Banana Bread

Do these bananas look yummy to you?  No?!  

How about now?  Fine!

I know you think they are tasty looking now!  What do you mean no?

Alrighty then... so we do a little of this.  Add a little of that.  

  

Put it in these.

Apply a bit of heat and wham-o bam-o thank you mam-o!

(Don't make fun of my lopsided mega muffins!  I had a loaner stove that had clearly not been leveled lol!)

Banana Bread

by My Sister's Table

adapted from King Arthur Flour recipe

makes one 9" x 5" loaf

Ingredients

4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

5 ounces light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

12 ounces peeled & mashed ripe bananas

2 1/4 ounces apricot jam

3 ounces honey

2 large eggs

6 1/2 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

3 ounces King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour

3 ounces chopped walnuts, divided

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Using your stand mixer with a paddle attachment combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, beating until smooth.

Add the mashed bananas, jam, honey, and eggs, again beating until smooth.

Add the flour and 2 ounces of the walnuts, stirring just until smooth. Scrape down the bowl and give it a finish stir with your spatula.

Scoop the batter into your loaf pan, smooth the top then sprinkle with a few chopped nuts - the ounce that you had left over. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes, then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the top, to prevent over-browning.

Bake for an additional 20(ish) minutes until a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs or clean. The tester shouldn't show any sign of uncooked batter. If it does, bake the bread an additional 5 minutes, or until it tests done.

Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove it from the pan, and cool it completely on a rack.

This bread freezes well so make some for later or to share with family and friends!

Printable recipe here.

Enjoy!

: )

Raspberry and Almond Streamliner Cake

~We got a new toy.... a GoPro camera.  We use it for our off-roading but I thought what the hey why not try using it for my blog.  Hubster set up the camera on my counter before I started on the custard and away I went.  Well it worked ok.  Not great and I think my other camera works for this better.  I know that so many think that a blog is all about the pictures but I am not a photographer.  I am a chef that will type up my creations to share with y'all and add some hopefully decent pictures.~

The April choice for the Cake Slice Bakers is the Lemon and Almond Streamliner Cake from Vintage Cakes.  My son DJ is not a citrus lover so I asked what berry he would like and he picked raspberry. Snap of the fingers and we do raspberry!  

But I get ahead of myself.... One ingredient called for in this recipe is almond paste.  Having used the store bought almond paste once before I wanted to try making my own almond paste.  It is really simple to make if you have a food processor.

Measure in your almonds then send it for a grind.

Add in your sugar, egg white and any flavoring you would like to add.

Process until it smooths out into a paste.

My recipe made enough for the cake plus extra.  I stored the rest in 2 ounce bags for future use.

Next up making a raspberry puree to replace the lemon in our custard.  I put the thawed raspberries into the blender - didn't want the food processor to have all the fun - and gave it a whirl.

Put it into a strainer and worked through the puree, leaving behind a lot of seeds.

I simmered the seedless puree for about 5 minutes then set aside so the puree could cool.

Time to make the custard.  This is a pretty standard custard.  It needs to be made a few hours prior to use so keep that in mind before making this cake.

Whisk together your egg yolks, sugar, raspberry puree and corn starch.  Heat your milk and slowing whisk together then cook over low heat until thick and bubbling.  Strain the custard and then whisk in your butter piece by piece.  Save your butter wrapper!!

 Cover the custard with plastic wrap, laid directly on top, refrigerate at least two hours before using.


Move onto making the cake.  A simple buttermilk single layer cake with the additional of almond paste.
Prepare your pan .... use the wrapper from your butter cube that you saved to butter your pan.  Fold your parchment paper while thinking about making paper snowflakes as a child (or a couple of weeks ago) and cut your circle to fit into the bottom of your pan.  Rub it down a bit then flip it over and set it.

Cream together the butter, sugar and almond paste.  Once this is relatively smooth, there will be bits of the paste throughout, add in your eggs and vanilla.  

In a separate bowl sift/whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Measure out your buttermilk.   Mix in your dry ingredients and the buttermilk, alternating until just mixed.  Using your spatula scrape down the sides and give it a final mix.

