Banana Muffins, Cheese Muffins and Me

Can I share a little secret with you? Despite starting this blog for more than 2 years, embarking on numerous baking "projects", feeding my family with the results of my experiments, attending a good number of classes, there are many times I am still not totally confident of myself and the things I bake. Honestly.

I do put in my best effort whenever I try something new, because I know that if I don't, what comes out from the oven most likely will end up with the trash. Many times, the things I bake are totally edible. In fact, some taste really nice. However, there will be just that something I am not pleased with.

For instance, I might have come up with something that tastes nice, but I do not feel it totally looks nice to me. By nice, I refer to the kind of standards that draws people to look and buy. I think my stuff looks home-baked, which honestly, may not really be that bad.

And there are times when something looks nice (!) but the taste is forgettable, or unforgettable for the wrong reasons. Even though the guinea pigs in my family might give really positive comments, I tend to tell myself they are just being kind with their words and they do not want to hurt me with the truth.

Last week, I finally pluck up some courage and gave my friends some muffins I made. Of course, those were recipes I had tried before, but I added cheese for the first time in one of the recipes....so, it was still something new I was totally anxious to have their comments. They said nothing the same night I gave them the muffins...and nothing the next day. I thought they must be having a hard time trying to think how to word their comments without making me sad. They finally told me that the muffins were generally good, other than some slight tweaks required. Phew!

I was particularly pleased with the picture I took for the banana muffin. Now that is a little confidence booster. I looked through my old blog posts and couldn't believe that I had not shared the recipe because the recipe is a really good one (perhaps I thought my old pictures looked too awful and couldn't convince that the recipe was good). I have more than a handful of times ( I just did not always blogged about it) and the results are consistently good. Now that I think I have a more convincing picture, I have added the recipe to My Recipe Blog.

As for my cheese recipe, I basically used my Basic Muffins and added a small cube of cream cheese inside. I also switched to using a better quality Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Paste instead of cheap vanilla essence (I know..I was cheapo) and there is such a great difference! On its own, I can taste the bourbon and in the muffin, I can see little black specks of the vanilla seed ( I hope they are not specks of dirt in actual fact haha...).

My 100th post - Chocolate Banana Layered Cake

Hi!

You might have thought that this blog is dead because I seemed to have abandoned it. The truth is, after I wrote my last post, I realised that was the 99th post, which makes this the 100th post!

I was cracking my head how to make it a little more special, it took me quite a while to reach 100 posts, and there will be more to come! Then I remember there is an important day in March. So, I decided to coincide my 100th post with my post on the cake I made for dear's birthday.

I decided to make Chocolate Banana Layered Cake. We like the one from the eatery Secret Recipe, so I tried to imitate it, though mine still looks quite far from it. As you can see, the layers are not equal, and the bananas were beginning to look like they were too heavy for the sponge.

I covered the whole cake in Chocolate Buttercream, and then followed by a layer of Chocolate Truffle Icing from Donna Hay's recipe book. I did not make the whole cake in a single day, but all in, I spent about 5 hours on it. The chocolate truffle icing was delicious and the cake tasted better than it looked. I'm glad the birthday boy liked it and he had 2 servings of the cake at one go :)

I'll be sure to make it again and take a nicer picture next time! :p

Banana Chocolate Bread

After missing out on the previous 2 bakes from Sweet and Simple Bake, I'm back in action for January's bake! What a better way to start the year with the most wonderful combination - banana and chocolate?

I almost forgot about the bananas I bought...and in the end, I could only use half of them, as the other half of the bunch had began to rot.

As I went through this recipe, I was a bit unsure...at the part on adding the butter and rubbing it in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Maybe I am too narrow in my knowledge, isn't this supposed to be for pastry making? Nevertheless, I followed the recipe exactly, except that I had to half the portion (since I did not have enough bananas). The other change I made was to add extra chocolate chips.

The fragrance of the banana filled the kitchen after half an hour, and by the time it was almost cooled, we just had to take a slice.

