Banana Oreo Muffins & Oreo Cream Chiffon Cake

Hi all! I'm back. :) I was away for a few good days and it seems like a few weeks to me! :P Perhaps it's the super long flights I had to take to and fro or maybe it's the 15 hours time difference between the countries made me a little out of my system now. Nevertheless, I am glad this short trip back to California got all the urgent matters settled. :) I have much to tell you folks about my trip but I guess it'll be in another post since I have yet got my photos & stuff organized. So don't go too far my friends!

Today I wanted to blog about a couple of bakes I did awhile back. Nothing fancy but its something I would recommend to you all out there. :) First up is Banana Oreo Muffins which I first saw at Jess's blog (A.K.A. Bakericious). She got this recipe from Cuisine Pardise. Since my kids are Oreo junkies, I guess this recipe will definitely be a hit.

So here it is my version:I did a slight modification to the recipe, so here is my version:

Recipe for Banana Oreo Muffins:
220g butter, room temperature
180 caster sugar
4 large eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla essence / extract
3 medium bananas, mashed with fork
110g plain flour
110g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
50ml buttermilk (~50ml fresh milk + 1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice)
100g Oreo Cookies blended till fine crumbs
12 - 16 pieces of Oreo mini cookies for garnishing (optional)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 175C. Prepare a baking tray with about 16 muffin cups.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar together till light and fluffy. Crack an egg in the mixture one at a time, making sure it is well blended before adding the next.
• Add in mashed bananas, vanilla extract and mix well again.
• Now add in the plain flour and mix well. Follow by adding the buttermilk and mix again. Then add in the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and mix till just combined.
• Lastly, stir in the blended Oreo crumbs and mix till uniform.
  
• Pour the cake batter into the muffin paper liners all the way to 3/4 full. Top it off with a small Oreo cookie and repeat till all the batter has been used up.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes still the tester comes out clean. Remove muffins from oven and let cool on rack before serving.

I have omitted the condensed milk in the original recipe and replace it with buttermilk. The outcome was still really good. :) *phew* This is truly a nice and versatile recipe, do try it out! ;P The muffins were soft and very flavorful, banana and Oreo scent that is. :) My kids loved it and so did I. :) The only down side to this is the cookie on top tends to soften on the next day. :P But I guess it can't be helped. :P

The remaining batter was made into a mini loaf cake which was great too. :) I will make this again next time when I have the same ingredients sitting in my kitchen. :) Thanks to Ellena and Jess. :)

The other Oreo bake is actually a birthday cake I made for my niece. She is also a BIG fan of Oreo cookies, so choosing this flavor was obvious. :)

The Oreo chiffon cake used here is the same recipe I used in my Oreo Yule Log Cake. Main difference is I made it in a tube pan and ice it up with Valrohna chocolate cream, topped it off with a generous layer of Oreo crumbs and stick mini Oreos all around it.

Sorry folks, no sliced up photo for this one. I made and gave the whole cake to my niece, so I didn't even see how it is inside....not to mention how it taste, lol! But since my niece had raved about this Oreo chiffon the previous time, I was sure she'll love it. :)

Talking about chiffon cakes....I have this big order of 10 (20cm) chiffon cakes of 3 different flavors this week. Scary right? 10 chiffon in one day! Lol! With proper time planning, I'm sure I can do it, but it's the washing up part that I'm dreading. *sigh* :P Anyway, wish me plenty of luck.... multiply by 10. :)) Will let you folks know the outcome in my next post.

Got to go now, you all have a good day!