Yogurt Banana Cake

Baked this yogurt banana cake last night.
Hubby bought some bananas from the supermarket yesterday. But he found that they are way too ripe. So he asked me to bake something out of them. Searched the web (I don't have any cookbooks, I use the internet to search for recipes most of the time). So, I choose this yogurt banana cake from Taste.com.au.I omitted the frosting but decorated the cake with some chopped walnuts.

Yogurt banana cake

Ingredients:
125g butter or margarine
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
200g plain yoghurt
200g (1 1/3 cups) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
About a handful of chopped walnuts

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a loaf pan with the melted butter or margarine.
2. Beat butter or margarine and sugar in a bowl with electric beaters until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at time beating well after each addition. Fold in the mashed bananas and yoghurt with a large metal spoon.
3. Sift together the flour and baking powder and then fold gently into the yoghurt mixture until just combined. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven. Stand for 5-10 minutes then remove cake from pan and place it on a wire rack to cool.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Back dated post

I like the sweetness of pumpkins. My mom used to cook it with dry shrimp and I love the soft and creamy flavor. I bought some pumpkin from the wet market the other day and was thinking of baking something out of it. I asked AiLeng for ideas and she suggested pumpkin cheese cake. I checked on this website for the recipe and I found it used too many ingredients. I don't like complicated recipes. So I searched around for cupcakes recipes. Wa la! Here it is. Baked this last Thursday and hubby said the frosting a bit sweet. I already cut about 40% of the initial amount for the icing sugar. Still too sweet? Next time round need to cut 50%!! Will 10% more make any difference? wakakakaka...

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients:

*makes 12-15 cupcakes*

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I don't have ground cinnamon so I used all spice powder)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (I omitted this)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I omitted this)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup (180 ml) pumpkin puree (I steamed the pumpkin then mashed it with a folk)

1 cup of chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Place rack in the middle of the oven. 

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground spices, and salt

3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and pumpkin puree, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. 

4. Fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter. Sprinkle some chopped walnuts on top. Place in the oven and bake for about 18 - 20 minutes, or until firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

110 grams cream cheese, room temperature

30 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
100 grams icing sugar, sifted

Method:

1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth.

2. Add the butter and beat until incorporated and smooth. 

3. Add the vanilla extract and confectioners sugar and beat until fluffy (2-3 minutes).

4. Pipe or spread the frosting on the cupcakes.

  I personally preferred those with frosting. :) what is your preference? 

*Recipe adopted from Joyofbaking.com

今年的生日礼物

家里的手提电脑很早以前就有点问题了。开机时慢到不行，我可以on 了power 后，去冲个凉回来才有得用。此外，键盘上的“2”键和“F2”键都不知所终。前阵子更离谱，WiFi detect 不到自己家的，可是detect 到别人家的，但手机都能用家里的WiFi 啊！就那电脑detect 不到，奇怪吧... 向老公 complain 了几回，前晚他就帮我看了一下，还打电话给小叔（小叔之前是做电脑的）查问，最后诊断说是 hard disk 坏了。老公将 hard disk 拆了下来，要去买个新的。

昨晚老公放工后说会到电脑店去走看看才回来。回来时，拿了好大一个袋子，我问他是不是将人家店里所有的hard disk 都买回来啦？好大个袋子！他狡猾的笑了笑说，老婆，今年妳的生日礼物早到咯！说着就将一部新的手提电脑拿到我面前。我真的是吓了一大跳！我问他为什么会就买一台新的回来，不是说不买新的吗？就换一换hard disk 就可以了吗？当时老公说了他到店里，看了几个hard disk ，还告诉我价钱和比较，还有一堆话，bla bla bla...可我都没听进去，（sorry，老公！因为我太兴奋了，一直盯着那新notebook 看）但结论是，我们家是时候换一台新的了，旧的那台已跟了我们7年多... 老公，谢谢你啦！我好喜欢你送的生日礼物！

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

Hubby bought some bananas for pancakes last Friday and we couldn't finish all of them. I saw that they were already way too ripe so I baked some banana chocolate cupcakes with them. I started after we finished dinner (it was about 8pm already). It was a simple and quick recipe from Joyofbaking.com. But I omitted the chocolate fudge frosting.

