Lovin' From the Oven

Banana Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting

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Yay for finally being home and being able to bake! Baking really is such a great stress reliever for me. I was supposed to go out last night but the plans fell through, so I stayed home and baked instead. My mom had some ripe bananas (I swear she buys fruit in bulk so that I would make something out of them when they’re too ripe to eat) and suggested that I make something with them. I’ve already made banana bread a million and two times, so I settled for a cake instead. Honestly, there isn’t that much of a difference between banana bread and banana cake. They both taste the same.. one’s just a tiny bit lighter than the other. I added a bit of yogurt and oil to make the cake a bit moister, and that definitely did the trick. I baked the batter in one 9 inch pan and the other into a mini loaf pan. I don’t think there was enough batter to make two 9 inch cakes, but there would be for an 8 inch round pan. The cake was just okay in my opinion, but I’m not really a fan of banana desserts unless it’s banana flambe. Mmmmmm… banana flambe…

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside.

Cream together the butter and the sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Add bananas and vanilla extract; mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Cool and frost cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

4 ounces low-fat cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 stick ( 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 pound or about 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 to 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract
Finely chopped toasted pecans and toasted pecan halves

In a large bowl, working with your mixer of choice, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar and keep beating until the frosting is very smooth. Beat in the lemon juice or extract.

Frost the cake and decorate the sides with the chopped walnuts.

Day 4: No Fail Sugar Cookies

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Yay! Finals are done! Time for me to bake all I want… So you can expect a lot of posts for the next three weeks. I have a lot on my agenda.. from buying Christmas gifts for everyone to catching up on my much needed SLEEP! I’ve been sick for the past week. I came home from LA and my mom greeted me with “You’re sick, huh? You look like a dead person. I can tell.” Haha, Thanks, Mom. And the next morning, she said to me after hearing me cough, “You’re going to get water in your lungs and die from pneumonia! Wear a jacket. And pants. You sound like an old man. I’m going to go buy you medicine so you can sleep at night and stop coughing.” She’s so mother-ly, overexaggerating everything and worried all the time. I love her.

I’ve been obsessed with looking at puppies lately. I want one soooo bad. Preferably a german shepherd or a siberian husky. Ahhhhhh they’re so cute. Anyways, back to the cookies…




Day 4 of my 12 Days of Cookies: No fail-sugar cookies. So I knocked down two birds with one stone on day 4 of my cookies. I’m going to my boyfriend’s cousin’s engagement party tonight and baked this for the newly engaged couple (hence the bride & groom cookies). Now, I’ve NEVER had any luck with baking sugar cookies simply because they either turn out flat, lose their shape, taste terribly, or are too crumbly. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago and I haven’t used another one since. I mean, look at the name of the cookie: No-fail sugar cookies! How can you go wrong with that? This dough stands up to the most complex cookie cutters and always come out perfect. I made them a little thicker than normal so that they would be sturdy enough to stand on a cookie stick for my bouquet. I also halved this recipe because I didn’t need that many cookies. After they were cooled, I decorated them however I wanted.

I haven’t had a lot of experience with piping frosting, so don’t be too harsh! This is actually the first time I’ve piped with royal icing. This royal icing is very forgiving and can be stiff or thin, depending on what you want to do with it. Either add more powdered sugar for a stiffer icing to pipe, or add more water to make it into a thinner consistency to fill in cookies. I halved this recipe as well, and still have a ton leftover.

I used my heart cookie cutter from my Crate & Barrel set I got for Christmas last year from one of my cousins that can be found HERE. It has a cookie cutters that will last you throughout the year.. one for each month! How cute is that!? And it even comes in a cute container, that could be used for cookie storing.

Ingredients

  • 6 cups flour
  • 3 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 cups butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring
  • 1 tsp. salt

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

For the Royal Icing:
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.

Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.

Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.

Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.

Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.

Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

Ok, I have to add a picture of the love of my life at the moment. I bought myself a little Christmas present and am SO excited! It’s Wilton’s 56 Piece Tip Set. I can pipe all sorts of things now! 🙂

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Everytime I say that, people respond with, “…. what? …” Yes, I said it, whoopie pie. What are whoopie pies anyway? Well, it’s a two-layer filled cake, a cake/cookie consisting of two layers with a moist filling sandwiched in between. In this case, its a pumpkin cake cookie with a maple cream cheese frosting. The cookie was okay, very cake-like. But the filling? A-MAZ-ING! The best cream cheese frosting that I’ve ever had. Actually, it was probably because of the authentic Canadian maple syrup that I used from the leaf shaped bottle with a red cap. Hooray for Canadian syrup!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! (Trust me, I’ve baked a ridiculous amount of goods for Turkey day, so expect more posts to come)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

Pumpkin Whoopie Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup canola oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk to sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.
Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to drop healing TBSP of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling. They will look more like mini cakes then cookies, so don’t panic about that.

Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Filling

3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 TBSP maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese an beat until combined.
Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to overbeat the filling, or it will lose structure.

To assemble:
Turn half the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe filling (about a TBSP) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoppie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.

Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

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