Failed Banana Cake :(

I bought a bunch of bananas last Tue, and don know what happened on Wed, the bunch of bananas dropped on the floor by themselves and I'd to keep them in the fridge.  As we gotta finish up those bananas fast, thus use the remaining bananas to bake this banana cake.

I adapted recipe from Joy of baking, with some adjustments which resulted a failure :p

Ingredients
230g all purpose flour
150g granulated white sugar (used brown sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe large bananas (approximately 454g), mashed well (used about 4, and additional 1 for garnish)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180C and place oven rack to middle position
2. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  Set aside
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside
4. In a medium sized bowl, combine the mashed bananas (mash with salt), eggs, melted butter and vanilla
5. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky.
6. Scrape batter into prepared pan.  Bake until bread is golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 - 60 minutes.
7. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature

I followed most ingredients and every steps accordingly until folding the banana mixture to the dry ingredients, I found the batter very dry and trying to be creative, I added 1/2 cup of milk, should go for 1/4 cup, just don know what I was thinking that day... sigh....  thus the ending result of the cake:

Instead of a buttery, fluffy type of banana cake, I got a oily and kuih type banana cake

Luckily, though the texture is funny, the taste is still good.   Lesson learned, do not simply add in too much milk :p

Sweet & Savory Roti Prata Bento (197)

Out of idea on what to prepare for little girl's bento last nite, then remembered there was 1 last piece of frozen roti prata in the freezer, I transformed it to the sausage roll and puffy pastry this morning.  Use about 15 minutes to prepare & pack the bento, time used mostly on baking.

2 sausage rolls, 5 elephant puff pastries, a heart silicon cup of nutella and a tube of HK jelly

Note of the day

Lastly, wish u have a happy holiday (Labour day) and a great weekend!

Mantou Rabbit Bento (196)

Sorry of the shadow below, it was so dark & cloudy, I had to turn on the light

Decided to have mantou for breaky and bento this morning, little girl had sausage with 1/2 of a mantou for breaky and for the bento, I just spread the other half with nutella.

Took less than 10 minutes to complete the bento, of course excluding the steaming time ;p

For top: plum slices, cheese cocktail hearts and a mantou rabbit

Note of the day

Songs that Little Girl Sings

Little girl loves to sing since she is a baby, especially those nursery rhymes like Twinkle twinkle little star, London Bridge, then after introducing her to TV, she loves songs from Little Einstein, Wonder Pets, Seseme Street, Elmo's World, etc.  I'd even altered the lyrics from the song Elmo always sing at the ending part of the show to my mobile number, she started singing my mobile number song at the age of 2 and whenever one asking her of my number, she will sing the number instead of telling! :p

Then, whenever I send or fetch her to/from school, I like to listen to the Light & Easy channel which broadcast mostly on the 80's songs, and she especially adores this song Eternal Flame (a song I like too).  She always demand to sing it in the car (hubby got it burned in the CD) for so many times til hubby had to limit her the times she may repeat b4 he turned on the song... hahaha...

Lately, with the influence of her teenage cousins, she surprised us so many times that she knew some pop songs that we don even hear b4, like this one:  (ok, I admit, I seldom listen to the pop songs, I'm old fashioned)

And this...

I think, there r more to come....

Boy & Girl Bento (195)

Other than the konnyaku noodles (leftover from dinner), the fish balls and drummette were bought from SS3 nite market last nite, everything just need to warm up in the morning and pack into box.

Took about 20 minutes for the heating, packing, cutting & decorating of the bento.

From top left: fried chicken drummette, konnyaku noodles, boy & girl made of assorted fish balls and pear slices

Note of the day

Animal Pasta & Chicken Nuggets Bento (194)

Stirred the cooked pasta with the leftover stewed mince pork and mushroom (again!), another lazy & easy pitsy meal ready in minutes :p  Used roughly 10 minutes to get bento ready.

Animal pasta with green peas, stewed mince pork & mushroom, 2 chicken nuggets and a bunch of grapes

Note of the day

Mille Crepe Cake 法式千層蛋糕

Pls excuse me of the ugly decoration :p

It is hubby's birthday today, I made this Mille Crepe Cake yesterday quietly, both hubby & little girl didn't get to see it til this morning :p

I googled the recipe, found one not too complicated and small portion here (it is in Chinese), seriously this cake is quite easy and fast to made, the only time consuming part is to assemble the cake.

Ingredients - Crepes

15g unsalted butter
20g sugar
100g flour
2 eggs
90g milk (used about 100g)
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Melt the butter
2. Shift flour, add in sugar and salt, mix well
3. Beat in eggs into flour mixture one at a time, mix til well combine
4. Pour in melted butter, mix well then pour in milk til well combine
5. Let rest for 15 minutes
6. Strain batter
7. Heat pan, pour in batter into pan to form a thin crepe
8. Fry crepe for 1-2 minutes (just fry one side)

Ingredients - Custard Cream

(A)

30g sugar

1 tsp flour

1 tsp corn flour

1 tsp vanilla essence (used a small stick of vanilla bean)

1 egg

50g milk

(B)

15g unsalted butter

150g milk

100g cream (used non-dairy cream)

1. Mix ingredients in (A) in a bowl
2. Simmer milk (in B) with vanilla bean til reaching boiling point, strain milk
3. Pour (2) to (1) in 2 times, mix til well combine
4. Simmer (3) til turning thick.  Off heat
5. Mix in butter
6. Cover with sling film, let cool
7. Beat cream til soft peak, fold into (6), til combine

To assemble:

1. Spread a thin layer of custard cream evenly onto crepe, repeating the cream and crepe layering steps
2. Let the crepe cake set in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving

I tell u, this custard cream is so so so wonderful, I couldn't stop myself from licking it after cooking and while assembling the cake, yummy!

Can u see those tiny vanilla seeds?

My piece of Mille Crepe Cake

Lastly, wishing u a happy birthday, darling!  Also, wish u having a successful career (just like the cake, stepping higher & higher), love u...

Baked Rice Bento (193)

Made the simple baked rice with leftover minced pork & mushroom this morning.  Used about 10 minutes for the baking & packing.

Baked rice, 2 cheese cocktail and plum slices

Note of the day

Sausage Rolls & Apple Bunnies Bento (192)

This was another lazy n simple bento, just blanched 4 cheese cocktails, wrapped them with bread, and ta dah....  4 sausage rolls!  Use most time crafting the apple bunnies :p  Total time used for this bento was about 15 minutes.

4 cheesy sausage rolls, 4 apple bunnies and 2 marshmallows

Note of the day

Nutella Sammy, Drummette & Jelly Bento (191)

Don know what to prepare for little girl's bento today, simply threw in the Nutella sammy and the leftover drummette into the box.  Took less than 10 minutes to get the bento ready.

4 pieces of nutella sammy, a drummette, 2 jelly and some grape tomatoes

Note of the day