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So.  Why don’t you help us a bit here.  Go to the nomination page, click on that ‘Like’ button to vote for us, and you’ll be helping two chimps towards their ultimate cause of jungle domination, one banana at a time.

We would like to thank each other for the patience and restraint we showed by not strangling each other during the intense month we spent eating, breathing, and coding this website. Overall, I think we’re proud and happy with the end result. Now, if you’re a lady, you wouldn’t spill the beans about all of the cool features (at least we think that they’re cool) in this website. But we’re two hyperactive chimps, so shamelessness is our unifying trait.

There are 4 features that we’d like to highlight, and the last one is a big one! But first, a word of advertisement. Not all browsers are created equally. If you are an Internet Explorer user, you might have missed a lot of cool features that websites have these days. You could switch to Firefox or even better Google Chrome. Yes, we’re a bunch of Google fanchimps these days. Chrome is faster to load and is up-to-date with the latest and greatest HTML and CSS development.

So, here are the 4 features we vainly like to boast about:

1) Beam To Top
An ode to all Trekkers out there. It’s a simple idea. You’ve read the content of our page, and reached the end of it. Just click the Beam To Top link on the bottom right, and you’ll be transported to the top. Simple!

2) The Disappearing Portfolio
If you go to our lovely dovey Portfolio page, you’ll notice the portfolio category menu. Select any of the categories and all images that don’t belong to that category will slowly disappear. Neat!

Exception: IE user will not be able to see this :(

3) The Swaying Juggler
Head back to our homepage, and go to Our Services section to meet the obnoxious juggling monkey. Now point your cursor to the monkey, and lo and behold, it sways!

Exception: IE user will not be able to see this, same goes for those using older version of Firefox. Sorry, nothing much that we can do :|

4) Responsive Web
ChimpChomp will resize its content if you resize the browser! What it also means is, we have optimized the look of ChimpChomp’s website depending on what device you’re using. Mobile user will see a different layout than tablet user or laptop/desktop user.

Exception: IE user :\ I’ll keep my mouth shut, and give you again the link to Google Chrome

And that’s it. Let us know what you think, or even better contact us so we can work with you on your interesting projects :)

The batter smells wonderful.

See what we’ve done to our cover girl?  Your papas and mamas must be proud. Sprinkle the batter just before baking with icing sugar for a crusty sugar top. And more rosemary, please.

And we baked the very same cupcakes for a surprised birthday boy.

Pak Slamet Abdoel Sjukur, 17 years old.

But I guess I should wiggle my chimp’s tail to dust off the kitchen once in while. The plan is to tackle some Putri Salju (My imagination leads me to a visual of dainty Snow White walking serenely in the forest, when a banal chimp suddenly swings and tackles the poor princess in the attempt to steal those delicious decadent red apple, slurp).

Putri Salju is supposedly famous in Indonesia, although I have sadly managed to spend my whole life time not having eaten one. Alas, there was no cashews on the cupboard, which is only like the main ingredient for the cookie, so I was forced to use some peanuts and sesame instead.

This turned out to be an awesome thing, because as soon as the smell of roasted peanuts and sesame wafted around the house, Mama Chimp’s sniffing system was on full alert. And since Chimp’s family are all nuts … lovers, I had some extra and more experienced hands to help me mold the cookie dough. Win!

Hmm, look at them flexible human fingers, so agile and useful in the kitchen, very much unlike chimp and chomp’s banana fingers.

The standard Putri Salju has the whole surface thickly coated with powdered sugar, but since I’m watching my figure *cough*, I only dusted the top lightly. This made me think to title this post as “Half Naked Snow White”, nice eh :D … but of course, the small rational part of my brain warned me that it would only attract many rotten bananas from disappointed search-engine-drived visitors. Which may not be a bad thing, Banana Cake, anyone? :P

Anyway, the taste is good and yummy, but the common consensus is to invite some cashews in the nuts mix next time :)

Chocolate cupcakes
Adapated from Joy of Baking.com

• 1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder (to this I added 1 tsp instant coffee granules)
• 1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water
• 1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used 1/3)
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar reduced to 60 grams brown sugar + 60 grams granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (1 tsp vanilla essence — can’t fint vanilla extract in Indonesia)

I skipped the whole chocolate fudge frosting since the thought of hyperactivated kids on sugar scared my banananas off.  Instead, I just sprinkled some crushed toasted peanuts on top of the batter before putting them into the oven.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
5. Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16 – 20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. (Do not over bake or the cupcakes will be dry.  It took me about 18 minutes.)  Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

These cupcakes are best the day they are made, but can be covered and stored for a few days.  Makes about 14 cupcakes.

Sources:
Bell, Annie. ‘Gorgeous Cakes’. Kyle Books. Distributed by National Book Network. Lanham, MD: 2005.

