Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I've come to a decision; I don't like frosting that contains more than a little confectioner's sugar. Confectioner's sugar is not a good taste. It takes a bit like fake sugar and doesn't seem to disovle and make the creamy frostings that I like. I will no longer make a cake with a confectioner's sugar frosting. There done. I've had enough bad frostings to finally come to the decision.

Now the cake part... yum! It's like banana bread with a cake like texture! I did add the chopped walnuts that the recipe said was optional. The recipe you ask. I can't share it because it isn't mine but it is published. You can find the banana cake and the chocolate frosting (if you like confectioner's sugar frosting) in Melissa Gray's All Cakes Considered.

Bonus Cake: Orange Guinness Cake

A lonely bottle of Guinness has been staring at my from my fridge for the last couple of weeks. I do have a Guinness recipe that I'm excited to try from my new favorite restaurant in Uptown, Muddy Waters. The chef there is an old high school chum and he shared their recipe for Guinness Ginger Cake so this cake will be coming soon!

But for this week's cake I wanted to use my orange extract so I decided to combine orange and beer. I know, right?

Cake:
1 stick butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tsp orange extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup Guinness

Frosting:
3/4 cup butter (softened)
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup orange juice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare two 8 inch round cake pans ( I line the bottom with parchment for a perfect top).

2. Cream together butter, orange extract and brown sugar.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Set aside.

4. Beat in eggs one at a time, alternating with 1/2 cup flour mixture. Beat well after each addition.

5. Gently mix in Guinness slowly, alternating with a bit of the flour mixture. 

6. Divide mixture evenly between pans. Bake for 40 minutes. This is it for the use of the Guinness, you should now drink the rest of the bottle while you wait for the cake to bake!

7. Allow cake to cool out of pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes before frosting.

8. To make frosting: Combine butter and sugar until fluffy, blend in orange juice to make the right consistency for frosting. Frost the top of one cake and add the other cake to top. Top the cake with the other half of the frosting.

This cake was tasty, though a little more of a spice cake that I had expected. I could have throw in a few shredded carrots, raisins and nuts and this would have made a great carrot cake base... hmm. I actually will try that next go around! I will also consider upping the butter content in the frosting, I had a little too much of the confectioner's sugar taste.

Mini Chocolate Bundt with Peanut Butter Drizzle

So, I owe you all an extra cake this week, and I will make good. The new job took a bit out of me but I'm back on a roll.

This week I decided to listen to the hubby and combine chocolate and peanut butter, his favorite.  I looked to Christie Matheson's Cake Simple for help.  I've had this book sitting on my kitchen counter and I'm absolutely taken with the cover photo. 

This recipe of hers for mini chocolate bundts was going to be the perfect end to our rainy day.  The kids loved licking the spoon from melting the chocolate and being my taste-testers for the peanut butter glaze.

The cake was easy enough to make and I was more than happy to be able to use my Wilton mini-bundt pan that I found a few months back at a thrift shop for a only a few dollars!

Next week I will try my best and being creative so that I can share a recipe with you folks.!

A Little Help?!

I need a little inspiration this week. With the new job this week, I need a cake that won't take me too much time fussing. It would be even better if the ingredients were all found in a well-stocked pantry so a trip to the grocery store wouldn't be needed. So please, please share with me the perfect recipe or cake idea for such a time.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This week's cake comes to you a few days late.  See, I'm starting a new job and all... so my baking energy is being taken up by consuming loads of information.  I'm just about overloaded but I hope to be back in the kitchen one night this week as a form of stress-relief.

This cake was from a relatively new favorite of mine, Joy the Baker. Check out her blog if for some crazy reason you are not already one of her biggest fans. I made Joy's Cream Cheese Pound Cake from her newly published book, Joy the Baker Cookbook. I topped her pound cake with strawberries and a homemade whipped cream (heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and a bit of vanilla). The results were fantastic and a great dessert for a picnic function. This one was eaten at our Memorial Day barbeque. The picture was taken with my phone, since I forgot to snap it before I wrapped it for transport.

Apple Upside-Down Cake

I am honored to get the first look at my friend Kris Holechek Peters' recipes for her upcoming cookbook, The I Love Trader Joe's Vegetarian Cookbook.  I've been testing some recipes before they are published in her upcoming book.  You can't get your hands on the book just yet but you can pre-order the book, and I suggest you do.  This is only one of the very delicious recipes that will show up in the book. (I've pre-ordered mine already!)

I've been given permission to post this one recipe here for you all to enjoy.  I made this cake over the last weekend and it was gone in just one day.  We ate it for breakfast and happily ate it again for an afternoon snack.  If there were some left I would have served it up with ice cream for an late evening snack. 


Apple Upside-Down Cake

4 cups peeled, sliced tart apples (1/2 inch thick), about 3-4 apples
1 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Sugar
1/2 teas. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups Trader Joe’s Unbleached All-purpose Flour
1 1/2 teas. baking powder
1 teas. Trader Joe’s Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teas. salt
1/3 cup mild vegetable oil
3/4 cup Trader Joe’s Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup milk
1 teas. Trader Joe’s Bourbon Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease and flour an 8 inch cake round and line the bottom with parchment.
Because this cake is inverted, it works best with parchment on the bottom, to ensure a clean release.

Prepare the apples. Using a variety of apples will give a more complex flavor than just one variety. In a skillet, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and lemon juice, then add the apples. Simmer until apples are coated with the sugar mixture and slightly softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, cream together the oil and sugar. Add the applesauce, milk and vanilla. In two batches, incorporate the dry mix into the wet.

Arrange the apple slices in the bottom of the pan and drizzle any additional juices from the pan over the apples. Spread the cake batter over the top of the apples. Bake from 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick from the center comes out clean of batter, but with a couple of moist crumbs on it. Remove pan from oven and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge of the pan and carefully invert cake onto serving dish. Let the cake sit for a minute or two before carefully lifting the pan off. Peel the parchment off of the cake and let it continue cooling for at least 20 additional minutes before serving.

Makes: 10-12 slices of cake

Tres Leches

My boy got a little Spanish lesson while shopping for this week's cake ingredients.  He knew three with ease but learned how to say milk in Spanish.  This ultra-moist, dense cake has been a favorite of mine for some time.  It was also the perfect fit for getting out of my chocolate, bundt or chocolate bundt rut.

Because this cake was very new to me I knew this would not be one to experiment with so I had someone else supply the recipe.  I went to the trusted Pioneer Woman for help.  Her recipe for Tres Leches cake can be found here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/tres-leches-cake/.

I didn't think my boys would be very excited about this cake, now if it were called Tres Chocolate, applause would be heard coming from my kitchen.  But surprisingly both the boys and not so surprisingly the girl, loved this weeks cake.  I myself thought the sweet milkiness of the cake was divine and topped with homemade whipped cream, this cake was out of this world delicious.