Pour into your prepared pan, smack it onto your counter a couple of times to release any large air bubbles and bake it.  

Once out of the oven allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes then turn out onto a rack until completely cool, leaving the parchment on.  

 

When you are ready to top it with your custard remove the parchment - 

yes I am saying this because somewhere out there one of us - not me! - will plop that custard right down onto the parchment.

Give the sides a quick coat of the custard to help seal the edges.  The top with the remaining custard.

There you have it!  Ready to serve.  

If you don't serve it right away be sure to refrigerate the cake until you do so.


Lemon Raspberry and Almond Streamliner Cake adapted from the recipe found in the cookbook Vintage Cakes.

The recipe can be found online in several spots including on Oprah's site.



Almond Paste
by My Sister's Table

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of sea salt

Directions
Pour almonds into the food processor and process until finely ground.
Add the sugar and pulse a couple of times.  Whisk together the egg white, vanilla, and salt.  With the processor running pout the egg mixture onto the almonds and process until a smooth paste forms. 

Use the paste right away or place in a an air tight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.  Bring to room temperature before use.  If you decide to freeze the paste it may become a bit crumbly but will work fine once back to room temperature.


Printable recipe here.

*Side note - if I make the custard this way again I think I may add a drop of red food coloring to it to brighten the color.  It turned out of but a bit flat looking.

The cake was smooth with a nice fine crumb that we have come to expect from the buttermilk cake.  The almond would make a nice complement to the lemon.  We were split on whether the raspberry went with it - we all liked the cake and we liked the raspberry custard but not necessarily together.  

I say fine for them!  More cake for me! *wink*

Enjoy!

Visit the other Cake Slice Bakers here.

The CSBs are now on Facebook ~ check them out here and be sure to 'like' the page.

:)

Publishing recipes....

Just a quick note...
I am not adding the recipes for the cakes baked out of the Vintage Cakes cookbook.  I have provided a link to where you can purchase the book.   Please know that I am not doing this because I get a kick back or any profit whatsoever.  I give credit where it is due... if published online I link to it, if published in a book I link to that too.  

Thanks!
:)

Honey Bee Cake

The March choice for the Cake Slice Bakers is the Honey Bee Cake from Vintage Cakes.  I was looking forward to making this cake because it sounded so ....'old-fashion' to me.  Timing happened to line up with my Aunt Lynn's birthday party so I offered up this simple yet tasty treat for her dessert.

I decided to make the cake in a springform pan for ease of serving.  The recipe calls for a standard cake pan that you have to do a double turn to get the cake onto a serving platter.  The springform just sounded so much easier to me.

In my book honey = sticky so I buttered the pan all over just to play it safe.

Nothing fancy on the making of this cake.  Cream together the butter, sugar, honey then add the eggs and vanilla.  

Next mix in the dry ingredients and buttermilk; alternating between the two until everything is incorporated but don't over mix this batter.

Spread the batter into your prepared pan.  Tap it flatly on the counter a couple of times to release any large air pockets.

While the cake is baking you want to make your honey glaze.  I found that making it too soon meant I turned it off and the butter separated a bit as it cooled.  When it came time to pour onto the cake I had to reheat the mixture.  Next time I would wait until the cake was almost ready to make the glaze.

Once the cake is just shy of being done pull it out of the oven.  Poke holes all over with a skewer, pour half of the honey glaze over the top.  Do this slowly so that you don't end up with puddles on the edges.  Distribute your nuts all over the top and pour the rest of the glaze onto the nuts.  The recipe called for a heaping 1/2 cup but I used closer to a cup of nuts.

Put the cake back into the oven for about 5 more minutes.  Cool for about an hour... this cake is served best slightly warm.

The Honey Bee Cake recipe can be found in the cookbook Vintage Cakes.

The group really liked this cake.  I was told that it had a comfy 'old fashion' taste. ;)

I will enjoy trying this with different nuts and honey flavors.

Happy Birthday Aunt Lynn!

Enjoy!

Visit the other Cake Slice Bakers here.

