Look and Drool!!

Yes, I know I haven't posted anything in a long long time. I have just been so very busy. My baking course started around the mid of January and I don't think I have thought about much else since that day.

I love my baking course... I love every minute of it... My hands ache from all the kneading and the beating and mixing... my feet hurt from standing for 3 hours... the travelling is an absolute torture on the system and still I have never been happier. Strange??? No, not at all because when you love something it no longer feels like work.

There's no way I can cover everything I have learnt in the last two months in one post... So for now I'll just give you a preview of what I have been upto.

Masala Pav... essentially a herbed bread with an Indian Twist... Love it!!!!

Swiss Roll with a melted chocolate filling

Shrewsberry Biscuit

That is what I call an Extreme Focaccia... It had caramelized onions, capsicum,  black olives, corn and lots and lots of cheese..... yummy!!!

Strawberry Gateau... it tasted as good as it looked

Bakewell Tart... Not one of my favourites, though it looks gorgeous

Garlic Bread... The shape is called an Epi Loaf

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Look.... Droooool... Recipes will come later.... much later because after all the kneading and beating and mixing (and eating) all I can do is sleep... Catch ya Later dudes and dudettes!!!

Is It a Bread? Is It a Cake? Who Cares, It's Fabulous!!!

Mouth-watering

Who knew Bananas could taste so totally fantastic!!!!

This is my new favourite cake. I have already made it about 4 times and I loved it every time. The entire house smells like bananas when I'm baking it. It’s originally called a Banana Bread. I actually found the recipe a long time ago and never tried it because I assumed it was a bread and so it needed yeast (which I didn’t have at the time). Also I did not want to get into kneading and punching and proving.

But, the funny part is, not only is this not a bread but it also requires very minimal mixing. It is so easy, kids could make it. You can put this cake together in 10 minutes, it’s that easy. However, it does need about an hour in the oven. And it tastes fabulous when it’s warm and fresh out of the oven.

This is a recipe that I don’t want to talk too much about. You have to experience it to know what I’m talking about. There are, however, a few things you need to remember when attempting to make a banana bread.

Firstly, the bananas have to be really really ripe. The kind that you know are very sweet but you wouldn't eat it because the skin has blackened. (I wait for my bananas to blacken just so I can make this cake.)

Secondly, you have to melt the butter and let it cool before you add the mashed bananas.

Lastly, DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT over-mix the batter. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. The original recipe says if you over-mix the batter you get very dense cake. I know what you're thinking; won't the cake be lumpy if you don’t mix it enough?? But it isn't, it’s absolutely decadent.

This is what you'll need:

• 200g flour
• 125g granulated white sugar (I use powdered sugar)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 100g butter, melted and cooled (If using unsalted butter add 1/4 tsp salt)
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed (approximately weighing 450-500g)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

 METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and prepare a loaf pan by greasing and flouring it. My loaf pan was too small so I made this in a round 8 in cake tin.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. These are our dry ingredients.
3. Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over very low heat. Once cooled, add it to the mashed banana in a large mixing bowl. Next add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well. These are our wet ingredients.
4. Now fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Do not over mix the batter. Fold in until just combined. The batter will look lumpy, do not worry about it.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50-55 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes (If you can control yourself, I couldn’t). Unmould from the pan, slice it and eat it warm… About an hour after I made this, there was only about 1/3^rd of the cake left. That’s how amazing this cake is. 

My only advice, make it as soon as you possibly can.