Banana Split Birthday Cake

My son turned 10 on the 15th of November and this post is rather late! As has become customary in our household, we woke him up early in the morning after 'hiding' his presents under his bed.


Being a school day, we woke him a little earlier than usual so that he would have enough time to open his presents, but unfortunately not enough time to play with any of them!

A few weeks before his birthday, The Lovely Wife and I had 'negotiated' with him on what to do for his birthday. He wanted to invite a few friends over for a small birthday party and we said that he could do that on the weekend following his birthday. With that settled, we said that we would just do something simple on his actual birthday and maybe go out for dinner or make some of his favourite dishes.

I promised that I would make him a cake as well but also 'negotiated' that instead of a cake with a design/pattern, I'd make him a 'designer' cake - meaning a dessert cake that he would enjoy eating rather than just a cake that looked nice with a fancy pattern.




We thought that was that and that everything was settled. However, a week before his birthday, he 'renegotiated' with us. He asked if he could invite the extended family over - meaning his grandparents, uncles and their families. In his own words - "it's not a party, just a gathering."

And that is how we ended up having a party/gathering on his actual birthday!

The Lovely Wife took the day off work and spend it cooking up quite the feast. Michael had specified what he wanted for his birthday dinner but since so many more people were now coming, The Lovely Wife had to make some additional dishes. I had made the cake earlier on Sunday evening with some finishing touches on Monday evening. My mother in law came over later in the afternoon too and made her famous fried prawns that is a firm favourite with all of us.

So, the menu for the evening was Ketupat with Kuah Kacang, Stir Fried Satay, Fried Prawns, Fried Rice with a Pork Trio, Fried Rice with Corned Beef and we also served some Char Siew (BBQ Pork), Siew Yok (Roast Pork that my Mom had bought. Mom in Law also made some Vadai. Quite the feast actually! Missed photos of the Fried Prawns and Vadai though!





Now we come to the cake. Michael had asked that I make his something new, something that I have never done before but something that he would like. Since the cake was going to double up as dessert, I envisaged a cake made up of layers of sponge, covered with chocolate mousse and coffee cream and then serve it with sliced bananas and homemade chocolate fudge.


That was the original plan but once I made the mousse, I realised there was too much and so I used it to cover both layers of sponge. I then piped a layer of Whipped Cream over the top and covered it with Caramel Almonds. As per the original plan, I served it with Bananas and Hot Fudge topping.

This is what I did. The sponge is based on Dory Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake with a few minor alterations where I used some lemon juice in the milk as a substitute for buttermilk.

Banana Split Cake
Components
- 1 Sponge Cake
- Chocolate Mousse
- Whipped Cream
- Hot Fudge
- Almond Pralines (Caramel Almonds)
- Bananas

Sponge Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ¼ cups buttermilk or whole milk
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice (omit if using buttermilk)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
125g (4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract

To Make the Cake
Mix the lemon juice and milk and let stand for 10 mins to make buttermilk.
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Cream butter and sugar - working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between two lined pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up

Chocolate Mousse

450ml cream
3 Tbsps icing sugar
300g dark chocolate
4 egg yolks

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Add in the egg yolks and stir vigorously for about a minute. Chocolate will thicken. Don’t worry if the mixture seizes or becomes a little lumpy. Take off heat and beat with an electric mixer for about a minute or two. Chocolate will become smooth and thick. If it is still lumpy, dont worry and allow to cool a little. While cooling, whip cream with icing sugar until soft peaks form. Add a little into the chocolate mixture and beat till smooth. Beat in the remainder of the chocolate mixture until nicely incorporated.


Caramel Almonds
Make a caramel and add in whole almonds. Swirl in pan to coat the almonds and then pour out onto waxed paper. Allow to cool and then chop roughly.

Homemade Hot Fudge

Whipped Cream
300ml Whipping Cream
4 Tbsp Icing Sugar
2 Tsp Vanilla

Whip cream with icing sugar and vanilla till stiff peaks.


Assembly
Place one layer of cake in a springform pan or cake ring. Cover with one layer of Mousse. Place the other cake on top and cover with remaining mousse. Allow to set in fridge. Pipe whipped cream over the top. Garnish with caramel almonds. Serve with sliced bananas and hot fudge.

I had a few minor issues with the cake. Firstly, I didn't use Large eggs as I was supposed to so the cake wasnt as spongy as it could have been. Small issue but something to note in the future! Secondly, this was the first time I was using a cake ring and I thought I'd be clever and place some cling wrap around the inner sides to help get the cake out easier. Not too sure if that helped any as it was still difficult getting the cake out! The fact that I had to put the cake in the freezer as the fridge was too full of items for dinner didnt help either.



