Banana Cake

I was a little rushed this morning, so didn't get around to taking a picture of this cake. And sadly, I have none left to take one now! I get a real buzz when people enjoy the food I make although, frankly, I thought this offering had a little room for improvement... however people's stomachs don't often lie!

With some suitably squidgy bananas sitting on the cupboard I had decided last night to bake a banana cake this morning and take it to my old workmates at Lavvo Market (and of course drop some in to my hard-working guy and his family). The recipe I decided on gave me a lovely soft, moist cake that apparently had the fans clammering for more (my guy reported that he and his bro-in-law tried a piece each, then the rest I'd given them went the same way in short order).

I think future modifications to the recipe are adding some ground cinnamon, or maybe substituting the sugar for honey... I did find another recipe for a banana-peanut-butter cake (yes Mel, you read right... want the recipe? hehe) which I'm thinking I'll have a go at too, soon.

Banana Cake (as it appears on pg216 of The Margaret Fulton Cookbook)
125g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups S.R. flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 cup milk
icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 23cm fluted ring tin or a deep 20cm cake tin. Cream the butter, and then beat in the sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mash the bananas and add to the creamed mixture. Fold in teh sifted flour. Dissolve the soda in the milk, and then stir into the mixture gently but thoroughly. Turn the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve with a light dusting of icing sugar and, if liked, a little whipped cream.


Now, I didn't bother with the icing sugar or whipped cream, but I drool to imagine this cake, still warm from the oven, with a little sugar and cream.

Pear and Ginger Oat Slice

I think I've mentioned previously, last christmas my brother and his partner got me a "Cookie a Day" desk calendar. Sometimes the recipes aren't exactly "cookies".

July 30th showcased "Berry Oat Bars", with the next day offering a variation using dried pears and ginger instead of mixed berries. I thought of my mum straight away, but figured I should make it first, to make sure it was worth posting the recipe up to her (and the dried fruit, which may be hard to get in Georgetown).

I think I can say, this slice was a big success. I was thinking I must've done it wrong when the top cracked like you see in the pic above when I cut it, but then I took another look at the pic with the recipe, and I feel a lot better now!

This is rich, so moist... very, very nice. I've Aussie-ified the recipe below from the American version in the calendar, and included the little differences I made. Because the ginger has such a strong flavour I increased the amount of pear and decreased the ginger instead of using the same quantity of each (duh), and I think it worked well.

This is such an incredibly simple recipe to follow, I can't wait to try the other variations my calendar suggested.

Pear and Ginger Oat Slice
BASE:
110g butter, melted
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats

TOPPING:
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup self-raising flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
160g dried pear, chopped
80g ginger, chopped

Preheat the oven to 190C. Grease and line a slice tin.

Base: Mix the ingredients for the base together, then press into the base of the pan.

Topping: In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Fold the flour, coconut, and chopped fruit into the egg mixture, then spread over the base.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden. This apparently keeps in an airtight container for 2-3 days.


As you'll notice, you don't pre-bake the base at all... I think next time I might give it a quick 5 minutes in the oven before throwing the topping on (or reduce the heat to 180C). While it was all cooked, I just felt that the topping was done when the base could have had a touch longer.

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Babbo Steak Sandwich

Oh my.

Wow.

For those who may not have heard, Mel and I get our work-time coffees from a place called Espressino (now renamed Babbo - but it's still the same crew). Every Thursday and Friday they serve pasta for lunch. We've christened Wednesdays "Surprise Day", as they've started serving up something special.

Today was (it sounds much fancier in Italian) steak sandwich. But this is no ordinary steak sandwich. Oh no, this is far, far more.

Imagine this: perfectly cooked minute steak topped with lettuce, tomato, caramelised red onion and a horseradish dressing, in a crispy ciabatta roll. Uh huh. My powers of description quite probably don't do it justice, but this was one amazing lunch. Unfortunatley I didn't even take my phone with me to take a pic (BAD blogger!), but this thing looked the goods, smelt the goods, and dammit all, it WAS the goods.

I'm hoping it will make a return appearance one day at Babbo. If I wasn't full, I'd have had another one!

Soupy Goodness

For the last week and a half I've not been well. I don't know about you, but when I'm sick I crave soup.

The hard thing about blogging soup, though, is that it's hard to get a picture of it that DOESN'T look kinda yuck. I made a really great lentil, split pea, barley and ham soup the other week, but I won't disgust you with the pictures I took.

These are the pics I WILL inflict on you.


This is a sweet potato and ginger soup. I also added just a little bit of turnip and parsnip. And a fair shake of Vegeta while it all cooked. I thinned this out by adding water, but if I hadn't used the Vegeta I'd have used vegie stock. I've almost finished my stock of this, I think I'll have to make some more.


And here we have a plain old pumpkin soup. Again, a fair shake of Vegeta in with a cubed butternut pumpkin while it cooks in a little water, then I blended through nearly a full can of light evaporated milk till it was the consistency of, well, soup.

If I do say so myself, I brewed up a couple of yummy soups. And they were perfect for warming up a sick body and soothing a sore throat.