in my studio

Nov
01
2011

moist banana cake with cream cheese icing

We love bananas! But, ever since the floods hit Queensland a couple of years back, we’ve stopped buying bananas. They were as high as $14.99 a kilo, yikes! However recently, prices started to drop to around $5-6 (at the market) and now we’re back to eating them again! But if you go to the local supermarket here, they’re still selling them for around $9.

For this cake, I used 4 really old and black bananas. I bought them for $3.99 a kilo at the market. Dad said ‘Wow, you must be rich!’ thinking that I had spent $10 a kilo just to make this cake! The secret to making a perfectly moist and yummy banana cake is to use extremely and I mean extreeeeemely ripe bananas to get the flavour, look and texture right. There was once when I used ordinary yellow bananas, it didn’t turn out quite as nice. So don’t be fooled by these pictures that have a yellow banana in the background, it has to be black and mushy, ok?

Apart from celebrating the drop in banana prices, this cake was served exclusively upon the arrival of my aunt and uncle who came down to visit us from Malaysia. This is for you Uncle Dil and Aunty Nola, love you heaps!

RECIPE FOR MOIST BANANA CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING
Adapted from Exclusively Food, with slight changes

Serves: 12
Prep time: 15mins
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For cake:
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
140g butter, softened
200g brown sugar
130g caster sugar
350g mashed ripe bananas ( 1.5 cups)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs
For cream cheese icing:
90g cream cheese, softened
45g butter, softened
210g (1 2/3 cups) icing sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Method for cake

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan-forced. If you don’t have a fan forced oven, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Grease the side and base of a 22cm diameter round cake pan. We use a springform pan for easy removal of the cake. Line base of the pan with non stick baking paper.

3. Place butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor.

4. Process for about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of processor. Add milk and pulse to combine.

5. Sift flour and bicarb soda together into a large bowl. Add flour mixture to food processor and process until just combined.

6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer or knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

7. Leave cake to cool on a wire rack.

8. Spread cooled cake with cream cheese icing.

Method for icing

Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add sifted icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and beat to combine. Spread icing over top and sides of cooled cake

121 lovely comments
Categories: cake, desserts, halal, in my kitchen

Oct
31
2011

nursery 101 | update 1

This is Aliya’s room/nursery 6 months ago. Since then, we have installed rolled blinds and changed the curtains to a light grey blockout. Her room is still in a work in progress as I haven’t exactly finish what I had originally planned out . For example, this wall next to the toddler bed was supposed to be the feature wall painted in grey. But we didn’t get around to it, I don’t think it will (ever) get painted as she sleeps in this bedroom full time now. So toss away the idea and lets decorate it with something else. I was thinking of an oversized hand painted canvas. Hmm, am I going to get the time to sit and paint it myself? Maybe. Perhaps. Ok, I’ll try. I’ve already bought the canvas (over 3 months ago!) so I just need to find the time and inspiration. Any suggestions? Hubby was saying why not make it an Arabic canvas with Arabic alphabets, what a brilliant idea!

Right: DIY painted bedside table by hubby. White plastic pot and and flowers from Ikea. ‘Aliya’ painted wooden name sign, a sweet gift from CUE Designs and DIY curtains by me!

Left: Vinyl wall decal from eBay. DIY painted rattan hair by me, you can read the post here to see before/after photos!

After a long and tiring hunt for a nursery pendant lamp, I finally found the perfect one!. This was the second lamp. I originally bought another one but then had to refund it simply because it looked good at the showroom but NOT when it was hung up here. And thank God its one of those DIY, at least I didn’t have to call the sparky*! So it took me another couple of weeks to find this. I should’ve taken a picture of the other one that I returned. Oh well. But isn’t this pretty? Even prettier when lit up!

Stay tune for the next nursery update. Hopefully by then, we can see pictures of her cot/sheets, DIY clock that I recently made for her and her oversized canvas. Oh and her gorgeous white chic wardrobe! And rug!

*sparky is an Australian slang for electrician

4 lovely comments
Categories: architecture/interior, baby, bedroom, before + after, décor, house 101, in my home, in my studio, nursery

Oct
28
2011

claypot chicken rice

I remember when I was 11, mum used to take my sis and I to Bangsar food court because they had the yummiest claypot chicken rice. Seriously sizzling. Seriously yum. This is a popular chinese dish served commonly at hawker stalls around Malaysia. The original claypot chicken rice is cooked with chinese sausage and dried salted fish. The version I made did not have both of these, but it still tasted just as good.

The secret about a good claypot chicken rice is getting the right amount of ginger and soy sauce. Of course the hero of this dish is the smokeyness that comes from cooking it in the claypot itself that you won’t get with any ordinary cooking pot. Claypot gives you that extra flavoursome crust you find at the bottom. Kinda like a paella crust. In which you leave the best for last. My sis and I used to fight for this. Get a spoon and just go crazy scooping and digging in. That for me my friends, completes my eating experience from this small humble claypot.

So after all the fun comes the ugly part. Washing up. Who likes scrubbing out burnt rice?

RECIPE FOR CLAYPOT CHICKEN RICE
Adapted from Malaysian favourites(cookbook), with slight changes

Serves: 2
Prep time: 15mins
Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients

2 cups rice, soaked (I used basmati)
6 medium chinese mushrooms, sliced (or normal mushrooms)
1 boneless chicken thigh, cut into cubes
8 cloves garlic, finely diced
4 small shallots, finely diced
2inch old ginger, finely diced
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
2.5 cups water (to cook rice)
1 cup chicken stock
handful of spring onions, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp oil

Method

1. Marinate the chicken and mushrooms together with all the sauces.

2. In a rice cooker, cook rice with water. Remove rice when cooked halfway.

3. In a claypot, heat up oil and sautee shallots, garlic and ginger until aromatic.

4. Add in chicken and mushroom pieces and cook for 7 minutes.

5. Add in chicken stock and half cooked rice to the mixture and combine well. Cover with claypot lid on a low – medium heat for 20 minutes.

6. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Garnish with spring onions and serve immediately.

8 lovely comments
Categories: asian, chicken, halal, in my kitchen, rice

Oct
27
2011

in my deen

On the authority of Abu Hurairah, who said : The messenger of Allah said :

“Part of someone being a good Muslim is leaving alone that of which does not concern him.”

Narrated by Termithi