Batter-Splattered

Banana raspberry cake with lemon frosting

 

I searched through about a million cake recipes in search of just the right one to take to a spring-has-sprung potluck party. I wanted something light and summery with berries and lemon.

This one was delicious and I can't wait to make it again.

Love the flecks of lemon zest visible in the frosting. I showed up at the party with a cake and went home with an empty plate, so mission accomplished.

I didn't think there was quite enough frosting. Usually I have the opposite problem and end up with way too much. So I went back and made an extra half-recipe of the frosting. Luckily I had enough ingredients to do that. Also, the frosting was a little soupy and I was worried it would slump down the sides but it firmed up nicely once it was spread.

Banana raspberry cake with lemon frosting

Cake:

Cooking spray

1 T  all-purpose flour

1 1/3  cups  granulated sugar

1/4  cup  butter, softened

3  large eggs

1 3/4  cups  all-purpose flour

2  teaspoons  baking powder

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1  cup  low-fat buttermilk

1  cup  mashed ripe banana (about 2 bananas)

1  teaspoon  vanilla extract

Frosting:

3/4  cup  (6 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, chilled

2  tablespoons  butter, softened

2  teaspoons  grated lemon rind

1/2  teaspoon  vanilla extract

Dash of salt

2 1/2  cups  powdered sugar, sifted

1 1/2  cups  fresh raspberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare the cake, coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray; dust each pan with 1 1/2 teaspoons flour.

Place granulated sugar and 1/4 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 3 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Lightly spoon 1 3/4 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, stirring well with a whisk.

Combine buttermilk, banana, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture (mix after each addition just until blended). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake cake at 350° for 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Peel off wax paper. Cool layers completely on wire rack.

To prepare frosting, combine cream cheese, 2 tablespoons butter, rind, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and dash of salt in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at high speed until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar; beat at low speed just until blended (do not overbeat).

Place 1 cake layer on a plate, and spread with 1/3 cup frosting. Arrange raspberries in a single layer over frosting, and top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Store cake loosely covered in refrigerator. Garnish with fresh raspberries, if desired.
 

who dat

Not sure if the Saints are thinkin' this, but they owe me a debt of gratitude because I was the one who won them that Super Bowl. It was all me.

You see, ordinarily, I cheer for both sides in spite of the fact that my husband tells me that's against the rules, it's not allowed, I have to choose a team. Usually, I distractedly watch football while flipping through a Williams-Sonoma catalog or dozing on the couch but this time, for the first time, I felt like I had a stake in the game and instead of hoping each and every fella on both teams did his very best and didn't embarass himself with a snafoo that would keep him awake at night, today I found myself telling the Saints "YOU MUST DEEEESSTTTRRROOOYYY THEM."

Long-time readers will know I grew up an hour or so from New Orleans. I love the city. I love its culture and music and history and houses. I made gumbo for game day. I thought discouraging thoughts towards the Colts. I didn't care whose feelings got hurt. The Saints had to win. They deserved to win. And they did.

No. No. Don't thank me. I was happy to do my part. O to be in New Orleans tonight, skipping down Bourbon Street with a drink in each hand.

On other fronts, hey look at these sweet little red wooden skis my mom got for me at the thrift store. Made in Norway. They're happily gracing my front porch next to an old pair of bamboo poles.

And hey, look at this chocolate cake I made today as a gumbo chaser:

It's named the Special Occasion Chocolate Cake, perhaps so that if someone should notice that a slice has nearly 1000 calories you can cut their protests off by saying, "LOOk at the title. It's for special occasions."

Occasions such as the Super Bowl.

It's three layers. In between two layers is milky chocolate frosting. In between the two other layers is a dark chocolate ganache frosting. The milk chocolate frosting is spread all over the top and sides and the ganache is then drizzled all over the top and down the sides. Almonds are sprinkled over the top.

Did I mention it won Grand Champion at the Alaska State Fair?

You need you some of this cake.

