Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Recipe: Spook-tacular Halloween Coffin Cake

Since Halloween is drawing close (31st Oct!), we decided to do some Halloween bakes with the kids. We had some overripe bananas, so banana loaf it is! You can also make this using a butter cake base, but banana loaf is good for this recipe as banana loaves are not very pretty and that makes it perfect for Halloween ;P

The cake should be made in a rectangular tin (9" x 4") to achieve the coffin look. Once the cake has cooled, cut a triangle from all sides and then slice 2cm horizontally from the top for the coffin top. Hubby even made a "mummy" using one of our kids toy as a prop. Finish the look with creepy crawlies for a spook-tacular Halloween coffin cake!


Halloween Coffin Cake



Expertly baked by #babysumokids, styled by mummy and daddy ;)





Halloween Coffin Cake
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from here
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45-50 minutes
Serves 6-8


Ingredients
250g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
100g sultanas or raisins
100g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp milk
3 large overripe bananas, mashed



1.Preheat the oven to 190°C (no fan). Grease and line the base of a 9"x 4" loaf tin with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon into a large bowl. Add the sultanas/raisins and mix with a wooden spoon.

3. Place melted butter, vanilla essence, egg, milk and mashed bananas into another bowl and mix with a whisk or fork.



4. Pour the wet ingredients (from Step 3) into the dry mixture (from Step 2) and combine thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

5. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.

6. Using a bread knife, slice a triangle bit off from each side to make the coffin shape. Then, slice the cake horizontally 2cm from the top.


Top right piece stolen and eaten by Baby D before I managed to snap a photo. :P


7. Decorate with spiders and a mummy.







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Monday, October 26, 2015

Juicing for Health with Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer

At home, we generally eat healthily and consume a balanced and varied diet. Together with Hubby, we have been considering juicing as an option for the whole family to maintain good health. We feel that the benefits from raw fruits and vegetables consumed as juices is something we want to introduce to our lifestyle and hopefully instill good dietary habits in our children.

We recently attended a book launch by Kuvings and MPH, and after listening to the personal story of the author, Sara Ding, and reading the book from cover to cover, we have now embarked on our own juicing journey.

The latest addition to our kitchen is the Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer (Model B6000R - RRP RM2,698), the world's first wide mouth slow juicer. It uses low speed masticating method, with a single auger juicing screw which allows efficient extraction and minimal separation in juice. The powerful motor is quiet and can operate for up to 30 minutes in one session.




Why are we juicing?

Fortunately for us, our children are not very picky eaters. However, we believe that through juicing, we can contribute to them getting their 5-a-day (fruit and veg) in a fuss-free manner whilst arguably being beneficial to their health, with their bodies absorbing essential nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytonutrients and antioxidants.  Furthermore, with the recent haze, we are even more determined to hydrate their young bodies; drinking fruit and veg is a fun alternative fluid intake supplementing their good habit of drinking sufficient water.

We also believe "prevention is better than cure", hence by hydrating ourselves and nourishing our bodies with fresh juices, in the long run, our bodies will reap the benefits and our kids will continue to grow healthy and strong.

Although we have only had our Kuvings slow juicer for 1 week, I am absolutely loving it. I wake up every morning, looking forward to my fresh juices.

Our kids love being part of our juicing journey



 Which type of juicer is best?

There are currently two main types of juicers in the market, namely the centrifugal juicer and the slow (masticating) juicer. A slow juicer is recommended as it runs on slow speed (40 to 160 rpm), hence oxidation is reduced and the enzymes and nutrients in the juices are preserved.

When you consume raw fruits and vegetables, the digestion-absorption rate is only 17% in 3-5 hours, whereas juice made with Kuvings whole slow juicer has a digestion-absorption rate of 65% in 10-15 minutes. This high absorption rate means more nutrients can be absorbed into your body.




5 Reasons why We Love our Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer

1. Easy to assemble.
2. Easy to operate and easy to clean.
3. Maximum juice extraction.
4. Juicing is fun and has captured our children's imagination.
5. Accepts most fruits whole




I think I speak for majority of juicers that the first three reasons I stated above are definitely the most important criteria when choosing which brand of slow juicer to get.

When I was researching which juicer would be best for our home, one of the first questions I would ask the Sales Person was "Is it easy to clean?". Many years ago, Hubby owned a centrifugal juicer which was pretty troublesome to dismantle and clean.We were happy that the Kuvings slow juicer is very easy to clean and Hubby commented that the cleaning tool that comes with the juicer is excellent, a cleverly engineered piece which really does the job.  It is recommended to wash the juicer daily, hence the ease of assembling and dissembling is another great feature of the Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer.

The beauty of the Kuvings whole slow juicer is that it has a wide mouth, which means you can place some fruits into the machine whole (eg apples, tomatoes). It is also very easy to use, just press the on button and viola! A glass of fresh slow-pressed juice. Using a slow juicer, you are able to extract juices from leafy vegetables and it has a higher juice yield, so you get maximum extraction from your produce and it is more economical in the long run.


Even the pulp does not go to waste.... it is used in our compost making / garbage enzyme for our garden



With the slow juicer is an accompanying recipe book, which I find very useful as it explains the health benefits of each fruit and also gives you guidelines on what fruit and vegetable combinations work well together.



We also received a signed copy of Sara Ding's "Juicing for Health" book when we attended the Kuvings event earlier this month at Nu Sentral mall, KL. Sara is a juicing evangelist, and is also a Certified Health Coach & Nutritional Consultant. It was interesting to learn about her inspirational personal journey, as she transformed from a malnourished person suffering from toxemia, and turned her life around through juicing. Her book is great for juicing beginners like myself, as it includes detailed descriptions of many juices you can create for healing. This book is available at major bookstores such as MPH for RM39.90.



With author of Juicing for Health, Sara Ding



Juices we have made so far (and enjoyed!):

Apple + cucumber + celery + lemon


Pineapple + red spinach + lemon + ginger


Carrot + orange + lemon + ginger


Orange + ginger + lemon



Do follow us on our juicing journey via the hashtag #BabySumoXKuvings on Instagram. I will also be blogging about our favorite fresh juices and other juicing related topics in the near future. :)

Thank you very much to Kuvings for sponsoring our slow juicer and to Nuffnang for making it happen!


The Kuvings Whole Slow Juicer is available in white (RM2,598) or red and silver (RM2,698).For more info about Kuvings, please visit their website or Facebook page.




If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates or Dayre for daily updates. Thanks :)
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