Ingredients

500g bread flour
10g salt
10g yeast
370ml water

Method

1 . Place all the ingredients in a stand mixer. Make sure the yeast and salt are on opposite sides. Use the dough hook to mix for about 5 minutes.

2 . Set aside to rise in a greased bowl for 2 hours.

3 . Divide into 3-4 portions and shape into whatever shape you desire and place them on your baking tray or baking tin. (I also dust the top of my bread with some flour and it gets that really rustic look)

4 . Set aside and rise for another 1 hour.

5 . Bake at 220 degrees celsius with a small ramekin of water for 25 minutes.

What’s on my mind…

I found this recipe on Paul Hollywood’s website and fell in love with it right after the first try. It is so easy and makes a really nice baguette which smells awesome and tastes just right.

Ingredients for cake

115g unsalted butter
115g plain flour
55g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
225g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Ingredients for icing

225g plain chocolate
85g unsalted butter
3 eggs, separated
250ml whipping cream
3 tablespoons caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius and prepare 2 or 3 8inch round tins with grease/oil/butter. (2 or 3 tins depending on number of layers you want.)

2. Melt butter over low heat and skim off any surface foam. Leave the melted butter aside.

3. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt 3 times and set aside.

4. Place eggs, sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Set this bowl over a pan of hot water. With an electric mixer, beat until the mixture doubles in volume and is thick enough to leave a ribbon trail when beater is lifted. Add in vanilla essence.

5. Sift over the dry ingredients in 3 batches and fold in slowly. Then fold in the butter.

6. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake until cake pulls away from the sides of the tin, about 25 minutes. Let it rest on a cooling rack.

7. For the icing, melt the chocolate on top of a double boiler. Off the heat after chocolate is melted then stir in butter and egg yolks. Return to a low heat and stir until thick. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

8. Whip the cream until firm, set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar and beat until glossy.

9. Fold the cream into the chocolate mixture. Make sure the chocolate mixture is NOT hot. Then carefully fold in the egg whites. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes to thicken the icing.

10. Sandwich the cake layers with icing, stacking them carefully.

What‘s On My Mind…

This cake is really troublesome to make in my opinion, but when done right, it just tastes heavenly. The icing melts so remember to refrigerate the cake. If you are storing the cake, I would suggest covering the cake completely with the icing so the cake will not dry out overnight.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter
200g to 300g of sugar, depending on the sweetness of the banana
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 tablespoons milk
1 and a 1/2 cups of mashed bananas, roughly about 4 bananas
250g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar until well mixed and then add in the eggs, essence, milk and mix well again.

2. Add in the mashed bananas and mix well.

3. Sift the flour, bicarbonate soda, baking powder and salt.

4. Fold in the flour mixture.

5. Bake at 160 degrees celsius for 1 hour. If you feel that the cake is browning too quickly, cover it with an aluminium foil.

What’s On My Mind… 

I mean, seriously, banana cakes are one of the easiest cakes to bake and you get a really moist and delicious end product, but more often than not, we can’t get the sweetness and consistency right due to the changes in the moisture and sugar in the banana itself. Nevertheless, this recipe is great and you should try it. You get a relatively huge cake from this recipe, so I would suggest using half a portion of the ingredients to get a smaller cake. My mum first tried this recipe and later, she shared it with me. She found it on a website called bakericious.blogspot.com.