Banana Cake (GF, TMX)

I've been searching for the perfect Banana Bread recipe for years, with no luck. This is not banana bread (alas) but is the best banana cake recipe I've ever had!

Modified to gluten free from Trudy's recipe.


115g butter
190g Gluten free Self Raising Flour
150g brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon bi-carb soda
3-4 over-ripe bananas
2 eggs
50g milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Insert the butterfly whisk.
Cream the butter and sugar - whisk at speed 4 until creamy (approx 1 min), stopping once or twice to scrape down sides of TM with spatula.
Add eggs and chopped bananas, whisk till mixed (approx 10 secs). Scrape sides of TM
Add flour, milk, vanilla & bi carb, whisk at speed 3 until combined. Scrape down sides of TM
Spoon mixture into greased and lined tin (I use 20cm ring tin).
Bake approx 40 mins 180C or until skewer inserted in the centre of cake comes out clean.

oops!

missed posting yesterday! in my defence i wasn't feeling well and went to bed super early (as soon as I'd said good night to the kids ;))

we have no bread in the house and we had very ripe bananas and a tub of yoghurt to be used up. i just made these for breakfast. i don't recommend it LOL they are fine for a snack but they are wayyyyyy too sugary and not substantial enough for breakfast.

I will make these again, but next time I will halve the sugar and add some other bits and pieces to make them healthier :)

Divine Smoothie

this one really is tooo delicious to be breakie!! it's F&V shopping day today so i've run out of my usual ingredients!

cashews, more than usual (maybe 100-150g)
2 frozen bananas
3-4 dates
1 dessertspoonful of cocoa
rice milk to desired amount

add everything but milk to thermomix, crush on speed 8 for 40 seconds. add milk and crush another 20-30 seconds. serve (serves 2)

edited after eating to say that this is good enough for dessert. i think you could even try freezing it in icecubes, then re-crushing and serving as icecream, or even making really thick and serving as a creamy dessert. mmmmmmmmmmmm

Breakfast Shakes

inspired by the threads on the forum I've been making some breakfast smoothies a few times a week (I'm a bit bored with porridge finally lol)

Here are the threads:
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1337.0
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1343.0

here's what i've been throwing in mine:
4-5 strawberries, hulled
1 large banana, peeled (frozen is fine)
a good handful of cashews
sprinkle of sunflower seeds (maybe 10g)
some chia seeds
a few stalks of soemthing green - i've used english spinach before, and used parsley today (i promise you can't taste it at all!)
some seaweedy stuff (i use the nori wrappers torn up but i'm sure there's better stuff ou can buy)
and milk of your choice (i use my tmx rice milk) - add enough to get your desired consistency
i think some fresh juice might be nice in it too, or a little soda water

i generally put everything but the milk in and whizz it up for 30-60 secs on speed 8 or so, then add the milk and do another 30-60 secs on speed 6-8, then serve. delish!

Banana, Yoghurt & Blueberry Cake

this cake was delicious! i was asked if i'd bought it ;p (thanks girls, your cheque is in the mail ;)) but it was lovely and moist like a cafe cake. it didn't rise a lot and i think that helped. it doesn't have a really strong banana flavour and the blueberries were a delicious extra touch.

next time i'll try a gluten free version (even though rory's not much interested in cake)

originally from taste, and with non-thermomix instructions there :)

125g butter or margarine
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas
200g plain yoghurt
200g (1 1/3 cups) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 - 1 punnet fresh blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 22cm springform pan and then line the base with non-stick baking paper.

Mix butter or margarine and sugar in thermomix until pale and creamy - i used speed 4, scraping down a few times and it took maybe a minute, probably less.

turn speed down to 2 and add eggs one at time through the lid.

Remove lid and add in yoghurt, flour and baking powder, mix on speed 4-6 for 10-20 seconds (until the flour is well mixed through).

Add (whole peeled) bananas and mix reverse speed 4 for approx 10 seconds until they stop sounding "chunky"

remove bowl from thermomix and use a spatula to mix the blueberries through. Pour into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre 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.

just before eating sift some icing sugar over it. serve on its own or with a dollop of double thick cream

photo tomorrow :)

Links - Sweets (cakes, slices, pancakes etc) #3

first lot of links
second lot of links

apple pancakes

big batch banana trail mix bread

buttermilk sweet potato pie

chocolate almond bars

chocolate cheesecake brownies

chocolate cream pie (aka chocolate bavarian pie)

pumpkin pie with pecan crumble topping

sweetened condensed milk cake

buttermilk lemon bars

lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd

lemon torte

sweet potato muffins

Mandarin cranberry bread

apple fig & walnut bread

chewy chunky blondies

lime yoghurt cake

snickerdoodle blondies

ginger cherry chocolate chip bars

making banana bread!

making banana cakes!
Originally uploaded by brazen20au

this morning we made banana bread!

the room leader in ryan and emelia's daycare room was leaving to go overseas with her parther and we hadn't had a chance to do anything over the weekend (plus i forgot!)

since i was up early this morning i decided that i'd make this banana bread and we'd take it down for Aimy as a gift. I'd jsut started when the girls got out of bed and wanted to help :)

i had trouble with the breads cooking! (i had doubled the recipe, but cooked it in two tins) it took longer than i thought adn then when the skewer finally came out clean i took them out of the oven. after being out all morning for various appointments and dropping the other bread to aimy, i got home to find what looked like a mini cow pat under our cake :-0 turns out it wasn't cooked through and all the uncooked guts of the cake had slowly dripped out through a crack in the top of the cake!!! i am just hoping aimy's (which was wider and flatter than ours) was cooked through properly!

some of you might know that i'm on the quest for the perfect banana bread. this one comes pretty damn close! it is a VERY nice banana bread! the only thing that lets it down is perhaps that i'm looking for something a little extra in it, and it is not all that healthy lol but it really is the absolute best contender so far! thanks to nigella and alicia from posie gets cosy ...

