed butter (picture on left).

In a medium bowl, mash the overripe bananas using a potato masher until you get banana puree. Alternative, you can do it using the back of two forks.

Add the mashed bananas/banana puree to the egg-butter mixture in 3 additions and beat on low speed until well-combined. The mixture may curdle/separate when the banana puree is added (The curdling may cause the banana loaf to become dense, but it is perfectly alright. It still taste great). This is normal and will be alright when the flour is added in.  

To complete the batter, sift the flour mixture into the banana-egg-butter mixture in two batches. Beat the batter on medium-low speed to incorporate the flour. After the first batch of flour is absorbed, give it a further beating of 10 seconds and sift in the second batch. Once the second batch of flour is absorbed, scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl to incorporate loose flour. Beat the batter for 20 seconds to obtain a smooth batter.

Now that the batter is done, we need to do the layering. First, scoop 1/4 of the cake batter into the loaf tin and level the surface.  

Use a spoon and drizzle 1/3 of the melted chocolate randomly or evenly (your choice) over the cake batter.

Scoop another 1/4 of the cake batter to cover the melted chocolate. Repeat the layering of cake batter alternating with melted chocolate until all the cake batter and melted chocolate are used up. The batter should fill up to 4/5 the height of the tin.  

Place the loaf tin onto a baking tray and place them in the oven, to catch any overflow of batter if any. (just in case) Bake the cake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Start checking for doneness after 1 hour by inserting a wooden/metal skewer into the centre of the cake. It should come oout clean when the cake is done (it is ok to have some crumbs sticking to the skewer, but not wet uncooked batter). The top skin should be nicely browned after 1 hour. Place a piece of aluminium foil over the loaf tin to prevent the surface from over-browning and continue baking until the cake is done.

Tada....A nice chocolate banana cake is done! Allow the cake to cool in the loaf tin for 15 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Sit back and enjoy your banana chocolate cake with a nice cup of tea. Thats all for today folks! Cya and stay tuned to Baking with Bakertan.

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While the cake was baking, the smell permeated the entire house. I can swear those walking past the common corridor can sniff it. This happens when you make a banana cake. Free aroma therapy while waiting for the cake to be done.

I have lost count of the number of times I have used this recipe. By far, this is my best attempt, probably because I increased the proportion of bananas. It worked brilliantly as the banana flavour had a strong presence without being overtaken by the taste of the rich melted dark chocolate. While this version of the banana chocolate cake is more banana-ish, there is the other version which is more chocolatey in nature. One such recipe is the Cocoa Banana Bread (if my memory served me correctly; I do not own a copy of the book) in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, which baking enthusiasts should be familiar with. A similar chocolate banana cake can be found from Jess Kitchen.

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Banana Chocolate Cake (Recipe adapted Chocolate: 70 of the Best Recipes by Hamlyn)
Serving size: 10 slices
Texture: Moist, moderately dense with a prominent banana fragrance layered with rich semisweet chocolate with the consistency of a good chocolate frosting.
Equipment and Materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowls (one of which is heatproof)
5) Wire rack
6) 9 x 5 inch loaf tin
7) Flour sieve
8) Parchment/baking paper
9) Brush for oiling pan
10) Weighing scale

Cake Batter:
190g unsalted butter, softened
285 - 300g mashed bananas ( 2 1/2 overripe bananas)
160g castor sugar
150g eggs (about 3 55g eggs)
240g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
175g chocolate, melted (55-60% cocoa)

Making the banana chocolate cake:
Follow instructions as above.

Notes:
1) Take care not to overheat the chocolate, it will cause the chocolate to 'burn'/become dry/ thicken and become lumpy .
2) Do not allow any water/moisture/steam to come into contact with the melted chocolate. It will cause the chocolate to seize/become grainy.
3) Reduce bananas to 230g for a more buttery cake. The baking time will be reduced as a result of the lesser amount of liquid).

Banana Kueh with Chocolate Frosting?

What was meant to be a banana cake turned out to be a banana kueh instead. I had planned to try out the banana cake with chocolate frosting from Nancie McDermott's Southern Cakes. Borrowed the book a second time and I was tempted to at least try out one of the promising cakes.

I can only say my journey was wrought with perils. Only several hours after I assembled the cake did I realise I made a grave mistake. I added too much buttermilk, thinking that the cake required 1 cup when the recipe stated 1/2 cup. This was a blatant mistake. No wonder the cake did not seemed to rise much. There was far too much liquid for the amount of raising agents.  