Mine turned out a little too moist and crumbly, other than that, the taste was definitely awesome.

Go on, give yourself a little banana treat today, the recipe is here.

Banana pancakes with caramel banana syrup

I was in a banana-ish mood on Saturday. I bought a bunch of bananas, choosing a very ripe bunch on purpose. I made banana smoothie on Saturday, but I couldn't wait to eat the rest of the bunch.

On Sunday, I was the first to wake up, as usual. After washing up and finding nothing to do, I woke dear up and asked if he wanted pancakes or muffins. He mumbled pancakes. Ok, I told him to go back to sleep and I would wake him when they are ready.

Happily, I went to weigh the ingredients, and I realised weighing ingredients is the step which usually takes up most of my time. Not only am I not in good in maths (when it comes to halving recipes), I am always careless and slow when it comes to conversion of units, even though I prepared an Excel table to make things easier for myself. As long as it involves numbers, my mind works like a snail. It's no wonder god did not make me a millionaire...by the time I finish counting all my money, I would have celebrated my seventy-ninth birthday and probably do not need the money anymore.

So back to my pancakes. When I finally got the ingredients ready (or so I thought), I started work. As I was poured the sugar to make the syrup, something told me I had measured the sugar wrongly. The recipe I had printed from the internet was a little confusing to me. So, I added more sugar, only to be realise later that what I had initially measured was correct!

By this time, dear had woken and came to see what I had done. I took my time to make the pancakes one by one, there were eight of them in all. Let's say about 2 minutes on each side, 4 minutes for each pancake, about 32 minutes for 8 pancakes...not forgetting the time I had took to weigh ingredients and make the syrup.

Dear almost went back to sleep when I quickly shouted "pancakes are ready!"

He did not regret the wait. The pancakes were great, though the syrup was obviously too sweet (with double the normal quantity of sugar). I love them too! It was brunch for us, and it filled our stomachs almost the whole day, till before dinnertime.

And after washing up, the first thing I did was quickly changed the recipe to a format that my snail-brain understands better. :p

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin

As you can see, I've been trying to make my pictures nicer. I like them, I hope they make my stuff look more appetising.

I am done with my banana chocolate chip muffins for July's bake on Sweet and Simple Bakes (please visit their site for recipe)! I bought some new paper cases and which I really like. My colleague at work tried it and liked the fact that it's not too sweet and she could taste lots of bananas and chocolate chips. Her only complaint was she found them too small, she would have preferred them to be bigger so that she could just eat 1 for breakfast! As usual, dear says they are nice and taste good. My friend will be coming over to my place tomorrow. I hope she will like them too!

Oh, by the way, I increased the amount of chocolate chips by 50 grams as I love chocolate chips.

If I have the time, I probably will bake these again before August! :D

P.S. Just added another picture. This is taken with natural light, which I prefer.

Banana mania

I finally satisfied my craving for bananas today. I managed to get some ripe bananas and made muffins!

I had to wait rather long for them to bake in my little oven, but it was worth the wait. It was a pity I could not find any nuts. These muffins are not as brown as before, but I still find them yummy. The bananas were very sweet! And I like them only lightly mashed, so that I can taste small chunks of them in every bite.

I baked half of them in my non-stick tray and half of them with my Scanpan silicone tray. The previous attempts with my silicone tray weren't too good...they turned out cracked on top and not too cooked at the bottom. I was about to give up using silicone trays...

However, I lowered the temperature when using the silicone tray and kept a close watch on them. I'm glad they turn out not too bad. This is the first time I am making muffins without muffin liners! A simple twist and they are out!

the 'clothed' ones, in their checkered pajamas

the 'naked' ones...

with small chunks of bananas

I am now looking forward to having them for breakfast tomorrow. Meanwhile, I will have a nice sleep.

