Du Gâteau | Making Farah Quinn's Sugar Free Banana Cake (A TMI Walk-Through Baking Process)

Who has been into baking lately? I was struggling because there was no baking equipment nor the ingredients at home. Luckily, I managed to collect some throughout the months, and thus, trying other's recipes only gets easier from now on. 

    I've tried Joshua Weissman's Best Burger Buns and Soft Pretzel, Molly Baz's Strawberry Shortcake (Who else have been missing videos from Bon Appetit? I hope they settle things well...), Tasty's Macaron, Korean Garlic Bread from Tasyi Athasyia, Flour n Flower's Pon De Ring... quite a few. It was a journey of learning the characteristics of each ingredient and process. It taught me that you can kill the yeast by overdoing the dough, that dough starts to smell funny if you happen to rise your dough for too long, that meringue should be baked at low temperature for a long time or else you'll get burnt crust and ooey-gooey sticky sugary mess on the inside *sweep tears*.

    This time, I tried documenting the process of making banana cakes. Why banana cake? Because I recall Mrs. Music said in her Banana Bread video that over-riped bananas are perfect for banana bread and I happen to have heaps of them, some of which are on the verge of turning into complete darkness. But I did not try her recipe because standing mixer was involved to cream the butter. I'm trying to minimize the use of a standing mixer since it is heavy QAQ

1. The Recipe

   

I stumbled upon Farah Quinn's Sugar-Free Banana Cake. She did use a blender in the early step, but that's okay because my blender consumes less electricity than the mixer I have at home. Here are the ingredients for the cake, for more detailed information on the measurements, I suggest you checking Farah's video:

Wet Ingredients:

• Over-riped bananas
• Dates (pits removed)
• Hot water
• Full cream milk
• Vegetable oil
• Whole eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Apple cider vinegar

Dry Ingredients:

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt

    Let's discuss the ingredients. I used 2 kinds of bananas, Pisang Tanduk (Musa x paradisiaca) and Pisang Raja (Musa sapientum), both are Indonesian bananas. I tried to google their scientific name, but the results might be inaccurate. 

    I kind of regretting my choice to go with mostly Pisang Tanduk because of the texture. Although it tastes sweet, riped Pisang Tanduk stay firmer and tougher than any other riped bananas. It also has a kind of astringent taste. I was afraid that the cake might turn out dry (spoiler: it did). Therefore, I opted to add buttercream frosting on the top (ended up using the hand mixer for 2 minutes). For the next attempt, I would recommend using softer bananas like Cavendish, Pisang Raja, or Pisang Susu so that you can get a sweeter and fluffier cake which is creamy even without the help of frosting.

    Ingredients for the buttercream is 150 gr of margarine (I ran out of butter), 60 ml of raw honey, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. It was the buttercream recipe I used for the macaron filling. The original buttercream recipe called for 30 gr of powdered sugar, but I was not sure whether I can use the same amount of honey to fluff out the butter or not. So I doubled the measurement to 60 ml of honey. It tasted good and the margarine fluffs well. However, adding vanilla extract was too much. Also, the buttercream volume increases a lot after mixing, the frosting came out too much for the cakes. I would recommend only using 100 gr of butter/margarine, 60 ml of honey, and no vanilla extract (the cake will turn out fragrant enough from the vanilla extract in the batter). Replacing butter with margarine is okay as long as you use regular margarine and not the reduced-fat one.

    As for the date, I used Medjool Dates. Medjool Dates are larger, darker, and sweeter than other dates. In the preparation step, Mrs. Quinn told us to blend the dates with milk and vegetable oil. Her date blend looks looser than mine. Mine was just plopped into the bowl (lol) so I added 50 ml more milk to thin out the mixture.

    As for the vegetable oil, I was torn between using palm oil or olive oil. In the end, I used palm oil because I was afraid that the high temperature will break the olive oil. It works well. Next, let's go to the processing steps.

