Year: 2018

Upside down banana cake

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I never knew that upside down banana cakes were a thing until I stumbled upon the recipe on Donna Hay again. There are a couple of ways to make an upside down banana cake. I’ve seen recipes where the banana is sliced across and recipes where the banana is sliced longitudinally. I actually just had a laugh when I read the way I was describing the direction to slice the banana. I can’t think of any other way to explain it. To make this cake, first you’ll need to melt the butter and sugar over the stove to make like a caramel to drizzle over the bananas. Arranging the bananas in the pan is a form of art which I lack patience in. But in hindsight, arrange the banana slices, overlapping it slightly to create this beautiful base. Then pour the caramel over it. Once that is done, start making the cake batter. Remember to leave the cake to stand first for 10 minutes before turning it onto a plate to serve. Ingredients 30g unsalted …

Coffee walnut cookies

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Using my favourite cookie dough recipe, I’ve decided to make coffee walnut cookies today. Once you have a good cookie dough recipe, you can pretty much make anything with your favourite ingredients. The thing I like about this cookie dough recipe is that it does not expand much when baking and it maintains the shape of the cookie cutter so I get prettily shaped cookies. I would always leave my dough to rest overnight in the refrigerator because it helps to enhance the flavour and texture of the dough. What I usually do when I’m free is to make a batch of cookie dough and freeze it. It can be left frozen in the freezer for up to three months. So whenever I feel like making cookies, I have a variety of cookie doughs to choose from! Ingredients 140g unsalted butter (room temperature) 100g caster sugar 2 egg yolks 2 tsp coffee essence 240g plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 50g walnuts 50g chocolate chips Directions Preparation time: 10min Baking time: 15-20min or when the …

Mandarin cupcakes

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I have been happily harvesting mandarins from my uncle’s tree that I ended up with way too many mandarins. Since there was no way that I could possibly finish all of them, I’ve decided to make mandarin cupcakes. I’ve learnt a couple of lessons when baking with mandarin. Firstly, they are best to be boiled till soft. I’ve tried juicing them (didn’t feel very smart doing that), zesting them (they were way too soft to be zested). However boiling it till it is soft and then blending it using food processor retains the flavour of the mandarin. But before blending it, remember to remove the seeds from the mandarin if not the cakes will have a bitter after taste – trust me, I’ve learnt this the hard way. Ingredients for the cake  3 large mandarins (or 4 small ones) 200g self raising flour 150g brown sugar 2 large eggs 100ml olive oil 1 tbsp poppy seeds 3 tbsp maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla essence Ingredients for the cream cheese frosting 250g cream cheese 30g butter 40g icing …

Nutella sandwich cookies

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These cookies are dangerous. Because its a sandwich cookie, it means that you’ll have to eat two at a time. And before you know it, you have probably eaten 10 pieces of cookies. I’ve made these cookies for the first time and I couldn’t stop eating it. The whole tray of cookies was gone within a day – thank goodness my housemate ate most of it. These cookies are slightly more tedious to make. The cutting of the cookie dough is easy, however the piping of the ganache can get a little messy. A little tip is to wait for the ganache to cool and set first before piping (I only figured that out after making a mess out of the kitchen table top). To reduce the sweetness of Nutella, I’ve added milk and Lindt 90% dark chocolate. The ganache tasted so good that I can eat it alone. In fact, I was dipping strawberries into it because it was absolutely delicious. Ingredients 120g unsalted butter (room temperature) 100g caster sugar 240g plain flour 1 …