2 successful bakes today!

i had 2 bakes today.

i made my banana muffins again...well, because i want to really test out my scanpan silicon muffin tray, since i have to change the temperature and timings a little, whenever I use this pan. The muffins turn out nicer than the last time i made them. I ate them when they were stiff warm, and it was good that the bananas were not too mashed up this time.

as if i had not gotten enough of my baking therapy, i made lemon cookies. I was actually practising what i would make for christmas. so i made just the cookies without the decoration. i am not sure whether the weather and humidity really plays such a significant role here, but i really had hoped that my kitchen was airconditioned, because i had to work very fast with the dough, or otherwise return it to the fridge very quickly.

these are lemon cookies that i made, just like what was taught in the class. but the lemon flavour is not that strong...of course, the branded lemon essence used in class cost about 23 times more than the one i bought!!! today is the second time i make roll-out cookies, and my first successful attempt at it! you can imagine my excitement and satisfaction *grinning from ear to ear*

anyway, the comments today are very encouraging. all my guinea pigs were chomping happily. and i have decided i shall not bring any to share with my colleagues, like i used to do...because i need the muffins for my breakfast tomorrow...and also that...i really do like the taste of what i made today..hehe..

yeah!! :D

www.flickr.com More of sandyteo's photos tagged with cookie

Tokyo Bananas!

these are not baked by me!! but i must say they are cute and rather nice. they are from my sis, who came back from Japan, and bought them at a place called Tokyo Bananas. I love bananas, and the chiffon is just so soft and light!! Yummy! :p

banana and chocolate chip bread

i missed my oven. the day after i came back, i took a good rest at home, then i realised that i had no bread for breakfast for the next day. so i decided to bake myself some bread.

i found a receipe for banana and choc chip bread on the net and gave it a try. it was very nice, although it tasted more like cake than bread. there was 12 slices in a loaf, and they disappeared very quickly because my family liked it. i felt flattered of course. i myself only had half a slice.

the hershey's choc chips were great, and so were the bananas. hmmm....i really could imagine the smell of it now. but i have to keep some for my sis to try...so too bad, half slice is all i can have.

my 'task' is done..

the bake was over!

I actually did 2 trays on Friday night, but they turned out not good enough. It was my fault actually. I tried to deviate from my usual practice of using the measuring spoon to measure the flour, and measured by weight instead. Wrong move. 1 cup of flour is not equal to the usual 1 cup volume of 240g. They turned out hard. Dear thinks they taste more like bread than muffin. My sis was making fun of me, saying that if we fed them to the birds, the birds' beaks would bend...hahaha.

Saturday morning, I woke up at seven plus and brought out the butter. Then I went back to laze in bed for a while. I started work at about a quarter to 9am, churning out trays after trays of muffins. I enjoyed it. It made me memorised the receipe, and doing the same thing over and over again is really good practice. Because my oven is not the big ones, I need more time to bake. All in all, I took about 6 hours to churn out 54 muffins (2 hours in between to cater to some urgent personal matter), so in actual fact, it was 4 hours+ for 54 muffins.

I would say it wasn't too bad. The colour may look a bit dark, but I quite the moist taste. As usual, my mum and dear's comments were encouraging. Even the "hard as rock" type, dear actually ate quite a few. Ok, they are not really that much like rock, but I don't like them.

can't wait to hear my friend's comment tomorrow....don't dare to ask actually...I am not very confident...

standing orderly in attention

my 2 boxes of muffins for my friend, hope she and her guests like them...

Mugshots of my Delinquent muffins

Here are my delinquent muffins, with my new muffin tray..

Now, I realise consistency is not an easy thing...

cupcakes again!

i'm back from my cupcake class! so what happens when you pay half the cost of my previous class (i know I'm bound to compare)?

Instead of:

1) Bringing back 6 BIG cupcakes of 2 flavours each, I bring 3 SMALL cupcakes from 3 flavours each

2) Having aprons and boxes provided, I have to bring my own

3) Having a dishwasher in the classroom kitchen, I have to do my own washing of the equipment used

4) Having a 3 small groups of 3 pax in the class, there are 2 BIG groups of nine pax!

