BaNaNa CaRRot CaKe

My inspiration for this cake is my lovely mom. It was mother's day and I just wanted to bake her a cake instead of buying one at our favorite bakeshop.

I wanted it to be healthy yet tastefully delicious! Initially I was settled with a plain carrot cake, just then i saw my ripened bananas just sitting at my fruit basket. So I googled a recipe and found a healthy and delectable cake recipe (Food.com) which calls for my key ingredients. I somehow replicate but did a few modification on the ingredients.

This cake is super moist and dense! Moreover, it is not so sweet (due to reduced sugar). And the best part is a butter cream cheese frosting!

For the cake:
2/3 cup sugar

1 cup mashed banana

2/3 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups carrot, shredded  

• Whisk banana, sugar, and oil... then add eggs one at a time
• In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Give it a good mix.
• Add banana mixture and stir well.
• Add carrots while continue stirring.
• Pour the mixture in a 10 inch round cake pan or any cake pan available, lined with waxpaper, or mists with oil.
• Place the cake pan in 175C pre heated oven for 45 minutes.

For the frosting:
3 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
1 stick butter (room tempture)
3 cups powdered sugar or confectioner sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

• Whisk together until gooey.
• Add more powedered sugar (if you want extra sweet)

Tips:
1. You may top with almonds or walnuts bits as a garnishing!
2. Do not microwave the butter or cream cheese. A room temperature is a must
3. You can substitute an olive oil

CHoCoLaTe CReaM CuPCaKes

This recipe, is similar to my previous post (Choco Dream Cake) only it is in a form of cupcakes. And to make it more appealing to kids, I topped the cupcakes with either M&Ms or Oreo cookies. The result were really yumminess!

These cupcakes are great for kids birthday parties. You can even top the cupcake with any other munchies that you can imagine (e.g. marshamallows, caramels, kitkats, wafer, strawberries, sprinkles, etc.)

For Chocolate Chiffon cupcake, we need to prepare two separate batter mixture, then to combine later on.

Batter 1: Cake mixture
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup canola oil (or olive oil)
7 eggyolks
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Batter 2: Merengue
7 eggwhites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar

• In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt.
• In a separate bowl, combine eggyolks, sugar, water, oil, and cocoa powder. Beat until frothy.
• Combine flour mixture with eggyolk mixture, and continue mixing until well blended. Texture is a gooey batter. Set aside.
• On a separate bowl and using an electric mixer, mixegg whites and cream of tartar. Then gradually add the sugar. Whipped at maximum speed until the egg white becomes merengue in texture (like a white foam).
• Combine batter 1 and batter 2 and fold using a rubber spatula. DO NOT MIX, but only carefully stir so not to deflate the eggwhites foam.
• Scoop a dollop of the mixture to each spot of muffin tray, lined with paper cups
• Place the cake pan in 175C pre heated oven for 40 minutes.

Choco Cream frosting:
2 cups whipped cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp butter
1 cup powdered sugar

• On a bowl, beat whipped cream until peaks. Be careful not to over beat the whipped cream or it may liquify.
• On a separate bowl, melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler. Add 2 tbsp butter. Once melted, turn off the heat and set-aside.
• Pour over the cholocate to the whipped cream and fold.
• Gradually fold in powdered sugar.

Cake decoration:

• Top each cupcake with either M&Ms or Oreo cookies.

Enjoy!

key tip:
- keep the temperature of beaten cream at 1C to 5C temp.
- Cool down the chiffon cake before topping with whipped cream icing.