So this time I used this recipe from David Lebovitz’ Banana Loaf Cake (who adapted it from  Perfect Light Desserts by Nick Malgieri and David Joachim) after my previous experiment with Roast Banana-Pumpkin Breakfast Bread (don’t ask).  In case you’re wondering, no, we don’t know the difference between banana bread and banana cake.  We guessed perhaps it’s just the baker’s (or your) gimmick to make you think you’re eating a healthier option, but don’t kid yourself.

That said, this is a slightly healthier, less buttery version of the banana bread we usually know, using very few butter.  I cut down the amount of sugar to a half, and doubled the cinnamon and other spice.  The bananas like I said, weren’t ripe enough for my taste (despite the all-black look), so I toasted them in the oven first.  And since they were smaller than those French bananas (neither pun nor insult intended), I used 6 pisang tanduks*.  Another healthy plus points: only egg whites.  Which, once again, bring me back to square one: find more recipe with exactly three egg yolks.

Banana Loaf Cake
One 9-inch cake

Adapted from David Lebovitz’ Banana Loaf Cake, who adapted it from Perfect Light Desserts by Nick Malgieri and David Joachim

2 1/2 cups flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (I used palm sugar readily available in Indonesia)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 or 5 large very ripe banana-mash, then measure) (I used 6)

One 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan, sprayed with vegetable cooking spray coated with fine, dry breadcrumbs or a dusting of flour
I used one 22 x 10 x 7-cm  loaf pan, buttered and lightly dusted with flour.

1. Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 175 degree celcius.
2. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3. Place the bananas on a tray and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes to slightly caramelize it.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites to break them up, then whisk in the sugar and the brown sugar. Whisk in the butter and vanilla, followed by the mashed bananas.  Add a shot of espresso, just because.
4. Sift the flour mixture over the banana mixture and thoroughly fold it in. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
5. Bake the cake for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean. (I actually needed a longer time.  But I might need to recalibrate my old oven.)
6. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then unmold it and cool completely on a rack.

Storage: Keep the cake wrapped in plastic at room temperature after it has cooled. For longer storage, double wrap and freeze for up to a month.

*In case you’re wondering about pisang tanduk, it’s a tasty variety commonly found in Indonesia, used to make many traditional Indonesian snacks such as pisang goreng (banana fritters), nagasari (steamed banana rice cake wrapped in banana leaves), kolak pisang (banana? compote with coconut milk and palm sugar).  Here’s a picture taken in the Pasar Pakis market–see the heavily spotted one on the right?

I’d show you the picture of my so-called not ripe enough bananas, but I’m afraid the all-black look will be an unforgivable violation of foodblogging standard.  Not that we chimps mind.  By the way, ”Tanduk” means horn, referring to its shape.

After squirelling all the prepped-and-measured ingredients back into the fridge, I was left with two separated bowls of three egg whites and three egg yolks.  The egg whites, I can saute for breakfast tomorrow.  But the egg yolks, what to do with these mucousy, artery-busting yellow devils?

I rifled through the piles of cookbooks to find one recipe that requires exactly three egg yolks, and found: Morning Star cookies, from Kue Kering Klasik Nyonya Rumah. Perfect. Let’s just skip  the sugary almond glaze in an effort to cut back some sugar for the sake of my poor tasting subjects’ waistlines and attention spans.  (And to be honest, I do not feel like cracking two more eggs for the egg whites in the glaze.  I’d then be left with two more egg yolks that I’d need to turn into another batch of cookies or cakes. Anyway, I digress.)   Instead of a super sweet layer of sugar and almonds, I used one toasted sliced almond to decorate each cookie.

The friendly neighbour kid happened to drop by just after I took out the tray out of the oven. (Let’s delude ourselves that it must be the wafts of heavenly smell in the air…)  She helped me store the cookies into a jar.

By noon, I was left with a jar of cookies that looked suspiciously reduced, and mysterious traces of almonds and cookie crumbs on the floor.  Apparently, she sneaked in a cookie (or two, or three) when she thought I wasn’t looking.

The baking part is the easy part, what we were concerned of were the decorating part. But, after 2 1/2 hours of smeared frosting, monkey tears and deep provoking thoughts on the meaning of life, we finally made something that resembling a mutated eeyore. Hooray to persistence!

Beyond our wildest expectation, with only a few liberate hints, chimp’s friends could easily recognize the eeyore-ness of the cupcakes and also quite enjoy the taste of the moist chocolate cupcakes. This of course, boost our confidence, and for our next project, we’re thinking of making an Eiffel-shaped cupcakes! :)

In Indonesia, these cookies are quite the standard fare for the Holy Ramadan month and Idul Fitri.  While in Singapore or Malaysia, they are usually are stacked up high in every supermarket you walk into during the Chinese New Year season, along with other “traditional” Asian kuih like kuih kapit, kuih loyang (honeycomb cookies), pineapple tarts, and peanut cookies.

The cornflakes in these bite-sized cookies made the texture light, crunchy and kinda addictive, really.  Chimp did the orange-zest version for last month’s bake sale, but well, better use the leftover packets of raisins and bottles of rum before Chimp sneaks them out for that new girl in the block.