banana oatmeal almond cookies

There were 2 combs of ripe bananas in the house.  I had been making quite a number of times of steamed banana cakes and wanted to make something different with these bananas.  I browsed through Allrecipes.com and found this Banana Cookies, which is quite easy to make.

Ingredients
> 1/3 cup shortening
> 1 cup white sugar
> 2 eggs
> 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
> 1/4 tsp lemon extract
> 3 ripe bananas, mashed
> 1/2 cup ground walnuts almonds 
> 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 
>  2  1 tsp baking powder
> 1/2 tsp salt 
> 1 cup oats

Method
[1]  Preheat oven to 175 170°C.  Lightly grease or line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
[2]  In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar.
[3]  Beat in the eggs, vanilla and lemon extract.
[4]  Beat in bananas and the nuts.
[5]  Gradually add in flour, baking powder and salt.
[6]  Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
[7]  Bake at 175 170°C for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly coloured.
[8]  Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com

steamed banana cake

Min loves doing this... mashing the bananas!

Ingredients
> 500g ripen bananas ('pisang berangan')
> 250g 125g castor sugar 
> 250g low protein flour (sieved) 
> 2 tsp baking soda 
> 2 tsp baking powder
>  1  1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (optional) 
> 1 tsp banana essence
> 150ml less than 70ml corn oil 


Method
[1]  Mash bananas in a big bowl.
[2]  Add in baking soda, mix well and leave aside for 1 hour to leaven.
[3]  Add in castor sugar and stir a little.
[4]  Add in other ingredients (low protein flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, banana essence).
[5]  Mix well and leave aside for another 1 hour.
[6]  Lastly add in corn oil.  Fold well and rest for 10 minutes.
[7]  Spoon into small moulds lined with paper cups.
[8]  Steam cake for 15 minutes.

For this cake (8" square), steaming time is about 45 minutes

crackle cakes

What to make for the kids' school Children's Day class party?  Flipped through this book (Cupcakes & Muffins by Nancy Lambert) that I bought back in 2009 when I first learned baking.  Hmmm... this looks cute... I halved the sugar amount and it turned out quite nice.  :-)   We may use cornflakes or crisped rice to make these little cakes crackle.
 
Ingredients
> 100g 50g sugar
> 100g butter
>  8  4 tbsp cocoa
>  4  2 tbsp golden syrup or honey
> 100g cornflakes
> coloured chocolate drops to decorate

Method
[1]  Put sugar, butter, cocoa and golden syrup or honey into a pan over low heat.
[2]  Stir until the ingredients have melted.
[3]  Remove pan from heat.
[4]  Stir cornflakes into the mixture until they are completely coated.
[5]  Spoon a little of the mixture into small paper cup cases.
[6]  Top each crackle cake with a coloured chocolate drop and leave them to set.

reminder to self

A reminder to self to always allow my girls time to explore, to play, to learn... 

    

Picture courtesy of Childhood 101

homemade paint

Recipe courtesy of Cool Gadgets Concept
1 cup salt;
1 cup flour;
1 cup water; and
some food colouring.

Mix them well and I managed to keep my girls buzy for nearly half a day.

The dough made from what the recipe suggested here is a bit difficult for the kids little hands to mix.  Therefore, I am suggesting instead of using "cup", maybe I can change it to "tbsp".

I would also suggest using warm water, as the salt did not dissolve well and we can feel it in the paint.

Until my next round of homemade paint.