Anyway, all in all the cake turned out really, really well. Everyone loved it especially the fact that it was more of a dessert rather than a cake. We cut small slices and served it with Banana slices and hot fudge for that Banana Split effect although some people wondered why I couldnt serve the cake on its own. Because then it wouldnt be a Banana Split Cake! It would be a Choc Mousse Cake! Aaahh... some things are just to difficult to appreciate :)




The praline almonds (Caramel almonds) on the top made a great topping and the added crunch gave the cake a bit more sophistication. The cake was enjoyed by all with many asking for second helpings. The thing about this cake is, you can choose to make everything on your own like I did or just buy the components and assemble it yourself.

The next day, we enjoyed the remainder of the cake, this time sans bananas and hot fudge and it was just as delicious. Somehow the cake seemed to develop over the days.




Another birthday, and another cake. The kids 'demands' are getting more and more complicated and my body seems to ache more each time. Age is catching up with all of us I guess. Whatever it is, there is a special kind of satisfaction in baking your own cake for your children. The best part is seeing their smiles when they dig into it.

Happy Birthday Michael my darling boy!

Back to Childhood Cupcakes

A couple of Saturdays ago, The Lovely Wife and I were supposed to catch up with two friends - Lynn and Ms Kong Piang - over drinks. My son however had developed a fever so the two ladies asked if it was okay if they popped round instead. When I know that friends are popping over, I always feel that I have to serve something.

A good friend, Naomi, had given us some lovely Cheddar cheese when she had come back to Malaysia recently for a holiday. The cheese was tangy and had a lot of bite that made it really delicious with crackers. That would go down well for the after dinner drinks.

I also decided that I would make some muffins. I know Ms Kong Piang likes my cakes and Lynn is also one of my favourite 'consumers'! I was tempted to just redo what I did on my last post - Walnut Choc Chip Muffins - but decided that I would try something new. I browsed through my cupcake/muffin book and found a recipe for Cookies and Cream cupcakes. This was basically throwing in some crushed Oreos into the batter. Another variation called for substituting the Oreos for Nougat bars. A lamp bulb started to flash in my head and the gear wheels in my brain started to churn as well. What if I used Oreos and Snickers? That would have to taste delicious! Woulnd't it??




So thats what I did. Bought a pack of Oreos and two Snickers bars. Crushed and chopped them up respectively and then threw them into the cake batter. I knew that the cupcakes would be a tad sweet due to the Oreos and Snickers so I put in a disc of dark chocolate in the middle of each cupcake. This would give it a slightly bitterish tinge when bitten into.

Ingredients
250g butter
225g Caster Sugar
225g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp Milk
1 packet Oreo Cookies - crushed
2 snickers bars - shopped
Method
Melt the butter until very soft but not completely liquid. Add in the sugar and beat till light. Add beaten eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder.
Add in Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well. Fold in Oreos and Snickers.
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and top with a Dark Chocolate disk. bake for about 30 minutes or till done in 180°C oven

I made two sizes of cupcakes. Twelve medium sized cupcakes and twelve large ones. I went a bit overboard with the large ones and overfilled them. They rose beautifully but then started to spill out over the sides of the muffin cases. If they had held, or if I had placed the muffin cases into a muffin pan, I would have gotten lovely muffin caps but alas, the cases were too big to fit into the muffin pans and the batter just spilled over...

No use crying over spilled batter.

Nonetheless, the larger cupcakes turned out really nice and cakey with a light, soft crumb. The taste of the Oreos combined nicely with the taste of the Snickers although neither taste was overpowering. The cupcakes were a tad sweet - sweeter than what we are normally used to and this was due to the Oreos and Snickers. The cupcakes were still very delicious nonetheless.

Since the cupcakes seemed to fit into the mould of a dessert, I served up a batch with Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce. Yummy! Very, very delicious and my kids absolutely loved it.



Later that night, I served Lynn and Ms Kong Piang the dessert version and they both agreed that although a tad sweet, it was very nice. Both of them took some home too while the rest was eaten throughout the weekend - either on its own or covered with Ice Cream and doused in Chocolate Sauce!




I call these cupcakes, Back to Childhood cupcakes because with Oreos and Snickers in them each bite kind of transports you back to your favourite indulgences when you were a kid. Every kid will definitely like these cupcakes and every adult that still has some kid left in him will love it too!

