Watcha do with bunch of bananas n chocolate?

Want a slice?

Baked a cake,of coz...Rummaged through my pile of numerous recipes and found one recipe for marble cake.Since it was creaming method that does not require much time,I should be able to handle it with ease. Ever since having to take care of clover,I will have to make do with whatever free time that I can grab whilst she is sleeping or when my lao gong is taking over.When I saw this recipe,I can almost taste the softness of the cake and the fragrance of bananas,not to mention the sinful dark chocolate.Thankfully,the cake turned out well..hehe...Now my lao gong even volunteer to babysit for me just so that I can bake more for him..HurraY!
Do give it a try,simple to prepare and the results is well worth it.
Banana-chocolate marble cake(Recipe adapted from Australia's women weekly)
Serves 12
250g butter
250g sugar?(I used 230g,as ripe bananas emits sweetness as well)
4 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
300g self-raising flour
125g dark chocolate,melted
20cm cake tin
Methods:
1.Preheat oven to 180 degree.Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs gradually.fold in the sifted flour.Add in the banana and mix well.
3.Spoon half of the mixture into another bowl.Add about 3/4 of melted chocolate to a bowl and stir in.
4.Place spoonful of both mixture in cake tin,alternating the colours.Spoon the rest of melted chocolate on top and swirl with a knife.Lined and greased baking tin.
5.Bake in the oven for one hour and 10 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes,then turn out to cool.Serve.

Confinements Constraints

No touching of tap water,no rinising of hair,no walking around the house barefooted,no sitting on the cold harsh floor,no...............Gosh,I am going bongus with the dreadful list of nos-nos.For a stubborn person like me,well,I really have difficulty sticking to the rules,much to the disappointment of my mum,who will remind me again and again of the ill effects should I forget any of the rule.Faced with all these constraints daily make feel so useless.Even if I want to eat an apple,I had to get someone to rinse it for me.To overcome this feeling of feeling so hapless,I did something to brighten up my day and make my mum proud.Hehe...I baked an orange cheesecake for mum,adding in extra cheese for the cheesecake lover.As a result,the cake was more dense than usual due to addition of cheese,and with THUMBS-UP from my family,this cake is definitely a keeper.Goody-good,yeah...

Sheer Stupidity or Feigned Ignorance??

Saw the label on the package?It reads P.(pig)BIG BONES,instead of soup bones which is what I indicated on my shopping list.The meat on soup bones is softer than pork ribs,making it ideal for soup and the meat falls off easily.Gave my list to my lao gong who went grocery shopping with his mum tagging along,which proved the saying"Mothers know best" so wrong.This was a case of the blind leading the blind.My poor lao gong,who did not have the foggiest idea of what soup bones is,listened to his mum and purchased this bones .Hmm...to feed the dog,perhaps?If chicken feet and chicken drumstick are the same,then why does chicken drumstick cost more?Oh well,came back with this and the usual excuse"I don't know what is that,we never eat this things before" Good grief......and all the while I thought a phone call will make a difference...Sigh...

My all-time favourite bake-Clover Chee

My delivery process

Here's an introduction to my latest bake which took an ardous baking time of 40 weeks,fresh from the "oven" to home sweet home.She is lively and smiley,and my heart melts whenever she smiles at me showing her little dimple on her left cheek.Not one to be messed around with when she is hungry though,her cries can be sharp with her hands and legs thrashing widly.She is indeed our lucky baby as while in the womb,waiting for my cervix to open,the nurse discovered something was amiss.Clover's heartbeat dipped everytime I had contractions,which was not supposed to happen as the heartbeat ought to increase with each contraction.A nurse who initally thought that clover was asleep tried to wake her using a buzzer on my tummy.BIG MISTAKE!!The moment the buzzer was used,clover's heartbeat dropped drastically,my gynae rushed down soon after and after one look at the heartbeat monitor,state that the umbilical cord may have coiled around bb's limb or neck,cutting off her blood supply,and hence interfering with the heartrate.An immediate c-section was scheduled,and I was fully consicous throughout the whole process.True enough when bb was yanked out from my womb,the umbilical cord was coiled around her NECK!!Needless to say,it was an experience my lao gong and I will never forget in the delivery room.Anyway,now wats ost important is that our little piglet is safely at home with us,all thanks to my experienced,level-headed gynae who managed to rush to the hospital in 30 minutes.Phew,close shave...............

Eggless Banana Cupcake-Can ya tell the diff?