Special Occasion Chocolate Cake

Serves 12

• 1 cup baking cocoa
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2-1/4 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 
  GANACHE:
• 10 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 
  FROSTING:
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 
  GARNISH:
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

 

• In a small bowl, combine cocoa and water; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with cocoa mixture, beating well after each addition.
• Pour into three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• For ganache, place chocolate in a small bowl. In a small heavy saucepan over low heat, bring cream and sugar to a boil. Pour over chocolate; whisk gently until smooth. Refrigerate for 35-45 minutes or until ganache begins to thicken, stirring occasionally.
• For frosting, in a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar, cocoa, milk and vanilla; beat until smooth.
• Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with 1 cup frosting. Top with second layer and 1 cup ganache; sprinkle with 1/2 cup almonds. Top with third layer; frost top and sides of cake. Warm ganache until pourable; pour over cake, allowing some to drape down the sides. Sprinkle with remaining almonds. Refrigerate until serving. 

buttermilk cherry cake

Whew! I'm back from vacation but I'm still stuck in vacation-recovery mode -- buried in unpacked bags and unprocessed photos. Hundreds and hundreds of un-processed San Francisco photos. This post-vacation period is just like sitting around with a fat stomach after a really good meal. You're happy, but nobody better not expect too much from you beyond sitting around with a big fat grin on your face.

But I did manage to bake a cake. A cake I read about here at wikstenmade, a blog I love for its creativity and honesty. She read about it at another blog, and that blog read about it at another blog, and the author of that blog got the recipe from a magazine I meant to buy but never got around to doing so... You know how these things go... she has a cherry pitter... I have a cherry pitter. She loves this cake... I love this cake. These blogs are excellent sources of good recipes. Case in point:

 

 

 

That's my new potholder up there -- my new ikea potholder, purchased on vacation along with a whole lot of other loot for the house.

 

I have just enough post-vacation energy to tell you that you need some of this cake. You can use any old berry you like. There's sugar sprinkled on top before you bake it -- have I mentioned that yet? That's the clincher for me.

Cherry Buttermilk Cake

9" cake or 6 servings

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 ounces) or any old berry or cherry you have on hand

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.

Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

thrift store scores / rhubarb cake

It's been awhile since I posted about my recent thrift store scores.

Exhibit A, an old-timey telephone desk that's now holding (big surprise) my phone, a vase of yellow lilies, and a candy dish. Old-timey desks scream out for candy dishes:

 

Should I paint it a fun color or leave it as is? When I spotted it at the thrift store I was on the fence on whether or not I should buy it, but then this other woman stopped to admire it, which of course made it seem that much more appealing to me. She wandered away undecidedly too, so I took the opportunity to swoop in, pay for it, and load it in the back of the wagon.

Exhibit B, a weathered old ladder that I'm gonna use as 'garden art' by stacking potted flowers on each rung:

 

I got some weathered old baskets at a thrift store yesterday and I plan to line those with moss then plant some annuals in them. I will be sure and post photos when that garden artwork installation is completed.

Exhibit C, a vintage pyrex baking dish that came with its own wooden-handled carrying stand:

 

Exhibit D, a cool enamel measuring cup:

 

I found it awhile back and forgot about it till I noticed it sitting in the backseat while I was waiting for my commuter van early one morning. I grabbed it and was admiring it anew. One of my fellow commuters was watching me from her car and when we climbed on the van she said to me: "That was a mighty big coffee cup you had there, Molly."

It's a four cup measuring cup, so yes it would be a rather large coffee cup and I doubt if I'd be able to sit still to write this post if I quaffed that much coffee each morning. Rather than correct her though, I just said, "Yep."

The measuring cup is holding chopped rhubarb for a simple and easy rhubarb cake -- I got the recipe at Painted Fish Studio, a blog I like to check in on once in awhile to get a fresh infusion of creativity.

We had ours with strawberry ice cream. Yum.

Painted Fish Rhubarb Cake

Makes a 9x13 inch cake to serve, gosh, alot of people.

Mix 4 cups of diced rhubarb with 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, place in a greased 9×13 pan. sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar. add rhubarb mixture.

Mix 1 package yellow cake mix per directions, minus 1/4 water. pour over rhubarb.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, until batter pulls away from sides. let set 10 minutes.

