Mini Banana Cakes with lemon cream cheese icing

I have been making this banana cake recipe for years, and before I was making it my mum was. Not sure where she got this recipe, but it’s a winner :-).

There is something quite nostalgic when you make a recipe that you grew up eating as a child, it invokes memories and feelings, it’s what we call comfort food.

This banana cake is moist and soft the only important thing in making this recipe is make sure you have very ripe bananas, the riper the better.

RECIPE for Banana cake:

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 165g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 medium bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 260g Self Raising Flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp bi-carbonate soda
• 2 Tsp milk

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC
2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
3. Add eggs 1 at a time beating well between each addition
4. Mash bananas, then beat in with vanilla
5. Fold in half the sifted flour and bicarbonate soda, add milk, then fold in remaining flour. (try not to work batter too much at this will make for a tough cake, as you over work the gluten in the flour)
6. place batter into prepared cake pan(s) (I used mini loaf tins, but you can one big cake or cupcakes or 1 large loaf cake)
7. bake in oven until skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre, (cooking times will vary depending on the size of your cake, the bigger the cake the longer it will take. My mini loaf cakes took about 20-25 minutes)

RECIPE lemon cream cheese icing:

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 80g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
• Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

METHOD:

1. Cream butter and cream cheese together until soft and smooth
2. add icing sugar and lemon zest, mix to combine
3. spread generously on top of banana cake(s) and decorate as desired

Orange and Cardamom Syrup Cake

A moist sweet cake bursting with citrus flavour and the undertones of the exotic cardamon spice.

There is no arguing the natural marriage of these two flavours, a match made in heaven…..

Dress this cake with sweet fresh strawberries covered in the orange and cardamon syrup.

Cut a generous slice and serve with vanilla cream. Mmmmmmm dessert time.

This recipe is adapted from the cookbook; Delicious, Simply the best by Valli Little

RECIPE: 

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 220g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 50g plain flour, sifted
• 2 tsp baking powder
• finely grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
• 250g fine semolina
• 250g almond meal, pushed through a course sieve
• 120g this Greek-style yoghurt
• 250g punnet strawberries, halved or quartered

SYRUP

• finely grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
• 6 cardamon pods bruised
• 2 cinnamon quills
• 275g caster sugar

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 170ºC and Grease a 23cm round springform pan, line the base with baking paper and lightly dust sides with flour, shaking off any excess
2. Beat butter and sugar until thick and pale, add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition
3. Fold in the flour and baking powder, followed by the orange zest, almond meal and semolina
4. Add orange juice and yoghurt and stir until combined
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre
6. cool n pan for 5 minutes
7. Meanwhile, for syrup, place all ingredients in a saucepan with 375ml water
8. Stir over low heat to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 15-20 minutes until slightly thickened
9. Prick surface of the warm cake all over with a skewer, slowly drizzle over half the syrup, then allow to cool
10. Toss strawberries in remaining syrup, then drizzle over cake

Lemon Curd Cupcakes

MOIST, TASTY, YELLOW, TANGY, ZESTY, BITTER-SWEET, FRUITY, YUMMY, DELICIOUS.

There you have it, these descriptive nine words sum up these SCRUMPTIOUS (now make that 10 words :-)) Lemon Curd Cupcakes.

I made lemon curd using this recipe (here) from POPSUGAR Food. To make these cupcakes you only need to make a half batch of this lemon curd recipe, or you could make the whole batch like I did and make this Lemon Curd and Strawberry Pavlova , with the left over lemon  curd, trust me its worth it :-).

RECIPE CREAM CHEESE LEMON CUPCAKES:  (Recipe converted and adapted from POPSUGAR)

• 225g Plain flour, sifted
• Zest and juice from 1 lemon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 200g unsalted butter
• 285g caster sugar
• 125g cream cheese, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup Lemon curd

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC and line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
2. Whisk together the flour, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar, until fluffy and lightened in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the cream cheese and beat until completely incorporated.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until no streaks of yolk remain. Add the lemon juice and vanilla, and mix until incorporated.
5. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula between additions. Mix together until just combined.
6. Divide the batter among the cupcake molds, filling each mold about 3/4 full.
7. Bake for 24-28 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
8. Allow to rest for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before filling with lemon curd.
9. Using a watermelon baller scoop out a round in the centre of each cupcake.
10. Sift powdered sugar over the tops of the cupcakes using a fine mesh strainer.
11. Pipe the lemon curd into the cupcakes until it’s flush with the tops of the cupcakes.

Hamburger cake and biscuit fries

Well another week has been gone by, time goes so quickly……

This week it was my youngest son Alex’s 9th birthday, I can’t believe my baby has turned 9. So exciting to watch them grow, but I wish I could slow it down just a little!!!!!! I remember when I had my first son Aden and so many people said to me, enjoy every second because it will be gone before you know it, man they weren’t kidding……………..

