Chocolate Banana Cake ala Awfully Chocolate

Baby Kieran will be turning 1 on 13 June 2012. Being the youngest son to a busy working parents is no fun at all. He didn't get as many toys as his older brother, nor he get many new clothings. Bad mummy..

Feeling bad, I tried to make amends by giving him more perks for his birthday bash - hiring entertainers. Hahaha.. On actual day, I decided to bake him a birthday cake instead of getting it from bakery. Personalised.

I did a trial over the weekend, following Aunty Yochana's recipe from her blog. I am glad the sponge cake turn out good but lazy mummy decided to skip the mousse part and place the banana directly on the cake batter. WRONG! The cake was overly moist and damp at the bottom.. sigh. I shall follow every recipe to the dot and not try to be smarty to change or amend unless I am very very confident of it.

Chocolate cake that is not frosted yet

Decorated cake with chocolate ganache and Zach helped with the M&M deco

I will start baking the actual cake on Monday and decorate it on Tuesday night so that we can give him a birthday 'mini' party on Wednesday! Wish me luck...

Awfully Chocolate Banana Cake - a keeper!

This recipe is a keeper! I've decided to start blogging down those recipes that I've tried and taste-tested to be good into my journal so that I can remember :)

Awfully Chocolate Banana Cake (adapted from Aunty Yochana)
Prep time: 15minutes

Chocolate Sponge Cake
(A)
4 egg yolk
100g castor sugar
120g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g corn oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

30g cocoa powder + 120g hot water - stir till smooth

(B)
4 egg white
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g (50g) castor sugar

Method
1. Put (A) into a mixing bowl and mix them well.
2. Pour in cocoa mixture and stir till smooth.
3. Whip egg white and cream of tartar together till frothy (about 30s) on speed 2.
4. Add in sugar and continue whip for 2 minutes till soft peak (not stiff peak else it will be difficult to fold).
5. Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture and mix into the chocolate mixture. Mix well.
6. Pour the chocolate mixture into the remaining egg white and fold gently. Becareful not to overmix or the egg white will deflate and the cake will sink)
7. Pour mixture into a 9" cake pan (square or round) and bake at 175C for 50minutes or when inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Leave on wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Mousse
400g (300g) Whip Cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp gelatine + 4tbsp water - microwave for 20 seconds
50g cocoa powder + 80g (50g) icing sugar
1 1/2 tbsp Nescafe + 1 1/2 hot water
1 tbsp baileys or tia maria (I omit this)

2 large ripe Del Monte Bananas - slice thickly

Method
1. Beat whip cream till soft peak
2. Mix all the ingredients together

Assembling
1. Slice the sponge cake into 3 layer.
2. Spread chocolate mousse on the first layer, arrange sliced bananas and spread another layer of chocolate mousse to cover.
3. Top with second layer of sponge cake and repeat (2).
4. Cover the cake with remaining mousse and let it set in fridge for an hour or so.

Ganache
35g cocoa powder
50g (30g) castor sugar
150g whip cream
30g butter
80g cooking chocolate - I use white chocolate

Method:
1. Double-boil all the ingredient above till it thickens and become a smooth batter.
2. Let it cool completely before pouring it onto the cake

*measurement in bracket is the one I used - I prefer to reduce the sugar for health reason.

Banana Buttermilk Pancake

We are going to Yan Ting, St Regis for dim sum brunch today but I bought a bunch of bananas yesterday, thinking of making banana cupcakes later.

Afraid that Zach could not eat most of the stuff at brunch later, made one batch of banana butter milk pancake for him.

Yummy!