Traced Elements

Tag: cake

Banana Bread – another variation, with cream cheese frosting!
I’d seen this recipe months ago while, undoubtedly, searching for something entirely different on Pinterest.

However, it caught my eye and was one of those cakes I could imagine baking up for team-mates at work or for a large get-together with friends. I mean who doesn’t like banana bread or cream cheese frosting?

So the opportunity to try this recipe came up because we were meeting up with two sets of friends and would be able to share the banana bread love. But then one of the get-togethers we had planned, cancelled at the last minute. This meant that there was far more cake to eat, on our own, than was anticipated! But, as it turned out, this cake is so light and the frosting is so dreamy that it was way too easy to eat more than one serving.

There goes the waistline – again!

Ingredients

For the Banana Bread Cake
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream full-fat is best
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mashed bananas about 2 or 3 bananas
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 bar (8 oz/227 g) cream cheese full-fat is best
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 – 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13 baking dish and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Blend together until combined and creamy.
3. In small bowl, add flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together to break up clumps. Add it into the wet batter and stir with spatula just until mixed and no flour pockets remain.
4. Add mashed banana and gently stir together. Dump batter into the baking dish and spread out evenly. It makes it easier if you dump large spoonfuls of the batter all over the baking dish, instead of just one big pile of batter.
5. Cook for 25-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle does not come out with wet batter. The edges and top will be light browned. Mine takes about 32 minutes.
6. Let cake cool completely before frosting.
7. To make frosting: beat butter and cream cheese together until combined. Add in vanilla extract, 2 cups of the powdered sugar, and 3 tablespoons heavy cream. Beat together until frosting forms. Add more powdered sugar and/or milk until desired frosting consistency is reached.* NOTE: if you use anything other than heavy whipping cream, start with 1 tablespoon and work from there. Heavy cream is so thick that you need more of it, lower fat milks you will need less of.
8. Cut into squares and garnish each piece with banana slices and chopped walnuts.
Please don’t blame me if this becomes your next favourite Banana Bread recipe! I will certainly be making it again!
March 28, 2019
It’s never too early…
In fact, to my mind, I am actually late! For what, you ask. Christmas, I say. More specifically Christmas Cake, the traditional fruit, soaked in alcohol, version.

In years past I have made my cake at the end of September and then spent the next few months feeding it before marzipanning and icing it in mid-December. A rich fruit cake can be made 2 to 3 months in advance and kept in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. Feeding a cake means that once every few weeks you make holes in the cake using a skewer and then pour an amount of alcohol over it, before re-wrapping.

The recipe I always use comes from a cake decoration cook book that I purchased way back when! But the recipe works every time, albeit I always need to cook it for longer than suggested. I even used the same recipe to make my friends wedding cake!

You need a little time for this recipe as you should ideally start it the day before you want to actually make the cake mixture to allow the fruit to soak in the alcohol overnight. Once the mixture is in the tin, the surface can be covered with clingfilm and stored in a cool place overnight if cooking is not possible on the day (there are no leavening agents to worry about). However, do remember to allow for a longer cooking time as the temperature of the mixture will be colder.

I know that a lot of people don’t like fruit cake, but this recipe offers a moist cake with the delicious spices and and flavours of Christmas and is a must in my house. The instructions below are for an 8″ round or 7″ square tin, but if you want the recipe for another size tin let me know as I can provide details for a 6″ round, all the way up to a 13″ round tin!

Ingredients
- 325g raisins
- 250g sultanas
- 175g currants
- 150g glacé cherries (the bright red cocktail ones)
- 50g cut mixed peel (I omit this in favour of more cherries!)
- 50g flaked (sliced) almonds
- 2 tsps lemon rind
- 2 tbsps lemon juice
- 3 tbsps Brandy or Sherry
- 275g plain flour
- 2.5 tsps ground mixed spice
- 65g ground almonds
- 200g dark brown soft sugar
- 200g butter or margerine, softened
- 1.5 tbsp black treacle or molasses
- 4 eggs
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 275F degrees and prepare the cake tin by double lining the inside of the tin with greaseproof paper, and the outside with a double thickness of brown paper. This will prevent the outside of the cake from bing overcooked.
2. In a large mixing bowl place the raisins, sultanas, currants, glacé cherries, mixed peel, flaked almonds, lemon rind and lemon juice together with the Brandy or Sherry. Mix all the ingredients together until well blended, then cover the bowl with clingfilm. Leave for several hours or, ideally, overnight.
3. Sift the flour and mixed spice into another mixing bowl. Add the ground almonds, sugar, butter (or margerine), treacle (or molasses) and eggs. Mix together with a wooden spoon, then beat for 2-3 minutes until smooth and glossy.
4. Gradually add the mixed fruit to the creamed mixture and fold it in, using a spatula, until all the fruit has been evenly blended. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and spread it evenly. Give the tin a few sharp taps to level the mixture and to remove any air pockets. Smooth the surface with the back of a metal spoon, making a slight depression in the centre.
5. Bake the cake in the centre of a pre-heated oven. Test the cake to see if it is cooked 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time (total 2.5 to 3 hours for a cake of this size). If it is cooked, the cake should feel firm and a fine skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. If the cake is not cooked, re-test it at 15 minute intervals. Once cooked remove from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin.
6. Once cooled, turn the cake out of the tin but do not remove the lining paper as it helps to keep the moisture in. Using half the quantity of alcohol as used in the recipe, spoon over the top of the cake and then wrap it in a double thickness of foil.
7. Store the cake in a cool, dry place on its base with the top uppermost for a week. Unwrap the cake and spoon over another half quantity of the Brandy or Sherry. Re-wrap the cake well and store it upside down, so that the Brandy or Sherry moistens the top and helps to keep it flat. The cake will store well for up to 3 months; if it going to stored for this length of time, add the Brandy or Sherry just a little bit at a time at monthly intervals.
I have a cake decorating “bake off” with one of my friends in the UK so I will provide an update once decorated so you can see the finished result too!

