Purple sweet potato pao

This was my first pao or bakpao in Indonesia. For so long I though that it was difficult to make a bakpao. At least it required special flour (pao or tang mien flour) and white butter (shortening) that are not easy to find around. Then I saw this pao in mba Hesti's blog. She just used all purpose flour and oil. I was so happy and decided to give it a go.

The ingredients and methods were similar to those at bread making, only that at the final step we steam the pao rather than bake it. I form some pao into buns  and some others into the rose like what was described in wendy inkk's blog. I fill the bun with chocolate rice and the rose with Indonesian style red kidney bean paste. Unlike other red bean paste, Indonesian style used red kidney bean not red bean and coconut milk.

I think my pao was a bit over - fermented. The roses bloomed sooo big ... ha ha... but they were so soft. I packed some of them in Rachel's snack box and she shared them with her friends. All of them said this pao was so00 good. I felt like making pao again soon :) 

Purple sweet potato upside down steamed cake

Yesterday was my third time buying purple sweet potato from the veggie seller. Unlike before, this time I got sweet potato that not purple all around. It has white part in the centre. I don't know anything about sweet potato, I guess it just another variant of purple sweet potato from the one I usually bought. 

While slicing, I kept staring at that nice pattern of the steamed sweet potato. Aha, maybe it will be pretty in upside down cake...don't you think? Lucky me, someone has already made it before, the upside down purple sweet potato cake. I found the recipe at ipoek masak. Ha, it will be easier for me then...Thanks mba Ipuk^^  

I did several changes to this cake. First, I steamed it instead of baked it. I used rice flour instead of wheat flour to make it a gluten free cake. I also omitted the baking powder and emulsifier. It was still nice and moist...with a strong sweet potato taste.

Carrot and cheese steamed cake

Originally this cake is called putu ayu keju wortel. I found this recipe in Wied Harry's book '60 snack favorit bekal sekolah 3 bulan'. Putu ayu is an Indonesian traditional steamed cupcake with grated coconut on its top. That's way my daughter didn't want to call this cake putu ayu because there was no coconut there...the writer substituted the grated coconut with grated carrot, but still it was not the same. For her, this cake was just carrot and cheese steamed cake...a putu ayu should have coconut, she said...whatever! the most important thing to me is that she ate them all (I gave her 3 cakes) at recess time ^^ 

Gluten-free banana cake

This banana cake is also popular among Indonesian foodie blogger. Ienas tsuroiya was the first who brought it up. After that, many people tried to bake it and gave it good reviews. This time I tried to make it gluten free. I got the recipe from dapur solia.

This cake was pretty nice. It kept moist until the next days. If only that the chocolate chips didn't sunk to the bottom, it would be a perfect cake.

The original recipe:

Banana Cake
By Julie Hasson via Ienas Tsuroiya via Dapur solia

2 1/2 cup (325 gr) all purpose flour 
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (225 ml) oil
2 cup (425 gr) sugar
4 eggs
2 cup (425 gr) bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup (200 gr) semisweet chocolate chip
3/4 cup toasted walnut (optional) 

What I did:

I only made half the recipe and fit 1 loaf pan. I divided all the ingredients into 2. I substituted the flour with the rice flour mix, in the ratio of 5 rice flour : 3.5 cornstarch : 1.5 sagoo flour. I reduced the sugar about 50 % to adjust my unsweet tooth. I also substituted white sugar with palm sugar.

82 gr rice flour
57 gr cornstarch
24 gr sagoo flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
110 ml oil
100 gr palm sugar
2 eggs
215 gr overripe bananas, mashed
1/2 tsp vanilla
100 gr chocolate chips

Methods:

Preheat oven 350F (180C). Line a loaf pan with baking paper and grease with margarine.
In a bowl, combine all the flour, baking soda and salt.
Using an electric mixer, beat oil and sugar. Add the eggs one by one. Keep beating.
Add in the bananas and vanilla. Beat well.
Sift in the flour mix. Mix well.
Stir in the chocolate chip and nuts.
Pour in the baking pan. Bake 60 - 65 minutes until done.

I submit this post to aspiring bakers # 22, lightened up cakes
hosted by Qi Ting of A Dessert Diet.

Enjoy!

gluten free banana chiffon cake

I have to thanks to God that my family do not have any problem with gluten. That's way I can easily bake cakes, cookies, or breads using wheat flour. But recently I become more interested in baking gluten free, since I read that too much gluten actually is not really good for our body.

So, this cake is a gluten-free version of my banana and gloutinous rice chiffon cake. I am quite happy with this cake. It came out beautiful. It had the same texture with the wheat-version of chiffon cake, light, moist and fluffy. Although that the taste is a bit slightly different. It is pretty tasty, only that we are not familiar with it.

Ingredients
The original recipe

60 gr plain flour

50 gr glutinous rice flour

35 gr caster sugar

1/2 tsp spekoek powder 

50 ml oil

30 ml coconut milk

75 gr bananas, mashed

5 egg yolks

5 eggs whites

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

75 gr sugar

What I did

80 gr rice flour

20 gr sagoo flour
10 gr maizena

35 gr caster sugar

3 tbs corn oil

105 gr overripe banana, mashed (weighed unskinned)
6 egg yolks

6 eggs whites

1/4 tsp salt

50 gr caster sugar
vanilla

I substituted the total amount of plain and gloutinuous rice flour for the mix of rice four, sagoo flour, and maizena.  I omitted the spekoek powder (my children do not like its taste :( ... ) and the cream of tartar. I also substituted the coconut milk for another mashed bananas. Because my eggs were extra small, I then added another 1 egg yolk and 1 egg white, if your eggs are extra large I think you do not need to do so. I also added a bit of vanilla for the flavour. Last, because banana is a good substitute for oil and sugar, then I reduced the amount of oil and sugar.  

Methods

• Preheat the oven
• In a bowl, place mashed banana and oil. Mix well.
• Sift together all flour. Add the caster sugar. Mix well.
• Gradually pour the bananas and oil mixture into the flour mixture. Mix well using a ballon whisk. Add the egg yolks. Mix well.
• Beat egg whites until foamy, gradually add salt and sugar, beat on high speed until just before stiff peak.
• Using a spatula, carefully fold the egg whites into the egg yolk batter until fully incorporated.
• Pour the batter into ungreased 20 cm chiffon pan. Bang the pan lightly a few times against the table top or floor to release the air bubbles.
• Bake for 60 minutes. Do not open the oven during the baking!
• Invert the pan and let it completely cool before removing the cake from the pan.

Note:
This cake is best eaten at the day it is baked. It will be a bit dry on the next day.

This post is my entry to aspiring bakers # 21 gluten free bakes (July 2012)

Update 5/7/2012: If you want to see the round up of this event please go to hankerie