Baby banana cakes with cream cheese icing

I can't believe that my little brother turned 26 this month. I feel like time is flying by at a million miles an hour. He says he hates birthdays because he feels old .... how does he think I feel when he says that? Older.


He doesn't like us to make a fuss on his birthday, but I couldn't resist baking something for him. He is a little bit fussy (but getting better with age), so I made plain, un-iced baby banana cakes for him. Mr X took some to work with him, and I topped those with lemon cream cheese icing.


I used the Exclusively Food banana cake recipe, but replaced some of the white sugar with brown sugar.


Makes 16.
Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar 

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of very ripe, mashed banana (approx 3 large bananas)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional, I didn't use it this time)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C, and grease and line cupcake pans - enough for 14-16 cupcakes, depending on how full you make them.

Place butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor and pulse to combine for approximately two minutes. Add butter milk and pulse to combine.

Sift flour and bicarb soda into a bowl. Add this to the blender and pulse again until just combined, scraping down the sides if required.

Pour batter into prepared liners. I filled mine 2/3 full. I found filling them this amount resulted in a nice, very slightly domed cupcake.

The recipe can easily be doubled, however, in my experience you may find you can't put all the ingredients in the food processor at once! Just mix it up in a bowl instead.

Cream cheese icing

Ingredients:

100g cream cheese, softened

50g butter, softened
2  cups icing sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Method:
Beat the cream cheese and butter in a bowl until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Sift in the icing sugar and beat well. 

Jam “doughnut” cupcakes and Lemon curd “doughnut” cupcakes

"Doughnut" cupcakes two ways - Jam “doughnut” cupcakes and Lemon curd “doughnut” cupcakes

Following on from my apple doughnut cupcake post a while ago, I started thinking about other possible combinations.

I started off with the very vanilla cupcakes from a recent post. I doubled the recipe this time though so I would have enough to take to a friends place for dessert and have some left for Mr X to take into work (which seems to be routine these days!).

I decided on two types - lemon curd and jam filled. Lemon curd paired well with the cupcake recipe because the cupcakes require four egg whites, and the lemon curd needed four egg yolks. I decided the combination was meant to be! I also made jam filled ones because Mr X requested them.

Ingredients:
Cupcake recipe here (double batch) - makes approx 28 cupcakes

Lemon “doughnut” cupcakes

Ingredients:
14 “very vanilla” cupcakes

Lemon curd filling
Recipe here

Drizzle topping (adapted from bbcgoodfood.com)
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons (freshly squeezed, strained)
43 grams caster sugar

Method:

Bake cupcakes. Leave in pan to cool for 10 minutes before turing out onto wire rack. Hollow out the top of each cupcake (instructions here)

Put caster sugar in a small bowl and add lemon juice to it. Mix to combine. Drizzle over cupcakes while still warm.

Fill the cupcakes with lemon curd using this method.

Jam "doughnut" cupcakes
Ingredients:

14 “very vanilla” cupcakes*
* add 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg to batter

Jam filling
Approx 14 tsp good quality strawberry jam

Sugar coating
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
5 tbs butter, melted

Method:

Bake cupcakes. Leave in pan to cool for 10 minutes before turing out onto wire rack. Hollow out the top of each cupcake (instructions here)

Melt a few tbs butter in the microwave safe bowl. Brush cupcakes lightly with melted butter and roll in sugar.

Fill the cupcakes with jam using this method. 

I spent a lazy day at home with Mr X and our dog, Ari Gold. Ari decided to "help" me update my blog. Thanks Ari!

Cookies 2 ways - Snickers filled and M&M

Mr X was at the footy yesterday, so when I had done the boring stuff like supermarket shopping, I went into the kitchen to bake. I had been looking forward to it all week. Being back at work after our holiday, I needed to do something to de-stress!


I started off with the Nestle Toll House cookies I made a while back. While the dough was chilling in the fridge I cut up four mini snickers and opened a bag of M&M's.


I then divided the dough in half, and popped one half back in the fridge so it would keep firming up.


M&M cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 quantity of Nestle Toll House cookie dough
Approximately 80 M&M's (four for each cookie)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 195 degrees C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Roll heaped tablespoons into balls and place onto prepared cookie sheet approx 6 cms apart.

After they have been in the oven for four minutes (to allow them to spread), quickly pull them out of the oven and pop some M&M's on top of each cooke (I used 4 per cookie, but you can always use more), rotate the tray and put them back in the oven for the remainder of the baking time. 

Bake for 8 to 11 minutes (mine took 8 minutes) or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 16 - 20 cookies depending on size.

