BANANA CAKE

So I haven't posted anything up recently since I haven't been baking. But last Sunday my mom held a dinner feast for my family friend's birthday. We had him and his whole family come over, but since they forgot THEIR birthday cheesecake, I decided to make a birthday banana cake (also since my banana's were getting really ripe). I got the recipe out of a book from Lez's house (the lady I usually volunteer for).

see " photo gallery " for more photos

BANANA CAKE:

-2 cups flour
-1 3/4 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
-1 cup mashed banana (usually 2 large)
-1/2 cup softened butter
-1/2 cup buttermilk
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla

*NOTE* (buttermilk can be substituted w/ 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice w/ milk until 1/2 cup is reaches. Leave still for 5 min then stir.



1. Combine flour, baking powder & baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add sugar, banana, butter and buttermilk (or substitute). Beat. Add eggs & vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into pans.

2. Bake for 35-40 min at 350 degrees.


TIPS:

-when I made my cake, it took well over 40 min to bake thoroughly and for a toothpick to come out clean when poked into the cake. It may vary depending on how ripe your banana is. Mine were COMPLETELY black and I had to bake for around 1 hour.

MERINGUE

I also made meringue today since I had some egg whites left over from the creme brulee. :)

see "photo gallery" for more photos


MERINGUE:

4 egg whites
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Butter and flour a baking sheet.

2. In a glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer. Sprinkle in sugar a little at a time, while continuing to whip at medium speed. When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like satin, stop mixing, and transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag. Pipe the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet using a large round tip or star tip.

3. Place the meringues in the oven and place a wooden spoon handle in the door to keep it from closing all the way. Bake for 3 hours, or until the meringues are dry, and can easily be removed from the pan. Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature.


Tips:

-when beating the egg whites, make sure to beat it long enough till peaks form, which make take up to 15 min

-after adding the sugar, the final mixture should not be too soft. it should not be too stiff, but it should drop from the beater quite slowly, like a thick mixture

-yes, the meringues have to be in the oven for 3 hours. i tried breaking off a little in the oven after 1 hr and the middle was not hardened yet, only the outer layer was


Links:

Meringue: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Authentic-French-Meringues/Detail.aspx

CREME BRULEE

Like I said in my last post, I've been motivated to bake more these days. Today's dessert was creme brulee. Weirdly enough, I've never had any in my life, so what I made toady was my first taste. :)

see "photo gallery" for more photos


CREME BRULEE:

6 egg yolks
6 tablespoons white sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).

2. Beat egg yolks, 4 tablespoons sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.

3. Pour cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil. Remove the cream from heat immediately. Stir cream into the egg yolk mixture; beat until combined. pour into a shallow heat-proof dishes and lay the dishes into a pan filled with hot water that reaches a little more than half way of the dishes.

4. Bake in oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.

5. Preheat oven to broil.

6. In a small bowl combine remaining 2 tablespoons white sugar and brown sugar. Sift this mixture evenly over custard. Place dish under broiler until sugar melts, about 2 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Tips:

-before pouring mixture into a dish, get rid of any bubbles or lumps with a strainer


Links:

Creme Brulee: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creme-Brulee/Detail.aspx

Cream Puffs & Swan Cream Puffs

I've really been into baking these days since I've been baking more than usual. And buying my new pastry bags gave me new motivation to set up my own private baking business for school and church. So I decided I wanted to try out lots of French pastries including cream puffs, creme brulee, meringue, and custard. For now I'm starting out with cream puffs since I LOVE them. Originally they should be filled with custard or pudding mixture, but I don't have the time to make that so for this time I'll be filling the puffs with whipped cream. I also found a cool video on youtube on how to make swan cream puffs and they're REALLY EASY.


Cream Puffs:
Adapted from AllRecipes

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs

Extra ingredients as suggested:

• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbp sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat egg mixture little by little, mixing well after each time. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet or fill a pastry bag and pipe out 1-1 1/2 in. of dough.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry. Poke a hole with a toothpick on the sides of the puffs to release the steam the last couple of minutes of baking. Then turn off the heat and open the oven to let the puffs cool.
4. When the shells are completely cooled, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.

Tips:

• It is ESSENTIAL to poke the puffs with a toothpick so it prevents the puff from sagging and deflation later.
• When making the dough and adding eggs, if the dough does not come out sticky and smooth enough (it should NOT still be in a "ball" form), add another egg.
• If making swans, do not pipe too much dough for the head & neck. after baking, the cream puffs will "blow up" a lot so the necks do not need that much.

