Banana and Choc Chip Cake.......

Hello there!

It's Wednesday...as good a day as any to talk all things cake don't you think?? Yep...thought as much...

                                                                               

To be exact we are talking, discussing, drooling over Banana Cake...that would be Banana Cake with Choc Chips melted and swirled all the way through....

                                                                                   

Mmmmmmmmmmm.........

                                                                                 

When I went hunting for a banana cake recipe recently I was looking for something tasty and easy...as always. Anyway, this one is made a little differently to the usual method of making a cake but definitely no more difficult. Definitely!!
Shall we get on with the all important stuff then??

                                                                       
                                                 Banana and Choc Chip Cake      

Ingredients      

125 gm butter
1/3 cup raw sugar
1 1/2 cups SR flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg - slightly whisked (just grab and use a fork)
2 ripe bananas - mashed
1/4 cup milk
Choc Chips - as many as you like

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees

2. Grab a saucepan and melt the butter, sugar and vanilla

3. Once melted take it off the heat and throw in your mashed up bananas. Stir until just blended.

4. Now mix in the whisked egg.

5. Stir through the flour, then the milk.

6. Lastly toss in those delicious little choc chips. Once these hit the still-warm mixture they will immediately start to melt. Work kind of quickly so that you will still have some chunky bits of the choc chips as well as the beautiful melted chocolatey swirls.

7. Tip mix into a greased and lined cake tin.

8. Bake for approx 30 - 40 mins...depending on your oven.

9. Allow to cool a few minutes in the tin until tipping out onto a cooling rack.

10. I strongly STRONGLY suggest you try some of this whilst still warm. Seriously!!!

                                                                         

My plan when I baked this was to spread some type of icing on top...vanilla probs...but it really doesn't need it. My son can be a pain rather finicky about muffins, apple/banana/orange cakes etc, seems to think they are only worth eating if smothered in some sort of sickly sweet icing, but even he is happy to scoff this down naked. The cake I mean. Nobody is allowed to eat naked around here. A little off-putting to fellow family members.....

                                                                                 

So there we have it...afternoon tea is sorted for today.

                                                                                 

                                                                               

Enjoy!!!

See you soon......


                                                                              Janelle  xx
                                                                                 
                                                                    

DIY Dipped Stool.........

Hey there and Happy Tuesday!! Got your paint brush ready? We are talking paint projects today folks. Well...we are talking about A paint project...and I"M actually doing all the chatting...but you get my drift.....

OK!! Here is the necessary horrid doesn't-matter-how-you-try-to-style-it-it-will-still-look-horrid before shot.....

                                                                                   

It had already started it's transformation here...when I purchased this, a year or so ago from a church fete for about $2, it was topped with a lovely crusty brown vinyl cover on top....mmmmm....nice.....

So...first thing to do was rip off and promptly bin that vinyl cover, give it a good scrub all over and a sand.

Then...undercoat...

                                                                                   

Looking better already!! I did toy briefly with the idea of just leaving it all white (I know!! Shock right?!) but thought I'd best step out of my comfort zone and add a touch of colour.....

                                                                                 

That's right. Grey. And not too much grey. Just a little around the top. Don't want to go overboard and all crazy......

                                                                                 

Actually I'm really quite pleased with how this turned out. I know this whole 'dipped' thing is a craze with a time limit but I think it's added a little fun and interest to what was an old and tired stool.

Now...where to put it.......

                                                                                   

Anyone else got any projects or painting on the go? Keeps us out of trouble I say......

Have a fab week folks...............


                                                               Janelle  xx
                                                               

Easy Apple Muffins.....

Well hey there!! How's your Saturday treating you so far? We are having a nice quiet one with hopefully a little gardening, painting and of course baking involved. Apparently some of us are blogging too.....

                                                                                 

                                                                                   

So I wanted to quickly share with you guys this basic BASIC muffin recipe. I've thrown in some apple and voila!...we have scrumptious cannot-stop-eating-them Apple Muffins!!