Optional, depending on how quickly you want to eat rhubarb cake: place jelly roll pan on top of cake and turn over to remove cake. liquid may pour down the edges.

an exchange, bag art, and a cake, oh my!

Thing one:

Siri is having a farmer's market exchange that sounds like loads of fun. Check it out and sign up to exchange lots of local stuff from your favorite farmer's market. Sadly, I can't afford the outrageously-priced local veggies sold at farmers markets here but I betcha I can find something to fill a box that won't decompose by the time it reaches its recipient.

Thing two:

 

Friends came over for a dinner of strawberry margaritas, mojitos, and handmade pizza and they left behind this cool paper shopping bag -- a grocery store had stacks of them decorated by local school kids. Best school art project ever.

Thing three:

 

Applesause cake! With caramel frosting! In my new-to-me blue baking dish, scored yesterday at a thrift shop.

Two friends and I spent a marvelous day in Anchorage yesterday. We garage sailed first thing in the morning at an annual neighborhood garage sale that draws droves of bargain hunters each year. They bring in port-a-potties, each of which has a line a mile long! There were so many cars trying to get into the neighborhood that we parked a half-mile away and hiked in. We were patting each other on the backs over that smart move until I found a traveling sprinkler that I've had my eye on for quite some time. Good news: it cost a fraction of what I'd pay in a store for a new one. Bad news: it weighs a ton (cast iron will do that). I carried it till my vertebrae began to crowd together and I was an inch shorter, then I swore I'd buy the next thing I saw that rolled -- a wagon, a stroller, a suitcase. That's when I spotted the hand truck. Awesome.

We carted around all our scores on it -- an old orange wooden chair, a blender for making smoothies at work, a french press, some books (including a very old instructional manual called something like the Well-Bred Young Lady in Society -- now there's a blog waiting to happen because who couldn't use advice warning that a young man might invite you to the opera and then try to whisk you away from your chaperone?), and oh, so many other things.

We also stopped by the dump and got cheap composter bins being offered by the city.

I think the most interesting part of three women going garage sailing happens at the end of the trip when you stop to drop each woman off and her husband comes out to help unload garage sale scores from the bed of the pickup. They're a critical lot, those husbands. A sample exchange:

Husband: "Please tell me you didn't pay $5 for a rickety old orange chair?"

Wife: long pause and eye roll, then, "Okay. I didn't pay $5 for a rickety old orange chair."

She did, you know she did.

And we also stopped by Barnes and Noble for the bathroom and the bargain books. One of my purchases was a book I've always meant to buy -- Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars (love the back of the box recipes!), which brings me to the applesauce cake with caramel frosting pictured above. What's not to love about a moist and spicy sheet cake? Especially after a long day of shoppin' fun. On the couch. Feet up. Doors open to let in a little breeze. The late evening shine shining on the leafy trees outside. Heavenly.

Actually the book calls these Applesauce Bars and refers to them as cookies and makes them in a shallow jelly roll pan. So, cake or bar, it's your choice.

Applesauce Cake

Original recipe from Stokely-Van Camp

Makes a 10 x 15 inch sheet cake

Cake ingredients:

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 c sugar

1/4 t baking powder

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t salt

3/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t cloves

1/2 t allspice

1/2 c vegetable shortening

1/2 c water

2 c apple sauce

1 egg

1/2 c chopped nuts

1 c raisins

Frosting Ingredients:

1/4 c butter

1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar

3 T milk

1 1/2 c or so powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 15 x 10 inch baking dish. Combine all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add shortening, water, applesauce, and egg. Beat 4 minutes on medium speed. Fold in nuts and raisins. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Make frosting: melt butter in a saucepan then add brown sugar and boil gently for one minute. Cool slightly then stir in milk. Gradually add powdered sugar until it's a nice spreading consistency. Frost cake -- it's okay to frost it while it's still warm. Dig in.

sunday pot roast / mississippi mud pie

It was a lazy Sunday. The husband left early in the morning with the dog to go on a long ride out to visit his cousin, 'old Stanley' (don't ask) and I spent the day making over my living room -- new curtains, new bookshelf, I moved all the 'artwork' around from one wall to another to make it look fresher and newer.