Self Therapy - Vanilla Walnut Choc Chip Muffins

Last Saturday morning was the weekend before the kids end of year school exams. It's not a very fun time for the kids as they are busy brushing up on their work. I on the other hand, had arranged some appointments for some home repairs. The Lovely Wife figured that the kids would be distracted by the repairs going on and hence wouldn't be able to concentrate on their school work. So, she decided she would take the kids out shopping while the work was being carried out. Not fair! I was going to be left all by my lonesome to stay at home to wait for the repairmen. They were only due to come late in the morning however and the day started off with my son yelling from downstairs:

"Dads! Can you make us some of your Chocolate Sauce? To eat with Mummy's waffles?"

I had to smile as there is something very satisfying about your kids asking you to make them something to eat - even more when it is Chocolate Sauce that in most households simply comes out of a store bought bottle. Anyway, I made up a batch of the chocolate sauce for them and they enjoyed it with their waffles. With breakfast out of the way, they left soon after and as expected, I was home left alone.

Alone, alone, all, all alone!

Truth be told, sometimes it's fun to be alone when you get to do your own things. However, being alone to monitor work being done isn't really a fun thing to do.

The repairs finished off sooner than expected and since I had a litle time to myself, I thought I would indulge in some therapy for myself. There's something very therapeutic about whipping up a quick cake and having your house smell wonderfully of freshly baked goodness. The smell of vanilla on your hands seems to linger throughout the day too and not matter how much you scrub it, your hands still smell great!


I had decided I wanted to make a cake but wasn't quite sure what cake to make. I considered making my usual chocolate cake or chocolate brownies - both of which are firm favourites. I decided though that I wanted to try something new. A few weeks earlier, The Lovely Wife had enjoyed a cake that had walnuts in it and so I thought that I'd use some walnuts. A peak into the fridge showed that there were indeed walnuts and also some chocolate chips. How about Vanilla Walnut Chop Chip Muffins? Seemed like a good idea to me!




I modified my usual Choc Chip Muffin recipe just a little and this is what I did:

Ingredients
250g Butter
220g Sugar
4 eggs
250g Flour
3 Tsp Baking Powder
100g Walnuts - chopped
100g Choc Chips
1 Tbsp Milk
1 Tbsp Honey
2 Tsp Vanilla
Method
Melt the butter until very soft but not completely liquid. Add in the sugar and beat well till light. Add beaten eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder.
Add in Honey, Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well
Fold in Chocolate Chips and nuts ensuring it is well mixed
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and bake for about 30 minutes or till done in 180°C oven

The muffins were halfway through baking when The Lovely Wife and kids got home and both my son and princess bounded into the kitchen to see what was causing the lovely smell. The muffins baked up and cooled while we were having lunch and then I decided that I would make a little icing with the Chocolate Sauce for some of the muffins.





I mixed the chocolate sauce with some icing sugar and more cocoa powder till it resembled a nice thick icing - almost like a ganache. I piped this over a couple of the muffins while I slathered it over another two.

AS expected, The Lovely Wife preferred the muffins 'naked' while the two kids loved it with the chocolate icing. We enjoyed the muffins later after dinner too and on Sunday as well. There was enough left over on Monday morning for them to take a muffin each to school for the first day of their exams.



The best therapy is not so much baking or even the smell of baked goods. The best therapy is the smiles and satisfied looks on the faces of the kids as they enjoy the food that your hands have created.

What's your best therapy??

More on Blogger MasterChef

So these are the pictures of what transpired the other day at the Blogger MasterChef semi-finals hosted by Astro and Nuffnang. This event was held to build up awareness for the MasterChef Malaysia that will be starting REAL Soon on Astro!

The Lovely Wife and the kids came along to support me and they started off with this photo.



After a briefing by the judges, we moved into the Kitchen area at The Cooking House in Desa Sri Hartamas where the contest was held. I was given station number 16 after picking out a number from a bowl. The kitchen was rather cramped and I think it was more suited to 10 people rather than 20 as every table and stove was shared by 2 people. There was a lot of bumping into one another as we cooked!

We were given MasterChef Malaysia aprons to wear and that was rather exciting!





As I mentioned in my previous post, we were given a box full of ingredients that we had to use. The main ingredient was chicken and I did ask if we had to use everything in the box. The answer was no but I assumed that one would need to use as many of the ingredients as possible. This however was not the case - you didnt have to use any of the ingredients from the box with the exception of chicken and were free to use anything that was on the counters.



