Buckwheat banana bread (with walnuts)

Hello!!

I bought a great amount of stuff from Iherbs.com again and was excited to try the recipes! Among my loots includes buckwheat flour and it was my first time making pure buckwheat banana bread. The recipe was adapted from Spoon University. It was easy and fast to make. It turned out great and yummy, sweetness was perfect but my bread had a sandy feel. Did not like it but otherwise, it would be a perfect bread for breakfast! It went well with greek yogurt or peanut butter! Love the walnuts crunch too! Note to self: buckwheat flour produces a sandy effect in baked goods. 

Love,

Cheryl Miyo

"Skinny" Cheesecake brownies

Hello!

July is a month full of celebrations, be it birthdays or graduations so I decided to bake cheesecake brownies for all my loved ones for birthdays especially and congratulate those who graduate alongside with me! I have searched high and low for a skinnier version of cheesecake brownies but yet, not too raw and acceptable for others to accept! Finally, I found this perfect recipe and I decided to try! Please refer to Annie's Noms's skinny cheesecake brownies. I doubled the recipe and made 9 muffin sized brownies. Should have split them into more cups as they all overflowed at 7/8 batter full before baking. I baked them for more than 45 minutes. The original recipe's mini cheesecake brownies must had been really small then for them to only require a maximum of 15 minutes. Anyway, it is a lovely skinnier version of cheesecake brownies but yet, not that healthy. It is butter-less though!

My guests were happy with these! :)

Ignore the ugly swirls!

Anyway, July is my birthday month! If you live in Singapore, I would recommend you to go Night Safari, Zoo, River Safari or Jurong Bird Park on your birthday as it will be free for you, citizens and PR! I had an awesome time at the Night Safari, I find it more interesting than Zoo. These days, as I grow older, I find it very superficial for people to wish others a Happy Birthday on FaceBook. We don't talk to each other yet we know each others' lives, not entirely but in snapshots. We act as though we are on close and happy terms on FB but we might not even say hi when we walk pass each other in real life. Hmm...some food for thought there so I decided to remove my birthday on FaceBook and have a great awesome peaceful day without all the superficial unnecessary replies. Well, even if close friends do not remember your birthdays, it does not mean that they do not love you anymore. Your friendships shouldn't be judged or based on remembering one's birthday nor gifts. Again, that is how I chose to spend my birthday by being at home to rest and enjoying my me time before I start work and hope for a relaxing birthday like this again in future. Anyway, shan't bore you anymore. :)

Cheers,
Cheryl Miyo

Strawberry Banana ice cream cake

Hello!!

Today is a special day for me. :) 

I am in love with frozen banana ice cream and so here goes flavoured banana ice cream cake.

I was trying to immitate Thisrawsomeveganlife's awesome, beautiful 2 layered cake but I failed. Nevertheless, it is absolutely delicious and refreshing especially in a all year round sunny Singapore. I swear my cake melts within 1 minute from being out of the freezer, hence I did not picture my melted slice. As you can see from the photos, the cross section melted and oozed out! 

Unfortunately, the original and strawberry banana layer blended together and I was not pleased with it! Hahaa and no joke, I finished the entire cake by myself throughout a week. I was a little bored by it! Shall just have the usual jar of frozen banana cream next time! Do share with others ok!! The first slice was always the most awesome of the lot!

Simplified Recipe: (Modified as I did not have cashews)

Original banana layer

3 frozen bananas

1 tbsp soy milk

Strawberry banana layer

2 frozen bananas

3 frozen strawberries

1 tbsp soy milk

Blueberry banana layer  (Would change this layer mixture as I am not pleased with the colour and double or triple this layer as you can see, it is a mere thin pathetic layer.)

1 frozen bananas

1 frozen strawberry

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 tbsp soy milk

I blended each layer's ingredients in a food processor and press it into my springform pan.

How would you like this in your tummy?

Supposed to have 3 layers but it seemed like there was only 1 layer left. Oops. Regardless, delicious!

Aww the middle portions have melted and oozed out due to the extremely hot weather.

Love,
Cheryl Miyo

Failed matcha fudge cake

Hi dears,

This post is for personal reference only! My matcha cake failed miserably. It is totally different from Desserts with benefits's matcha almond cake. I altered the cake based on what I had and I failed so badly! Gosh, I have to finish the whole cake by myself again.

My failed recipe (so that I know what to change the next time) 

Please refer to the original! Hahaa, don't think you want to fail badly like me. Link above. :)

1 and 3/4 whole wheat flour

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp coconut flour (I believe this makes my cake denser and drier than it should be)

1/4 cup potato starch (Should stick to cornstarch)

1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 baking soda

1/2 cup greek yogurt

180g silken tofu

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 tbsp honey (Add more! My cake is totally bitter with no hint of sweetness.)