For Swan cream puffs:
Visit link for visual instructions

• Pipe 1-2 in. oval doughs (this will be the body).
• Then pipe an "S" shape for the neck and head of the swan.
• Pipe more dough on the beginning of the "S" to create a head.

Whipped Cream:
Adapted from AllRecipes

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

1. In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.


Tips:

• You can experiment with whipped cream flavoring by adding small amounts of different extracts such as almond, rum, orange, lemon, etc.
• Add food coloring if you want your cream to be colorful.

Assembly:

1. For the regular cream puffs, simply use a pastry bag to pipe in your whipped cream (or custard if you prefer to use that) by poking a small hole in the puff. If you do not have a pastry bag, simply cut the puffs in half then put in some filling and make a "sandwich".
2. For the swans, take the body and cut it in half. Cut the upper half vertically in half again to make the wings.
3. Fill the lower half of the body with cream until it is "round". Take a neck/head and stick it to the edge of the body into the cream. It should stay upright. Take the wings and stick it to the sides of the body of whip cream. Add more cream if needed.

Optional:
-sprinkle a little confectioner's sugar over the swan and/or chocolate syrup for decoration

Apple Pie

For the last 3 weeks, I've been helping my friend out from school to do a bake sale to help with fundraising for Japan with our Red Cross club. This is the last week, and it's "pie week". We made the crusts at my house and she made the filling with her other friend at another house since I'm too busy. But I needed to make an apple pie for my own family anyways so I did that.

I used both the filling and crust recipes from allrecipes.com. I used Ruth's Grandma's Pie Crust and Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. I get lots of compliments from this pie from both family and friends, especially from the crust. My own family is actually not very fond of pies, but the only pie they will eat are my apple pies. :)









Pie Crust:
Adapted from Ruth's Grandma's Pie Crust
Yields about 2 crusts

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups shortening
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, shortening, sugar, and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
2. In a small bowl, mix egg with water. Blend into flour mixture. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Tips:

• Chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge (makes it easier to roll out later).
• When rolling out the dough to make the crust, sprinkle flour on and around the dough.

Apple Pie:
Adapted from MOSHASMAMA

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced (you don't have to use smith apples, I simply use what I have on hand)

Additions:
Based off of the reviews on this pie, here are the adjustments I got to make this even better tasting. :)
ADD EXTRA:

• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbp vanilla (take out 1 tbps of water)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar (and extra ingredients), and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. Mix sliced apples with syrup (save some to brush on top of crust).
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan and brush with egg white (to prevent sogginess). Fill with apples mixed in syrup, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently brush leftover syrup over the crust.
3. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until apples are soft.

Tips:

• Place flat pan with foil underneath pie for drips in oven later.
• Place shelf in the middle of the oven,
• The thicker your crust is, the longer it will have to be in the oven.

Doll Cakes

So I was paid to make 2 birthday cakes for these two girls from my church. They love girly stuff, so after lots of surfing the web, I decided on making doll cakes for them, and by using google and youtube, I learned how to make one. It looks complicated, but it's actually pretty simple and I believe beginners may even try it out if they wanted to. The only thing though is that this type of cake takes patience since there's lots of waiting time involved.

The two cakes I made into two different flavors: chocolate and vanilla. Vanilla for the youngest girl (I think is turning 8), chocolate for the older girl (I think is turning 10). The vanilla recipe I got from my friend when we baked a cake together for school, and the chocolate is a simple one I took off of the back of a Hershey cocoa powder container. :P
For the vanilla cake I also used vanilla frosting (cuz the girl wanted pink frosting) for topping and filling. For the chocolate cake I used chocolate frosting filling, but vanilla topping so I could add bright colours.


