Eggless Banana Muffin

We had my sis' family over on Sunday... the good thing about having them around is that I never had to worry about leftover food! The bad thing is that there never seemed to be enough food in the house to feed them =p

This banana muffin was an impromptu bake; the nieces were murmuring hunger and I saw a bunch of banana sitting around. Yellow riped, waiting to be baked. Nothing is faster than baking muffin, you know.

This is my favourite muffin recipe which I had used to make many many rounds of muffin for last minute supper or tea:


200g Self Rising Flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking soda
80g soft light brown sugar
100g grapeseed oil (or any veg oil that you have)
100g buttermilk
50g Kahlua (or replace with milk or water)
200g over riped banana, sliced thinly
1/2 tsp banana essence (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Prepare muffin pan or cup.
2. Sift the flour and baking soda together in a big mixing bowl.
3. Add brown sugar. Stir to combine well.
4. Add the oil, buttermilk, Kahlua & banana essence in a measuring cup. Mix well
5. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour (3) into it.
6. Stir briefly to moisten the mixture. It's ok for the mixture to be lumpy.
7. Add the sliced banana and stir once or twice to mix.
8. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan/cup.
9. Bake for 18~20 min until the skewer comes out clean when inserted into the muffin.
10. Cool on the wire rack for 10min.

To veganised this recipe : replace buttermilk with soy-based yogurts and milk with soy milk or water.

As long as you do not over mix the batter, it comes out cake-like. My nieces and the rest keeps calling this a cake!

Kahlua adds a aromatic coffee whiff to the muffin. But if you do not have, just make coffee paste with 1 tbsp of instant coffee + 1 tbsp hot water.

I prefer to slice the banana instead of mashing it, so that it does not have the awful black speckles. Also it is much more satisfying to bite into the soft sweet bananas!

Kahlua Chocolate Cake (vegan)

If you read baker's blog regularly, you must know Aunty Yochana - she is one of the most prolific baker I have come across! I always read her stuff with envious; everything she makes looked so good!

The day I baked this Kahlua Chocolate Cake from her collection, I was a little disappointed. I made them into cupcake, and reduce the sugar to 50gm. I was faithful to all the rest of the recipe, I swear *POUT*

The cake turned out to be dry and crumbly :-(. The good thing is that, unlike most other cupcake which tends to leave a greasy stain on the muffin cup liner, this is dry and clean. A sure sign of lower fat content. Another reason could be due to me reducing the sugar - the sugar serves as a tenderizer in cakes; so changing the proportion will alter the texture. In any case, this confirms my belief that good food can't be healthy!

So in case you are also trying out this recipe, do let me know how did yours go.

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Kahlua Chocolate Cake

200 ml. milk
65 gm. Sugar
1 tsp. Coffee powder
1 tsp. Kahlua (coffee liquer)
90 gm. chopped chocolate
65 gm. margarine
165 gm. cake flour
1 tsp. Baking powder

Method:

1. Grease and line a nice fluted mould or use a 9" round cake tin. (I use my usual silicon cupcake cases)


2. Boil milk, sugar and instant coffee over medium heat till sugar and instant coffee powder melts.


3. Add in margarine and chopped chocolate, off fire. Stir till cool.


4. Fold in cake flour and baking powder into the cooled chocolate mixture and mix well.


5. Pour into prepared tin and bake at 175C for about 30 - 35 mins.


6. Remove from oven and leave on wire rack to cool.

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She ain't Fussy, She's my Sister

Because Sara Corpening once said "How do people make it through life without a sister?"... I ended up spending hours toiling and baking a birthday cake for my only sister whose birthday is Sep 9 - nice birthdate ya.

Umm, I am saying all these to take your attention away from this cake that look more like flakes of snows than a Black Forest! Yes Yes, it was meant to be a black forest cake...but it ended up like a forest in early spring with all the melting snows!


Well, as they say, it's the thought that counts =p
So this is to you, Dot!

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Eggless Chocolate Cake
adapted from KC

60g butter, softened
½ cup oil
1 ½ cup flour
½ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup fine sugar
1 cup cold milk (I used chocolate milk)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp kahlua or baileys
a pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C.


2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda twice and set aside.


3. Cream butter and sugar for 5-10 min until it becomes creamy. Add oil and mix well.


4. Incorporate ¾ of the milk & kahlua, and stir well.


5. Add this mixture to the flour. Use a fork to mix until the flour and liquid are just combined. Use the remaining milk if the batter is too thick. Don't overmix.


6. Pour into greased cake pan (I used 2x7" round pan) and bake for 30 min. Check the cake after 30min for done-ness: when lightly press in the center, they should not sink.

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After thoughts:

• I used the off-the-shelve whipped cream (those that come in an aerosol can) and thought this will be lighter in taste than the home-made buttercream; BIG mistake. It is too light and fluffy. It melted as soon as it is out of the can. Next time, no short cut... whip your own cream.
  


• The freshly-made cake is very delicate and tear easily. After I sandwiched the dark cherries between the 2 cakes, the one on top, due to the difference in height or whatever reasons, started falling apart. In future I will freeze them at least for a day before assembling them.

Oh, BTW, the cake was gone in 30 seconds.... nevermind the look, it's the taste that matters... Yum yum!

Kaya & "R" rated-Coffee Cupcake

I can't decide if I should make the kaya or coffee cupcake... so what I did was to divide the batter into 2. So that day all my wishes were fulfilled!

For the kaya, I added a dope of Ah Kun kaya on top of the cupcake then swirl it in with a toothpick.

This coffee is potent - I replace the 60ml of milk with 40ml of Kahlua and 20ml of Bailey's Creme for the xtra strength and omph!

The pix beside compares 2 - though the batter, method is exactly the same, the cupcake is visibly different. The kaya one didn't rise as much. I suspect this is to do with the additional weight on the batter. But hey, apart from the look, the cake taste just as moist and fluffy as the coffee one!

I named this R-rated coffee cupcake because it contains liquor and I'm not sure if it going to have any impact on kids. On the other hand, I guess the alcohol must have evaporated during the baking process and hence should be fine... at least this is how I consoled myself when my 3-year old helped himself to the coffee cupcake!

Shhh, don't let daddy know otherwise I will be accused for Bevis' alcoholism in future!

Recipe
140gm butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar (90g)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
60ml of milk

Kaya ~1/3 cup

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together with electric mixer until it looks pale.
3. Add egg, 1 at a time until fully incorporated.
4. Add vanilla extract.
5. Add dry ingredients & milk. Mix until uniform. You can use the electric mixer.
6. Fill up muffin cups 3/4 full. Top each cup with 1 tsp of kaya. Swirl with toothpick.
7. Bake for 20min or until the toothpick comes out clean.

For Variation:
* Replace milk with Baileys or Kahlua or any liquor that you like. Be creative!
* For coffee lover, add 5ml coffee emulco.
* Instead of Kaya, you can also use nutella or peanut butter.

PS: I do not like sweet stuff, so all my recipes have been adjusted for a less sweet version. Feel free to up the sugar level to suit your taste.