Ingtredients:
*makes 12 cupcakes*
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (35 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 1 medium sized banana)
1/2 cup (120 ml) warm water
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
1/4 cup (60 ml) canola, corn, or vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place rack in the center of the oven.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the egg, mashed banana, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. (The batter is quite thin.)
5. Pour or scoop the batter into the muffin cups, about 3/4 full, and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  

They smelled so nice when they were freshly baked from oven. I gave some to my neighbour right away and saved a few for hubby as breakfast this morning. Like people always say, Chocolate and bananas never go wrong! :)

营养早餐

痴肥和其并发症是全球流行病。超重和痴肥问题在我国的流行百分比分别为31.6% 和16.3%。其中大约30.9%的男性和32.4%的女性属于超重，13.9%的男性和18.8%的女性属于痴肥。

预测大约有380万年龄介于25-64岁间的成年人是属于超重，200万年龄介于25-64岁的成年人是属于超重和痴肥。意思就是说，大约2个年龄25至64岁的成人中，一人是属于超重或痴肥。

大约在地球上，每四人中有一个是过胖。痴肥问题迅速成为全球人类死亡的其中一个主要原因。--- 国际痴肥工作小组

世界卫生组织的估计显示在2005年，大约16亿的成年人属于超重，至少4亿的成年人属于痴肥。世界组织估计在2015年，大约23亿的成年人将面对超重问题和超过7亿的成年人将面对痴肥问题。

在未来10年，全球应糖尿病而引发的死亡将增加大约50%。--- 世界卫生组织

现代膳食不但缺乏营养，额外还含有高脂肪、高糖、高盐、防腐剂和食物色素。这不但导致肥胖问题，而且大大的影响了我们身体细胞的健康。我们的身体是由超过100兆的细胞组成的，细胞组成组织。组织在一起的细胞组成各样的器官，如心脏、肺、肾脏等等。各样的器官组成人体系统，如呼吸系统、排泄系统、免疫系统等等，系统共同操作组成了一个人。如果我们的细胞没能摄取到足够的营养，那么细胞就会“生病”。如果细胞生病了，我们整个人也健康不起来了。

通过Herbalife的营养奶昔和补助品，我们不但能打造良好的健康，也能达到体重管理！

健康膳食

配方1混合大豆滋补营养素

结合19种基本维他命、矿物质和基本营养素的健康膳食，备有五种口味供璇，有助于支援体重管理。

这就是我每天的早餐，你呢？

如果你也想和我一样，每天以一杯美味又满有营养的奶昔开始你的一天，就在这张帖子下留言，或电邮给我。
祝你拥有健康的人生，与众不同的精彩生活！

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Back dated post

Ever since I got an oven in Jan this year, I can't stop baking. I think I am addicted to baking. Browsing for recipes online, cutting down recipes from magazines and watching Asian Food Channel are my favorite free time activities. 

Found some left over yogurt in the fridge so I made this lemon yogurt cake. Recipe from Taste.Com.au

I love the lemon syrup that I lastly poured over the cake. It made the cake more shinning and tempting. It is a very soft and tender cake. Melt in your mouth and nice to go with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. :)

Carrot Walnut Cupcake

Back dated post

Samuel loves carrots. Carrots is a "must have" in our fridge at home. As I was browsing though the recipes online the other and saw this carrot cupcake was kind of easy to make so I made it for tea break last Friday.

Ingredients:
*makes 16 cupcakes*
250ml (1 cup) vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
215g (1 cup) caster sugar
190g (about 2 carrots) coarsely grated carrot
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
125g chopped walnut
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line sixteen 80ml (1/3-cup) capacity muffin pans with 2 layers of paper cases.

2. Whisk together the oil, eggs and vanilla in a bowl. Add the caster sugar and beat to combine. Stir in the carrot, flour, chopped walnut meal and cinnamon. Spoon among lined pans. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

I like the sweet and nutty flavor. But I want to "enhance" it further. So I made some chocolate whipped cream to go with the cupcake.

Chocolate Whipped Cream

Ingredients:
*makes about 2 cups (480 ml) whipped cream*
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp (35g) granulated white sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup (240 ml) cold heavy whipping cream

Method:
1. Place your mixing bowl and wire whisk in the freezer for about 15-30 minutes. 
2. Place the vanilla extract, sugar, and cocoa powder in the cold bowl. Stir in about 2 tablespoons of the cream to form a thick paste (this will dissolve the cocoa powder). Then add the rest of the cream and beat just until stiff peaks form. 
3. If not using immediately, cover and refrigerate. 

The whipped cream in the picture seems like a bit watery. Guess I did not whisk it long enough. However, I put the cupcakes back in the fridge after I topped them with the whipped cream. They came out just nice and moist after a while :)