                                                                                 

Want the recipe???

                                                                               

                                                                                     

                                                                               

             
                                                                Apple Muffins  

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup raw sugar (or white...whatever you have)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk
1-2 peeled and grated apples

                                                                                   
Method    
1. Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees

2. Throw all ingredients into a bowl

3. Stir until all is just combined (don't over mix though)

4. Spoon into either cupcake papers, muffin liners, or whatever else you can think of

5. Bake for about 20 minutes

                                                                                     

                                                                                   

 6. Optional extra - top with vanilla icing and sprinkle a little cinnamon over

7. Now for goodness sakes get eating!!!

                     
                                                                                   

These are so easy to make it is ridiculous and the real beauty of them is that you can soooo easily replace the apple with whatever the heck you please!! Actually I'd love to hear what else you like to throw in your muffins...always up for some fresh baking ideas!!

                                                                                 

                               
Now I believe a cup of coffee and something apple-y are calling my name.....

Have a fab weekend won't you!!

See you next week............


                                                                          Janelle  xx

                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                 

Sunday Catch Up.......

Hello? Anybody still out there???
Actually I can't really blame you if you haven't been around here much lately as clearly...neither have I!!?! Not for want of loving this little space here...much more ...yawn...boring than that...yep, just normal everyday life has seemed to be rather full on of late.
HOWEVER!!!...I am determined to make more time for popping in here as I really do love a good blogging sesh.
Ok...so where do we begin...how's about here, in my shop. Yep...MY SHOP!!!!
Yay for me!!! Ahem....ok not so subtle but I am really pleased to finally have somewhere special to pop all my little handmade goodies in as I create them...

                                                                               

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AWhiteFarm?ref=search_shop_redirect

Painting of course is still continuing...as it always seems to continue in some form or another around here. After painting the living room chimney charcoal grey I was innocently sitting at our dining table one evening when I happened to glance from the freshly painted living room chimney over to the unsuspecting kitchen chimney...I think we can all guess what happened next.....

                                                                               

                                                                                  

Yep.

And whilst we're talking all things kitchen...?..here's a pic I snapped of our "new and improved...kind of" dining area.....featuring new dining chairs and THE rug that has been dragged all about the house a few hundred times until I got fed up with it, sewed the three runners together and shoved it under the dining table as a kind of experiment.....

                                                                                   

So far I love having a rug under the table...cosys things up AND hides a million and one crumbs...but I am on the lookout for a diff rug which is actually proving a tad trickier than one would think as our table is pretty large so I have to find an extra large rug to sit well and be in proportion with everything...any suggestions on shops or websites with fabulous floor rugs are more than welcome...:))...

                                                                                     

                                               
And on a bit of a sad note here is our teeny tiny lamb Max who we found abandoned in our paddock a month or so ago...he is only a few hours old here...look at that cute saggy baggy skin. Anyway...we brought Max in and fed him...gave hin a little home...and tried to fatten him up...however sadly Max was only strong enough to survive a week before he passed away from what we suspect was pneumonia...he did liven up our household whilst he was around though...

                                                                                   

On a cheerier note...baking!!! OF COURSE we have been baking up a storm as usual - recipe coming up this week - though if you follow me on instagram (awhitefarm) you will know my trusty old electric hand mixer decided to completely blow up on me and has left me whisking and stirring things by hand. BY HAND!!! I am currently saving pennies to purchase a benchtop electric mixer...donations can be forwarded to the farm thanks......

                                                                               

And I think I'll wrap things up here...I hope you have all been keeping well and happy and continue to stick around here for a chat...hoping to give this little part of the blogging world a bit of an update over the next few weeks...fingers crossed I don't accidently delete the whole thing!!?!!

Oh and pop over to my instagram feed to be in the running to win one of these snuggly chunkies...

                                                                               

It's easy peasy to enter...plus I'd love to see you over there...lot's of fun...promise!!

See you soon....


                                                  Janelle  xx