Old Fashion Banana Cake

Bananas have had a lot of negative publicity recently in the weight loss industry.  The premise is that bananas will prevent you from losing belly fat.  This is a myth!  I have lost 19 lb since November by enjoying a banana in one form or another almost daily.  Bananas are a nutritional powerhouse full of micronutrients like potassium that helps lower blood pressure.  A medium banana has 105 calories, perfect for a healthy snack.  They have a low glycemic index but high satiety level and they come in their own convenient packaging!

Bananas freeze well.  One of my friends shared her secret for freezing bananas.  Simply pop the banana skin and all in the freezer.  When ready to use, remove from the freezer.  Let thaw just enough to peel off the skin.  Mash while still partially froze.  Pieces of frozen banana can be added to fruit smoothies if desired.

I ran out of fresh bananas (top right) so used one of my frozen bananas.  The banana looked a bit lighter than fresh and the texture was slightly thicker because it was still froze.  This has no effect when the banana is used for smoothies or baking.

I have a confession...this is the first time I have made a banana cake.  It's not as if I couldn't it's just that my friend sends a banana cake in exchange for a jar of my home canned salsa, much to my husband's delight.  I turned to my trusty Big Red Betty Crocker's Cookbook (circa 1969) to make an old fashion banana cake.

I used my Nami coated baking dish for this cake.  Older cookbooks are my favourite for frugal recipes.  They tend to use simpler and fewer ingredients that can easily be modified for healthier versions.  I used unbleached white flour, sea salt and butter.  I omitted the nuts as my husband does not like nuts in most baked goods.

My friend always frosts the banana cakes she sends over so I decided to do the same.  It has always been a cream cheese frosting but she has since changed that.  I chose an easy, deliciously creamy cream cheese frosting.  This frosting is a real keeper, one that can easily be used to frost a wide variety of cakes and cupcakes.  It is very easy to make but when first started it looks like it will be too dry.  It won't be.  A bit of blending is all it takes to get a beautiful, versatile frosting sure to please that pairs nicely with banana bread!

My husband was quite pleased when he spotted the freshly frosted cake sitting on the counter.  We we have a special dinner that night that included the cake for dessert.  It is easy to see why this cake has stood the test of time.  The old fashion banana cake is simply delicious!  The cake is moist and tender with a nice body.  The flavour is wonderful, not too sweet, just perfect and the cream cheese frosting compliments the cake nicely.   The cake is cut into serving sizes directly in the pan.  This makes it a very easy cake for after school snacking.  The unfrosted banana cake, like most cakes, should freeze nicely.  The batter could also be used to make cupcakes.  Hands down this banana cake and frosting combination is a sure winner! 

A Few Easter Goodies

One thing is always for certain whenever we get together as a family and that is an abundance of good food!  Last Saturday was no different when eleven of us celebrated Easter and two of the little ones turning a year older.  The weather was warm and sunny, perfect for the little ones' Easter egg hunt.  Our meal consisted of spiral cut ham, homemade baked beans, homemade creamy coleslaw, home canned green beans,baked potatoes, home canned pickles, a vegetable tray and fresh baked bread.  Appetizers were deviled eggs and seafood.  Dessert was birthday cake.  It was a wonderful gathering!

A couple of our kids (parents to oldest and youngest grandkids) surprised us with a gift basket from Barrie's Asparagus Farm. They have shopped there on several occasions so the farm is on our list of places to visit the next time we are in the Cambridge area.  Barrie's Asparagus Farm is located at 1236 Kings Road in Cambridge, Ontario.  They are fourth generation food producers on Cedardale Farm.  There is a farm market on site where they sell their own produce and products as well as fresh local produce, meats, cheese, honey, maple syrup, grains, baking, preserves, eggs, dairy and much more.  The gift basket was packed with some of their products made with asparagus.  Asparagus will soon be in season here which means I will be doing a bit of canning.  I'm always looking for new ways to use a long time favourite vegetable!

Asparagus is one of those vegetables that we don't get very creative with even though we eat a lot of it.  We prefer fresh asparagus either steamed or grilled.  I can just enough asparagus to use for making cream of asparagus soup.  The products in the gift basket included: vegetable crackers, kettle chips, stone wheat crackers, fusilli pasta with asparagus, asparagus tortilla chips, asparagus salsa and tomato asparagus parmesan pasta sauce.  All of the products in the gift basket except the vegetable crackers and kettle chips had asparagus as an ingredient.  The salsa, pasta sauce a pasta with asparagus are all products I could make as new products for the pantry at home.  I could like make the stone wheat crackers with asparagus as well.  The tortilla chips use asparagus flour which can be made at home from dried asparagus.  Oh the possibilities!

