Steamed Banana and Sultana Cake

I havn't posted in a longgg while- sorry! I guess life took over- final year medicine is definitely the toughest yet with exams, job applications and long hours in placements. However I want to wish you all a Happy New Year filled with happiness and health. 2013 is a big year for me with life changing moments, new challenges, and exciting travels. 2012 has been the best year yet, and 2013 certainly has a lot to live up to.

I was asked by my cousin for a simple cake recipe that she could make for the New Year with limited ingredients, no oven and no microwave. And this was the one that cam to mind. Simple, easy, and yummy.

  
I have cake phases, and lately it's been a chiffon cake phase as I love the lightness of those cakes. However I just made my first ever steamed cake and I am pretty sure I'm entering a new phase: the steamed cake phase. It was soo surprising that the cake took literally 5 minutes to prepare, was light, used minimal oil and hardly any sugar, and the best thing is that it had a lovely moistness to it; more moist than any chiffon I have made. I never knew that you could steam cakes until one day at a dim sum resteraunt I sampled some 'mah lai ko' (Chinese steamed cake) and was in awe of the lightness; I could have easily gobbled up the whole cake it was that light! I know that not everyone is going to have a bamboo or electric steamer, however you can just use a rice cooker like I did or you can just put some water in a wok like pan and place the container with the cake mixture on top (let it stand on a metal ring or a plate or something so that it is above the water). If there was ever anything like a 'healthy' cake, I would say this recipe is the one!

Beware: This cake will literally just 'disappear' in a flash.


Preparation time: 30mins

Recipe

Ingredients
2/3 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2 small bananas (or 1 large banana) mashed
1 egg
2 tsp water
1 tsp oil
1/4 cup icing sugar
handful sultanas

Method
1. In a bowl mash the bananas with a fork. Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well with the fork.

2. Place the mixture in a small greased cake tin.

 3. Place the cake tin on a stand in the steamer for around 15-25mins till the cake is done (a knife through the cente should come out clean).

 4. Remove from the steamer and allow to cool for a few minutes (it's definitely hard to resist digging in) before taking the cake out of the tin, loosen the edges with a knife before you do so.

 5. Eat warm or cold.

Source:
Chow Times


A post from Fullest Part of Life

Jasmine Cream Tea Mousse Cake With Chocolate Chiffon

 

This cake was for a friends birthday. What better present than a cake.

When I set about making the cake I never intended it on being a mousse cake; I was actually planning on coating it in jasmine tea whipped cream, however when the cream doesn't whip you go about making mousse cake, voila, and no one will ever know! I have my flat mate to thank for saving the cake as she was the one who told me this rather nifty little mousse cake trick. Basically I think that the cream didn't whip to stiff peaks because I may have heated it too much when infusing the jasmine tea, so be sure to remove it from the heat just before it starts to simmer.

Even tough this cake has a lot of cream, it actually tastes quite light and was a real contrast to the other very chocolate cake which we had. What surprised me was that people kept asking me how I got the cake soo smooth on the sides, and how everything was soo even; if only they knew how easy it was and the real story behind it, they may not have been so impressed! As the saying goes 'when life gives you lemons make lemonade' or mousse cake is just as good.
 

Recipe

Ingredients

Chocolate Chiffon
2 cups plain flour
2 1/2tsp cream of tartar
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tbsp cocoa powder
pinch of salt
6 medium eggs separated
1/4 cup sugar
1cup water
1/2 cup oil (I used sunflower, you can also use canola)
1tsp vanilla extract

Jasmine Tea Mousse
1136ml double cream
5tbsp jasmine tea (add more if you want a stronger flavour)
6tbsp icing sugar
2 1/2 sachets gelatine powder
75ml hot water
Optional chocolate flakes/chocolate chips

Method

Chocolate Chiffon
1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2.Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix (flour, 2tsp cream of tartar, baking pwdr, baking soda and salt).

3. Beat the egg yolks, sugar, oil, vanilla essence and water.

4. Add the egg mixture to the flour and mix well till smooth and even.

 

5. Whisk the egg whites. Add 1/2tsp of cream of tartar when the mixture is starting to become light and frothy. Whisk till stiff peaks form.

6. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg whites and carefully fold in trying to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.

 7. Pour this mixture into a cake pan and bake for around 1hr till a knife through the centre of the cake comes out clean. When you take the cake out of the oven let it cool upside down on a wire rack.

Jasmine Tea Cream Mousse
1. In a pan heat the cream, jasmine tea, and remove from the heat just before the mixture comes to the simmer.

2. Strain the mixture and leave to cool to room temperature. Then place in the fridge for a few hours to chill.
3. When cool, whip the cream with the icing sugar till it is 3/4 done (soft peaks, not stiff peaks).
4. Do this stage when you are just about to assemble the cake: make the gelatine mixture by adding the gelatine powder to the hot water and mix till it is is all dissolved. Add this mixture to the whipped cream and combine. 

Assembly
1. Cut away excess cake to make the cake even and flat on all sides.

 2. Cut the cake in half.

3. Make the diameter of the cake smaller so that it is smaller that the cake pan (I took around 2cm from the sides). Place 1 layer of cake in the middle of a cake pan with the base lined with baking parchment or tinfoil.

