Chocolate Banana Cake

Do you like chocolate banana cake? Karl loves it and this is specially made for him. Sis showed me how to make this and the process is not as simple as cheese cakes but by the end of the day, it's worth all the effort when everyone enjoyed eating.

Recipe:


Main Ingredients :

1 3/4 cups All-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Granulated sugar
3 /4 cup Cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
2 large Eggs
3 ripe, mashed Bananas
1 cup Warm water
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Vegetable oil (safflower or canola)
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla (extract or powder)


Chocolate Frosting Ingredients:
227g Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces (about 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips)
3/4 cup Whipping cream


Directions:

1. Grease and flour two 23cm round pan. Or, cut two circles of parchment paper, the size of the pans, grease the pans, cover with parchment paper and grease again. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

3. In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and baking powder together, set aside. Whisk in the sugar.

4. In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil and vanilla extract.

5. Add the wet ingredients (egg mixture) to the dry ingredients (flour mixture) and stir or whisk until just combined. To get the best result try stirring on the same direction using a spatula; do not overmix. The batter is going to be quite thin.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Avoid opening the oven door in the first 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

7. After the cakes reached the room temperature, remove them from the pans. If you used parchment paper, take it off. If you can't take the cakes off the pans easily, try loosening the edges with a sharp knife.

8. To make the chocolate frosting: Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel or heatproof bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let the frosting cool for few minutes and then beat until soft and fluffy.

9. Place one of the cakes in the serving dish and cover the top with 1/3 of the chocolate frosting. Place the other cake on top of the first one and cover the whole cake with the rest of the chocolate frosting. Decorate with whipped cream, your favourite frosting or slivered almonds if you wish.


*You can also make the cake in a rectangle pan of about 5.9x13 inch size, cover it with chocolate frosting and cut it into squares for serving

Studying Online

Recently, I felt like studying again and I wish to learn more about Accounting. Unfortunately, I could hardly find time to travel to the college and to sit there, just to listen to the lecture. I couldn’t possibly leave my children behind.


I tried searching for some distance learning or online education and I came across Western Governors University, a non profit university and a fully accredited online education institution which imposes relatively low tuition fee compared to other reputable universities and colleges. Excited, I browsed through the degrees and programs offered and there it was - “Accounting”!


When I was younger, I would think that going to a university is the best way to obtain a degree but now I’m all for online degree, not because I change my mind about going to a university but being a busy mother with three children, I would say online education gives us a chance to study at home while taking care of our family and career. We don’t have to worry about choosing between school, work and family anymore. If you are thinking of obtaining a Masters degree for career advancement, you may want to consider getting your Masters degree online.


Some may worry about not having enough guidance and interaction if we take up an online course, like I used to worry, but at WGU, we can leave our worries behind for a mentor will be there guiding the student and there’s online communities for students to connect with one another. What I like best about WGU is the flexibility via the competency based model where there is no fix period of time to complete a course and we can take assessment whenever we are ready. So, if you are a person with strong determination and independence, you can finish the course faster than others! Doesn’t it sound great?

No Bake Oatmeal Cookie Ball

This is the simplest dessert I have ever tried making (made together with sis). No baking is required and all you do is to mix the ingredients and shape them into balls. If you are a peanut butter lover, you would simply love these no bake oatmeal cookie balls.

Recipe (got this from my sister):

2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
115g butter, softened
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar


In a large bowl, combine the oats, sugar and cocoa. With clean hands, mix in the water, vanilla, butter and peanut butter to form a dough.

Wash hands, then roll the dough into balls 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Roll balls in confectioners' sugar until thickly coated.

Chill 20 minutes before serving.

Big Dreams

Many women out there have big dreams which are yet to come true. For the sake of children, we sacrifice our talent, out time and our dream. Deep down inside us, we have big dreams, off course it would be impossible to own Palos Verdes real estate but we wish to do things that we have always wanted to do and to become someone special.


The dilemma for most mothers would be when can we really let go and achieve our dreams without worrying about our children? I keep telling myself that my children are still young and that they need me now but at what age should I convince myself that they are big and mature enough to take care of themselves? I really don’t know.


So, big dreams, you’ll have to wait, hopefully not too long.

She Is Richer

Life is pretty interesting when you have children. Sometimes, they just say things to make you laugh. One day, my eldest son came home from school and told me: “Mummy, my friend is richer than us, you know why? She has a TV mounted to the wall, just like the one we saw in the hotel.”


We were at The Westin Langkawi last year when we attended a wedding dinner and that’s where my son saw the TV and hubby was interested in the tv mounts and had that checked out. Our next target is to get our TV mounted to the wall and I hope when we do that, my son won’t go around telling people that we are rich!

Working From Home

Working from home sounds easy but it’s never easy if you are a mother. Besides doing your job, which you would never be able to really concentrate like those working mothers who sit in the office at office hours and have no children running around the house yelling “mummy, mummy”, you have to worry about the cooking and the house chores as well.


Well, at least it’s a challenge that not everyone would experience. I set up my own office at home and got some office furniture and with a laptop and a printer as well as a whole lot of files, I called that place my home office where I get to do my work while coaching my children with theirs.


Although it’s difficult, I enjoyed every moment of it (let’s not talk about the time when your children get on your nerves when you are working) and the best thing about working from home is that I do not need to dress up, get stuck in a traffic jam and my children get to see their mother instead of the babysitter.

Mango and White Chocolate Cheese Cake

I can't believe we actually made this, sis, bro and I and we did this for mom on her birthday with dad's extremely sweet mangoes from his tree. It was really good and it's not difficult to make.

Here's the recipe (from my sister):


Ingredients:

100g digestive biscuits
60g butter, melted
500g cream cheese at room temperature
110g caster sugar
200g white chocolate, melted
300ml cream, whipped
3 teaspoons gelatine
60ml hot water
2 mangoes, some sliced and some diced



Method:

1. Place biscuits in a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs form. Pour crumbs into a large bowl and pour melted butter onto the crumbs. Mix well.


2. Press into base of a 20cm spring form pan. Chill for 15 minutes, until firm.


3. Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Fold through chocolate and whipped cream.


4. Whisk gelatine with hot water until dissolved. Stir ¼ cup of cream cheese mixture into gelatine. Return to cream cheese mixture and mix well. Put in diced mangoes.


5. Pour cheese cake mix over biscuit base. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigirate overnight.


6. Decorate with sliced mangoes on top before serving.