Banana Cake

This time round, I have decided to make a simple banana cake. I have put in much less sugar comparatively to my past attempts. Recipe and method are the same as the previous times. Adaptation from Exclusively Food.

Banana Cake:
125g butter, softened
50g raw sugar
3 large ripe bananas (reserve 1 for decorating)
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk
225g plain flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Notes:

The original recipe calls for 330g of sugar and because I thought of trying something with much lower sugar content so I just added 50g of raw sugar. I did not have self-raising flour on hand so I just adjusted that part.

The cake batter turned out a bit dry and I think I poured out about 50ml more of the buttermilk to mix in the batter.

Pour half of the cake batter in the cake tin and spread evenly. Place sliced bananas and then top up the rest of the batter and place in more sliced bananas. I could do with more bananas in future as the banana taste was not very strong.

This cake was baked for about 40mins but the top part seemed pale looking. I deduced that the reason could be due to the lesser sugar content. I adjusted the oven a bit so that the top part can be browned.

The taste was just nice. The feedback given was that one could take 2 slices and not feel overloaded with sugar and grease. Success is mine! ;op

Banana cake innards

Foods that I eat at work

Portobello, tomatoes, french beans and couscous

Asparagus, button mushrooms, tomatoes, couscous

Pumpkins, asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes and bread rolls

Oatmeal with cashews and maple syrup

Varieties for my lunches at work and no I am not really a vegetarian. :o)

Dessert at Kyoto Sabo AJITEI 京都茶房味亭 (Takashimaya)

I always look at the displays for their desserts and finally gotten one myself. This is their green tea parfait. I like this dessert quite a bit. I noted some bacon dish that they kept serving up to other diners. I could try that the next time.

I have been eating...

...mostly mushrooms. Swiss brown, white buttons, portobello and even canned ones. I bought asparagus, broccoli, eggplant and tried to make my packed lunches as healthy and interesting as possible. Next week I'm going to get more avocadoes, lettuce and make more sandwiches as I just bought a can of herring in brine.

Brunch

I wanna make pancakes, because they are so very tasty...

It has been a while since I made brunch and on this day I had a competent assistant that actually made most of the food whereas I merely gave out instructions and made creamy scrambled eggs and pancakes. Because they are so very tasty. Lol.

Brunch menu:
Boiled asparagus
Bacon
Mushrooms
English sausages
Pancakes
Creamy scrambles

It doesn't sound much but its actually loads of work if its all done by one. Like I said, the competent assistant had done most of the work. Asparagus are being boiled in water. Sausages, bacon and mushrooms are being cooked in the same pan in order respectively.

I have adapted another pancake recipe from here today. This tastes pretty nice. Maybe I could make it with buttermilk next time.

The scrambles were too creamy for some so I'll make some sunny side ups in future or I can make the scrambles less creamy. I added pure cream and butter to the scrambles.

I couldn't do an artistic shot or pour maple syrup over with loads of butter or pepper the scrambles because I was hot and flustered with all the cooking. My hands were greasy. Stomachs were growling. So I just did an obligatory shot but I'll make sure next time I'll do a better shot.

Couscous lunches

Greek yogurt is optional but I prefer it with yogurt.

For a few weeks I have been sticking to the couscous lunches because they are easy to prepare. This is one of my favourite combi: Couscous with seaweed furikake, some tuna in olive oil, tomatoes and Greek yogurt {optional}.