The kids that brought the gift basket also brought a shrimp and crab claw platter.  Our kid would actually like to give up their current profession in favour of becoming a chef.  Although that likely will not happen, she has been taking culinary courses.  She is currently learning how to make trays for entertaining including this beautiful seafood tray.  The presentation is stunning although the little ones did not quite appreciate the crab claws.  They were having no part of the claws at all but ate the crab as long as they could not see the claws.  The adults, on the other hand loved the shrimp and crab.  I thought it was a wonderful and unique presentation!

A couple of our other kids (parents to middle grandkid), brought the birthday cake.  Their little one was turning five while youngest was turning four.  They chose a birthday cake to highlight one of the toys all of our grandkids and in fact the kids still play with, Lego.  The grandkids love playing with Grandma and Papa's huge Lego bin and Lego is their favourite toy at home.  Their birthday cake was made to look like Lego pieces.  Isn't it precious?

The cake was chocolate with a marshmallow icing covered with fondant.  The top connectors were made from rice crispies.  Happy Birthday with the grandkids' names were written in cake decorating icing.  The presentation was really cute!  We took a lot of pictures of them enjoying their birthday treat.

Every holiday and some special days have traditional dishes but that doesn't mean you can't break from tradition or even create your own traditions.  Crab in some form, usually as an appetizer,  has been a long tradition in our family for most special meals.  Shrimp is usually served as well.  That's the beauty of these types of gatherings.  They evolve over time, forming new traditions but kept together through good company, lots of laughter and good food.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Easy Cake Decorating

An easy way to decorate a cake is with two paper doilies.   Place the cake on a cutting board.  Place a small doily to fit the surface on the cake.  Sprinkle icing sugar, sugar cinnamon or cocoa powder over the doily covering all open spaces.  Lightly brush off excess on the doily.  Carefully remove the doily to reveal a beautiful lacy pattern on the cake.  Place a large doily on a cake plate then place the decorated cake on top of the doily for presentation. 

Orange Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

As a self admitted internet junky, I do a lot of surfing.  Well, about a year ago when I was laid up with a leg injury, I rediscovered Facebook.  I had a Facebook account for years but never used it and quite frankly I didn't like their privacy policy.  Boredom does strange things so I started exploring Facebook back then and now it is my number one way to keep in touch with our kids when away as I can always find a Wi-Fi hotspot so communication is free.  I'm on Facebook daily now.  On the sidebar of the Facebook dashboard there are advertising links.  Well this link for an orange cream cheese bread finally caught my interest. Reading through the recipe I thought it would be a keeper but knew right off the bat that it would not be a bread texture, rather more of a coffee cake texture.  I made a few adjustments so the recipe is different but quite delicious!

Looking at a recipe and knowing instinctively what to change is a good thing.  Always remember that a recipe is just a starting point.  There is nothing written in stone that a recipe cannot be modified.  That's what makes cooking so much fun!

This coffee cake was simply delicious!  It was lightly flavoured, moist and tender.  We sliced the loaf then cut into 1 - inch fingers, topping them simply with a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.  It was a nice end to a beautifully grilled dinner!

Orange Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
source:  Garden Gnome

1 c spreadable cream cheese
½ c shortening
1⅔ c organic granulated sugar
2 eggs
2¼ c unbleached flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 c milk
2 tbsp grated orange peel
¼ c fresh squeezed orange juice
icing sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350°F/175°C.  Cream cream cheese, shortening and sugar in bowl of stand mixer.  Add eggs blending well after each.  Blend in milk.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder and orange peel.  Slowly beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Pour the mixture into a lightly greased loaf pan.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes.  Remove from loaf pan and allow to cool.  Place loaf on the cooling rack on a large plate.   Poke several holes in the top of the loaf with a tooth pick.  Pour the orange juice slowly over the top of the loaf.  Let sit to absorb the juice.  Transfer the loaf to serving platter.  Sprinkle with icing sugars.  Serve topped with fresh berries if desired.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Cutting Cake

Use dental floss to cut a cake in half horizontally for a neater cut.  Simply wrap the thread around the sides of the cake making sure it is centred then cross the ends and pull together to slice the cake into two layers.

She Said - Coconut Milk

If you have been following this blog you will know my husband and I hold special cooking contests called He Said/She Said. This month's contest (announced here) was for each of us to find one ingredient we had not cooked with then use that ingredient to make 2 dishes/recipes. That sounds simple doesn't it, but trust me it is a bit more challenging than it first appears.

I decided to follow my husband's approach of KISS (keep it simple silly). What I did was modify a tried and true recipe to create a new flavour for a lovely dessert to take to a friend's. Now here is where I cheated just a little as I didn't make two stand alone dishes but the cake could be finished using another method and the icing I created could also be used as a topping for other desserts. So technically I used the coconut milk in two ways for this contest.