2 tbs vanilla extract

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

For the frosting:

1 tbsp greek yogurt

1/4 tsp matcha powder

1 tsp honey

I baked my cake in only one layer for 35 minutes at 160 degrees when the recipe calls for 2 layers in 2 separate pans. I believe I should have bake it for shorter period of time and my cake did not brown at the top. How horrible...

It is okay. :) I learn from mistakes! I researched a little on coconut flour and found that it makes cakes denser and drier than using wheat. However, it is 100% gluten free and and contains 58% fiber than other flours. It is supposed to contain more proteins and lower fat too. Coconut flour sounds amazing already but I guess I should stick to lesser amounts of coconut flour in recipes and not using it entirely. Perhaps I can find recipes that is purely for coconut flour. Nonetheless, experimenting with my newly bought coconut flour is fun! 

I find this guide on using coconut flour useful! Shall keep it for own reference too. :)

I call it the bitter matcha fudge cake hahaa. 

Photos are so deceiving! Haha don't it look gorgeous from the top?

Love,

Cheryl Miyo

Skinny Fat

Hi lovelies,

Have you all heard of skinny fat? I am at healthy weight but borderline underweight according to the BMI calculation but I have a flabby tummy that I am quite conscious of. I despise it especially since I had been exercising and trying my best to eat healthy. I kickbox once a week, completed Insanity 30 days workout (Did not continue the second month as I hurt my knee) and am currently attempting Jillian Michaels 30 days shred. No, I do not want weight loss. Definitely not. I have learnt that weight loss does not equate to fat loss and it took me quite some time to understand that in my entire life.

Would be aiming to get rid of total fat loss. I have not seen much progress in my tummy but I felt my toner thighs and I know that I am doing it right for my thighs. Any advice on reducing my tummy?

I could understand why I had a tummy when I did not exercise and lost weight but when I exercise 5-6 times a week combined with healthy food with occasional unhealthy food, I could not understand why at all that my stubborn tummy fat just would not disappear. Anyone else is like that and has any tips for me?

I have researched a little on skinny fat and here goes my discoveries. Of all the points mentioned, I believe the only solutions I did not attempt are gluten free diet and daily supplements. I would try my best to avoid gluten as it acts as sugar in my body. Another note would be that even though whole wheat is supposedly healthier, the white version that we always see in the markets are bleached as whole wheat is supposed to be brown! Even if it is whole wheat or whole grain or whole meal or anything in whole, acts as sugar as well! Gluten (and diary) would cause bloating in stomach area as well, according to my research. Gluten free and diary free diet, am I up for it? Perhaps I should just do it one at a time. Gluten free first then since I love cheese too much.

Please refer to the following link that I thought it was useful and I would keep it for future reference.
Skinny fat possible solutions

Love,
Cheryl Miyo

Honey whole wheat banana bread

Hi lovelies!

How have you all been? Sorry, I hope you are not disappointed. I don't update recipes often. Sometimes, I just upload my meal's photos to my instagram if the recipes are not worth mentioning or keeping.

Best healthy banana bread recipe adapted from Cookie and Kate.

Love it so much! Followed it closely and it turned out perfect except that I should use a bigger pan as my banana bread rose higher than my pan could contain. My poor banana bread was forced to shit out loads of gold (I heard a loud POP sound, scared me!) but no worries, I ate all the yummylicious fabulous uber awesome tasty gold. After trying so many banana bread recipes, this is the best. I am totally glad I found this recipe! <3 <3 <3 Thank you! So simple, so healthy, so easy and so delicious! I am full of praises for this. Note to self: I used mashed frozen bananas.

Hahaa my banana bread shitted a whole loads of gold! 

Love,

Cheryl Miyo

"Pomegranate" steamed cake

Hello lovelies!

It is a brand new start of the week, hope you guys don't have monday blues! I made pomegranate steamed cakes without the pomegranate taste. How sad but I really love the fluffiness of this steamed cake! I have tried making steamed cakes before but none turned out as fluffy as this. I will improve on it! 

Recipe:

Ingredients

20g brown sugar (Would suggest reducing this as it was a little on the sweet side, I like my steamed cake to have VERY mild sweetness)

100ml soy milk

100ml pomegranate juice (Unfortunately, I could hardly taste this.)

110g whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and extra to grease

1 egg white

1 egg yolk

Yields 2 cups as pictured.

