Less Fruity Fruitcake - Attempt 1

Amongst all the fruitcake recipes I've looked up, this recipe from The Cake Bible appealed to me the most.

For one, the name "Less Fruity Fruitcake". Yeah! I don't like fruitcakes where there are more fruits than cake!

And another, it has lots and lots of alcohol.. and the book said it could be baked in muffin cups which meant less washing up which I liked.

So I decided to give this recipe a go.

Sadly, I made a mistake with the measuring of the ingredients.. (I think I added too much alcohol) because the batter that resulted was seriously too watery to be baked.

I ended up adding more (a serious lot more) alcohol flour (Added 6 Dec 09: I must be drunk when I wrote this! hahah!) so that the mixture would resemble that of a cake batter. And then had to bake it for quite a while longer than what the 20 mins the book said it should take.

Happily, the cake turned out quite yummy.. and all that alcohol made it smell so heavenly whilst it was cooking away in the oven.

But still, I haven't quite done this recipe justice.. so I've soaked some more dried fruits and will be making it again next week.

Less Fruity Fruitcake - Attempt No. 1.

A yummy but unattractive cake. I'd post the recipe once I get it right...

Good substitutes

I am the type of person who needs a shopping list.

Without a shopping list, I often come home from the supermarket, and realised that I've forgotten to get something.

When that happens, sometimes my baking plans get delayed.

And that is not a good thing because I only bake when I am in a particular sort of mood.

But I've learnt that sometimes, you can substitute an ingredient and still have the bread or cake turn out pretty decent. (Kudos to the baking classes and various blogs I read..)

And here are a few particularly useful ones..

Baking Powder -- 1 part baking soda + 2 parts cream of tartar. Use immediately
Self-raising flour -- 100g plain flour + 0.5tsp baking powder.
Diary Cream (in butter cakes and frosting) -- Evaporated milk
Cream of Tartar -- Lemon Juice
Brown Sugar (1 cup) -- 1 cup white granulated sugar (minus 1 tbsp) + 1 tbsp of Molasses
Sourcream (1 cup) -- 1 cup plain yoghurt + 1 teaspoon baking soda
Buttermilk (1 cup) -- 1 cup (minus 1 tbsp) milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice
Heavy cream (not for whipping) -- 1/3 cup melted butter + 3/4 cup milk

A very cute cartoon I found online (link here)..

if only we can substitute french fries for salads instead..

Jamie Oliver's Banana Bread

Happy said that this Jamie Oliver's recipe is fantastic.

And you know, it did met all my criteria for a good recipe - simple to find ingredients and super simple to execute.

To be very honest, I don't know why this is called a banana bread because the recipe uses no yeast... and so there is no proofing time involved.

This is a 2 bowls and 20 minutes recipe. Meaning that I only ended up using and having to wash 2 bowls.. (ok, and of course the baking pan, if you are particular) and it took me about 20 minutes, the time it took for the oven to pre-heat, to finish making the batter.

The original recipe from Jamie Oliver can be found here. I've adapted it a little by adding macadamia nuts (I don't fancy walnuts and pecans) and substituting 20g of melted butter with low-fat yoghurt (I wanted a less oily bread.)

Ingredients
115 g macadamia nuts, lightly toasted and chopped
245 g all-purpose flour
150 g granulated white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tspsalt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
93g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
20g plain low-fat yoghurt
454 grams very ripe bananas (the bananas should be very brown)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
I banana (sliced), for garnishing

What I did
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place oven rack to middle position.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (Bowl #1)
3. Mash the bananas in a medium bowl (Bowl #2) - not too finely so there are some nice chunks of bananas here and there
4. Pour the melted butter, beaten egg, vanilla extract and yoghurt into Bowl #2
5. Pour the banana mixture in Bowl #2 slowly into Bowl #1, folding in carefully as you go along.
6. Mix until the ingredients are just combined. (Be careful not to overmix). Place some sliced bananas on top for garnishing, if desired (these bananas will caramelised nicely)
7. Bake in loaf pan (buttered and floured) for 50 - 60 minutes

This bread is yummy served warm with a glass of cold milk.

A very healthy looking bread..

The banana bread - inside and out...

Actually.. it does look like a bread on the inside..

P/S: Subsequent to writing this post, I realised this is really not a bread but a quick-mix cake.. and the recipe is not even Jamie Oliver's though it is from the website. The "real" Jamie Oliver's Banana and Honey Bread recipe is another recipe.. and I've tried out out. See here for more..