Chocolate Banana Mini Cake

I bought some pieces of fresh banana but it got ripen so easily that I could not enjoy eating it anymore. I don’t want to waste food as much as possible, so I brought out some ingredients and tried making a Chocolate Banana Mini Cake. 

 

Chocolate Banana Mini Cake

Ingredients

- 2 pcs ripe banana, mashed

- ¾ cups all purpose flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ cup cocoa powder

- ½ cup sugar

Procedure

- preheat oven for 10 minutes

- combine rice banana and flour in a mixing bowl, mix well

- add sugar and baking powder, mix well

- add cocoa and mix until evenly distributed

- grease mini cup cake molds

- bake for 10 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean

Desiccated Coconut Macaroons

In my first version of Coconut Macaroons, I used shredded coconut. In this one, I used desiccated instead. Try this version of desiccated macaroons and know which one suits your taste.

Desiccated Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients

 - 1 cup desiccated coconut

- 1 14 ounces (1 can) condensed milk

- ½ cup melted butter

- ½ cup brown sugar

Procedure:

- preheat oven for 10 mins

- put desiccated coconut and sugar in a bowl, mix evenly

- add the melted butter and milk

- grease mini cup molds

- scoop a tablespoon of the mixture and put into the molds

- bake macaroons until color turns light brown

Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa

This is one of my favorite vegetable dishes. The combination of coconut milk and squash make me eat more rice every time I eat. I want the vegetables to be fully cooked and the sauce to be creamy as well. This version has pork slices and dried dilis which make it tastier. 

Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa

 Ingredients:

- string beans

- squash cut into cubes

- 6 tbsp coconut powder

- 2 cups water

- pork slices

- dried dilis

- garlic powder, onion, ginger

- 1 tbsp fish sauce

Procedure:

- dissolve coconut powder in water, set aside

- in a pan, sauté onion and ginger

- add pork slices together with fish sauce, and cook until semi brown

- pour the coconut water mixture

- add the squash and cook until half cooked

- add the string beans and dried dilis, cook for about 5 minutes

- remove from heat, serve and enjoy!

Duldol

Back in Cavite, my late Auntie Rosie used to cook this type of snack for us. I’ve been searching for the recipe of this on the net but could not find the taste that I used to enjoy. I learned from some blogs that this is a southern Philippines version of Maha Blanca. Tastes are different as Maha is sweeter than the Duldol I used to eat.

I reduced the sugar for this recipe so I came up with the taste I’ve wanted to eat.

Duldol

Ingredients:

- 1 cup cornstarch

- 12 tbsp coconut powder

- 4 ½ cups water

- ½ cup sugar

- 1 cup toasted desiccated coconut

Procedure:

- in a bowl, dissolve coconut powder in 4 cups of water, set aside

- in a separate bowl, dissolve cornstarch in ½ cup of water, set aside

- in a pan, boil coconut mixture and sugar to blend

- add the cornstarch mixture, stir continuously until thick

- place in a serving container and top with toasted desiccated coconut

- serve and enjoy

Only Powdered Milk is Available Instead of Liquid Milk

For every one cup of milk required, you may try this ingredients:

- 6 tbsp powdered (dry) milk of any brand
- 2 cups of water

Beef Siomai Sauce

Siomai is best served with hot chili sauce. You may want to try this recipe for it.

Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp Chili powder

- 2 tbsp Cooking Oil

- 2 tbsp Soy Sauce

Procedure:

- in a pan, combine the ingredients and on low fire, stir continuously for 3 minutes

Chicken Teriyaki Sauce

You may want to try this recipe for Chicken Teriyaki Sauce

 Ingredients: 

- 3 tbsp soy sauce

- 1 tbsp vinegar

- 1 tbsp oyster sauce

- 1 tbsp oil

- 1 tbsp sugar

- pinch of pepper, salt, garlic powder

- a thumb of grated ginger

What If Some Ingredients are Not Available in the Market?