Chocolate Cake:

• 2 C sugar
• 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 C milk
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 C boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Vanilla Cake:
Adapted from SCOTTOSMAN

• 1 1/2 C all purpose flour
• 1/2 C butter or margarine (softened)
• 1 tbp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 C and extra 1/8 C milk (as suggested from others)
• 1 C sugar
• food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the pans with butter or oil and coat with flour
2. Sift together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set aside.
3. Make sure your butter or margarine is room temperature or softened. Cream the butter than add the sugar and cream some more. In small bowl, whisk/beat each egg one at a time and add each egg into the cream and sugar mix separately. Then add in the vanilla extract.
4. Add the dry ingredients mixture into the wet ingredients until all the ingredients are wet, add milk and stir.
5. OPTIONAL: Next in separate bowls colour the batter with your colour of preference. Separate batter into different bowls, one bowl for every colour you choose (I made one layer pink).
6. Next pour the batter into a pan (if you chose to use more than one colour, bake in separate pans for each). Bake for about 20 min to 30 min, or when a toothpick comes out clean after being inserted into the cake. Let it cool.

Tips:

• If your butter is straight from the fridge and is hard, try microwaving it for at least 20 sec.
• You can mix ingredients together using an electric mixer, but I prefer using a hand whisk (using an electric mixer will make the batter more smooth if you're not used to whisking by hand).
• If you use colouring, the colour of the cake will come out of the oven slightly lighter than it looked before as a batter.

Chocolate Frosting:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Vanilla Frosting:
Adapted from xoshadyxo

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used margarine)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 4 drops food coloring, or as needed (optional)

1. Cream room temperature butter with a hand mixer, the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract.
2. Pour in milk and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add food coloring, if using, and beat for thirty seconds until smooth or until desired color is reached.

Tips:

• If you prefer to use just frosting to cover the cake instead of whip cream, add more milk so the frosting is more smooth and easier to spread.
• If you make the frosting more firm (less milk), decorations will also be more firm after it's chilled and less prone to being ruined by touch.

ASSEMBLY:

1. Take the bottom layer and cut (using a knife with "teeth") the top until flat and smooth (make sure all layers are completely cooled or else frosting will melt). optional: take the top layer and cut around edges until smooth and looks round (if you want to make a more dress effect).
2. Stack the top and bottom layer, make sure they're aligned. Take a circular cookie cutter or a knife, and cut a hole in the middle of the cake larger enough for the doll to fit, but not too large.
3. Lay the bottom layer on whichever plate you want the cake to be on (try to find the flattest plate/bottom to put the cake on, it makes decoration easier). Take your frosting and put a generous helping onto the bottom layer and spread around the top.
4. Take the top layer and put it on top of the frosted bottom layer. Put more frosting on the top layer and spread. Spread frosting on the sides of the cake as well, but only a thin layer (this will be the base layer of frosting). Chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Take the frosted cake out of the fridge, make sure frosting is cooled and firm. Put a generous helping of frosting on top of the cake and spread all around (this is final layer so put on as much frosting as you want). Put the cake into the fridge to cool another hour until frosting is cooled.
6. If you choose to only use frosting, then you can skip this step and move onto step 7. If not, take your cake out of the fridge and add whip cream. If you want the dress to have a specific design using the cream, you can look up doll cakes on google. I just spread the whip cream all over the cake to create one whole dress piece. Put into the fridge to cool another hour until cooled.
7. Take out the cake from the fridge. Make sure it is firm and cooled before decorating. Prepare your icing bags if you have one. If you don't have one, there are many makeshift icing bags you can hand-make if you look it up on google. Using paper or a ziplock bag are some examples.
8. Take your doll. Make sure you wash it thoroughly with soap (take off all clothing). Tie the hair up if not done already so it doesn't get frosting on it. After drying, you can choose to put the clothes back on or leave it off. Wrap the doll tightly with plastic wrap from the chest and down (if you leave the clothes on, push the shirt down so the doll is "topless" for decoration). Do not wrap the arms.
9. Place the wrapped doll into the hole in the cake (its okay if frosting gets on the wrap, that's what it's there for). The cake should reach around the doll's hips/waist (you may need more layers if the cake is too short or a smaller doll). Fill the hole with leftover frosting or whip cream so it looks like the dress is attached to the doll.
10. Now start decorating! Using your prepared icing bag, decorate the dress any way you want it to. Make sure to ice the doll's top to match the dress. With the icing, you can use stars, dots, lines, etc.
11. Either put the cake back in the fridge until the cake is needed, or serve right away!

Tips:
-try to chill everything completely for at least 1-2 hours before decorating; it makes decorating a lot easier if the surface of the cake is firmer and colder.

Hello!

This is my first time doing a blog on baking, so bear with me here! I have been baking a lot recently and have decided to start a blog on my creations! I will be putting up recipe information along with photos and step-by-step instructions. Hope you enjoy!