Banana Cake

Another one of the second year students, N, has been asking me for a while to make something banana-chocolate. So I grabbed some bananas leftover from one of the meals and waited patiently for them to overripen. Together, we made delicious banana chocolate chip muffins and afterwards I made this Banana Cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. (I've been trying to put that book to use as much as I can since I've laid my hands on it) The first step is to puree the bananas in the food processor. I dont know why I never thought to process them to get a smooth banana puree with no lumps. Maybe I just didnt want to dirty more dishes. Anyway, pretty soon the batter came together beautifully and baked up into a nice one layer cake. I topped it with some melted chocolate and margarine, simple and delicious. This cake was nice and moist, not overwhelmingly banana-ey, but perfectly so. I need to make it again. Soon. Which means nipping more bananas. Sigh.

Banana Cake

adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes

2 large very ripe bananas

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

2 tsp lemon zest

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (200 grams)

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the bananas and sour cream in a food processor.

Process until creamy and smooth.

Add the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla,

and process until combined.

Place the contents of the food processor into a bowl and add the sugar. Beat on medium speed for one minute.

Gradually drizzle in the oil, beating until completely incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients,

and beat on low for two minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Unmold the cake and invert it on a wire rack to cool.

Serve as is dusted with powdered sugar or spread with some melted chocolate mixed with a bit of margarine. Serve to hungry sem girls. It did turn out quite beautifully. Picture perfect, actually.

Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

Another chocolate cake, I know. But this Chocolate Velvet Cake comes from the newly released Rose's Heavenly Cakes so I had to make it and blog about it. In addition to the Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Cake, this cake was intended for the party. (You know, always gotta have something chocolate.) I say intended because it never actually made it there. At curfew time, all the girls came in to admire the cake and after refusing many I finally decided to just let them have a go at it. The batter is made using the same technique as the lemon cake although this cake employs what I call a cocoa slurry and doesn't require any dairy, making it a great option for Shabbat meals. This cake, like the other, is soft, moist, tender and really velvety. It has good chocolate flavor, although I would have liked the chocolate flavor to be deeper, somehow more intense and chocolatey. Maybe next time I'll add chocolate chips to the mix and see how that goes. I didn't find it necessary to top or glaze this cake with anything- somethings just don't need any adornment. Or maybe I was too worn out from all the baking. Yea. I thin that was it.

Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes

63 grams Dutch cocoa

118 grams boiling water (1/2 cup)

150 grams eggs at room temperature (about 3)

118 grams water (1/2 cup)

2 1/4 tsp vanilla

235 grams cake flour or all purpose flour

300 grams sugar

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

227 grams margarine or butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour a bundt pan. Set aside.

In a small bowl, place the cocoa powder. Pour boiling water over it,

and stir to make a paste like consistency. Cool to room temperature. Chill to speed up the cooling.

In a bowl, place the eggs, water, and vanilla.

Whisk thoroughly to combine. Set aside.

In another larger bowl, place all of the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.

Add the margarine or butter and the cocoa slurry,

and begin beating until all the flour is moistened. Scrape down the bowl as needed.

Add half of the liquid ingredients at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition.

Here is the completed batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake around 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool for fifteen minutes and then invert onto a rack. Cool completely. Didnt manage a shot of the unmolded cake. Next time...

Lemon Poppy Sour Cream Bundt Cake

The latest darling of the blogosphere, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, is finally in my hands. I couldn't be more thrilled. I must say, that the book deserves all the buzz it's getting. It's stunning to behold, with mouth watering photos on almost every page. It's just a pleasure to read and there's lots to choose from. This is the first of three cakes I've made so far and I don't think this book is going to be one I let up on any time soon. In fact, when I heard that one of the B's kids was going to be celebrating a very momentous achievement in his learning and L asked me to make a cake, I turned to this book. This Lemon Poppy Sour Cream Bundt Cake was the first cake my eye caught and I decided to make. (I also made the Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake, but that never made it to the party. Gotta love the girls; but more on that later.) Rose says this is her signature cake and I can understand why, having made it. Studded with poppy seeds and bits of lemon, this sour cream based cake is so moist and tender, soft and utterly delicious. There are many more superlatives I could use, but I'll stop here. I could not stop eating it. It's one to be made over and over. In fact, I wonder if the base could be adapted to any number of flavors. The cake was easy to assemble although this was the first cake I've made using her technique. Rose blends the dry ingredients and creams that with the fact before adding the liquids. I think the fat coats the flour particles thus preventing gluten formation and yielding a tender product. Or something like that. The resulting batter is nothing short of silky; the cake itself, nothing short of heavenly.