So of course birthday means, birthday cake. I love making the kids birthday cakes some years they pick what they want and other years I surprise them. This year it was a surprise for Alex, one of Alex’s favourite foods is hamburgers, and I have seen some great hamburger cakes on the internet, So it was a hamburger cake and biscuit fries for Alex this year.

The look on his face when he saw his cake was priceless, that look alone was enough for all the hours I spent baking and decorating. Big eyes, a big smile and a big hug what else could a mum possibly ask for.

I didn’t really follow a recipe to create this cake, I basically made two butter cakes and one chocolate cake, the chocolate cake being for the meat patty. I used plastic icing, red for the tomatoes cut into circles and yellow for the cheese, cut into squares. For the lettuce I used butter cream coloured green, which I piped on. I then covered the butter cake in a light brown icing to make the burger roll I had two shades of the brown butter cream to add some depth. once iced I sprinkled with sesame seeds.

To make the biscuit fries, I made a simple short bread which I rolled out into squares and then scored in some straight lines the width I wanted my fries to be. I brushed with egg white and sprinkled with raw sugar, then baked. Once cooled I cut along the score lines to create my fries.

Espresso cupcakes with Mocha cream cheese icing

Have you ever had one of those days? well yesterday was one of those days for me!!!!!!!!!

We were invited up to my sisters for dinner, and since we were away on her birthday I decided to take up some cupcakes for a belated Happy Birthday. Well the cupcake making went along fine, I was really happy with these espresso cupcakes, if you love coffee then you will definitely like these coffee flavoured cupcakes. The icing also went along smoothly, cream cheese mocha icing yum yum yum. I swear I could just sit up and eat a bowl of it on it’s own, sure I would probably feel sick and blah but my gosh this is a yummy icing.

Photograph time, now here is where it all begins to go to S#*#. The weather is pretty ordinary, the sky is grey the wind is blowing and all in all it’s pretty crap for an outside photo shoot, and I really wanted to take photos of these babies as they really are delish……..So I just had to suck it up and manage with the ordinary lighting situation inside. I set up inside to take my photos, I wasn’t very happy with them so I may or may not of started to get a little GRUMPY ( just a little). My oldest son Aden came over to give me a hand and started moving the cakes around saying you should photograph them like this mum and then SPLAT!!!!! two cakes take a dive from the table and land upside down S#*#!!!!! (I may have started yelling……). Then as I am picking up my SPLATTED cakes my backing board falls forward, falls where you might ask well of course it falls straight on top of my remaining cupcakes. I may or may not of swore?

Now you might think oh well thats not too bad, but the story doesn’t end there. Driving up to my sisters I’m carefully nursing the cupcakes on my knee, when hubby brakes it’s like a slow motion scene from the Matrix, cupcakes go catapulting everywhere…. there is now mocha cream cheese icing all over the dash board the gear stick, my jeans and of course upside down cupcakes sitting on my beautiful lime green handmade handbag. Laugh or cry????? I resurrected the cupcakes as best I could and continued holding them for the remainder of the trip.

But wait there is more, yes more…………. standing on the front porch at my sisters house I begin to tell her why her cupcakes are looking rather mangled and sad:-( when SPLAT another cupcake falls from the cake plate and lands upside down on her front porch…………I scrape up the cake, walk inside dump the cake plate which is holding what can only be explained as a cake massacre onto the kitchen bench, I then proceed to pour myself a generous glass of red wine. Now let us never speak of this again….

RECIPE: Cupcakes

• 100g butter, softened
• 1 cup (220g)caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 11/4 cups (190g) plain flour, sifted
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup (30g) hazelnut meal
• 11/2 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 Tsp boiling water

METHOD:

1. preheat oven to 160ºC
2. place butter, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, hazelnut meal, and coffee mixture into a bowl
3. combine using an electric mixer on low speed, then increase speed to high until just smooth
4. spoon into muffin tray and bake for 25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

RECIPE Cream cheese mocha icing

• 250g block cream cheese, softened
• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 150g icing sugar
• 1 Tsp instant coffee
• 2 Tsp cocoa powder
• 100g melted dark chocolate

METHOD:

1. combine butter and cream cheese in electric mixer until smooth and combined
2. add icing sugar,cocoa and coffee, mix to combine
3. stir in melted chocolate, then refrigerate until ready to use

Espresso cakes are a Donna Hay recipe from the cookbook, Donna Hay simple essentials chocolate

Mocha cream cheese icing is a In Proscuitto of perfection original recipe

Chilli Chocolate Brownies

What is a Brownie, a Cake?, a Slice?, a Biscuit?

