Semi-fail bakes

2011 is coming to an end... so I thought to post a few of my "semi-fail" bakes. Yes.. BakingTray does fail!! I think it is all part of the learning process and all part of baking! You learn from the mistakes you make and you improve the recipe by changing it here and there. I haven't had time to improve these 2 recipes but I can give you the original if you want to try and improve =D

1) Peanut butter cookies (adapted from Bluebakeblog's Nutella cookies)

Ingredients
1 egg
2 tbs peanut butter
1 cup of self raising flour (a little less than 1 cup actually)~
2 tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC
2. Beat egg and peanut butter together until a nice consistency.
3. Sift the self raising flour with cornflour mixture into the egg and peanut butter mixture and mix, add the salt too and further mix.
4. Roll into 24 evenly divided ball shapes. Then place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and press them gently, to make them a little flatter so that they'll stay.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 
6. Top cookies with chocolate ganache and a roasted peanut.

Problems: When rolling the cookies up they kept falling apart because they were too dry. The flavour was quite intense....

Improvements: These cookies were quite dry so maybe by adding more peanut butter or another egg would improve texture. OR.. just stick to nutella =p

It's hard to make these look pretty ><"

2) Mango cheesecake (adapted from Woolworths FRESH magazine, Issue 70, December 2011: Mixed Berry Cheesecake)


Ingredients
125g Milk Arrowroot biscuits (i used Marie biscuits), broken
75g butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tbs caster sugar
1  tsp cornflour
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tbs boiling water
1 tbs gelatine
250g cream cheese
2/3 cup sour cream (i used thickened cream)
1/3 cup caster sugar, extra
1 mango diced (original recipe was for mixed berry cheesecake so they used 1 punnet each strawberries, blurberries and raspberries)
1/4 cup raspberry jam 

1. Line base and sides of 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
2. Process biscuits in food processor until finely crushed. Add butter and process until well combined. Press firmly over base of tin and refrigerate.
3. Separate eggs and set whites aside. Beat egg yolks with caster sugar and cornflour until thick and pale.
4. Heat milk in small saucepan until almost boiling. Gradually whisk into egg mixture. Return mixture to pan and stir over medium heat until custard thickens. Remove from heat, cover and cool.
5. Place boiling water into a jug and sprinkle over gelatine. Stir until gelatine dissolves and stir into custard.
6. Beat cream cheese, sour cream and extra caster sugar until smooth. Fold custard mixture into cream cheese mixture.
7. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold lightly into mixture.
8. Stir through diced mango and spoon mixture over base. Refrigerate overnight.
9. Heat jam for 30 sec in microwave. Press through sieve to remove seeds. Spoon over the top of cheesecake and chill for 10 minutes.

Problems: After overnight refrigeration the cheesecake was SUPER soft! Also wasn't as sweet as I would like.

Improvements: I substituted sour cream with thickened cream but maybe I should have stuck to the original. I had to out the cheesecake into the freezer because it was too soft.. so when it came out it tasted like icecream :D or parfait! ^^"

I guess it kind of looks nice =p haha a bit icey though..

So those are a few of the semi-fail recipes I have tried! I hope you will all try these recipes and be more successful than me :) then share with me your tips and secrets so I can succeed too! hehe... till next year~~ KEEP UP THE BAKING =D

- BakingTray - 

Going BANANAS~~

I'm so happy because the price of bananas has FINALLY gone down! Now less than 2 dollars =D That means ...... more BANANAS! our fruitbowl is now whole again =) My craving of bananas was finally satisfied. This also means that all the banana recipes that I had kept could be used =D
So first up is BANANA cake! First time I have used this recipe. It's quite moist and dense but full of banana flavour!.. and don't forget! really simple~ 
Adapted from Exclusively Food.

Ingredients
125g butter, softened 
330g (1 1/2 cups) sugar - I used brown sugar
280g (1 very slightly rounded cup) very ripe, mashed banana - around 2 bananas
1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence
2 large eggs 
100ml milk
225g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda


1. Preheat oven to 160oC. Grease cake tin and line with baking paper.
2.Place butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor (or large bowl and beat with electric mixer). Process for ~2 minutes. Add milk and pulse to combine.
3. Add sifted flour and bicarb soda and mix until combined.
4. Pour batter into cake tin and bake for around 50-60 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
5. Leave cake to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, spread cream cheese frosting and decorate with banana pieces.


So what are you waiting for?? GO BANANASSSS~~~ @_@ :D