Daring Enough?

In case you're wondering where I've been for the past few days, I've taken some time off from baking and blogging. Main reason was I haven't been in the best state of health for these couple of days. First was the gastric problem (must be due to the coffee macarons I was testing the last time. I always have problem with coffee). Then I had diarrhoea on Sat. Thank goodness everything is over now.

Made these for the kids last Thurs, my favourite Orange, Apple & Wolfberry Muffins. This time I filled the cups to about 90% full, manage to get 18 cuppies.



After the long rest, I was finally well enough to continue my baking. Decided to bake some banana cakes for the first Daring Enough challenge in KC. This is like those blog challenges where everyone will bake/cook an item according to the theme in the challenge.



I've adapted the recipe from the banana and walnut cake in Uncle Billy's Joy of Baking book. This book is dedicated to help all the cancer patients. This is the first recipe I've tried from the book and I'm happy with the result. The cake is light and fluffy, not the heavy kind of banana cake. I've added more bananas as I love the nice aroma from the fruit. I did some of them in my mini doughnut pan and the remaining as cupcakes.

Banana Cake

Ingredients
Butter 100g
Salt 1g
Fine sugar 100g
Banana (peeled and sliced) 225g
Egg 100g (2 eggs)
Cake flour 220g
Milk powder 25g
Baking powder 5g

Method
1. Sieve flour, milk powder and baking powder together.
2. Mix butter, salt and sugar evenly.
3. Add in bananas and mix (at low speed) until banana pieces are mashed.
4. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix well.
5. Fold in the flour mixture.
6. Fill the paper cups till 80% full.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 170°C for about 30 minutes. For mini doughnut pan, bake for about 20 minutes.

Had them this morning for breakfast with a glass of homemade sesame soya bean milk. Healthy enough? :)




Mood: satisfied

Orange lovers!

I can't seem to switch off that baking engine of mine...lol... These are just fresh from the oven, made them this morning. (Hint hint: There's something else I'm making before these, shall share more later when it's done AND if it turns out ok!)



Warning: These are super healthy and addictive snacks for both adults and children, especially orange lovers...hahaha...

Recipe adapted from "Cooking for Kids"

Orange, Apple & Wolfberry Muffins

Yields about 21 cuppies or 15 muffins (all 80% full after baked)

Ingredients

360g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
120g castor or fine sugar
4 eggs
120g melted butter
180ml freshly squeezed orange juice, unsieved (from 2 oranges)
180ml water
1 tblsp orange zest (from 1 orange)
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g wolfberrr fruits
1 apple (peeled and diced) (I use green apple)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add sugar and stir to mix well.
3. In another bowl, beat the eggs, add in melted butter, orange juice, water, orange zest and vanilla essence. Mix well.
4. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and combine well before adding wolfberry and apples.
5. Pour the batter into cups and bake for about 25-30 minutes until top is lightly browned.

Note:
- You do not need a mixer for this recipe. I just use a spoon and stir to mix as the batter is rather liquid.
- The batter does not rise very much. I filled my cups 2/3 full and the muffins did not reach the rim after baked. You can fill to about 80-85%. Do note that the number of muffins/cuppies yielded (as stated above) is based on 2/3 full batter.
- The muffins will be bright orangy-yellow after baked.

I baked these mainly for my 3 kids who would be telling me they're hungry every afternoon! The whole kitchen smelled so good while these are baking.

The orginal recipe uses milk, but I've changed it to use orange juice and water instead. I've also increased the amount of wolfberry since these are good for kids too. I'm very happy with the result and will do these again in future. The muffins would probably be a hit with kids with its tangy flavour and loads of goodness!

Mood: happy

It's Muffins today

I decide to bake some muffins today. Tried an apple, raisin & chocolate chips muffin. Used my Toyomi convection roaster to bake it (earlier I've used it to bake the doggies).



Not too sure if it is due to the roaster or it's the way I did the recipe, but the muffins are all lop-sided after they're baked. Though they don't look nice, they taste ok. The recipe only yielded 6 muffins and all were given to the 6 kids (my cousin's plus my own).

Mood: satisfied