Well after a little research I discovered that the Brownie is a cross between a cake and a biscuit.

One of and the most popular myths to the creation of the Brownie is that a housewife did not have baking powder and improvised with this new treat. It was said that she was baking for guests and decided to serve these flattened cakes to them. This became our beloved treat of today.

Brownie [ˈbraʊnɪ

a square piece of dense, chewy cake, usu. chocolate with nuts.

If you read my post white chocolate and macadamia nut brownies I commented on how I don’t make Brownies often enough, well that has changed and playing around a little I came up with this recipe for Chilli Chocolate Brownies. I warmed these brownies up and served them for dessert with my Avocado ice-cream, the chilled creaminess of the avocado ice-cream work amazingly with hit of the chilli in these brownies.

I think that Chilli and chocolate are an amazing match, I love when you bite into a chilli/chocolate combination, at first you get that sweet, smooth creamy chocolate texture and then just as you are savouring this your tastes buds jump to attention with the explosion of the firey chilli ‘awesome’ :-). Now don’t be afraid you can control how much chilli hit you get by the amount and type added, so you can make to suit. So if you haven’t tried this go on give it a go its amazing.

Chilli-chocolate lovers swear it is the ultimate gastronomic experience! Quote from World of Chillies

RECIPE;

• 200g dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 Tsp water
• 100g buter, chopped
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup  plain flour, sifted
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder (add more or less depending on your taste)
• 100g dark chill chocolate, roughly chopped ( I used a great brand from my local mexican supply shop called black widow but you can use any brand)

NB: you can add both chocolate ingredients or leave one out. You can use plain dark chocolate if you like with chilli powder or hold back with the chilli powder and just use chilli chocolate.

METHOD;

1. preheat oven to 160º
2. place butter and chocolate into a saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth
3. allow to cool slightly
4. place sugar, eggs, cocoa, flour and baking  powder in a bowl
5. add chocolate mixture, mix till combined
6. pour mixture into a greased and lined square baking tin
7. bake for 30-35 minutes, or until set
8. cool in tin

Caramel mud cupcakes and exciting news

I am going to start this post by saying WooHoo!!!!!!!! I have enrolled into a patisserie cert III course at tafe starting on the 22nd of July. I am both excited and nervous ( bloody scared actually) about this as I have been a full time mum now for the past fourteen years, so very much a big step out of my comfort zone………But the time has come for me to take the next step in this journey we call life.

It was a no brainer really in deciding what I was going to do, as I adore food, cooking and creating in the kitchen. In my past life (pre-children) I was an Office Administrator which was a good job but not really a passion, and having such a supportive and encouraging  husband I now have the opportunity to do something I love, and well who knows maybe one day I might own my coffee shop/patisserie :-).

So in celebration of my enrolment and the beginning of a new journey I am sharing with you one of my favourite cupcakes. These little babies are delicious and the caramel cream cheese icing YUM!, let me just say I could easily sit down to a bowl of this icing all on its own.

RECIPE:

CARAMEL MUD CAKE:

• 125g butter, chopped
• 100g white chocolate, roughly chopped
• 2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (90g) golden syrup
• 2/3 cup (160ml) milk
• 1 cup (150g) plain flour
• 1/3 cup (50g) self-raising-flour
• 1 egg

METHOD:

1. preheat oven to 170ºC
2. combine butter, chocolate, sugar, golden syrup and milk in a small saucepan, stir over low heat until smooth and melted
3. transfer to a medium bowl and allow to cool for 15 minutes
4. whisk sifted flours into chocolate mixture, then egg
5. divide mixture into cupcake papers and bake 30-40 minutes, cool on a wire rack

CARAMEL CREAM CHEESE ICING:

• 1kg cream cheese, softened
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 100g unsalted butter
• 2 Tsp cream
• 2 cups icing sugar

1. in a medium saucepan combine sugar, water and vanilla, cook over high heat until sugar is dissolved
2. reduce heat and cook for about 9 minutes or until a medium dark amber caramel forms
3. immediately stir in butter and cream
4. transfer caramel to mixer with whisk attachement fitted, whisk at low speed until caramel cools slightly, and comes together
5. with machine on beat in cream cheese adding one cube at a time, beating well between each addition
6. add sifted icing sugar and beat to combine
7. refrigerate mix until to firm enough to pipe or spread.

caramel icing recipe adapted from http://www.foodandwine.com

caramel mud cake recipe from cupcakes, cheesecakes, cookies recipe book ( Australian Women’s Weekly)

Rainbow layered birthday cake

This week it was my beautiful daughter Kiara’s 12th birthday, my how time flies. Every year on my kids birthdays I always think back to the day that they were born, I regularly look at the time and think now I was going to the hospital, or now I was in heavy labour, or now I was holding you for the very first time.

