butterless banana bread!

On Christmas day, we felt a bit bored. So we decided to bake something. We can't bake an extravagant cake, for we didn't have much time. Cookies were really easy, and we wanted much more of a challenge. So we found ourselves baking banana bread. Banana bread is a very delicious treat that can be served anytime. here are the ingredients we used!
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INGREDIENTS

- 3 ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 1 3/4 cups of flour
-1  1/2 cups sugar
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
this recipe makes 1 loaf of banana bread in 1 hour and 20 minutes. Serves 12 people.
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RECIPIE

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees farenhieght.
2. peel, then mash the bananas with a fork.
3. combine the oil, eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas. Stir well!
4. add the flour, walnuts, chocolate chips, and baking soda.
5. stir well for 2-3 min (batter must have the consistency of pancake batter.)
6. pour mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake in an oven. Set the timer to 1 hour and 20 min.
7. take out your loaf of banana bread from the oven. You're done!
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With a chocolaty, vanilla, banana taste and a scent that will whisk you away to the land of sweets, who wouldn't love banana bread? We loved baking banana bread, and hope you will too. Have fun baking!
 

White chocolate cream cheese frosting

I made it as a filling for rainbow cake. It tastes so yummy. If you love chocolate then this might be good replacement to regular butter cream frosting.

Ingrediants

• 4-oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1-oz white chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp milk or cream
• 2-3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Method

In a large mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, butter and melted white chocolate. Beat in vanilla and milk, then add in the confectioners’ sugar gradually until the frosting reaches your desired consistency (make it a bit stiffer if you wish to pipe it onto the cakes or cupcakes instead of spreading it with a knife).

Classic white cake

I used this recipe as a base for my rainbow cake. The fine moist crumb of this cake complements any type of filling and frosting makes for the perfect celebratory cake. This recipe makes 12 cups of batter enough to fill two 9"X13" pan. So u scale down to your needs.

Ingredients

• 6 cups sifted cake flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups butter or margarine
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/4 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
• 12 egg whites

Method

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease bottom of pans and line with waxed paper. 

Sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light and

fluffy. Set aside.

Beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Set aside.

With a mixer at slow speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternately with milk.

Beat well after each addition. 

Beat in vanilla extract.

Fold egg whites into batter.

Pour into prepared pans. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Rainbow birthday cake

I made this cake for my friends son's second birthday. I wanted to share how I made the number 2 rainbow cake. So here it goes...


I love baking from scratch; it brings me a lot of joy and it simply tastes better to me. But if you're not as into baking, you can always use boxed cake mix. Start by choosing your favorite white or yellow cake recipe/mix. I used a classic white cake with white chocolate butter cream filling and butter cream frosting.  Since i was not having number 2 pan i made three 9"X13" cake sheets and carved number 2 from that. Before going into carving just we will see how to make a rainbow cake.


Whatever cake you decide on (white or yellow will take the colors fine!), once the batter is made, divide it equally into six bowls. since i was using 9"X13" pan i made a 6 cups batter so that i will have a cup of batter for each color. Then mix in the rainbow colors -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Gel food coloring works great since it gives more vibrant color than liquid food colors. But surely if u wont have gel food colors liquid will work as fine.

This was the step that mystified party guests. The colors definitely will stay separated so long as you just drop them in; don't try to spread and mix them or else you'll probably create mud! Simply drop a colored batter in the middle of a pan. 

We decided to start with red as the bottom color in a pan. 

As you proceed with each color, just drop in the middle of the pan over colors. 

At the end I rotated a pan between my palms quickly to spread the batter. If you are making in a two 9" or 8" pan just divide batter as three colors per pan starting red as a bottom color in a pan and purple as a bottom color in other pan. So when u fill and stack the cake u will get rainbow color sequence.

And that's it! Once the batter is dropped, simply follow your recipe's instructions for baking and cooling. Look how pretty this came out!

To give a height to the cake i made three layers of a cake. I filled white chocolate butter cream in each layer.I kept the cake in a fridge for an hour so that it will firm up a little and easy for carving as well. 

I downloaded a A4 size number 2 template. Now transfer it onto a wax paper and arranged it on a cake.

Now cut the cake accordingly and arrange it in number 2. I joined the pieces with the help of butter cream and since the cake was bit heavy i inserted a dowel at the joints. 

Crumb coat the cake and keep in a fridge for a hour or so.  Now just frost your cake with your choice of frosting and decorate.

I made a train track and fondant train to go onto the cake. For the bottom cake border i used M&M and arranged them in a particular color pattern. 

When we cut into each of these cakes I freaked out a little. It looked so cool! You can make a rainbow cupcake with this batter too. Just use a spoonful of each color per cupcake.Enjoy...!!

Marshmallow fondant

This recipe has a really nice flavor to it and test alot better than a store bought fondant. I was really scared when i started making it for first time but once done i loved it alot. Now i use this recipe for every fondant cake. Enjoy this great recipe.

Ingredients

16 ounces white mini marshmallows (use a good quality brand)

2 -5 tablespoons water

2 lbs icing sugar

1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Directions:

1. Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler: Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted.It usually takes about 2 ½ minutes total.
2. 
   
3. Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY - palms, backs and in between fingers, then heavily grease the counter you will be using.
4. 
   
5. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the counter top making a well like structure and dump the bowl of melted marshmallow in the middle.

1. 
   
2. Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands.
3. 
   
4. Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Believe me when i made it first time..at this stage i thought oh god why i ever thought of making this. but over the time u will learn to make it less messy.
5. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more.
6. 
   
7. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant is sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about ½ tablespoon at a time then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.
8. 
   
9. Its best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.
10. 
    
11. Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic- type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible.
12. 
    
13. MM Fondant will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. If I know that I have a cake to decorate, I usually make a batch on a free night during the week so it is ready when I need it. Take advantage of the fact that this fondant can be prepared well in advance.

Baby shower cake

One of my friend ordered a surprise baby shower cake for her friend. Since the mom going to be don't know its a boy or a girl we tried to include all colors. The bottom layer of the cake was a 8' devils food cake filled with  a vanilla butter cream and covered in a marshmallow fondant. And the top layer was a 6'' vanilla cake filled with chocolate whipped cream and covered in a marshmallow fondant. All animals and blocks were made out of modeling chocolate. Will soon try to upload a new post on making modeling chocolate, animals and marshmallow fondant.

Royal icing recipe

                

Made with meringue powder or egg whites, royal icing creates hard drying, long lasting decorations that have a matte finish. royal icing is used to create flowers and trims. This means you can make these decorations in advance and simply place them on your cake when you are ready. once hardened and properly stored , royal icing decorations will not soften or crumble.be sure to keep these decorations away from bright light when storing as color may fade.

Always make royal icing with a stiff consistency so you can achieve sharper details.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
• 4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
• 6 tablespoons warm water

Makes:

About 3 cups of icing.

Instructions:

Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency. Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).  For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water. When using large counter top mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.