Bento #209 - Chicken Ham + Tuna Sandwich

It's Wednesday, if you do pack bento for your love one or maybe yourself and would like to share it, please feel free to join Shannon's "What's for Lunch Wednesday". It's my first time joining, happy to see many creative lunches there (^.^). Come, join the fun!

Back to bento today, the recipe again simply created by me! Kekekeke... I spread some tuna on a piece of chicken ham, put some cheddar cheese on top then sent to oven for 5 minutes. I cut two flowers from chicken ham and the small flower is from seapack. The kiwi ripen not well although it has been sitting in fridge for a week. I think Isaac gonna bring back to me later, he doesn't like sour fruit.

The sandwich filling Before and After

Bento #192 - Banana Bear

This is my 3rd attempt to bake cake, but this time is banana cake. Remember the first two attempts wasn't that successful and I have figured out where went wrong. This time I sifted the flour, I heated the oven earlier, I used butter instead of margarine and beat it longer.

The banana cupcake taste so nice while it is still hot, it's loose and soft inside. Banana is one of Isaac's favourite fruit, therefore he loves this cupcake more compare with previous two cupcakes. I decorated the cupcake into little brown bear. As you can see, the ears were cut from banana cake too... (^.^)

Ingredients:(around 16 cupcakes)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
230g Self Raising Flour
230g Butter, softened at room temperature
160g Castor Sugar
300g Banana (mash it)
3 Eggs, at room temperature
1/2 Teaspoon Banana Essence (I forgot to buy therefore I use vanilla essence)
1/3 cup of hazelnut (mash it and bake in oven until golden)

Methods:
1. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
2. Add eggs, beat until well combined.
3. Sift self raising flour over butter mixture and mix well.
4. Add in vanilla essence, mashed banana and hazelnut then mix well.
5. Preheat the oven to 175 degree.
6. Line 16 paper cups in muffin tray.
7. Put the mixture into muffin tray then put 3-4 hazelnut on top.
8. Bake the cake for 15 - 20 minutes until light golden.

Pumpkin Hazelnut Cupcake

Recently I am keen on baking cupcake, trying to find a recipe that Isaac love so that I can bake some for his friends on his birthday or kindy event. This is my 2nd attempt, recipe is grabbed from My Kitchen.

Ingredients:(around 24 cupcakes)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
250g Unsalted Butter
180g Castor Sugar
3 Large Eggs
150g Steamed Pumpkin, mashed
300g Self-raising Flour
20g Corn Flour
60g Milk
150g Pumpkin, peeled and diced
Pinch of salt
Raw Hazelnut (mash and bake in oven until it turns to light brown)
Pumpkin slices, for topping (optional)
Pineapple-cane Sugar (optional)

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 175ºC. Line and grease the baking pan.
2. Cream butter together with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and cream until light and smooth or the colour turned pale.
3. Stir in mashed pumpkin and mix until well blended.
4. Sift together flours and salt, fold into the mixture alternate with milk. Mix until well combined then stir in diced pumpkin and baked hazelnut.
5. Line paper cups in muffin tray, transfer batter in to paper cups.
6. Arrange pumpkin slices on the surface and sprinkle with pineapple-cane sugar. You may also add some pumpkin seeds.
7. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until it is cooked. Cool on rack.


The appearance and taste was quite nice, however I still not satisfied with the result. It didn't raise as what I have expected, middle part is quite dense. After discussing with my colleagues, we concluded that: 1st, butter + sugar is not beat until pale and creamy. 2nd, flour should be sifted before use (I skipped this step as I thought this small action it will not make any different)

Cool, at least I know roughly where went wrong. I will give 3rd try during school holiday. Hope it success this time....

Bento #182 - Raisin Hazelnut Butter Cupcake

Lots of blogger friends love baking, their "masterpiece" always make me drool with envy. Few month ago, newspaper published a recipe on how to make cupcake, it has detail photos shown. I kept that copy and decided to give a try yesterday after so long.

Silly me, I was expecting muffin but I got butter cake. By looking at the ingredients, should know it's butter cake right? kekekeke..... Have such result on first try I am quite satisfied (^.^) Isaac put some sprinker on few cupcakes, they are for himself and his cousins.

Ingredients:(around 16 cupcakes)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
230g Self Raising Flour
230g Butter, softened at room temperature
160g Castor Sugar
3 Eggs, at room temperature
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1/2 cup of raisin
1/3 cup of hazelnut

Methods:
1. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
2. Add eggs, beat until well combined.
3. Sift self raising flour over butter mixture and mix well.
4. Add in vanilla essence and raisin then mix well.
5. Preheat the oven to 175 degree.
6. Line 16 paper cups in muffin tray.
7. Put the mixture into muffin tray then put 3-4 hazelnut on top.
8. Bake the cake for 15 - 20 minutes until light golden.