(i will have to experiment with my apple sauce substitution trick)

and another cake made today...
this afternoon i made an orange and poppyseed cake for my dad for fathers day (as you know i wasn't feeling up to it on sunday). i didn't get to taste it (or to ice it) but it smelled good! (and the batter tasted good - shhhh!)

i will let you know what he thinks ;)

Links - Sweets (cakes, slices, pancakes etc)

I've discovered that there just aren't enough labels i can use to save a month's worth of recipes! and without the labels i can't find a recipe i'm looking for... so what i'll do is start a few posts with specific categories so that they will hopefully need less labels ;)

NEW Almond poppy seed bread

NEW Apple upside-down biscuit cake

banana bread

NEW banana bread, really good low fat

blueberry buttermilk pancakes

thanks susana for this one, it's divine and soooo much better than the dry one i made today :(
blueberry crumble slice
and another version blueberry crumb bars
and yet another version! blueberry crisp bars

NEW buttermilk blueberry muffins - oh no, i forgot to link this one! i can't find the exact recipe but here are some to pick from

NEW Cinnamon Apple Cake

crock pot chocolate mousse

creamy lemon blueberry bars

NEW damp lemon & almond cake

NEW elmo cupcakes (decorating idea)

german pancakes

ginger lime cupcakes

golden oat muffins

layered cream cheese brownies

NEW lemon marscarpone blondies

lemon meringue pie

orange almond cupcakes

NEW peanut butter swirled brownies

small coconut layer cake

Snickerdoodles

NEW Upside-down raspberry-plum cake

It's Breakie Time!

brazen's fruit porridge

Rick blogged his version of TMX porridge the other day which reminded me that I'd been thinking about blogging my own, wondering if i did it differently to everyone else! now i know i do lol. porridge is one of my favourite things to make in the TMX, it is sooooo creamy and rich, and SO quick and easy! pre-thermomix i basically didn't eat porridge because it's was too much trouble and just not nice without all the 'naughty' extras such as brown sugar, cream and butter :-0

1 piece of fruit such as a banana or an apple
55g oats (i use aldi oats, the packet doesn't say they're instant but i think they probably are)
160-220g skim milk*

peel banana, halve and place in tmx, add other ingredients.
if i'm using apple i just cut the sides of it and cut them in half (so use eighths) and leave the core behind.

cook for 4 minutes on 80' or 90' speed 4

pour and scrape out - i LOVE my tupperware spatula for this (but don't ever use anything but the tmx spatula to cook with!), top with anything extra such as yoghurt, and serve.

this is enough for rory and myself, or just me (but a big bowlful)

*if i'm going to have yoghurt on top i use 160g for a thicker porridge. 220g makes a runny porridge which you don't need to add anything to.

A Feast for Friday!

some how or other i went from entirely uninspired to make dinner (was thinking beans on toast) to cooking this feast... not sure how that happened but was pretty good lol

Menu:
Butter Chicken (TMX recipe)
Daal with pumpkin & spinach
basmati rice
raita
tomato & cucumber sambal
bananas with coconut (is that a sambal too?)
pappadums
tomato relish
brinjal pickle
click here to see what each dish looked like :)


and more details...
Butter Chicken (TMX recipe) I'm not sure about the success of this recipe. i don't think it was like the butter chicken we're used to but it's been so long since we've had indian out i can't remember!! lol i didn't have cream so i used a mix of sour cream and evaporated milk and made it too runny. I also only had 50g of cashews so subbed in 100g of almonds. i did add some tomato paste as i was worried my tomatoes weren't ripe and tasty enough. i'll probably make it again but i'll have to try a takeaway version and see if i can adapt this one ;)
Daal with pumpkin & spinach This is very simple :) melt some ghee, gently fry some garlic, black mustard seeds and garam masala. pour in water / stock. add in red lentils and diced pumpkin. when lentils are cooked add in spinach and coconut milk and allow spinach to wilt before serving.
basmati rice
raita
tomato & cucumber sambal
bananas with coconut (is that a sambal too?)
pappadums we just microwave ours - they are so much nicer not done in oil!!
tomato relish mum's recipe :) will track it down (i think it's on eb) and repost here
brinjal pickle

Zucchini and Banana Muffins

well, these were a bit of a disaster, but totally my own fault :(

do NOT be lazy and do your muffins in the thermomix!!! the zucchinis were chopped too fine so you couldn't see them, and the muffins are way overmixed (my pet hate, so many people just don't understand that you don't combine a muffin mix til well mixed, you do it til barely mixed, and here i am going even further! ack!)

not to mention my stupid oven that overcooked them, i had it on 160-170' and only in there for 20 mins and they are overcooked!

anyway here is the recipe i used , i will write up my version after lunch - we are about to pack our hot muffins in a container and head out for a morning tea playdate :D (*waving hello to my stalker laurel lol*)

Banana Bread

I've been on a quest for the past few years to find the perfect banana bread recipe. no luck yet! i don't think this will be it, but it does look quick and easy which is more important today lol

Banana Bread from Taste

Makes

1 large loaf

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup (80ml) sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 65g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
• Butter and honey, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base of a 900ml loaf pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar with 1 teaspoon of salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, oil and vanilla.
3. Add to the dry ingredients with banana and pecan and fold until just combined - do not overmix.
4. Place into the loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then remove, and slice thickly. Serve spread with butter and drizzled with honey.

Source

delicious. - February 2004 , Page 88

Recipe by Valli Little