Snickers centred cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 quantity of Nestle Toll House cookie dough

4 mini snickers, thinly chopped (2 pieces per cookie - one to insert into centre, one for top of the cookie)*

Roll a heaped tablespoon of dough into a ball and make a well in the centre. Insert snickers piece and carefully cover it up with cookie dough. Place on baking tray and top with another piece of snickers. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 8 to 11 minutes (mine took 8 minutes) or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 16 - 20 cookies depending on size.

* While pleased with the outcome of the cookies, I think next time I would insert a larger chunk into the centre and top with at least two snickers pieces for a more intense snickers taste!

Very vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing and strawberry filling

We just got back from an overseas holiday and I haven't baked in nearly 5 weeks! Despite the jet lag, I really wanted to get back into the kitchen and bake something.

Cupcakes (Recipe from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup room unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg + 2 egg whites (keep seperate)
1/2 cup whole milk (room temperature)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Icing and filling

Icing:
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
2/3 cups unsalted butter 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
4 tbs milk

Strawberry filling:
1/3 cup vanilla icing
2 large strawberries, mashed
4 tsp strawberry jam

Method:

Preheat the oven to 176 degrees celsius. Grease and line a 12 capacity cupcake pan.

Beat the butter on medium for 3 minutes before adding the sugar. Beat for a further 3 minutes to combine. Add the egg then beat for 30 seconds. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating in between.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, add the milk, vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract and the sour cream in a bowl and mix together well.

Add the milk/vanilla.sour cream and flour mixture to the butter/sugar alternatively, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing in between. Make sure you start and end with the flour mix.

Make sure you don't over beat the mixture.

Divide the mixture evenly between cupcake liners and bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

They smelt lovely when they were baking!

To make the icing and filling

Icing:

Place butter in mixing bowl and beat for two minutes. Sift in icing sugar and beat to combine. Add vanilla bean paste. Add the milk, one tbs at a time, beating mixture in between until reach desired consistency.

Strawberry filling:
1/3 cup vanilla icing
2 large strawberries, mashed
4 tsp strawberry jam

Mix until smooth. 
Click here for instructions on how to fill cupcakes

Chocolate caramel cupcakes

Chocolate anything is always popular, and I love caramel!
Makes 24
Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup rice bran oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 cup boiling water

Caramel (for filling and drizzling)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/8 cup milk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate icing
1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cup cocoa, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

12 tbs milk

Method:
Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 176 degrees C. Spray and line pans with 24 cupcake liners.

Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add eggs, milk, vanilla and oil. Beat ingredients with a mixer for approx two minutes. Occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. Add the boiling water, and beat until just blended. Don't over-mix.
Due to the boiling water, the batter is very runny. The easiest way to fill the cupcake pans is by pouring the batter into the pans using a jug. Pour evenly into prepared liners.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Mine took about 22 minutes. Leave in the pan to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool further.


Caramel sauce
Over medium heat, melt butter in a small sauce pan. Allow to simmer, then add in the brown sugar, stirring, and bring to boil. Then lower heat and stir until sugar is dissolved (should take about a minute). Stir in milk, bring to boil, then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pop in the fridge to cool down and thicken while you make the chocolate icing.

Click here  for instructions on how to fill the cupcakes


Chocolate icing
Beat the butter in a mixing bowl for three minutes, add vanilla bean paste and beat. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add milk a tbs or two at a time and beat, until you reach your desired consistency.

Pipe icing onto cupcakes and drizzle with caramel sauce to finish.

Snickers centered Blondie

Blondies have been on my "to make" list for a while now, as I love brown sugar. One of Mr X's favourite chocolate bars is a snickers, so I decided to create a two layer blondie with a caramel snickers filling.

This recipe is easy and comes together pretty quickly. I was originally going to just use one batch of the blondie recipe, spread half out in the baking pan, add a layer of caramel snickers sauce, then top it with the remaining mixture. I realised pretty quickly that it wouldn't work though - the recipe did not make as much mixture as I had anticipated! So (panicking), I popped the first blondie in the oven and while that was baking I whipped up a second one.

The caramel when cooking smelt amazing... It was very tempting to just eat spoonfuls of it straight out of the saucepan...
Ingredients:
Caramel snickers sauce
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/8 cup milk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 fun sized snickers, chopped

Blondie (Recipe from Simply Recipes - I doubled original recipe. Single blondie ingredients below)
1/2 cup of butter, melted
1 cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of chocolate chips

Method:
Caramel snickers sauce

Over medium heat, melt butter in a small sauce pan. Allow to simmer, then add in the brown sugar, stirring, and bring to boil. Then lower heat and stir until sugar is dissolved (should take about a minute). Stir in milk, bring to boil, then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. 

Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes, then mix in half the snickers and stir well (they will melt a little). Leave to cool down while you make the first blondie, then add the remaining snickers and mix).

Blondie
Preheat the oven to 176°C. Brush 20cm square pan with melted butter and a sprinkling of flour. 

Beat melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl until fluffy.
Add a lightly whisked egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate and mix.
Pour into pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set in middle but still soft (it will firm up on cooling). 

Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then tip onto a plate. While still warm, spread caramel snickers sauce over top.

Bake the second blondie. Once cooled, carefully remove from pan and place carefully on top of first blondie. This is where I went wrong. Mr X had organised for us to go to the pub for drinks and I was fast running out of time. So, in my haste, this happened....

Cake bites ... what a mess!

Inspired by Bakerella's super cute cake balls and cake pops, I decided I had to attempt them! Most Monday's Mr X takes my baking leftovers to work - but it is a public holiday in Melbourne today (yay!) so I baked these.

This is my first attempt at cake bites. I'm making them with banana cake, but the possibilities are endless. Next time I think I'll try chocolate or a vanilla cake. Or maybe a combination of the two...

Most cake pop / ball / bites that are featured up on various blogs tend to use a cake mix, but I don't like using them so I made my own cake.


Ingredients:

Cake ingredients (Minus the cinnamon, and I upped the vanilla to 1tsp) 


Nutella icing
1/3 cup nutella, softened
1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
2 tbs unsalted butter
less than 1/3 cup milk

Step 1# Bake cake and let it cool completely.
Step 2# Make icing (you will need between 1/3 to 2/3 cup of icing for this, depending on how big your cake is). I used about a 1/2 cup.
Step 3# Crumble cake up into a large bowl with or hands, or in the food processor.
Step 4# Mix 1/3 cup icing into the crumbled cake.

Although messy, I think it is easiest to mix with your hands until thoroughly combined. You want to achieve a texture similar to the centre of a truffle. Mix in additional icing if necessary. Basically, you just want enough icing added so that the cake crumbs are bound when you roll them into balls. What you don't want is to add so much icing that the mixture becomes mushy and wet.
Step 5# Pop mixture in the fridge for an hour or so to harden, this will make step 6 easier! Or if you want, skip this step and go straight to 6.
Step 6# Roll mixture into bite sized balls. I used a rounded tbsp of mixture per ball, and place them on a plate or tray lined with baking paper. At this stage I couldn't resist drizzling extra nutella over them....

Step 7# Pop into freezer for an hour
Step 8# Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on medium, checking frequently to stir. Be careful not to burn!
Step 9# Dip balls into chocolate. This is the hardest part, and you can see from the photos that I was not awesome at it! In fact, I was terrible. I used a couple of toothpicks.

Using a toothpick, pick up a balls and dip in the chocolate. Using a second toothpick in the other hand help the ball slid off the toothpick. Lightly tap off excess chocolate. Leave to set. 

Step 10# Eat.

Peanut butter Quinoa

For those of you that know me well, I am obsessed with peanut butter. So much so that I actually put lots of it in a bowl, microwave it, and eat it with a spoon. Mmmmmmmmm. So unbelievably good. I eat so much of it that I thought I should try natural peanut butter, because it's better for you, right? It was ok, but I prefer the normal, processed peanut butter (full of salt and sugar), so I switched back.

Now I have developed a new obsession - Quinoa. Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wah)

Quinoa information...(pronounced Keen-wah)

• It has a nutty sort of flavour
• It looks like a grain, but its actually a seed
• You can get different varieties and colours. The most common colour is white, and that is the only one I have tried. But apparently there are also red and black.
• It can be used as a breakfast cereal, as a substitute for couscous or rice, or in baked goods
• It's gluten-free
• It's high protein, and a source of all 8 essential amino acids, low GI and rates pretty well in terms of fibre and iron
• And.... It's actually yummy.

Anyway, so I decided to combine my two obsessions into a (probably slightly odd) meal - I just mixed the two of them together.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa
2 tablespoons peanut butter (I use smooth, but any will do)

Method:
Cook quinoa according to the packet instructions - one part quinoa to two parts water. I actually have a microwave safe rice cooking bowl that I pop the quinoa and water in, then stick it in the microwave on the rice setting, and it cooks it perfectly.

Once thats cooked, set aside.

Place the peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave on medium low for 50 seconds, or until runny (be careful not to burn it!)

Mix in quinoa, and eat!

Note - for a "savoury" twist, I add soy sauce.

Next step - peanut butter quinoa cookies. Oh yeah!

