The White Ramekins

food & photography

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

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Banana Chocolate Chip CakeTrying to strike a balance between work and some other priority stuff at home, I couldn’t bake from past two weeks. And that is the reason, I had been away from this wonderful space, silently looking through all the delicious photos which fellow bloggers had been pinning. And that made me slightly impatient. Eventually I couldn’t tame this growing impatience and I decided to bake a cake for my office colleagues.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake 2I chose to bake a banana cake as I had a bunch of spotted bananas on my kitchen counter, which were perfectly over ripened to go in a dessert.But I didn’t want a dense banana bread like texture, rather a moist cake was desired. I came across this recipe, which has got so many good reviews, I finally decided to go with this recipe from AllRecipes.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake 4I replaced the walnuts with dark chocolate chips, as this was for work on Monday and I wanted to cheer up the day for the guys by some chocolate. That really works. The cake was super moist because of the buttermilk. And it had enough bananas to get that sweet aroma. I also cut down a little on sugar as well and didn’t feel the need of frosting the cake at all as it was sweet enough for me.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake 3Within 10 minutes of opening the box, it was empty and I was happy to see that going so fast. I actually got this sweet idea of cheering up people on Monday at work from a sweet friend Charis, who recently did the same. Though I couldn’t capture the moments of joy, the way she did.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake 5So If you are up for sharing that joy and happiness through some food this festive season, this cake is for you.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt (skip if using salted butter)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Whisk together flour, salt and baking soda and keep aside.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and both the sugars. Add eggs one at a time and beat well to aerate the mixture, until pale and fluffy. Add bananas and mix well.
  3. Add flour mixture alternating with buttermilk and mix in chocolate chips.
  4. Pour the batter into a prepared 9 inch round spring form cake tin and bake for 60 minutes in a 180 degree preheated oven. Cover the cake loosely with an aluminum foil during the final 15 minutes of baking to prevent the cake from over browning. You could also divide the batter into two and bake in two separate cake tins as the original recipe suggests.
  5. Once done, let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then on a wire rack.

Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

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Somethings can’t be reasoned for, parent’s love and care for you is one such thing. Even after spending all these years away from them, I still feel the need for their warmth and love. I would miss my mother bringing hot and comforting bowl of soup when I am down with cold. Those unsaid words of my father, Sonny, I’ll fix you, all expressed by his warm and caring eyes would act like some kind of magic wand which would get you the assurance of security and stability, which no other thing on earth would ever get you.

Whole life changes for you, but this remains constant.  When I am home, me and my father wake up early to catch on with each other over morning chit chat, which usually stretches up to  noon. Meanwhile, he would be ready with his big bowl of fresh fruits and salad. He tries to make up for all the vitamins and minerals in one single meal, which I had lost during two weeks {he’s very well aware of my laziness about peeling and cutting fruits and vegetables, especially when it is for me alone}.

And by the time we finish our course of good healthy salad, mother gets the yummy food ready, which would normally comprise of subji, chapati and and cool glass of buttermilk. That simple and sober taste can’t be replaced by anything. Then a quick afternoon nap, we would be ready to chat over teatime which would again extend in to dinner time. And this repeats for the other day too.

The excitement of meeting them and chatting with them for long hours on weekends keeps me going through two maddening weeks at work.   I was called up on work this Saturday {some urgent client deliverable}, so I baked some cookies on Friday night, boxed them and took them home for my parents, little nieces and nephew. This time I took the recipe from one of the cookbooks which I have on my tiny bookshelf and changed it to have little more healthfulness and wholesomeness. For which I replaced some plain flour with some whole wheat flour and some rolled oats. They came out so delicious they didn’t last long {despite I promised myself one cookie a day, which was obviously not kept…hehe}.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
225 gm semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

Instructions

  1. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and keep aside.
  2. Put butter and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
  3. Reduce speed to low. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined.
  4. Mix in banana. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined.
  5. Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and walnuts.
  6. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 2 inches apart.
  7. Bake cookies on 180 degree Celsius preheated oven for 12-13 minutes.
  8. Cool on wire rack and store in an airtight container.

Famous Cookies & Decadent Chocolate Chippers…and Joy of Giving, a fundraiser

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I have been waiting for this fundraiser event to happen in my office…Joy of Making, Joy of Giving. This event calls for the employees to come together for a charitable cause. Make crafts, bakes, sweets etc…whichever skill they are good at. All the funds raised go to an orphanage, adapted by my employer.

And this is the second time I am participating in this bake sale. Last time I had baked chocolate chip cookies for this event and I was overwhelmed by the response. All the cookies got sold off within an hour. And I could very easily figure out what homemade goodies sells and what doesn’t at a bake sale. So cookies were the obvious choice this time as well.

For a change, I baked cookies of two kinds; One healthier recipe having Oatmeal, chocolate chip, walnuts and grated chocolate and the other one contrasting decadent recipe having chunks and chunks of chocolates.

Seeing me baking goodies for a noble cause, my friends dropped in to help me out in packaging the cookies. One of them brought the brown paper to make paper bags, and another one suggested me to print labels so that I could share the recipe with the buyers through my blog. That friend of mine has some good marketing skills I must say.

This whole exercise was entirely enjoyable, especially the packaging part, which reminded me of my good old school days, when we used to spend summer vacations doing school assigned craft work. Those were such wonderful and carefree days, of course barring the home work. 🙂

Famous Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup quick rolled oats, pulsed in blender or 10-15 seconds {i used quaker}
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt {omit if using slated butter}
½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
50 gm shredded semi sweet chocolate

Instructions

  1. Mix the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda well and keep aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla extract.
  4. Mix in the flour into the egg mixture.
  5. Mix in chocolate chips, walnuts and shredded chocolate.
  6. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit. On a baking tray, drop 1 tbsp of the cookie mixture 5 cm apart and bake them for about 12 minutes. Bake them for two minutes extra if you want your cookies to be crispier rather than chewy.

Decadent Chocolate Chippers

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt {omit if using slated butter}
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chunks

Instructions

  1. Mix the flour and baking soda well and keep aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla extract.
  4. Mix in the flour into the egg mixture.
  5. Mix in chocolate chunks.
  6. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit. On a baking tray, drop 1 tbsp of the cookie mixture 5 cm apart and bake them for about 12 minutes.