In baking, sometimes some ingredients may not be available in the market, in this case, you need alternatives;

Cake Flour

For every one cup of cake flour needed, you may use:

- 2 tbsp cornstarch

- ¾ cup all purpose flour

- Combine and sift the two together

Cream of Tartar

- For every ½ tsp of Cream of Tartar, you will need 1 tsp of Baking Powder.

Chocolate Suman

Wikipedia explains Suman as a rice cake originated from the Philippines, and is cooked using glutinous rice flour and coconut milk. Often wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for several minutes to hours. There are a lot of variants for this rice cake and is very common in the country. 

Others call this Suman Moron which is popular in Leyte, Philippines. This is made up of glutinous rice and chocolate. This is originally cooked while wrapped in banana leaves but because we do not have any, I opted to wrap it in foil and steamed. 

Chocolate Suman

Ingredients:

- 1 ½ cups rice flour

- ½ cup glutinous flour

- 1 ½ cups sugar

- 1 cup cocoa

- 1 cup water

Procedure:

- soak rice flour and glutinous flour with water

- add sugar and cocoa

- mix until well blended

- wrap in aluminum foil (or banana leaves)

- steam for 45 minutes or until texture becomes firm

Laing

Laing (or dried taro leaves) is one of my favorite spicy vegetable dish. This is cooked in coconut milk. I love it with pork or dried fish (daing). I remember my grandmother used to prepare this from scratch; getting ready by drying the stems and leaves under the heat of the sun. Once dried, she would cut the stem into about 2 inches, remove unwanted parts, then cut the leaves into small bite size pieces. Only then she would cook with coconut milk and add the other ingredients.

Pork Laing

Obviously we can not do such process here as only dried taro leaves in a plastic pack is available in Filipino stores in the city, which mostly are being imported from the Philippines. Thanks to them for making us feel like we’re home too :).

If you will notice, most of the ingredients that I used are just alternatives: dried instead of the fresh taro; coconut powder dissolved in water instead of the traditional kakang gata; and chili powder instead of fresh chili. Taste is still favorable to those lovers of Laing. 

Ingredients:

- 70gms dried taro leaves

- 1 cup of pork cut in cubes

- 12 tbsp coconut powder

- 4 cups of water

- ginger

- 1 tsp chili powder

- 1 tbsp shrimp paste

Procedure

- dissolve coconut powder in water

- in a pan, heat the dissolved coconut powder on medium heat

- add the pork and ginger and let boil until pork turns to light brown

- lower the heat and add the shrimp paste and chili powder

- let boil until coconut milk thickens

- add the dried taro leaves

- mix until taro leaves evenly combined with the sauce

- remove from heat and enjoy

Apple Cake with Egg White Frosting

The first time I prepared Mocha Cake  for my daughter Destine’s birthday, I was thinking of putting a white frosting on top, unfortunately the result was different :). It was still tasty and good though.

 

Egg White Frosting

on top of Apple Cake

 

Today, I tried doing it again using egg whites. I prepared a baked apple cake (see only the ingredients and bake for 15-20minutes)  placed in a banana pan. Funny with the combination but the amount of the apple cake ingredients is too small to fit in a round or rectangular baking pan.

The purpose of this post concentrates on the frosting because I failed to do it last time. I really believe in the saying, “there’s always a second try” or “try and try until you succeed” :)

Ingredients:

- 8 tbsp granulated sugar

- 1 tbsp cornstarch

- ½ cup water

- 2 egg whites

- pinch of salt

- ½ tsp vanilla extract

What you need:

- electric mixer

- piping set

Procedure:

- combine 2 tbsp sugar, cornstarch, and water

- cook in low heat, stir occasionally until thickens

- remove from heat and set aside

- meanwhile, get a mixing bowl and put egg whites, salt, vanilla, and the remaining sugar

- use an electric mixer and beat on medium to high speed until soft peak

- gradually add the sugar mixture (cooked earlier) and beat until becomes firm, this is for about 7 – 10 minutes

- top it up on your cake using the piping design of your choice

- serve and enjoy

Cheese Pimiento

I remember way back in grade 4 or 5 in Cavite, my very first food project was Cheese Pimiento. One of our school teachers, who were also our neighbor, Ma’am Ordonez had a store where I bought the ingredients for my project. I had to maximize the money that I have so I can buy everything I needed for it. Since then, I never had the chance to make it again.