4. Pour in the jasmine cream tea mixture so that it covers the sides and 0.5-1cm above the chocolate cake. Sprinkle some chocolate flakes/chips only above the cake (not the sides). Chill in the fridge for 10mins.

5. Now place the second layer of cake on top of the base layer. Pour the rest of the cream mixture over the cake and around the sides. You can cut the cake and make it shorter if you think there will not be enough cream mixture to fill everything. 

6. Chill in the fridge for at least 3-4hrs, preferably overnight. To remove the cake from the pan, just carefully push the base up (or open up the pan slowly if its spring-form).

 7. Decorate as you wish.

Source:
Chocolate chiffon cake: Nigella


A post from Fullest of Life

Chocolate Oreo Cream Cake

 

 

Who doesn't love a good chocolate cake? And who doesn't love Oreo biscuits? I know that I'm a BIG fan of both! I've found a great and dare I say it 'fool proof' chocolate cake recipe which is simple, moist and reliable. I've made this recipe at least 4 times now in the space of a few months which is saying something! I think that the secret ingredients to this cake are buttermilk, which makes the cake moist, and coffee which brings out the rich chocolaty flavour (you can't taste the coffee in the cake). The finished result from the pictures you can see above was made in 3 stages over 3 days , and you can decide to skip out stage 2 or 3 of course:
1. Make the chocolate cake
2. Add buttercream and cream icing
3. Decorate

One major problem that I came across was the fact that the cake wouldn't fit in the fridge! Our  fridge is always packed to the brim and trying to fit a cake in is always a challenge, and we always end up repacking the whole fridge. So bear this in mind and decide on a more suitable sized cake, or try and make it all in one day before you want to serve it, or don't add the whipped cream icing (buttercream filling is fine out of the fridge tough). I'm not going to ask Santa for a new fridge (I don't think it would fit down the chimney), but something I do wish I had is a kitchen aid mixer; it would be so easy to just put everything into one bowl and let the machine do the work. But I guess on the brighter side my biceps definitely benefited from all the whipping and whisking! For all of you who also don't have a kitchen mixer I've proved that you make this cake without it, so no excuses.
 

I made this cake for a friend's birthday, and I'm glad that there were quite a few people to help finish the cake, however the cake defeated us even tough there were around 15 people. So if you want to make this cake, make sure you have people to share it with, and lots of them for that matter. One last tip for making this cake is to buy an extra pack of Oreo biscuits: you'll definitely be tempted to have 'one or two' biscuits whilst making the cake, and you don't want to end up with the situation where you have none left for the decoration!

Recipe

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup cocoa powder
4 cups caster sugar
4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup oil (I used sunflower as it won't affect the flavour of the cake)
2 cups buttermilk (or you can use 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup milk)
2 cups brewed coffee (use hot water)

Oreo Buttercream Filling
1 1/2 blocks (375g) of unsalted butter  at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or use the same quantity of vanilla essence)
4-5 cups of icing sugar (depending on your preference of sweetness and consistency)
1/2 pack (around 7 Oreos) of a 154g packet of Oreos crushed

Oreo Cream Icing
368mls double cream (x2 of 184ml cartons)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/2 pack (around 7 oreos) of a 154g packet of Oreos crushed

Vanilla Cream Icing Peaks

200mls double cream
3 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Optional Extras

Oreo biscuits to decorate (you can get mini and regular sized biscuits)



Method: 

Chocolate Cake

You can make this cake mixture in 2 batches (just half the recipe for each batch) if like me you don't have a mixing bowl big enough to fit all the ingredients.

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well.

 3. Mix the oil, buttermilk and eggs together. Slowly add this to the dry ingredients and whisk.

4. Slowly mix in the brewed coffee until the mixture is smooth.

5. Divide the mixture equally into 4 cake tins which have been lines with greaseproof paper (or if you don't have 4 tins just bake in batches)

6. Bake for 35-45mins until a knife stuck in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool before handling (otherwise it will fall apart easily).

Oreo Buttercream Filling

1. Beat the butter till it is soft and creamy.

2. Slowly add the icing sugar in batches and whisk into the butter after each addition.

3. Once the right consistency and sweetness is achieved add the Oreo crumbs and blend well.

 

Oreo Cream Icing

1. In a mixing bowl add the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla bean paste. Whisk till still peaks are just about to form.

2. Add the Oreo biscuits and use a spoon to mix into the mixture (be careful not to over-whip the cream).

Vanilla Cream Icing Peaks

1. Whisk all the ingredients till still peaks form; the 'can you put the bowl over your head?' test.

 

Cake Assembly:

1. Cut the cake layers till they are all flat and even.

2.Place a layer of cake cake board or plate that you want to present the cake on as it will be difficult to move later on.
3. Spread a layer of butter cream on, then add another layer of cake and repeat process till you end up with a 4-tiered cake with 3 layers of buttercream.

4. Use any remaining buttercream to smooth the sides of the cake.

6. Use a piping bag to pipe the vanilla cream peaks onto the cake.

7. Decorate with Oreo biscuits.

8. Chill the cake till serving.

Source:
Chocolate cake adapted from 'Food and Wine'

A post from Fullest of Life