That very first time, the moment you never forgot, meeting your baby seeing their tiny little hands, touching their soft skin, breathing in their sweet smell, you fall in love in an instant a love that lasts forever that unconditional love where you will do anything to protect them. I love being a mother hands down it’s the greatest thing I have ever done. Now there are tough days, sometimes I feel like I’m in a boat without any paddles, but with all the difficulties and hard decisions that come along with motherhood it’s all worth it. They are a joy and as I said before my greatest accomplishment.

So cake, what birthday would be complete without a birthday cake. This year for Kiara I went for bright fun colours in a rainbow layered cake. I have seen a few of these cakes floating around on the internet and face book and thought one would be perfect for Kiara’s birthday, those bright colours certainly match her bright happy personality…

• To make cake I just used my favourite trusted butter cake recipe (handed down to me from my mum) and adding food colouring for each of the layers.
• The icing is a vanilla cream cheese icing I used cream cheese icing as it’s Kiaras favourite, butter cream would also been fine
• To decorate I brought Satin Ice coloured fondant, I have tried a few different brands of fondant and Satin Ice is my favourite it is so easy to work with and comes in a great range of colours. Using a small flower cutter I cut out flowers then using a small plain nozzle piping tip I pushed a hole through the centre of each flower, then used my decorating tool to add definition to the flowers.
• I randomly  placed onto cake leaving the heart shapes plain. I then added couhons to the centre of each flower and around the heart to define.

Related articles

• My First Rainbow Layer Cake (abakersview.wordpress.com)

Lemon and raspberry madeleines

The other night I was channel surfing and I came across this great cooking show, Little Paris Kitchen.  In this show Rachel Khoo cooks classic but simple French dishes in her tiny kitchen. On this particular episode  Rachel was making Madeleines.

I have seen madeleines on many occasions at many different cafes and coffee shops but I have to be honest they never really appealed to me. Well I must say that all changed after watching Rachel cook them, hers looked delicious especially with the addition of a raspberry in each one.

So off to the shops I headed the next day and brought myself a madeleine tin. These dainty shell shaped cakes are so easy to make and are delicious, so soft and light in texture. I love the zestyness of the lemon in them and the delicious raspberry when you get to the middle. I am usually very controlled when I eat cake and sweets and just have a small serve, but with these  dainty little gems I just couldn’t stop at one, my only regret is that it has taken me so many years to make these sweet little cakes.

RECIPE:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• zest 1 lemon, finely grated
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 60g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 12 raspberries
• icing sugar, to dust

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC and grease a madeleine tin
2. Place eggs, sugar, lemon zest into a bowl using electric mixer, mix until pale, thick and doubled in volume
3. Gently fold in flour, baking powder and butter using a metal spoon
4. Place tablespoons of mixture into prepared madeleine moulds, pressing a raspberry into the centre
5. Bake in oven 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden and cake springs back when pushed in centre
6. Cool slightly before removing from moulds, cool on wire rack and lightly dust with icing sugar

Related articles

• French fancies: Madeleines with passion fruit curd (blameitonthebrioche.wordpress.com)

Flourless mini chocolate cakes

There is no particular reason as to why I made these, except that I was at home, had the urge to bake and they are chocolate.

Chocolatey they are, moist rich delis-ish-ness. We ate them for afternoon tea with a cup of coffee but I think that they would be amazing warmed and served with vanilla-bean ice cream YUM 🙂

I think I might have to make another batch, and some home made vanilla-bean ice cream. Shop brought ice cream wouldn’t do this chocolatey delis-ish-ness any justice.

RECIPE:

• 200g dark chocolate
• 160g butter chopped
• 5 eggs, seperated
• 11/2 cups (165g) almond meal
• 3/4 cup (165g) sugar

CHOCOLATE GLAZE;

• 150g chopped dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup (125ml) cream

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 170º (340ºF)
2. Place chocolate and butter in small pan over low heat, stir unit melted and smooth
3. Allow to cool slightly, then stir in egg yolks, almond meal and 1/2 cup of the sugar
4. Place egg whites in bowl of electric mixer, whisk until soft peak form, then gradually add the remaining sugar and whisk until glossy
5. Fold egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture
6. Spoon into 6x 1 cup lightly greased muffin tins, bake for 30 minutes of until skewer comes out clean when inserted in centre
7. allow to cool

Chocolate glaze;

1. Place chocolate and cream in a small pan over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth
2. Allow to sit for 10 minutes
3. Spread chocolate glaze over cakes with a palette knife.

RECIPE by donna Hay