2. The Process

A. Preparation steps:

1. Soaking the dates
• Soak the dates (pits already removed) in 50 ml of hot water until soft
2. Blending the dates
• Put all of the dates, water to soak the dates with,  milk, and vegetable oil into a blender and blend until just combined. Set aside.
  
3. Mashing the bananas
• Into a large bowl, mash the bananas using a fork. It is okay to leave out some bits to get a chunky mixture. Set aside.
  
4. Grease the baking pan
• Spray on grease or coat the sides of the tin with a thin layer of softened butter. Set aside. 
  

For the preparation steps, it would be easier if you are using soft and mushy bananas. Unlike the Pisang Tanduk one. You can see me struggling to mash it with a fork using one hand (the other hand was holding the camera). 

If you are using small tins instead of one large baking tin, you can grease the tins in advance if you have the space to set the tins aside. Since I was short on storage space, I greased the tins after the batter is ready. 

B. Processing the Wets

1. Pour the date blend into the mashed bananas, stir until just combined,
2. Add in the vanilla extract, mix well,
3. Add in the apple cider vinegar, continue mixing until well-incorporated. Set aside.
   

C. Processing the Dry

1. Into a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until just combined. 
   

D. Processing the Batter

1. Add the dry ingredients mix into the wet ingredients, stir well until there is no flour pocket,
   
2. Pour the batter into the greased baking tin until half of the tin (the batter will rise during the baking process),
   
3. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 °C for 35-40 min.
   

I used 15 small tins to bake the cake. Because I want to give everyone the same amount of cake, I weighted the batter in each tin. Then I baked them for 35 minutes, but they didn't pass the toothpick test, so I rotated the tray and baked for 5 more minutes. Let them rest until completely room temperature before adding the frosting.

E. The Frosting (Optional)

1. In a medium bowl, add 100 gr of butter/margarine, cream using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment for approx. 30 seconds,
   
2. Add in the honey gradually while still creaming the margarine. Continue mixing until the color lightens and the mixture doubled in volume. Set aside.

After letting the cake cool down, add frosting on top of the cake. Do your fancy, if you want to use a piping bag, use a piping bag. I just scooped out the frosting and spread on the cake using a spoon. Finishes with sprinkles of crushed palm sugar on top. Do your own touch, add shaved dark chocolate instead or leave them without the frosting. Good luck <3

3. Additional Notes

1. The preparation step is important for every baking/cooking attempt. It embodies the mise en place where we should be putting ingredients and tools on stand-by.  
2. In every baking attempts, I always use a bigger bowl for the wet ingredients because, later on, the dry will be added into the wet. The bowl which you use to mix the dry ingredients will leave no traces after you pour it into the wet, that way, cleaning the dishes would be easier. Moreover, you don't have to worry about overflowing the batter even after the volume is doubled up after adding all the ingredients.
3. Always try to clean as you go. It is tough, especially if you don't have an adequate baking station like the ones you see on youtube and/or bakery where the fridge, sink, stove, counter, and oven all in a single room. But yes, we can still find things out. Plan your move first right after you learn the recipes so that you are working efficiently. We don't want to use a wet measuring spoon from the vanilla extract to scoop out the baking powder, but we also don't want to use too many spoons as it is going to add more dish to wash.
4. I wrapped the final result in plastic because I wanted to send them out to my family members.  The cakes were put in the fridge immediately after packed while waiting for the delivery service.  I left out a piece to keep in the fridge for 2 more days for me to test out the shelf life. The cake turned out fine after 2 days. though I wouldn't recommend leaving them any longer. For the frosted version, they are best consumed on the same day as the baking day after chilled in the fridge for 1 hour (or after the frosting slightly hardens). For the no-frosting version, you might want to consume them freshly baked.
5. Mrs. Carla mentioned this in her video: whether this dessert is a cake or a bread. IMO, this is a cake, since they came out from a batter and not a dough. How do you think? Let me know in the comment section below :)