1. Put steamer to steam and heat up.

2. Beat egg white with brown sugar till all dissolved and thickened. (Make sure you do not beat egg yolk in here.)

3. Add in the pomegranate juice, soymilk, egg yolk, extra virgin olive oil. (wet ingredients)

4. Sieve in the whole wheat flour and baking powder. (dry ingredients)

5. Grease the cups and let it set for a while.

6. Make sure there is space for the cake to rise.

7. Steam these cakes for 15 to 20 minutes with the cover.

8. Check the doneness by inserting a skewer and make sure it comes out clean with no batter sticking on it. It is okay to have crumbs on skewer, but do not mistake liquidy batter as crumbs.

"Pomegranate" steamed cake

Look at the fluffiness!

Love,
Cheryl Miyo

Bitter raw silken tofu cacao brownies

Hi lovelies!

I had a pack of silken tofu and I didn't want pudding and found this awesome vegan recipe. It was truly easy and fast to make but it was so bitter that no one likes it except me haha! It does not have the slightest hint of sweetness. On the bright side, I have the whole cake (taste more like brownies) to myself. It was really awesome with pomegranate honey greek yogurt and fruits. It was great that my brownies are so awfully bitter that it matched well with the sauce.

Recipe modified from Nourish not punish, with what I have in the fridge.

**IMPT: Please refer to the original, it is so much better! :)

Wet:
1 cup pureed silken black soy tofu
1 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 tsp vanilla essence

Dry:
1/2 coconut flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unsweetened cacao powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup honey (TOO LITTLE! I dislike sweet cakes and I would usually reduce the sweetener level from the original recipe. I had totally overdone it this time!)

With pomegranate honey greek yogurt and super fruits

Brownie alike

Love, 
Cheryl Miyo

Microwave oven vs. Conventional Oven

Hello!

I decided to dedicate this post to those who had been wondering for ages if you should and wanted to try baking in microwave oven. I had researched quite a bit but I could hardly find anyone who had tried the same recipes in both types of ovens and hence, let's start.

I had tried a lot of recipes in my microwave oven before I bought an oven recently. Beware to all, even though you can bake in a microwave oven, not all the recipes meant for oven would work well in the microwave oven. I had tried Japanese soft cotton cheesecake, New York cheesecake, apple cake, banana cake and several more. The only recipes that turned out very well in the microwave oven were New York cheesecake and marbled butter cake. And even so, I had to bake them in cupcake sizes or smaller pans with larger surface area as I had uncooked butter cake (in a supposedly normal depth pan) before.

From what I gathered online, a microwave oven uses electromagnetic radiation to agitate water and other polarized molecules in the food. Friction between the excited molecules generates heat. Since the water molecules are excited, they would be unable to bind with the starch molecules and hence, the dough or batter would turn out hard like a piece of rock. That is very true. Often, my cakes browned on the surface and even became dark brown, to the extent of being inedible while the middle portion remained uncooked. The other portions would be dry. The cakes were often in a mess. Imagine I often had to scrap away the top, cut out the dry portions or they would become drier and put the uncooked middle batter back into the oven for minutes I was unsure of. I would totally not recommend baking in microwave oven to save your energy and effort if you want a true cake. 

Also, microwave oven cooks food much faster than an oven and hence, if the recipe calls for 45 mins of baking time, it would have browned on the surface and done within 20 to 25 mins in a microwave oven, leaving the middle portion uncooked. Trust me, I have failed so many countless times but well, you never know until you try haha.

Many of my recipes such as orange cake, japanese soft cotton cheesecake and some others turned out tasting like "kueh" which had a sticky gluey texture and a strong egg smell. It lacked the moisture and texture or anything like what it should be. I used to think that it was the recipes I used until I had succeeded in Japanese soft cotton cheesecake using my convectional oven. 

I often use my microwave oven to heat up my overnight food from the fridge. It serves well for a fast alternative but it costs my food to be dry and sometimes burnt if you leave them in there for too long!

Fortunately or should I say, finally my family added an oven to our kitchen. It costed about 100 SGD from Giant and I am still trying to slowly get used to it. Note: All ovens are different as well.

I referred to the following links and research to gather my knowledge. Do read more to understand the concepts and logic behind them. I won't call myself an expert but I would say I am sharing my experiences which I wanted to know which I can achieve and which I can not.

Difference between microwave oven and conventional oven

Differences between microwave oven and electric oven

Oven 

Controls of the oven

Microwave oven

Love,
Cheryl Miyo

All time favourite - Whole wheat banana blueberry bread

Rise and shine lovelies!

My bananas unfortunately fell from high grounds and suffered awfully blackened skin. Well, I had great excuse to make something out of those bananas. Hehe. And since I bought 4 packets of blueberries, I shall have the combination of both bananas and blueberries - whole wheat banana and blueberries bread. It was so yummy that I finished 3 pieces when they were freshly out of the oven and another 2 pieces as though they were pancakes in 2 different days.

