Banana Cake

                                                                                    

Recently, Abba had been to Sakaleshpur. When he returned, he brought large bunches of bananas(the smaller variety) with him. There was a lot, and Umma was not sure how to finish them. So during the weekend, Umma asked me to prepare banana bread. Now I am a girl who tries to avoid bananas as much as possible. Therefore, I was reluctant, but at the end, I agreed. I found a recipe which sounded good to me. I went upto the kitchen and began to check if all the ingredients were available. Yes,  you guessed it right. We were short of 1 ingredient-eggs.

Me: But we don't have eggs at home!
Umma: Oh, can we get an eggless banana bread recipe?

Me: (recalling my flour-tasting eggless brownies)Actually, I don't share a good relationship with eggless cakes.

Umma: C'mon....there will be some good recipe.

Me: Ok......

And I found THE eggless banana bread recipe. I wouldn't call it banana bread since it had a cake texture. So here is my banana "cake" recipe.

 

 Ingredients
1 cup sugar (  3/4 cup if using Indian granulated Sugar)
3 bananas (I used 12 small ones)
4 tbsp melted unsalted butter(I used salted butter and left out the salt)
2 tbsp yogurt/curds/dahi
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence / extract
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional- i used pistachios and almonds instead)

Method

1. Pre Heat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit / 180 degree centigrade
   
2. Mash the bananas, add sugar, yogurt and mix.
   
3. With a hand beater add butter, salt, and flour till incorporated. (You can just mix them in too)
   
4. Mix the Baking Soda with the milk and add it to the above mix along with the vanilla essence.
   
5. Mix in the walnuts and stir till everything is well blended.
   
6. Pour this batter in a greased bread tin and bake for about 50-60 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted comes out dry.

                                                                                      

                                                                                     

 

                                                                                      

                                                                                    

                                                                                     

 

                                                                                      

Cinnamon rolls

Cinnamon rolls have always been an all-time favourite of mine. As you walk through the first floor of City Centre in Doha, you are mesmerized by the smell of cinnamon rolls baking in Cinnzeo and before you know it, your legs are carrying you to the cinnamon rolls stall. As you reach your destination, you see the chef rolling out his dough and smothering god-knows-how-many-cups of butter onto it. You take one look and start thinking about the calories.You let out a silent sigh and carry on with your shopping, dejected.
This is the main reason why I decided to make my own cinnamon rolls. I wanted a "healthy" cinnamon roll. I'm not talking about a zero-calorie zero-cholesterol cinnamon roll, but at least something I can eat without feeling guilty about it.

After a lot of net-surfing I came up with this recipe and have been following it for about 1 year. The rolls taste better that the ones you get from bakeries specializing in cinnamon rolls(read Cinnzeo) and aren't half as fattening as theirs. One of the reason why I like this recipe is because it does not ask for butter to be smothered on the dough. But it also means that when you cut them into rolls, some of the cinnamon-sugar will spill out, but I don't mind it one bit. Every time I prepare these, they disappear even before I prepare the glaze. I have managed to prepare the glaze only once :)

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 cup milk
3 tbsp butter
3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt

Cinnamon sugar:
6 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Microwave butter and milk for 30-45 seconds. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, egg, yeast and salt. If the milk is not hot, the yeast won't act and if it is too hot, the yeast will die. So see to it that the milk is lukewarm. Beat well. Add enough flour to get a soft dough. Make a ball and keep it covered for 2 hours(when I am in a hurry, I keep it for just 1 1/2 hours and it works fine).
When it rises, roll the dough into a 15x11" rectangle(neet not be perfect, just an estimation). Mix the sugar and cinnamon powder to prepare cinnamon sugar. Sprinkle evenly over the rolled dough. Roll the dough and cut into slices. Depending on the thickness, you will get 20-30 slices.As I had mentioned, some of the cinnamon sugar may come out when cutting into slices. This can be sprinkled on top of the rolls. Place the rolls in your baking dish, 1/2" apart, and let rise for 30-45 minutes. Bake in a preheated(375 F) oven for 20 minutes. If you are not using glaze, serve them hot.
To make the glaze, mix all the ingredients and pour over hot rolls. Let it cool before serving if you are using glaze.

Molten lava cake

I am a very lazy girl. That explains the inactive blog. And the fact that my sweet punch challenge has been posted after 2 days from the due date. And the fact that I hadn't even tried it out until thursay, that is, on the day it was due.

This month's challenge was molten lava cake hosted by Divya.
Nada left this month and I totally lost my mood. I didn't feel like preparing anything. She would call me almost everyday asking me if I had prepared the lava cake, and I would tell her that I'll do it later since my exams had started. It's not like I wasn't interested. Molten lava cake has always been in my to-do list. I even attempted to prepare it once. But it turned out to be a fudgy muffin-without a molten centre.Anyway, I kept delaying it, until thursday, when I decided that I would take part in the challenge, no matter what. So I go whipping and melting and baking. The cake was super easy to prepare but I wasn't sure if it would turn out to be success. After all, a person like me can turn the best recipes into a flop one. I began to get nervous when the top was not cooked even after 15 minutes. After 20 minutes, I removed the pan from the oven and inverted one of the muffin cups onto a plate. Fingers crossed, I cut open the muffin. And boy, was I dissppointed!! Though the centre was moist, it did not ooze out, like Hetal and Tanuja's (from showmethecurry.com). I decided to click a picture anyway. And as I was  taking a photo, you know what I saw on the cam screen??? Hot molten lava oozing out............mmmmm. I was soo happy. My sisters and brother wanted me to prepare it again. What better compliment could a cook wish for??


Molten Lava Cake
Recipe source - showmethecurry.com
Makes 6 large cakes

Ingredients:

Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate – 4 oz (113g)
Butter – 4 oz (113g)
Eggs – 2
Sugar – 1/3 cup (75 g)
All-purpose Flour – 1/4 cup (40g)
Butter – for greasing ramekins

Method:

1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate.(I microwaved for 30 sec)
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat Eggs and Sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Once chocolate is melted, remove pan from heat and add in butter. Mix until the butter melts fully.
4. Add chocolate/butter mixture into the eggs, add all-purpose flour and mix until well incorporated.
5. Butter bottom and sides of ramekins (small glass/porcelain bowls) and pour in mixture about 3/4 way full.
6. Place ramekins on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) for 10 – 15 minutes. Shorter for gooey (molten) inside, longer for stiff inside.
7. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.(I think I preferred it without ice cream.Nothing comes between me and my rich chocolate lava cake :P)