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

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

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)