Banana Bundt Cake

Hello Lots to Ladlers! Sorry for the lack of posts these days. Let's blame it on my sister, Katie! She's consuming a lot of my time. I'm currently planning her baby shower with my mom! It's taking up a lot of my time but at least I got a glue gun out of the deal. Can you believe I didn't own a glue gun until this year? Shocking, right?!?

Now back to the banana Bundt, after all that's what this post is about. I always joke with Nadya that she purposefully leaves bananas on the counter to get too ripe so I'll have to make her banana bread. (NOTE: I don't like bananas so I can't help to eat them up before they're too ripe.) I guess I'm buying too many bananas for one person to eat. I often end up making banana bread but decided to make this banana Bundt this time.

I came across the recipe on a food blog that I often read called The Food Librarian; however, the recipe is from Dorie Greenspan. As I mentioned earlier, I don't eat bananas ( I know, I know that's bananas!) so I can't really tell you how good or bad this was BUT I can tell you that everyone who ate it loved it. I can also tell you that it was super easy to make. So if you're a fan a bananas, go bananas and make this Bundt!!

Classic Banana Bundt Cake
Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients: Makes 1 Bundt Cake (14 servings)

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
About 4 very ripe bananas, mashed (you should have 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups)
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (I used Stonyfield vanilla yogurt)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9- to 10-inch (12 cup) Bundt pan. (If you use a silicone Bundt pan there’s no need to butter it.) Don’t place the pan on a baking sheet - you want the oven’s heat to circulate through the Bundt’s inner tube.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas. Finally, mix in half the dry ingredients (don’t be disturbed when the batter curdles), all the sour cream and then the rest of the flour mixture. Scrape the batter into the pan, rap the pan on the counter to debubble the batter and smooth the top.

Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Check the cake after about 30 minutes - if it is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool to room temperature.

If you've got the time, wrap the cooled cake in plastic and allow it to sit on the counter overnight before serving - it's better the next day.

Optional Lemony White Icing:
Sift 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar into a bowl and squeeze in enough fresh lemon juice (start with 2 teaspoons and add more by drops) to make an icing thin enough to drizzle down the Bundt's curves.

It's a Bark Mitzvah!

(This picture was taken right after the bones were applied. Sorry for the wet look at this moment)

Melissa, one of my craziest friends, decided to have a birthday party for her Cockapoo, Zeus, who celebrated his 3rd birthday on April 25th! To celebrate his birthday Melissa hosted a "Bark Mitzvah" (even though his birthday had nothing to do with the age 13th). I was super excited because this was Rudy's first dog birthday party to attend and because I was in charge of making the cake! I've been dying to work with fondant for a while now but never really had the right occasion until the Bark Mitzvah!

I did a lot of research on fondant and a lot of brainstorming on the design of the cake. I seriously thought about this cake day in and day out! Do I want to do cupcakes? Do I want to do a round cake? Chocolate or vanilla? The thoughts kept following. Then I decided to reach out to the one person who knows cake very well! Yep, that's right, BECKY! After all, she has a degree in pastry arts. After asking Becky a million questions on fondant I finally decided what I was going to do. Just because I knew what I was doing didn't mean it was downhill from here! I was on the search for bone shape cookie cutters! I looked everywhere and had very little luck until I went to the Reading Terminal on my lunch break one day! I'm so lucky to have the Reading Terminal so close to my office because seriously you can find anything you're looking for there. I was able to get a bone cookie cutter in 2 sizes!

After doing some research online and talking to Becky, I decided that buying the fondant would be a lot easier than making it for my first time working with it. So I made a trip out to Michael's Arts & Crafts (Yes, another store that sells everything except a bone shape cookie cutter that is). I bought 4 lbs of fondant and brown fondant dye for the bones. I used the Magnolia Bakery recipe for the vanilla cake and their awesome butter cream recipe for the fondant 'glue'. After I made the cake and applied the butter cream icing it was time for the fondant fun to begin! It might sound silly to make a cake and use 2 icings but as I briefly mentioned the butter cream icing is the glue for the fondant.

Now it's time to roll the 2lb brick of fondant out to a nice round shape to cover the round cake. That's a lot of work! First you have to knead the fondant using cornstarch or confectioner's sugar, then it's time to roll it out. After placing the rolled out fondant on the cake it was time to die the remaining fondant brown and cut out the bone shapes. Dying the fondant was tricky and messy process. I needed to use a lot of the gel dye to get to this shade of brown. Once I was happy with the shade of brown it was time to roll it out and use the cookie cutters to make the bone shapes. To get the bones to stick to the white fondant you have to slightly wet the shape and stick it on.  Overall, this was a fun process and a lot of work! I'm happy I experimented with fondant. I think the next time I'm using fondant, I'll make cupcakes and a small amount of fondant on each cupcake (stayed tune), since I'm not a huge fan of the fondant flavor.

Philadelphia Cupcake is right down the street from my office. They make 'pupcakes' for dogs. I had to make sure I picked some of them up for the party! Rudy was lucky enough to have one at home before the party! You can tell he enjoyed it! He's too cute!

I must thank Nadya for her help with this long process! Thank you, Nadya!

Coffee Cake

This coffee cake was a perfect compliment to the savory spinach and cheese strata I made for Easter brunch. The recipe comes from the Barefoot Contessa. I typically love any type of crumb cake because really who doesn't love streusel? In my opinion, this recipe didn't have enough streusel.  The recipe says to use 3/4 of a cup in the middle layer; I think a full cup or more is called for. All in all, I was happy with this coffee cake. The sour cream really helps keep the cake moist and the glaze is just right. The additional of walnuts in the streusel was a nice touch too. I think chopped pecans would work just as nicely too.  

Ingredients

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• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the streusel:

nocoupons

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional

For the glaze:

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• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Mix in the walnuts, if desired.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate. Whisk the confectioners' sugar and maple syrup together, adding a few drops of water if necessary, to make the glaze runny. Drizzle as much as you like over the cake with a fork or spoon.

Glazed Lemon Cakes

I've been eye-ing up this recipe ever since Christmas. My sister, Katie, gave me an awesome cookbook for Christmas based on my favorite magazine, Everyday Food. I'm always flipping through my cookbooks for dinner ideas and I somehow also end up staring at these glazed lemon cakes. It's not that I'm a huge fan of lemon they just always look so refreshing! Since I had all ingredients on hand, (bought buttermilk at the store with the intention of making these) I decided to whip them up for breakfast today.

The recipe yields 6 "jumbo" muffins. I made 12 regular size muffins. You can make it into a Bundt, mini muffins, mini loafs, or really whatever shape you want.

Overall, they were really easy to make and in my opinion very tasty. I didn't think the lemon flavor was too much. If you're in the mood for a mild lemon taste I'd suggest omitting the lemon juice from the icing and just make a standard glaze with confectioners' sugar and milk. Maybe I'll try that next time. If you have a favorite citrus fruit other than lemon, try substituting the lemon for whatever you prefer.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for muffin tin
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for muffin tin
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk, or plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated, plus juice, plus 2 tablespoons more lemon juice for the glaze
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon. Set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk mixture.
3. Divide evenly among muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in tin, then cool completely on a rack.
4. Set rack over wax or parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir confectioners’ sugar with remaining lemon juice until smooth. Pour over cakes, spreading to edges with a small knife. Let set 30 minutes.