The CSBs are now on Facebook ~ check them out here and be sure to 'like' the page.

:)

More Layers & Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge

Just as my life is getting a wee bit busier I decided to join another group ~ Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge.  BTCDC is a blog hop.  

Each month we are given a couple of ingredients and we post a recipe that uses those ingredients.  This month's ingredients are almond paste and pastry dough.

Since I have been working with Danish pastry dough I figured perfect time to use a batch of dough!  I made what some may consider a classic Danish coffeecake but it is perfect for dessert also.... I love things that blur that line!

Let's get going!
Once again I have used Joe Pastry's recipe and techniques for making these Danishes.
The recipe can be found here.
The laminating process is here.
Based on The Classic Coffeecake.

I started with making almond cream cheese filling.
My cream cheese and almond paste were both at room temperature.  And I thought, never actually having worked with almond paste, that I could simply cream the two together with my hand mixer.  This was not the case at all.  The almond paste was much stiffer than expected.  So I took a fork and mashed up the paste then blended it with the cream cheese.
I added the rest of the ingredients to the mixture, whipped it for a minute and then set it aside.  There were still small blobs of the paste in the cream but not large enough to be a taste issue.

Got out my Danish dough and cut the piece in half to make two pastries.

Oh how I love seeing all those LAYERS!!  Yes i know it is like a layerfest at my house lately.  Trust me when I say there have been no complaints!

I rolled out my dough into a rectangle - or at least it was close to that shape once I whacked off a wavy edges.

I spread a generous amount a Bing Cherry jam onto half of the dough (made by your's truly *wink*).  Be sure to leave an edge without the filling.  This edge is needed for your eggy glue line.

I decided that piping the almond cream onto the pastry would be easier.... so bagged and went to work.  I made three lines of the almond cream.

Next I moistened the edges with egg wash (one egg white whisked with a splash of water).  Then I folded the plain side over the filled side.  Smooshed down the edges for a nice tight seal.

Now came the task of picking up and moving the pastry to a parchment lined baking sheet.  I was such a pansy with this one!  I thought I would never get it onto the sheet and that it would survive would be a miracle.

Ok, fine!  It really was not a big deal.  It survived, I survived and even the dog that was under my feet survived!

Once on the sheet pan I cut vents in the top and egg washed it.  Set it aside to work on the second pastry.

My son decided that chocolate sounded good to him and me being the awesome mom I am, agreed!

Made a quick chocolate filling of 3 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and half an ounce of butter.  Microwaved until all melted and mixed together.  

Rolled out the second piece of dough, spread the chocolate filling on and piped on the almond cream.

Folded it over, transferred, vented and egg washed.  Time to let the pastries just hang out for about 45 minutes. Preheated the oven to 400 degrees and gave them a final egg wash before going into the oven.  

As soon as I put them into the oven I turned the temperature down to 375 degrees and baked them for just under thirty minutes.  Took them out of the oven when they were awesome brown and crispy-flaky looking.

Let the cool before applying the icing and slicing.

Filled Danish

by My Sister's Table

Components:

the Danish dough

the almond cream ~ recipe below

jam of choice or chocolate filling

the icing

Begin by making your almond cream.  Set the cream aside to work on your dough.

Roll your dough out into a rectangle   Spread or pipe your filling(s) onto one side of the dough, leaving a sealing edge.  Egg wash the edges, fold the dough over and press down the edges to seal.

Transfer the pastry to a lined baking sheet.  Cut vent holes in the top with scissors or a sharp knife.  Egg wash the top of the pastry then allow to rest for about 45 minutes. 

While the pastry to proofing preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

At the end of the 45 minutes egg wash the pastry again and put into the oven.  Turn down the oven to 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes, turning halfway through the bake time.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing and serving.

Almond Cream

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 ounces tube almond paste, at room temperature

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp. brown sugar

dash of fresh ground nutmeg

Using a fork smash and break up the almond paste.  Using a hand mixer, beat together the almond paste and cream cheese.  Once as mixed as can be, there will be small bits of the paste throughout, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined.

Printable recipe here.

Enjoy!

