Giving into the cravings.

I am pregnant, and I like to eat. It’s a problem, but baby gets hungry. And that’s how I justify eating whatever I want, whenever I want. I have had some bananas aging on my counter now for a week or so, and they have been calling my name. Not to eat in their plain and somewhat healthy form though. I actually won’t touch a banana if it has even one little brown freckle spot on it. Traces of green indicate the ideal stage of ripeness for eating bananas.

Anyway, I have been watching them age and thinking how much I really want a banana cake. Finally, I gave in today. I made my mom’s banana cake recipe. I love it, and will share at the end of my excessively chatty post.

I gave in to the craving partially because I wanted the cake, but also to serve as a practice cake for frosting. Yes, I actually have something to practice for! In May, I get to make a wedding cake. It’s the real deal ladies and gentleman! My lovely mother-in-law has been asked to cater the wedding and has employed me as her assistant and cake baker. Actually, I think bakeress sounds better, even if it isn’t a real word.

So here is the photo that I was sent. This is what the bride wants. And we all know that every bride gets what she wants :)

This is my practice run. It doesn’t look as fancy without the flowers, and I was testing out a couple things. But it’s a start.

I won’t be using the dots on the bottom, or maybe a version of them will end up bordering the top and bottom. Or it will be the ribbon all the way. Not to mention, the cake probably won’t be a banana cake either.

I am really excited about my project, and can’t wait to post the final product!

I almost forgot! The recipe:

Banana Cake

2 1/3 cups flour

1 2/3 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups smashed bananas (I used four whole bananas today and never really measure this part. Use at least 2)

2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup buttermilk (or regular milk with a bit of vinegar)

3 eggs

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2/3 cup finely chopped nuts

Follow the general rule for mixing…bananas, sugar, oil, then the eggs. Add dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk, or just throw it all in and mix. It will work just the same because its that simple of a recipe. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes (8 or 9 inch rounds).

Yummy, yummy! I want some now!

Hand over the cake…

So, I am really proud of this post. Not so much my words though. Blah, blah, blah! I am really excited about my cake. It was just another German chocolate cake, not really complicated. And the frosting wasn’t even perfectly smooth. But I made a gun! Out of fondant! A fancy fondant revolver! For my dad, because he loves guns, and it was his birthday. And I love my dad. So certainly he needed a gun cake!

I would have attempted sculpting it, but coconut pecan frosting isn’t particularly obedient, and it needed to look decent. So, I pretended I was five again playing with play-doh.

Just a side note, fondant is way better than play-doh, but just as messy!

So this was the result:

 

 

Happy Birthday to an amazing Dad! Love you! 

Eat your vegetables, for dessert!

Vegetables and cake don’t mix, or at least that’s what my husband said on Sunday as I was baking his dad’s birthday cake. He learned yesterday that this is just not so, as he ate a good portion of that vegetable infused carrot cake.

I admit, I am not the biggest carrot cake lover (I think it has something to do with the raisins), but this was a mighty tasty cake. It also helped that the sides were coated with cream cheese frosting, toasted coconut and walnuts.

I used my Martha Stewart Cupcake book again for the cake recipe. This has been my go-to book lately, and it has yet to disappoint.

Here are some shots of the cake:

Happy Birthday Doug!

Taste the Rainbow

Basically, I have been on a sugar cookie baking frenzy! Last week I made over one hundred sugar cookies for a church event my mom was in charge of.

Our church has a program for teen girls called Personal Progress. It serves as a method for teaching young women to set and accomplish goals that will help them to be strong women in the church, as well as in their community.  Last week’s event was a way to introduce the program to the girls and their families.

The Personal Progress program uses eight values that the girls base their projects on. Each value is assigned a color. I decorated the cookies in each of these colors, piping the values on some of them. The eighth value, virtue, was recently added. We used bees instead of coloring them gold. Bee virtuous!

 

I had so much fun making these, and it was really great practice for the piping skills.

Think Pink!

Not for me, or my little boy bun in the oven. We are all blue over here, but my friend is having a baby girl. Last weekend I was able to go to her shower and got to make some yummy little treats. I went with some cute sugar cookies and mini spice (sugar and spice, and everything nice!) cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Oh cream cheese! You are delicious!

Here are some photos. I have a habit of forgetting the camera, and so my sister’s had to do. My friend’s shower/baby nursery colors were brown, green and some pink. I got a little carried away with the pink. Oops!

I promise they looked much cuter at the shower, but again, I forgot the camera!

 

 

To frost the cookies I used royal icing. It works best when stacking cookies. To do the polka dots, you use a wet on wet technique. You pipe the edges of the cookies, and then fill with icing. While wet, add in your alternate color dots and then let dry. So easy and so cute! If you want a similar top to the cupcakes, roll out fondant, cut into the desired shape and press with an acrylic stamp. Its incredibly simple to do, I promise.

The shower was so much fun and I can’t wait to meet the sweet baby girl. It also made me even excited for my own baby. I cant believe he is going to be here in only a few months!

It’s Game Time!

Do you have your Super Bowl treats ready?

 

Who’s gonna win? Saints or Colts?

Lemony Sunshine

It has been raining here in San Jose, or at least it was raining. For over a week. We had a tornado watch. Its been dreary and gloomy, and I have missed the California sun. I decided to bring some sunshine into my kitchen by making lemon bread. Nothing screams sunshine like lemons.

I have several new recipe books that were given to me over the Christmas holiday, one being a Williams Sonoma baking cookbook. So I thought I would test Mr. Williams, or Mrs. Sonoma, or whoever managed to create such a name for themselves, and try their lemon bread. The recipe is pretty basic:

Cream shortening and sugar.

Add eggs.

And lemon zest.

Add dry ingredients followed by wet ingredients.

Bake for an hour.

And devour!

Congrats Mr. Williams or Mrs. Sonoma. You make a mean Lemon Bread!

**Note: Williams-Sonoma was founded by Charles E. Williams, though I am not sure this is his actual recipe.