5) Having branded equipment to work with, I used non branded ones

6) Having an aircon classroom, I have a non aircon one (although the place was windy and has a nice view facing the sea)

7) Having cupcakes that rise nice and evenly, we have trays of cupcakes which all turn out loop-sided and no one told us what to do to avoid it (phew! good thing I already knew!)

Well, the crowd is different, the place and everything is different. I am seriously thinking whether there will be a second time for me here.

The reason why I am there today is to learn more different flavours of cupcakes and different types of frosting. There are not much tips to pick up, because honestly, whatever she says, I already know...and for the questions raised by others, I already can answer them as well.

I have earlier seen the pictures of the end result in the email ad of this place, and I had to admit I was not at all attracted by the look of its cupcakes. They taste and smell quite good nonetheless, but cupcakes are like human beings --LOOKS DO SELL.

The reason why these cupcakes I learnt today are not very professional looking is also partly because of the colour. All the 3 cupcakes I learnt today are black, or almost black, and so are the 2 frostings. Black on black does not stand out very well obviously. And the other reason, is of course, my lack of creative decoration skills.

I did not take many pictures of the cupcakes today because

1) they are not very photogenic

2) i don't even know whether i can say i made them. it was a hands on class, but because the group is so big, there wasn't much that I could do except to sit and let others do what they want to do.

I met 2 who look my age and have not baked anything before, so they are pretty eager to do things. I on the other hand, actually do not enjoy baking with other people because I want to do things MYSELF. And I cannot stand people who just want to spend time measuring exactly 200g of flour when they already have 198g on the weighing scale. This kind of people, I realised, pop up in every class. I think this is what I can call the newbie-kiasi-and-nonsensical syndrome.

I would say that seeing the recipes, they should taste quite nice. Actually I tasted one just now and it wasn't as nice as I had imagined (which was disappointing). I shall taste the rest tomorrow and try baking them myself some time soon. I can't wait to get my hands started on the one with nuts, bananas and chocolate.

Meanwhile, here are the not too photogenic pictures.

Bananas in pyjamas

*yawn*....had sort of the most hectic day at work so far, and it has been 3mths 1day since I am in this company.

Remembering that I do not have breakfast tomorrow, I came back to do something therapeutic, although it was quite a rush. I knew I just had to start baking by 8pm, because it would take me about 2-2.5 hours to make my banana muffins.

Looks familiar? Actually they are dressed differently. Today they are in more tightfitting checkered clothing, waist probably about 16cm. The other day, they were wearing floral shirts, waist about 18cm, if you noticed..hehe.

Because of the smaller waistline today, I managed to bake 20 of these little scoundrels. The other day, I made 18. But as soon as they were out in the open, cooling down, 1 was quickly devoured.

Mum said the ones I baked the other day tasted slightly fluffier and more fragrant. Hmm...but I beat them more thoroughly today!

tired tired...going to bed now..bananas in pyjamas...haha!

the bake goes on!

OK, so the baking frenzy is still on.

Yes, 3 consecutive bake days in a row. Yesterday was Muffins Day again - banana and walnut muffins, not premix this time. I made them from scratch.

Getting more and more satisfied, especially when I see the faces on my family members. My dad, he couldn't resist the cupcakes. He had a few carrot ones, and he really liked them. After eating the banana ones, he said the carrot ones are still better. Of course, they were made with professional help!

As for my sis, all things taste nice, because she doesn't know how to make them. Even the fried rice dinner I cooked last evening was very very nice to her.

My mum's words are probably the most honest one. The banana muffins are nice, the cupcakes nicer. And she thinks they look pretty enough to sell.

Hmm...still not quite to me...the colour is not even enough..

But who can blame them? I think their brains are so stuffed with muffins every week they can't think properly maybe...I think they are afraid of the coming Sunday...

oh, that reminds me, no wonder my mum seems to be 'advertising' the concert she wants to go to next Sunday....oh....didn't realise there could be a hidden agenda...haha!

But really, I am quite proud of my banana muffins. I had one just now, warmed a bit in the microwave. It was like comfort food!