 Cheese Pimiento (sorry for the blurred picture)

In today’s Pandesal craze, where some friends near me cook Pandesal, I remember that Cheese Pimiento story and decided to prepare one – coz we got Pandesal today in the kitchen :)

Ingredients: 

- 1 cup of shredded Kraft cheddar cheese

- ¼ cup diced bell pepper

- ¼ cup mayonnaise

- pinch of salt and pepper

Procedure:

- simply combine all the ingredients and mix well :)

Mocha Cake

Today is my daughter Destine’s fifth birthday. She is the only girl that I know (so far) who doesn’t like pure chocolate flavored cake and ice cream. Whenever she gets the chance to choose her birthday cake, Mocha is always her first choice. Though she’s far from me, I still wanted to prepare some foods today and I opted to prepare a Mocha cake.

Mocha is a combination of coffee, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder. It is a flavor made from coffee mixed with chocolates. This version that I made, its ingredients, taste, and texture are almost similar to chocolate brownies. What makes them different is the presence of black coffee which is not in the latter. 

Mocha Cake prepared for my daughter Destine's 5th Birthday

I was actually imagining a fluffy light brown mocha cake with creamy butter icing but it seems it turned out to be a sweet chocolate brownies. Still, I enjoyed it.

Ingredients: 

Cake

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 cups white sugar

- 2/3 cup unsweetened Hershey’s cocoa powder

- 2 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp salt

- 1 tbsp instant coffee powder

- ½ cup cooking oil

- 2 raw eggs

- 1 cup fresh milk

- 1 cup hot water

Frosting

- 1 cup unsalted butter

- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

- 1 cup white sugar

- ¾ cup unsweetened Hershey’s cocoa powder

- 1 tbsp instant coffee

- 4 tbsp fresh milk

- 1 ½ tsp vanilla

- 1 cup hot water

What you need:

- mixer (I don't have stand mixer so I used hand mixer)

- mixing bowl

- 1 9 inch round cake pans

Procedure:

- preheat oven to 350^o F for at least 5 minutes

- place a round shape wax paper enough to fill in the round cake pan, cut the edges

- grease the wax paper and the side of the cake pan with oil or butter

Preparing the Cake

- in a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt

- make a hole in the center and add eggs, oil, and fresh milk

- dissolve instant coffee powder in hot water and pour into the mixing bowl

- beat at medium speed until texture becomes smooth

- pour the batter into the round pan

- let stand for few minutes until bubbles disappear, you may tap to help the bubbles fade

- bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean (photo)

- let stand to cool for at least 10 minutes

Preparing the Frosting

- in a clean mixing bowl, cream the cubed butter and add the vanilla extract

- use a hand mixer and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed

- gradually add half of confectioner’s sugar, and 2 tbsp of milk, mix well

- add the remaining confectioner’s sugar, and 2 tbsp of milk, mix well

- gradually add half of cocoa powder, mix well

- dissolve coffee powder to hot water, and gradually add to the mixture while mixing

- add in the remaining cocoa powder, mix well until mixture becomes thick (photo)

- cool in the freezer for 5 minutes

Combining

- divide the cake into three parts: base, center, and top (thinner part should be the top) 

- remove the top portion and break it into small pieces making crumbs

- use as the cake stand a round tray (real cake tray is not available), cover with aluminum foil

- place first the center part of the cake on the round tray, evenly pour frosting on top

- using the center part of the cake, evenly pour frosting on top too

- place it on top of the base part by flipping, making its bottom as its top this time

- evenly pour frosting on top again, this time make sure frosting reaches side of the cake  

- distribute the crumbs at the edge of the cake, and at the edge of the tray

- top with M&M chocolate to design

Fruit Salad

Today is my Nanay’s 60^th birthday and I often hear her say buko or fruit salad will make her day, even without any other food on the table. So this one is prepared for her (though I’m far), for me to celebrate her birthday. I never tried preparing something like this so I asked her about the ingredients.