: )

RVC = Red Velvet Cake

When this cake came up as the next cake to be made for Cake Slice Bakers I was not... happy.  Yes I am one of THOSE people.  I loathe today's RVC.  I am one of THOSE people that can taste the chemical flavoring of the red dye.  But I am one of THOSE people that really wants to be a team player so we make the RVC!!  Even though there will be some tweaking.  No. not tweeting, I am not one of THOSE people.

This month we are making the Red Velvet Cake with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting.  I have read here and there about the origins of the RVC, about the red being the result of a reaction between vinegar, buttermilk and the cocoa used.  Another way of making the cake reddish was by using beets and or beet juice in the cake.  I am not trying to completely change this recipe so I discarded the idea of causing a reaction, instead I wanted to use beets to achieve the color.  I really had no desire to make a beet cake either.  I simply did not want to use the food coloring so I decided I would swap out the food coloring for beet juice.

I started off by pureeing a small can of sliced beets.  Poured them into a strainer and let them sit to get as much of the juice out of the puree.

I then put the juice into a sauce pan and simmered it for about 10 minutes until it reduced down to a syrup.

Set it off to cool and moved to making the cake.

Start by preparing your cake pans.  I choose to use two rounds.  It is quite helpful to line the bottom of your cake pans with parchment.  Remember making paper snowflakes?  Yep, you got it, like that! But without the frilly cuts.

Once you have your circles cut you need to butter the pan and it is helpful for removal later to butter the cake side of the parchment too.  Using your empty butter wrapper go to town on the pans.

Now open up your circle, place it in your pan and rub it down.  Grab an edge and turn it over, there you have both sides buttered. *wink*

Sift together your dry ingredients and set aside.

Next cream together your butter and sugar until it is fluffy.  While it is fluffing, crack your eggs into a bowl and in an other bowl mix together the oil, vanilla and your coloring.  I added in the beet juice - about 2 tablespoons.  Once you achieve fluff slowly add your oil mixture then your eggs one at a time.

Well it is slightly pink.  Yep that is it - with all the extra work and I get slightly pink.  Oh well let's proceed and see how it turns out.

On a low speed add in the dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternating between the two until all is incorporated.

A side note... I was given a scrapper paddle.

It is a love - hate relationship! I love that I don't have to stop and scrape down the sides as often but I hate the mess it makes!  It kicks out huge amounts of stuff when you turn on the mixer - at the lowest speed even.  Plus the scrapper edge gets gunked up so you do have to scrape off that part pretty often.

Verdict is still out on this tool...

Yes that messy!

Alrighty then!  All mixed and poured into your pans, ready for the oven.  Looking brown not pink or even red-ish.

Cooked the cakes to 200 degree internal temperature but was not real happy with the slight dark edge on the top - easily gotten rid of thankfully because this just became a birthday cake for my cousin.

Let the layers cool and got busy on the frosting.  This was a pretty straight forward frosting, fluff, sweeten and flavor.  It came out quite tasty and not overly sweet.  I made a double batch because I decided to split the layers.

Started off by leveling the layer. Using a sharp bread knife just slice off the bump.  Try to avoid any downward pressure, if you press down it will get wonky.

Put a small blob of frosting on your cake plate before placing your first layer.  This will help your keep your cake from sliding around.

Many years ago I was taught an easy way to split a layer is with floss.  You read that correctly, dental floss.  Just be sure it isn't flavored!  Take a long piece of floss, wrap it around the layer, make sure it is in the middle all the way around. Now holding both ends in one hand and steadying the cake with the other hand, pull the floss right through the cake.

Brush the loose crumbs off of the cake and place your first layer onto the cake plate and give it a nice coating of frosting.

Repeat with the rest of the layers.

Red Velvet Cake with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting

can be found in the cookbook Vintage Cakes.

This cake turned out well even if it lacked the red color.  It was very moist and not overly sweet.  Try it!

Happy Birthday to my cousin Heather!!

Sorry for the not great slice pic - it was a quicky shot and then gone.

Enjoy!

Visit the other Cake Slice Bakers here.

:)