White Cake

The beauty of my favourite basic white cake recipe is it can easily be modified. What I wanted to create was a cake that wasn't overly sweet yet moist and flavourful. I wanted it to be a little bit different. The recipe calls for ¾ cup of milk so I decided to substitute coconut milk instead. Coconut milk is not the thin watery liquid found inside a coconut but rather it is a sweet, milky white cooking base that is derived from the meat of mature coconuts. Canned coconut milk can be found in most larger grocery stores. If you cannot find coconut milk you can make it yourself by soaking grated coconut in hot water or milk to extract the oil and aromatic compounds then straining. Coconut milk has a fat content of approximately 17%. It should not be left at room temperature as coconut milk spoils quickly so always refrigerate.

Using coconut milk as a substitute in the white cake mixture resulted in a richer flavour and moister testure than the plain white cake. This comes from the higher fat content of the coconut milk. While the cake was baking and cooling I set about looking for an icing thinking something lightly flavoured with pineapple would be nice but then looking at the half can of left over coconut milk I came up with another idea that would give me the not too sweet result I was after.

Coconut White Cake

While I was searching for a topping that would use the rest of the coconut milk I came across a site that said coconut milk could be whipped to use as a replacement for whipping cream for those who can't or don't eat dairy. I decided to test this out and see what I could come up with. I placed the cold coconut milk in the bowl of the KitchenAid® stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment I beat on setting 10 for 3 minutes. The coconut milk did thicken somewhat but not to the same degree that heavy whipping cream does. In comparing the stiffness of the peaks after whipping, meringue is stiffer than heavy whipping cream which is stiffer than coconut cream. The problem was I wanted a topping with a bit more body. The first two additions that came to mind was gelatin and xanthum gum. Xanthun gum is a polysaccharide food additive used as a thickener. It is produced by fermenting glucose or sucrose by the Xanthomaonas campestris bacterium. , gluten free . Xanthan gum is gluten free so is a popular thickener for those on gluten free diets. It is also the ideal thickener for salad dressings. I thought xanthan gum would be quicker and easier so I used that. The main trick when using xanthan gum is using a blender or whisking at high speed while incorporating it into the mixture. I used about one eighth tsp of xanthan gum adding while whisking on speed 10. This gave the whipped coconut milk a nicer body. Then I spread the frosting over the cake and garnished with sweetened flaked coconut. I think it came out quite nice and it did get 2 thumbs up from our friends.

Note: This cake needs to be refrigerated because of the topping.

Gingerbread

Desserts can be a challenge sometimes because we often look to create something quite complicated. However, simplicity is often the key and so it is with many quick cakes. I call them quick cakes because all you do is mix and pour. Ingredients are normally what you have on hand so whipping up one of these cakes is easy. Toppings tend to be as simple as the cake itself. But don't let that fool you. Simplicity does not mean lack of flavour or eye appeal. Gingerbread is one of my favourite quick cakes.

Gingerbread

There is just something comforting and down right homey feeling about smelling gingerbread baking. This recipe is so easy. All you have to do is measure the ingredients, mix together then bake. It could not get much easier than that! I like using a decorative can pan for this cake because just before serving I use a very simple icing sugar glaze over the cake.

Gingerbread
source: Betty Crocker's Cookbook, Pp. 180 with modifications by Garden Gnome

2 1/4 c unbleached flour
1/3 c organic sugar
1 c dark molasses
3/4 c hot water
1/2 c shortening
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp kosher salt

Pre-heat oven to 325ºF. Grease and flour a square 9x9x2 inch square pan or similar volume decorative baking pan. If using a silicone pan greasing can be omitted. Measure the ingredients into a mixing bowl. Blend on low speed about a half minute until ingredients are mixed. Increase speed to medium then blend for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into the pan. Bake 50 minutes or until the centre tests clean with a toothpick. Serve warm with whipped cream or applesauce.
Serves 8

My Notes: I serve this cake with a simple icing sugar glaze. Mix icing sugar into 3 tbsp milk until the consistency is similar to sour cream. Drizzle over the cake for a nice presentation.

White Cake

A simple white cake recipe is always perfect recipe as everything is usually on hand. It is pure and simple pantry cooking! It doesn't require fancy toppings or icings either. We like it with a little fresh whipped cream and berries.

This particular recipe has been a family favourite for years. I've tweaked it to where I have it the way I like. It is a rich cake that stands up nicely to fresh berries in syrup. What is nice about this recipe is it makes a smaller cake or 6 large cup cakes.

White Cake
source: unknown but tried and true

1 1/2 c flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c shortening
1 c granulated sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 c milk

Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mixt shortening, sugar and eggs. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately. Beat until smooth. Pour into an 8" x 8" well greased cake pan. Bake 45 minutes at 350ºF (325ºF convection). Top as desired.

My Notes: This recipe works well using silicone pans.