 

 

In the oven, there was an old-fashioned Sunday pot roast, just like Grandma used to make. Although I doubt Nana's was made with so many organic ingredients, from the broth to the fingerling potatoes to the carrots to the celery to the bay leaves to the green bell pepper to the moose that wandered wild and free through the forest until -- sigh! -- it gave its life to fill my freezer.

Although, who knows -- maybe Nana grew her own vegetables in a garden out back and didn't need to bother with all this organic crap. My Grandma had a freezer full of venison, that I know. But then again, even Julia Child used to tell you to cook everything on a slab of asbestos in the oven, so who knows what those broads were doing to their food back then to make it as toxic as a daily misting of pesticide.

I've already told you about my favorite recipe for pot roast. Let me tell you what was taking up space in the oven next to that pot full of roast:

Mississippi Mud Cake!

I was introduced to the beauty of the Mississippi mud by my fifth grade teacher -- a fiery red-headed and yet gentile Southern lady named Mrs. Robinson who, when she said, "The bell's 'bout to ring," the 'ring' came out sounding like 'raing.'

You know the type. Or maybe you don't if you didn't attend classes at Beauvoir Elementary, named after Jefferson Davis's nearby summer home, with its Civil War graveyard out back where, when it rained hard enough, the coffins of Confederate soldiers used to occasionally pop to the surface.

 

So in case you're not acqainted: there's the Mississippi mud pie, baked in a pie plate with a graham cracker crust. But I'm rather partial tp Mrs. Robinson's version, baked in a cake pan. The bottom layer is like a rich chocolatey brownie, then the second layer is a thick smear of marshmallow fluff (this whole jar-of-fluff thing is a modern invention and I'm quite sure that back then Mrs. Robinson rocked it old school with the bag of mini marshmallows), and then rich chocolate icing gets drizzled on top. And then you smear the marshmallow and the chocolate icing together while it's still hot from the oven.

My search for the history of the Mississippi mud pie/cake has me wishing I would have found this recipe earlier in the day because it has strong-brewed coffee and bourbon in the batter.

Look at Paula Deen's version --she puts chopped walnuts her chocolate icing rather than in the brownie-cake batter, as my recipe directed.

So anyway I went home from class that day singing the praises of the Mississippi mud cake, and Mrs. Robinson even gave us a copy of her recipe to take home. That's about as far as it got because my mom took one look at it, raised her eyebrows at the two and a half sticks of butter in the ingredients list and said to me, "Here, have one of my homemade whole-wheat bran muffins."

Hippie!

My finished product isn't nearly as perfect as the cake in Paula's photo but then again, I practically ate mine straight from the oven. It was all warm and gooey and oozed itself off the spoon and onto my plate. Excellent.

Here's the recipe I used. The beauty of being a grown-up is that you can make whatever cake you want, two and a half sticks of butter and all. Although, truth be told, I cut the recipe in half because the husband and I don't need a 9x13 inch cake pan full of mud.

Mississippi Mud Cake

Makes and 9 x 13 inch sheet cake -- it's really rich so I believe it when it says it feeds 24. Serve it with ice cream

• 1 1/4 cups butter, softened
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme

For the icing:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x13 inch cake pan.

In a sauce pan over low heat, melt 1 cup of the butter or margarine and the cocoa. Stir often. Remove from heat and add white sugar, beat well. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and stir into the egg mixture. Stir in the chopped nut and teaspoon of the vanilla. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 to 45 minutes.

While it's baking, make the icing: Beat together the remaining 1/4 cup butter or margarine, 1/3 cup cocoa, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the milk and the confectioner's sugar.

Remove cake from oven and while it's still hot, spread the marshmallow cream over the cake -- it works best if you spoon it onto the surface of the cake, let it warm up, and then spread it. Spoon chocolate icing over marshmallow topping and spread. The cake gets "muddied" by the spreading action.

Let it cool and serve it with ice cream if desired.