In retrospect, I should have made something Western rather than the Fusion Chilli Chicken that I opted to make. There were a lot of ingredients that I didn't see that seemed to be spaced out along the cooking stations. But no excuses though. Most critical though was that I couldn't get my brain ticking given that we only had 50 minutes to think up and cook a dish. I usually spend hours and even days thinking up my 'gourmet' dishes! So Kudos to all the winners that had the presence of mind to think of something creative and execute it in the limited time available.

The Lovely Wife and the kids realised that my super duper SLR was too heavy to carry around and they made a quick detour home while I was cooking to drop of the camera. The rest of the shots come from The Lovely Wifes I-phone.

After the cooking challenge came the skills challenge. Chef Ryan demonstrated how to poach an egg using the swirl method and with some vinegar to get the proteins in the egg to bind. I've poached an egg succesfully before and was fairly confident. However, my first egg turned out disastrously but thankfully the second egg was just lovely!






I had another egg ready to go into the water when time was called. So that was a good time for The Lovely Wife to take a shot of me!




I was really thrilled as I presented my egg to the judges as I presented both my 'disaster' egg as well as the good one. Chef Ryan actually said "Well done, lovely!" as he sliced my egg and watched all the gooey goodness spill out. There were a few other cooks that managed to get more than one lovely poached egg. One of them, Yatie was given full marks for getting two perfectly poached eggs - just as Chef Ryan had shown how to do.




The results were announced a short while later and the judges took quite a while deliberating on who the top 5 should be. I have to say that it was a very humbling experience cooking with the other 20 bloggers as there were some really fantastic and creative dishes that came out. Quite a number of the bloggers managed to get pretty perfect Poached Eggs even though it was the first time they were doing it. Plenty of skilled cooks out there!

As you all know, I didnt make the cut to the top 5 but each blogger got a prize anyway. I was given my prize by one of Malaysia's well know food bloggers KY from KYSpeaks.com.




and finally, a group photo with all the other blogger chefs!



A really fun experience that I would not hesitate to do again. I met a lot of fun people and I have to say that I had an AWESOME time. The only regret that I have is that the organisers didn't let us take the aprons home. Would you believe it? We actually had to return the aprons. Oh well!

I really, really have a new found respect for those that take part in MasterChef. I realise it's really easy to be an armchair critic and criticise and make fun of the competitors but when you are actually doing it, well, it's really quite difficult.

Keep a look out for the launch of MasterChef Malaysia. Coming soon on Astro.

Not the first Blogger MasterChef

So I didnt make the cut...

The semifinals were held this morning at the Cooking House in Desa Sri Hartamas. There were three judges - a lady from Astro (Azlina I think her name was - rather cute!) then there was KYspeaks - a reknowned food blogger and finally Chef Ryan - the resident chef at The Cooking House.

First up was a invention test where they gave a box full of stuff you could use. Main ingredient was chicken. I chose to make a Fusion Chilli Chicken and actually used up most of the ingredients in the box. Should have looked around and seen what else there was available before I rushed into deciding what to cook. I thought it tasted great but seeing some of the other dishes, I realised that what the judges were looking for was something unique and out of the box...

Still, in retrospect, with only 50 minutes to make the dish, I really don't know what I would have picked to make. Its really not so easy to decided what to cook when you have limited time.

Next up was a skills test - had to make Poached Eggs. First try was a disaster but the second one came up beautifully. Really, really beautifully.

Taking part in this has given me a whole new appreciation for MasterChef and Chopped and all the other cooking reality shows. It's really easy to be a MasterChef in your own kitchen but its a different story when under pressure and in a strange kitchen.

I think my invention skills let me down... still, lots of fun, met lots of people and as always learnt a few things. Kids were there with me and they liked my Fusion Chilli Chicken - so I'm still Their MasterChef!!

Thanks to all for the support!

First Semi's Today at 10am

So today is the first Semi's of the first ever Blogger MasterChef competition organised by Nuffnang and Astro and I'll be there!

How does it work? It's all a bit of fun and bloggers had to post about why they think they are worthy of being the first ever Blogger MasterChef. 40 selected bloggers will take part in two semifinals (20 on each day) and the top five from each semi final will move to the Final that will be held on October 15th.

So...I'm on my way to the first semi's in a short while. From what I know, two challenges will be handed out and each competitor is supposed to complete it and will be judged on creativity and taste. I have NO Idea what is to be expected but I'm going in to have lots of fun!

So lets see what happens!