Problems did not just stop at that. While making the frosting, the cocoa and butter mixture turned into an oily messy instead of a shiny essence as described as in the book. This was a familiar sight as I had such encounters previously. Determined to produce the frosting, I re-attempted and this time round I did not follow the instructions in the book. What I did was melt the butter first then added the evaporated milk and the cocoa powder. This should had been the proper method. There were still random grains of unmelted cocoa lying around but I decided to proceed with the addition of icing sugar. It was like undissolved bits of Milo powder when room temperature water is used.

I was skeptical about the amount of icing sugar used. It says 4 cups which is about a whooping 460g of sugar needed. In the end, I only used 300g of icing sugar to allow the frosting to reach a fudgy consistency. When I sampled the frosting, it was disgustingly sweet! Imagine even a sweet tooth like me cannot stand the sweetness. Nevertheless, I assembled the cake and prayed that the overall taste would not be so sickly sweet afterall. Thankfully, the sweetness of the assembled cake was mellowed down to an acceptable level, albeit it was leaning towards the sweet side. Perhaps due to the chilling of the the cake overnight, it tasted like a chocolate frosted layered banana kueh. Interesting~ 

My Lessons Learnt:
1) Read the ingredient list CAREFULLY.
2) Melt the butter first before adding the cocoa powder. Do not dump both the butter and cocoa together to melt.
3) Avoid frostings with ridiculous amounts of sugar.

Cake Project - Awfully Chocolate Banana Cake!

It was a major cake making project that required several hours of committment which served one purpose - a birthday cake for my younger brother. As the name suggests, there is an awful lot of chocolate present in this cake. Layers of chocolate sponge sandwiched with chocolate mousse and fresh bananas finally glazed on the exterior with a lava of chocolate ganache. Awfully sinful indeed!

Once again, credit goes to aunty yochana whose blog I referred to for the wonderful recipe. My previous attempts on egg tarts and pandan kaya cake which came from her library of recipes churned out delicious treats and I was so looking forward to this recipe.

The process of making the cake was a tedious and a not-so-smooth-sailing one. I had some problems making the mousse and the chocolate ganache. The mousse turned out lumpy on the first attempt and I had to chuck the whole thing in the bin. As for the chocolate ganache, everything turned grainy and yucky. Once again, the bin was revisted a second time. There goes my cocoa powder! In the end, I settled for a chocolate butter glaze found on allrecipe as I had ran out of cream.

Decorating the whole cake wasn't an easy affair either. The standing chocolate pieces that circle the cake's perimeter are known as cat's toungue. It was an idea borrowed from a chocolate book that I came across in the library. To do the cat's toungue, I melted chocolate and smeared them onto a piece of greaseproof paper into oblong shapes slightly longer than the height of the cake using a spatula. The melted choclate is then left to harden. I then placed the cat's tongue in my room with the air-conditioner on to set them faster. When left in warm humid conditions, the chocolate pieces will soften and will not hold their shape well. My cat's tongue actually softened and curved outwards from the cake instead of staying upright when I left it on the dining table!

On top of the cake is six piece of square wafer biscuit truffles. Instead of the usual truffles with molten ganache centers, I bought a pack of loackers square chocolate wafers and dipped them in white chocolate. The sqaures were then piped with dark chocolate to give the truffles a finishing touch. The easiest part of all was the piping of words using white chocolate. Tada! My chocolate banana cake was completed.

My family was pretty supportive of the cake. Everyone had a huge slice. Six of us took more than half the cake and it was disappeared without a trace just the next day! Next time I shall double the volume of the chocolate mousse and use a sweeter ganache to coat the entire cake. Yummy!

The recipe can be found from Aunty Yochana's blog:
Awfully chocolate banana cake recipe

Banana Chiffon Cake

The last time i baked a chiffon cake was like 2-3 months back. After reading Rei's blog, it gave me motivation to bake a chiffon cake again. This time round i decided to try her banana chiffon cake.

Rei definitely is a master homebaker of chiffon. Her spirit of baking chiffon cakes is admirable. Read her 2 posts on chiffon troubleshooting and you will know why. She definitely gives you all the A-Z of chiffon baking. Anyone who wants to attempt a chiffon cake MUST read her blog. If i had come across her blog earlier, maybe i would not have failed 4 times.

In my mind, i was thinking whether i had lost my mojo after a few consecutive successful attempts. The weather wasnt too kind. It was wet, cold and drizzling outside. This could affect the beaten egg whites as they will draw moisture from the air.

The cake turned out successful. But it wasnt the most perfect attempt i made. The top of the chiffon cake was dome shaped instead of being flat.

I had substituted corn oil with peanut oil and was praying the strong peanut aroma would not interfere with the fragrance of the bananas. Luckily, it didnt. The cake turned out fluffy, slightly moist and carries a light banana taste. yummy! Cant wait to attempt new chiffon cake flavours!

Banana Chiffon Cake recipe can be found from Rei's blog:

Recipe