While chatting with my colleague one day,she asked if I have ever tried baking cakes without eggs.."Why don't you try it?Perhaps,that can entice more health-conscious consumers to buy it."That was the suggestion she made.Well,that got me thinking"Why not?"I have always been intrigued by how cakes/muffins can be bake without the addition of essential ingredients.Eggs are supposed to provide structure and browning effect in cakes,what will happen if it is omitted?For instance,should bird flu strikes again(touchwood),can we still bake without eggs?Thus,I went browsing through the numerous recipes that I had hoarded over the years,er...I have more than 50 recipes books,which caused my bookshelf to collapse twice..haha..Eventually,i found one recipe and after tweaking it a little,I manage to bake the cupcakes as shown above.I used overly ripe bananas,reduce the sugar content,tossed in some chocolate chips, and the result is a dense cupcake which is sweet,moist but not as fluffy as normal cupcakes.In fact,a novice may not be able to tell the difference.Hehe...Hope that chubby clover will be enticed by the smell of my bakes and arrive soon,tomorrow will be my due date,yet she show no sign of emerging yet.Hmm..wonder when will my favourite cookie be ready?

Celebrity Star Chef-My two cents worth

After watching the previous eposide of the competition aired every tue at 8pm which shown a particular contestant being eliminated due to poor food handling hygiene,I cannot help but to share my view.Firstly,the contestant threw away a piece of sliced mango into the dustbin and claimed that it was intentional as he had no space to place it,and will wash it before using the mango.Secondly,he used the same chopping board for meat and strawberries without rinising the board.For all these mistakes which he commited,he was reprimanded severely by Sam Leong who did not award him with any mark and that eventually led to his downfall.I certainly agreed with Sam Leong in that despite the fact that the contestant can cook well,however,if one customer were to suffer from food poisioning,that will certainly spell the end of his career,not to mention the company reputation.Well,some pple may feel that Sam may be too harsh,but bacterial contamination can leads to diarrhoea,fever and severe vomiting which can be fatal should it happen to a young child.My friend who works in MOH has certainly seen her fair share of food posioning cases which is getting more prevalent nowadays.If only one bother to wash the chopping board after slicing meat,and before cutting veggies,that can reduce risk of bacteria transmitting from the meat to the veggies.In my house,I use two plastic chopping boards,one for meat and one for veggies,wood is not a good choice as it harbour bacteria easily.Always clean the work area ,and not being too messy can go a long way to prevent the cook from getting flustered too.As Anthony Bourdain once puts in"You wanna be a cook?Then work clean!!"My charges have this annoying habit of tasting the food with a teaspoon and after added in more seasoning or water,dipped the same spoon into the food without rinising.Goodness,that certainly drove me berserk.Haha...wonder if some viewers encounter this same problem.By being a little more cautious,we can drive the stomach flu virus away.Have u been a clean chef today?Hehe...

Celebrating my sweet victory with.........

Oreo lemony cheesecake!Hmm..the crust seems a bit crumble,perhaps it was due to insufficient pressing for the crust,whatever it was,that certainly did not hinder the taste at all.Instead of the original filling which consist of whipped cream,I modified it by using another lemon filling meant for lemon cheesecake,added in more lemon juice and some oreo chocolate cream.Verdict:It was rich,sour and oh,so sinful...This huge piece was wolfed down by my lao gong in less than 10 minutes.He used to be so ignorant about cakes,and his cake knowledge is limited to only butter cake and pandan cake.However,now not only does he loves his cake and for this cheesecake,he has been bugging me to do it since yesterday,see who's the more eager one this time?Haha....
Give it a try,your loved ones will love it too :]

Oreo Lemony Cheesecake
Biscuit Base:
150g oreo cookies (remove cream and crush finely)
40g melted butter

Cheese Filling
500g cream cheese
3 eggs
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/3 lemon(squeeze to obtain juice)
2 lemons,grate to obtain rind
3 tbsp chocolate/original cream obtained from oreo cookies

Methods:
1.Prepare an 8 inch cake pan.Wrap base with aluminum foil,grease foil with butter.

2. Melt butter over stove or microwave,mix with crushed biscuit crumbs in a bowl.Biscuits can be crushed using food processor or place in plastic bag and hammer it using a rolling pin.Press crumbs firmly over base and sides and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3.Preheat oven to 160 *C.

4.To make lemon filling,beat cream cheese with electric beater till smooth.Add eggs,one at a time,beating well after each addition.Add flour,lemon juice,rind,chocolate/original cream and beat till well combined.Remove crust from fridge and pour filling over biscuit crust.

5. Bake for 45 minutes,remove,cooled and chill in the refrigerator for several hours until cold.Serve chilled.Enjoy.