Going bananas - Banana Cake and Banana Cream Cheese Muffin

I went bananas over the weekend, by baking 2 banana recipes! Ever since I saw Annie's FB posting on her moist banana cake recipe, I was obsessed with it! It's been yonks since I baked banana muffins and suddenly I had this huge craving :p The photo posted by Annie was simply too tempting lah!

 

The thing about banana cake is, we have to use very ripe, in fact over-riped bananas. We are not big on bananas in my family, I mean we buy them only occasionally, so I didn't have any bananas on hand to bake! Was at the supermarket and decide to just buy a bunch and let it ripen. Wanted to buy the small ones as recommended by Annie but they were sold in huge bunches of at least 20 bananas, why would I want so many of them? Had to settle for the usual Delmonte ones. Silly me, should have just go to the wet market.

 

Anyways, I patiently waited for the bananas to ripen (even put them into a plastic bag together with an apple to hasten the ripening process) and finally on Saturday evening, it was time to bake!

 

Started on the banana cake recipe first. The steps are pretty straightforward and I didn't modify any ingredients or steps. I used about 4 bananas which came to about 240g as stated in the recipe.

 

The baking time took about 50-55 mins and thereafter I had to wait for about 20-30 mins to let the cake cool down before removing it from the baking tin. It was still quite hot when I removed the cake so I let it cool down further and finally after another 15 mins, I couldn't stand it anymore and decided to just cut a corner to munch. I was famished coz I didn't take dinner to save tummy space for the cake :p

 

 

It was sooooo good! Moist and tender with intoxicating taste of banana! It must be the best banana cake I've ever eaten =D

In fact, the banana cake tasted even better the next day as the banana flavour was fully infused and developed.

As I was washing up and waiting for the banana cake to be baked, I stared at the remaining 2 bananas and decided to just use them up. I remember seeing a Banana Cream Cheese Muffin by Rasa Malaysia recently and very intrigued by how it would taste like.

I refered to both the recipes by Rasa Malaysia and the original author, Bakedbree, and combined/adpated the methods of both :)

Banana Cream Cheese Muffin
(makes about 15-16 regular size muffins)

Banana Muffin

• 192g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 112g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 112g cream cheese
• 90g caster sugar
• 60g soft brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 over-riped bananas, mashed
• 15-16 pieces walnut

Cream Cheese Filling

• 112g cream cheese
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius.
2. Mix all the ingredients of the cream cheese filling until well blended and smooth. Transfer the filling into a piping bag fitted with a small pointed piping tip. Set aside preferably in fridge as the filling is a little runny.
3. Sieve the plain flout, baking soda, baking powder, fine salt and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Beat the butter, cream cheese and sugars in an electric mixer till creamy and fluffy.
5. Add the egg and vanilla extract, mix until combined.
6. Add the dry ingredients, one tablespoon at a time, mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
7. Gently fold in the mashed bananas.
8. Using spoon or ice-cream scoop, fill each muffin case with the batter about 3/4 full.
9. Pipe cream cheese filling into the batter. Top with walnut.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Ok, so how did the Banana Cream Cheese Muffin taste like? It was quite a complex taste, with the aroma and taste of banana, a tinge of saltiness from the cream cheese, distinct taste of cinnamon, nuttiness of walnut... Very moist and a little dense.

Verdict from hubby? He prefered the good old banana cake. I agree with him. The traditional banana cake is simple and straightforward, just the rich taste of banana, nothing more to complicate the tastebuds. The banana cream cheese muffin is confusing with too many different tastes vying for attention. Although it is nice, you get sick of it after a few bites and the tastebud got overwhelmed. But the banana cake, you could have a few slices at one go and still craving for more! Well, I must compliment the muffin for it looks prettier than the banana cake. 外在美  vs 内在美!

I gave a quarter of the banana cake to MIL, and hubby brought half to his office. According to him, the cake received ravings from his colleagues and there weren't enough for seconds.

Ok, not sure if I would give the banana cream cheese muffin a second chance, it did look very pretty you know. Probably I would omit the cinnamon next time to see how it goes. But for now, I'll stick to the banana cake recipe.