Recipe adapted from Amy's healthy baking

1 ¼ c whole wheat flour, divided (measured correctly)

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp oil or butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ c + 2 tbsp mashed banana (about 1 extra long 9” banana)

2 tbsp plain nonfat Greek yogurt

2 tbsp honey

1/3 c frozen wild blueberries

I did not modify this recipe at all and stick closely to instructions but for my oven, my bread was not yet baked at 170 degrees at 40 minutes even though it was supposed to be and I added another 10 mins at 180 degrees and last 10 mins at 200 degrees. Yes, I wonder if I did anything wrong for my oven as my bread's top stayed yellow until the last 15 mins at such extreme temperatures. I did preheat my oven as well. After 2 tries in my new oven, I believe that a higher temperature, longer period of time and pan with a bigger surface would work better for my oven. Note: I believe ovens differ from one another. I will make a post on my oven.

My bread came out a little moist in the middle and crispy at the sides. I am not completely pleased with the middle but I love the taste regardless! The sweetness was perfect with fully ripe bananas. I will definitely attempt this again.

Treating my stacks and pieces of bread like pancakes & complementing with greek yogurt and fruits

Freshly out of the oven - Whole wheat banana blueberry bread

Love,

Cheryl Miyo

Japanese soft cotton cheesecake (Microwave oven vs. Oven)

Hello guys,

I started this blog for my own reference and to keep track of my modified recipes so that I will remember not to make the same mistakes in future. 90% of the time, I eat healthy which includes fruits, vegetables, eggs, chicken, fish, nuts and so on. But be warned, I do occasionally bake or consume unhealthy goodies. 

I shall dedicate my first post to Japanese soft cotton cheesecake which I had tried 3 times and finally succeeded on my 3rd try. The first 2 tries were in a microwave oven and the 3rd (most recent) in my new oven. My previous tries of japanese soft cotton cheesecake in microwave ovens turned out spongy, bouncy and has a very strong egg smell. They were edible but tasted like egg tarts or egg "kueh". I have tried to google and research quite a bit on microwave ovens before and it was really difficult to find accurate feedbacks and to those who need and have a microwave oven, do let me know if you can make this recipe a success! I could not and I believe the microwave oven makes food much drier and it changes the composition of food. The period of time I used to bake in microwave oven was much shorter and the top browned very easily and severely yet the middle portions were not cooked. Hence, sometimes I was resorted to cutting off the top and baking the middle portion again. It was always a mess...

I was truly glad for this 3rd time although I was met with much difficulties including a destroyed piece at 60 mins as it was uncooked but the other turned out perfect (except for sticking to my pan). It was crumbly and broke apart too easily though. Must have done something wrong somewhere. I will definitely try again! <3

Successful japanese cotton soft cheesecake (Baked in oven and followed recipe closely) 

Recipe adapted from Christine's. Do refer to her instructions which are very clear and useful!

Ingredients: (With notes for future reference)

• 250 ml milk (I used HL low fat milk.)
• 250 gm cream cheese, cubed and softened at room temperature (I used Philadelphia's block cream cheese.)
• 60 gm butter, softened at room temperature (I used star brand's unsalted butter.)
• 6 egg yolks
• 55 gm cake flour (I used plain flour)
• 20 gm corn flour
• 1 lemon zest (I did not add this and it turned out fine.)
• 6 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I accidentally added another 1/4 tsp. Oops but seems like it was no big issue.)
• 130 gm caster sugar (I would reduce the sugar level by 20 to 30 grams the next time as it was too sweet for my liking!)

Prep time: 20 mins 

Notes for future reference: For me, it took an hr as I was inexperienced and my cream cheese would not melt!

Cook time: 60 mins at 150 degrees. 

Notes for future reference: Mine was not cooked after 60 mins. The middle was uncooked and the top was yellow. I further baked it at 170 degrees for 15 mins and 160 degrees for 10 mins. It depends on the oven I believe (Will make a post on my oven soon) and do not believe if the skewer came out clean as the sides might not be done like mine! After the 15 mins at 170 degrees, the top finally browned and my mixture did not sway from one side to another easily like before. Finally after the last 10 mins at 160 degrees, the texture and doneness was perfect. I believe that it really depends on the pan size and the oven so do adjust accordingly to your oven!

Yield: 2 baking pans, lined with baking paper, each size 11.5cmx22cmx6cm 

Notes for future reference: I did not use baking paper but greased with butter. Wrong move! One of my cheesecake as pictured loved my pan so much that it stuck firmly to my pan while the other in a better pan removed itself perfectly (but it was the spoilt cheesecake)

The following photos are only for reference and are so not appealing.

2rd unsuccessful japanese soft cotton cheesecake (Baked in microwave oven)

1st unsuccessful japanese soft cotton cheesecake (Baked in microwave oven)

Love,
Cheryl Miyo