 My version of Fruit Salad :)

Ingredients:

 

- 420g fruit cocktail

- 234g pineapple chunks

- 160g nestle cream

- about 10tbsp condensed milk

- 42.5g raisins

- 125g cheddar cheese

- about 5 tbsp mayonnaise

- pinch of salt

Procedure:

- drain the fruit cocktail and pineapple chunks and place in a container

- add the nestle cream and mix well

- add the mayonnaise and salt and mix well

- cut the cheese in small cubes and combine together with the raisins

- add the condensed milk

- serve immediately or cool inside the refrigerator before serving :)

Classic Mamon

Mamon (or Filipino Sponge Cake) is a kind of soft bread which is sometimes classified as a dessert because of its sweeter taste. Its main ingredients contain egg and butter which make it creamier in taste than the other breads.

Local bakeries in the Philippines serve classic Mamon with only the basic ingredients included. However, there are variants with different fillings such as strawberry or orange extracts.

 Mamon

I was actually planning to prepare the variant which I normally buy from our neighboring bakery back home. Unfortunately this is what I made – but still tasty, creamy, and sweet.

Ingredients):

- 2/3 cup all purpose flour

- 2/3 cup granulated sugar

- 100 grams salted margarine

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 3 eggs

- ½ tsp vanilla extract

What you will need: 

 

- muffin cups

 

- muffin tray

Procedure:

- preheat oven for 5minutes

- put the margarine in a mixing bowl

- using an electric mixer, cream the margarine

- gradually add the sugar, mix well

- add vanilla extract

- add eggs one at a time, beat until texture becomes smooth

- using a strainer, sift the flour and baking powder to the butter and sugar mixture

- using a spatula, gradually mix them together

- prepare the muffin tray and put muffin cups over each space

- scoop a tablespoon of the mixture over each muffin cups, repeat until all spaces are occupied

- bake for 20minutes over 170^o C

- serve and enjoy

Baked Mac Bechamel Mix

I was planning and craving for Macaroni Cheese snacks but turned out to have this Baked Mac using Bechamel mix instead. Some Mac&Cheese ingredients are not available in the kitchen so I decided to prepare something like this instead. Béchamel is a mixture of flour, butter, and milk among others which is normally combined with pasta and serves as a base pasta sauce. A not-so-big difference with the taste between my cravings for Mac&Cheese and this one, still fine anyway :)

 Baked Macaroni Bechamel

Ingredients

- 200gms macaroni

- 100gms salted margarine

- 160ml evaporated milk

- 10 slices puck cheddar cheese

- 1 ½ cups of water

- pinch of salt and pepper

Procedure

 

Cooking the macaroni and sauce

- boil macaroni until semi-cooked

- remove from heat, rinse with water, and drain well

- meanwhile, preheat oven for 5mins

- on a separate cooking pan, heat 1 ½ cups of water

- before the water boils, add the butter and let boil

- gradually add béchamel powder, mix well

- add the evaporated milk

- cook until mixture becomes thick

- remove from heat and set aside

Combining them together 

- combine semi-cooked macaroni with the béchamel mixture

- grease a baking pan with butter

- place 4 pcs of puck cheddar cheese at the bottom of the pan

- layer with macaroni béchamel mixture

- place again some cheddar cheese on top and add the next macaroni layer

- bake on 200^o C initially for 5minutes

- top with cheddar cheese stripes

- bake again for another 5minutes of until cheese stripes become semi brown

- remove from oven and enjoy

Bibingka

I will always love every variant of Bibingka but this one is the one I like the most. 

 Bibingka using Glutinous Rice Flour

Ingredients

- 3 cups Glutinous Rice Flour

- 2 ½ cups white sugar

- 2 tsp baking powder

- pinch of salt

- 14 oz coconut milk

- 5 large eggs

- 1 cup melted and cooled butter

- 1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:

- preheat oven to 350^o F

- combine glutinous rice flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl

- in a separate bowl, beat egg, mix coconut milk, melted butter, and vanilla

- gradually combine them all together

- pour in a pan and bake for 30mins to 1 hour