Lemon Poppy Seed Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

200 grams sour cream

1 3/4 tsp vanilla extract

250 grams cake flour or all purpose flour

250 grams sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

10 grams freshly grated lemon zest

50 grams poppy seed (you can leave these out)

200 grams margarine or butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan very thoroughly.

Place the eggs, sour cream and vanilla in a bowl,

mix thoroughly to combine and set aside.

Place all of the dry ingredients in a bowl,

and whisk to combine.

Break up the margarine or butter and place on top of the dry ingredients.

Beat on medium speed for one and a half minutes until the batter lightens.

Add the liquid ingredients in two batches, beating in between and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Here is the silken batter, completed. Spread into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Here is the baked cake.

Let the cake cool in the pan for ten minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Unfortunately, none of my bundt cakes ever come out perfect... I think dusting with a light coating of powdered sugar is just lovely. So unassuming, but soooo delicious. Enjoy!

Muffin Mondays: Carrot Muffins

My policy here with the girls is ask and you shall receive.... as long as you supply the ingredients. So when one of the second year students craved carrot muffins, all she had to do was supply me with a bag of carrots. She showed up a couple of days later with a nice sized bag and left with the reassurance that she'd soon have some muffins. She had expressed to me that she missed her mother's muffins. Now, I know of the carrot muffins she had in mind and honestly, they were more cake than muffin and more sugar than carrot. Wanting something a bit more...wholesome, or at least something that more closely resembled a carrot muffin, I turned to my book shelf. My first instinct was to go thumb through Carole Walter's Great Coffeecakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More. Therein, I found an excellent recipe for Old Fashioned Carrot Muffins. I eliminated the fruit and nuts, maybe because I didn't have them on hand or maybe just because I don't always like too many extras to steal away from the main ingredient. The only other changes I made were to substitute oil for the butter and I coarsely grated the carrots instead of using a finer, more puree like form. Even though initially that wasn't deliberate, I enjoyed seeing the bits of carrot in there. It was quite rustic and authentic, in my humble opinion. When I gave these to the student who commissioned them to taste, I could tell that she was disappointed because they were not her mother's. But when she took them downstairs, they were devoured instantaneously and I received glowing reviews from the head of the school who had managed a muffin. I myself quite liked them.

Old Fashioned Carrot Muffins

adapted from Carole Walter

8 ounces carrots, peeled

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

few grates fresh nutmeg

pinch of cloves

2/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a twelve cup muffin pan or line one with muffin cups. Set aside.
Grate the carrots. I grated them coarsely but do as you please.In a bowl, place all of the dry ingredients.

Whisk to aerate and combine.

Add the grated carrots,

and toss to coat in the dry ingredient mixture. Set aside.

In a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup, place all of the liquid ingredients.

Whisk thoroughly to combine.

Pour over the flour-carrot mixture,

and whisk just until combined, taking care not to overmix.

Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Using a large disher works well here.

Bake for 25-28 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center is clean or has a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Serve to hungry students ASAP.

White Chocolate Craisin Oat Cookies

Personal baker. Is that even a real phrase? That's what I've been nicknamed by the dorm mother of the dorm here. She knows I bake and when she has family occasions she commissions me to bake her things that'll make her look like a star. The first time, I made some variation of this cookie. (The second time it was an awesome apple cake and chocolate chip cookie bars- all winners!) She reports that when the guests tasted them and asked her what was in them she could barely answer. It was funny. If only embarrassingly so. Later I told her to just recite the basic ingredients in any recipe.. ya know, flour, sugar, etc. Anyway, I don't even know who was responsible for putting the idea to make this classic combination in my head. All I know is that it works. So well. And it was a good excuse to test the recipe again. And have some for myself this time around. This recipe originally appears in Baked as Oatmeal Cherry Nut Cookies but I transformed them into White Chocolate Craisin Oat Cookies. Dried Cherries- not so prevalent here. Easy to assemble, these cookies need to rest in the refrigerator for about six hours before baking. I'm not sure what this is meant to achieve, but after the NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookie wave, I have no doubt that some chill time is beneficial to any cookie dough.

White Chocolate Craisin Oat Cookies

adapted from Baked

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

few grates of nutmeg

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 3/4 cups quick cooking oats- use old fashioned for a more nubby, tweedy texture

1 generous handful craisins

1 generous handful white chocolate chips

Place the margarine and sugars in a bowl.Cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time,

stirring until completely incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients,

and the add ins. Mix to make a cohesive dough.

Cover and refrigerate for six hours or overnight. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop the cookies and place them on the baking sheet or stagger them as shown above.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, depending on the type of cookie you want. Remove the cookies after cooling on the pan for a couple of minutes.