Spiced steak salad

This is such an easy meal to put together, and meets Mr X's requirement of a low carb dinner. I cheated using a curry paste, but you could easily make your own. A homemade curry paste will make it even better.


Serves 2.


Ingredients:
400g steak of your choice
1 1/2 tbsp curry paste (I used massaman)
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice, + extra
1/2 long red chilli, finely diced (optional)
1/2 a red onion, chopped


Salad
3 cups mixed salad leaves
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
1 cup cucumber
1 carrot, finely chopped into small matchsticks
Handful of snow peas, ends removed
1/2 avocado, peeled and diced
Cheese (optional - Mr X likes cheese on everything...) or corriander, to taste.

Method:
Mix the curry paste, chilli and lime in a bowl, and add steak to it. Place in fridge for 30 minutes, or overnight to marinate.

Cut up the salad ingredients (minus the cheese or corriander) and divide onto plates.

Heat a pan over medium heat, lightly spray with oil and add onion, stirring, ensuring they don't burn, until cooked. Sprinkle over salads. Turn heat up to medium high, lightly spray pan with oil and add the steak. Cook as desired (I cooked ours medium rare), then slice and place on top of salad. Sprinkle with cheese or corriander. Enjoy!

Full-of-cookie cupcakes

A cupcake with a cookie baked into it, topped with icing and decorated with a mini cookie. Sounds cute, right? Two of my favourite things combined into one delicious treat. Cookies and cupcakes = winning combination. That was the plan, anyway!

A few food bloggers have posted similar recipes so I did a bit of research. I wanted to use eggless cookie dough for the centre of the cupcake, as the dough doesn't really cook through during the cupcake baking process. I didn't want to risk anyone getting sick!

So, inspired by the Paris Pastry blog, here is my variation.

Ingredients:

Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
4 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup miniature chocolate chips (I used 1/3 dairy milk, 1/3 top deck)

Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk

Chocolate buttercream icing
125g butter (at room temperature)
1/4 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tbs milk

Method:

Cookies
Beat the butter and brown sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the water and vanilla and beat well. Add flour and salt a bit at a time, mixing in between.
Stir the chocolate chips into the batter.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes so it firms up and is easier to handle.

Remove from refrigerator. Line a cookie tray with baking paper and roll out cookie dough into 1 tbsp sized balls. Set aside 20 to go into the cupcakes. Bake the remaining cookies for 5-7 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Allow to cool.

Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 170C, grease and line 20 capacity cupcake pan(s).

Beat the butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating mixture in between for approximately 30 seconds.

In a seperate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt.

Add half the flour mixture and half the buttermilk to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture. Beat until just combined. Repeat process with the remaining flour and buttermilk. Don't overbeat.

Fill the cupcake liners 1/2 full.

Put a cookie dough ball in the middle.

Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Chocolate buttercream icing

Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to beat for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.
Add the icing sugar and cocoa gradually, and beat until the mixture is fluffy. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time and beat until you are happy with the consistency.

To decorate:

Lightly spread a tablespoon of frosting on top of cupcake. Top with a cookie, and serve.

Eggplant and mushroom curry

I love spiced eggplant. My Mum makes a great baked eggplant dish, which she refers to as a "Moussaka". I don't think it is a moussaka in the traditional sense - over time, she has made it hot and spicy, it really is a fabulous dish. It's like comfort food for me - I find myself disappointed if I go to my parents house for dinner and it is not on the menu. The below recipe is different altogether to Mum's eggplant dish, but incorporates the same main ingredients - eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes and chilli.

Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants 

8 button mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium red chili, finely chopped (seeds in or removed, depending on taste - I kept mine in)
1 400g can diced tomatoes, with liquid
1-2 tablesoons garam masala or curry powder (to taste)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1 tsp grated ginger
1 heaped tbs crushed garlic (I roasted mine first)
Large handful of spinach
salt to taste
Corriander, finely chopped, to taste (1 used 3-4 tablespoons)

Method:
Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.
Prick the skin of the eggplants all over. Place on a lined baking tray and pop in the oven. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the eggplants have collapsed. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. When cool enough to handle, peel the skin and chop up the flesh. Set aside. Discard the skin and stems. 
Heat oil in a medium-sized heat proof casserole dish over medium heat and sautee onions until golden, before adding the chilli and mushrooms, continuing to cook for another minute or two. 

Add the diced tomatoes and spices. Stir for another minute before adding the eggplant.
Reduce oven to 200 degrees C. Place casserole dish in oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes. With about 5 minutes to go, stir in spinach leaves. When ready, remove from oven, sprinkle with corriander before serving.

Serve with another curry dish, such as Saag Lamb or on its own as a vegetarian meal with rice or quinoa.

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