Banana Bread

If you are looking for cakey banana cake recipe you will be fairly disappointed by how this recipe will turn out not to your wish but mysteriously and surprisingly yet it will not let you down at all! This is not a banana muffin, cake or any of that sorts but bread - a quick bread. I had baked this bread twice in a short span of two months. My whole family likes it so much except my daughter. She likes to eat bananas but doesn't quite like any banana flavoured cakes or pastry!

If you are a banana lover and like to bake, this recipe is a must try recipe and it is so simple to do as you don't need a mixer. The two bowls mixing method will be used instead of the creaming method.

Chocolate Banana Bread (I) - This is the variation added to the original recipe.

Chocolate Banana Bread (II)

Chocolate Banana Bread (III)
Banana Bread (I) - This is the original banana bread recipe. Banana Bread (II) This recipe was baked during one of the weekends and C was so proud with the end product! She was helping me to whisk the eggs, add sugar, flour and did most of the steps with my assistance. She was so excited when I told her that we were going to bake that morning. She leaped up high :) Though the kitchen was a little messy after that, it was worth the effort of cleaning up when you looked at her face beaming all the way!

Notes:
1. I used soft brown sugar for the original banana recipe as I had run out of castor sugar at that time. The cake turned out good still and not so sweet.
2. The second time when I baked it I used castor sugar and added the chocolate chips in about a cup. All ingredients remained the same except that the sugar has to be reduced to 10 tablespoons. The bread was excellent!
3. I used slightly less than a cup of walnut since our local market sells the walnuts in a prepacked packet in small quantities. I really didn't wish to buy 2 packets which I couldn't use up all for one baking and have to keep the balance in the fridge. It didn't distort the texture and flavour much. I spread some walnuts on top of the batter for the original recipe.

Banana Bread (III)Overall, none of my family members and family friends complained about the texture or taste of the bread. Everybody (except my daughter) enjoys and loves it!! I am so sure that I will bake this recipe again and again and that I had baked it twice, I can recall the ingredients easily now. Practice makes things perfect!

(The recipe was extracted from : http://www.cooksillustrated.com/bookstore/detail.asp?PID=247)

Pumpkin Crumble Cake

My father in law bought me one half pumpkin and my initial intention was just to puree some of it for infant food and I had no idea of what to do with the balance of it. C has been pestering me to do a baking project with her. After having the second addition in the family, I will only bake during weekends when hubby helps to take care of P. I will try to spend half morning with C in the kitchen and have fun. If not, I will bake at night during weekends when both kids are asleep.

I did this impromptu project with C two days ago during night time. Yeah, I just wanted to get rid of the pumpkin in the fridge but the main reason was because I miss baking so so much that if I were not dead tired, I would love to spend some time in the kitchen trying out new recipes and having fun with C.

This recipe was taken from the book writen by Agnes Chang, entitled 'I can bake'. The recipe called for creaming method but I was really lazy to take out my hand mixer which I put in the store so I changed using the two mixing bowls method instead i.e to put all the dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another and mixed the dry to the wet later on. Not sure whether because of this that the cake turned out to be a little dense and not so fluffy!

Of all the ingredients needed, I totally forgot about the milk so I didn't use milk for the recipe. Surprisingly, it turned out quite well if not perfect. I like the natural yellowish colour of the cake and the walnuts crumble on top. The cake looked so gorgeous with simple nuts crumble on top by itself. Though I must admit that this cake is very sweet but I don't mind having it as a treat once a while.


PUMPKIN CRUMBLE CAKE

Ingredients

300g self rising flour, sifted
200g butter
200g pumpkin
180g castor sugar
120ml milk
3 eggs
1 tbsp rum (optional)

For the crumble topping:
120g walnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
75g butter
90g sugar
3 tbsp of plain flour

Method (Altered using two mixing bowls method)

1. Steam the pumpkin and mash with a masher or the back of a fork.

2. Melt butter and put aside to let cool.

3. Preheat oven to 180 deg C/350 deg F. Grease and baseline a 9inch cake pan.

4. Whisk eggs in one bowl and add in the sugar, rum, butter and milk. Add in the pumpkin and stir well.

5. In another bowl sift the flour. When finished, fold the flour in 3 batches into the wet ingredients.

6. As for the crumble, coarsely chopped the walnuts and slightly toast them for 5 to 10 minutes. Mixed the walnuts with 3 tbsp plain flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter.

7. Pour half the batter in the cake tin then add dollops of the walnut crumble to the batter. Save half of the crumble for the topping. Pour in the balance half of the batter and finish up with the walnuts crumble spread on top.

8. Put in the oven and bake for about 1 hour.

Notes:
1. I used plain flour since I don't have self rising flour. Therefore, I added 1 tsp of baking powder to the flour.