Tuesday, January 15, 2008

A day for bananas

14 January 2008

Taking a little break from baking mainly because have been eating quite a lot of sweet stuffs and have to control a bit. Meanwhile, I have been thinking what to bake for the coming cny and I'm hoping to start by this week. :)

With some bananas left, I bake a banana sponge cake from Alex Goh's book which I'm lucky to borrow from the library without any missing pages. And an attempt to make chocolate banana muffins.


I modified a bit from the original recipe. Firstly, I bake in a 6 inch round tin instead of cupcake moulds. I also half the recipe and change butter to vegetable oil for a healthier version. Instead of following the recipe - beating sugar, eggs and flour altogether, I beat sugar and eggs till light and fluffy, then fold in the flour by hand.

15 minutes after I put the cake into the oven, the top has already turned quite brown. I have to cover it with aluminium foil. At 20 minutes, I take out to check but the cake is still not fully baked. I lower the cake to the most bottom rack and bake for another 10 minutes. I'm glad that the cake turns out fine. It's light and spongy and better than the chocolate banana muffins (see below).


Banana Butter Sponge
(Original recipe from Fruity Cakes by Alex Goh)

Ingredients
(A)
120g sugar (I use 60g)
1/2 tbsp SP cake emulsifier (I omit this)

(B)
4 eggs (I use 120g eggs)
120g cake flour (I use 60g)
1/2 tsp baking powder (I use 1/4 tsp)

(C)
120g mashed banana (I use 60g)
1/4 tsp baking soda (I use 1/8 tsp)

(D)
85g melted butter (I use 40g vegetable oil)

Method
1. Mix (A) until well blended. Add (B) and whip till light and fluffy.
2. Add (C) and mix until well combined.
3. Stir in (D) and mix until well blended.
4. Pour the batter into greased cup cake moulds. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes. Remove from the moulds immediately.


And this is the chocolate banana muffins I'm talking about earlier. Hm... I don't really like the results and its taste. It tastes like the vegan chocolate cake I had done before. I have come to a conclusion that chocolate cakes that do not use butter do not taste very good. It's just not the taste that I like. Shall not post any recipe for this. Ok.