caked out

These slew of cakes were baked for a farewell occasion for a friend and I brought along two varieties of coffee cakes; apple and banana fillings in each, and a chocolate chip sour cream cake. The coffee cake was from a previous time that I had made before and thought deserved a repeat performance.


The chocolate chip cake turned out wonderfully except that I think I should have used three instead of only two pie pans which lead to the overflowing disaster of the year where the cake sort of gravitated towards the back of the oven and began overflowing onto the baking tray quite a bit. After I took out the tray, and while still hot, I tried to carefully remove the excess spillage of cake which resulted in some half-eaten appearance at the edges. The peeled off cake pieces was actually quite tasty and crunchy because they were somehow more baked than the cake itself so they became my snack. Yum for me! The cake turned out quite well anyway and was really good too.


The coffee cakes were delish as usual and I used banana for one of them this time. Easy breezy to put together and even easier to eat.

banana cookies

These absolutely heavenly banana cookies from Vanilla Garlic were divine. They tasted like what a banana cake would be except in cookie form which make them easier to munch on and savour slowly as well. The texture was quite cake like and soft.

Before

After

I made two different batches of cookies, one plain and one with chocolate chips mixed in. The chocolate chips one was quite decadent and really sweet but still lovely no less. I enjoyed the plain banana ones with some honey drizzled on top too.

berry nice

Ah, man. It's been a long while since the last post. Well, I might as well jump right into the swing of things again.

I've been dreaming of peanut butter anything for a while and well after reading this post on Smitten Kitchen, how could I not try out the peanut butter cookie recipe that was demanding to be made and gobbled down.


My version of the cookies omitted the chocolate chips by the way and was rather flat and soft in texture rather than the crispy and crunchy type. Though the peanut butter flavour was amazing and came through really nicely and aromatic without being too overpowering. But then again, since I love peanut butter everything, I might be biased in my verdict so I gave a whole bunch away to friends. Fortunately they liked them too so this recipe is definitely a keeper for the books!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter (I used Kraft Smooth Peanut Butter)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter and peanut butter together until fluffy. Add sugar and continue mixing until smooth. Add egg, milk and vanilla.
4. Continue beating the mixture and add the flour mixture until you get a rather sticky dough.
5. Prepare two grease paper lined trays. Using two spoons, scoop a tablespoonful of dough and shape them into a ball. Line the balls on the tray making sure to keep them about an inch and a half apart to allow for expansion.
6. Using a fork dipped in water to prevent the dough from sticking, press the balls down with it. I forgot to add the second fork indentation so it's not really a criss cross shape.
7. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Don't overbake. These cookies will appear underbaked and soft and chewy in the middle.
Makes about 45 smallish cookie morsels.

I had a half cup of blueberries in the fridge and didn't know what to do with them. Scouting for some blueberry recipes, I came across this delicious looking bilberry muffin recipe by A cat in the kitchen. I know I don't have bilberries but they sounded similar to blueberries so I thought why not.

Blueberry Muffins

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
A splash of milk (About 2-3 tbs)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup blueberries

1. Preheat fan-forced oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and light. Add the egg, vanilla and milk and mix until combined and smooth looking.
3. Add the flour and baking powder and continue mixing until just combined and come together.
4. Toss in the blueberries and mix in. Scoop the dough into the prepared muffin tray (makes about six large ones) with a spoon and fill up till about 3/4.
5. Bake for about 25-30 minutes till browned on top but still tender and moist inside.
Tastes great with a teaspoon of honey drizzled on top and eaten while still warm.

oldies and newbies

Woot! First post of 2008. And what better way to start off the new year than with some old and tried muffins and a new type of cake too.


This ham and onion muffin recipe came out very prettily except that I thought that the taste came out feeling a bit off. Perhaps it was the soy sauce used instead of Woschestire sauce or maybe I just don't have the taste for savoury muffins.


I just can't stay away from those bananas and anything to do with those golden fruits. I decided to give David Lebovitz's banana bread/cake recipe a go but used a muffin tin instead of a loaf pan or cake tin. The little morsels came out beautifully except that I would not used the muffin cases next time and grease the muffin holes instead to fill the batter in straight. I tossed in some coffee powder into the batter as well and the mix of coffee and banana flavour melded perfectly. Love!


Right after the muffins came out of the oven, I started on an apple cake dessert to bring to a barbecue tonight. The cake batter came together very easily and smelled divine once it was done. The result from the people at the barbecue came back great. It had a crumbly and slightly pie crust texture on the outside because of the browned sugar, the cake was fluffy and light without overpowering the cooked apple within the cake layers. I'm definitely aiming to recreate this cake again but with different fruits like strawberries, apricots, and pears.


Here's to a new year of better and more creative recipes to be tried and experimented with great success. Happy 2008!