What I Made For Mother's Day

I told you I be back to tell you all about my Mother's Day dessert.I spent many hours this passed Sunday, making two cakes! One for my mom and the other for my boyfriend's birthday;however for now I'll just be sharing about her delicious cake and I'll leave the other to share about next time :)

Anyways, you probably want to hear about what kind of cake this is?It's probably quite obvious by the cut in the cake in this picture.So did you guess a banana cake? Well if you did, your quite right! This is a moist flavorful banana cake, very similar to its bread and muffin variation.So by that you know its going to be quite simple to make and very versatile. Hence why I chose this recipe.

I found this simple recipe in Company's Coming Cakes, Cookbook By Jean Pare.It had straight forward directions and simple ingredients.I made very little changes to direct cake recipe beside adding a few steps such as greasing & flouring the cake pans,using frozen(thawed) bananas and making my own sour milk to use instead of buttermilk.These were very small changes and even the recipe gave me tips and ideas for me to use,which was very helpful.Overall,I have to give this recipe an  A+ for simplicity in ingredients,direct steps and quick to make.

Now the cake it self for texture and flavor, was very moist, while being light,spongy and slightly crumbly. For flavor it was sweet with a mild banana flavor.However with this cake you do have to be careful with the flavors you use in sense of icing. I was super lucking with the butter icing I chose because it didn't take any thing away from the banana flavor and actually complimented it very nicely.It just added a slight sweetness  and the cake actually is very good with or without icing.So you got a choice between the two.So for the cakes flavor and texture on its own get an A+.

Now the decorating and assembling of a cake is the the creative part.The recipe gave me a choice of icings, but it was all up to me of how I wanted it to look.For icing, I made a butter icing and reserved a large spoonful for the star piping. Now once I created the icing, trouble happened! I ended up forgetting to even out the bottom layer by cutting it and I didn't clue into this till after I gave it a crumb coat.So to fix this I had to cut it,waste icing in the process and re coat the top again.Now with this mistake being fixed I had very little icing left to do another coat and so I tired my best with what I had.However I was lucky enough that my mom doesn't like a lot of icing on her cakes.

After that it was a lot easier.I had just enough icing for the top for the chocolate chunks to stick and I was able to pipe yellow stars along the edge.The chocolate that I used was Cad bury Dairy milk Chocolate.It is one of their brand new bars called Honey roasted Hazelnut and Cashew.I used about 1 and half bars for this cake,which was just the right amount, any more would of been too much.The star piping was very simple and brought some color to this cake. Overall the chocolate helped decorate this cake in a simple way without using to much icing,which really helped me out in the long run.It also brought more texture and flavor to this cake.It was a smooth and creamy milk chocolate with a soft crunch from the hazelnuts and cashews.It actually matched quite well with the flavor of this cake,along with giving it a great appearance.

Overall it was a great cake and I had a lot of fun creating.It took some time and effort to assemble it, but I think I did a pretty good job with what I able to create in the end.My mom and family loved the cake and it only lasted like a couple days.It was that chocolate!

Banana Cake

By Company's Coming Cakes Written By Jean Pare

Yields : 2 cake rounds (8inch)

1/2 cup margarine,softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup mashed banana ( 2 large ripe bananas or 2 large frozen bananas, thawed & mashed)

1/3 cup sour milk

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Grease and flour two 8inch round cake pans.Beat margarine and sugar together in a large bowl, till light and fluffy.Beat in eggs one at a time and add vanilla.

In a medium bowl, Mash two large ripe bananas.Add the buttermilk or sour milk.Set aside.

How To Create Sour Milk:1/3 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice,let sit for 5 minutes.When its cloudy its ready to use.

In a medium bowl,Sift together flour,baking powder,baking soda and salt.

To mix.Added fat mixture in 3 parts alternately with banana mixture in 2 parts,beginning and ending with flour. Example:Dry mix,banana mix,dry mix,banana mix and lastly dry mix. Beat thoroughly after adding each mix. Once everything is fully mixed in, spread batter evenly into both prepared cake pans.

Bake in oven for 25-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.Dark brown in color.Cool and release cakes on cooling rack.Let cool completely.Cut the cakes tops to make them even.Place on a cake stand and decorate.

Chocolate Chunks

Cut 1 and half bars of Dairy Milk Chocolate.Honey Roasted Hazelnuts and Cashews.Large or small chunks.Place in fridge.Once done icing the cake.Sprinkle them on top,be sure to have icing on top to help them stick.

Butter Icing

Yields about 1 1/3 cups.

2 cups icing sugar

1/4 cup margarine or butter,softened

3 tbsp milk/cream/water

1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, beat all ingredient together, until smooth.Add more liquid if too thick, if too thin add more icing sugar.Reserve a large spoon full of icing,add to a small bowl.Add yellow food coloring till reaches a bright sun yellow. Ice the cake with the white icing. Then add yellow icing to a piping bag with star tip.Pipe along the top edge all around.