Merry early Christmas! 😉
October 28, 2018
Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb…
Having already written a couple of posts with sweet recipes I was convinced that my next inspiration would be of the savoury variety. That was until my physio mentioned she had lots of rhubarb growing in her garden (it’s currently in season) and did I know of any recipes.

Well, that got my inquisitive side poring over Pinterest trying to find the perfect rhubarb recipe for her. I found cakes, pies and mojitos and shared a few I thought easy and suitable. However, some were deemed too complicated and one recipe was overlooked due to the lack of an oven; but not in my kitchen! And so it happened that was the recipe I tried when just the right amount of rhubarb turned up on my doorstep! (Plus the recipe calls for a bundt tin which I have a slight obsession with at the moment!)

I had been looking for a recipe that I thought would bring out the fresh, slightly tart, flavour of the rhubarb but still with just the right amount of sweetness and this Lemon Rhubarb Bundt Cake, from BC food blogger Warm Vanilla Sugar, fit the bill exactly!

Of course, I did not intend to eat this cake all by myself, particularly given the weight loss crusade that I am currently on, so it was shared with friends. Plus a large chunk was also offered back to the rhubarb provider, and well received at that!

Hopefully you can get your hands on some rhubarb before it is out of season and give this cake a try. I can guarantee it won’t last long!

PS I promise the next recipe will not be a cake!

Ingredients

For the cake:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 lemons, zested
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3 cups rhubarb, diced in 1/2-inch pieces
For the Lemon Glaze:
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 tbsp melted unsalted butter (FYI I didn’t use)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl, beat together the softened butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and then add the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together 2 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder and salt. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the egg mixture along with 1/3 of the needed buttermilk and mix on low speed. Alternate with flour and buttermilk until both are fully incorporated.
4. In a medium bow, or large ziplock bag, toss the rhubarb with the remaining two tablespoons of flour until the rhubarb is well coated. Gently fold rhubarb into the batter with a rubber spatula until it’s distributed evenly.
5. Turn out cake batter into the prepared pan, using a spatula to gently spread and level it out.
6. Bake for about 60-70 minutes, or until the cake springs back gently when touched and a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean.
7. Allow cake to sit and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, make the glaze by whisking together all the glaze ingredients until smooth. Thin with extra lemon juice or thicken with more powdered sugar as you see fit.
9. When the cake is cooled, tip it out onto a serving plate and generously drizzle cake with the lemon glaze.
10. Slice and enjoy.
11. Yields 12 slices but it depends on how big your slices are! 😉
June 29, 2018
New puppy = new cake recipe!
I think I mentioned in my first post that I have a love of baking. I don’t get to bake very often though as that would mean eating it all afterwards, but for visits with friends or special occasions I can make an exception. Well, those two things just happened to collide this past weekend.

You see, this week my husband and I drove up to Fort St. John, and back, to collect our new puppy. And yes, before you ask, we do both believe in #adoptdontshop but the breed we love is not regularly found at a shelter and we did research our breeder and were satisfied that they were not a puppy farm. Besides, he is a cutie.

And so, for this occasion, it seemed appropriate to bake a cake to take round our friends house while introducing them all to the new puppy. Plus I wanted another excuse to try my Bundt tin!

I had saved several Bundt cake recipes on Pinterest but this One-Bowl Chocolate Buttermilk Bundt Cake seemed like just the right thing and looked very appetizing in the pictures. I hoped my version would look, and taste, as good.
Ingredients
Cake

3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking soda

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cup low fat buttermilk (or standard will do)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup boiling hot water

1 tbsp vanilla
Glaze

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

1 tbsp cornstarch (I used 2 tbsp to make the glaze a bit thicker)

1 cup boiling hot water

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup butter
Directions
Cake

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Thoroughly grease a bundt pan and then sift cocoa powder over and set aside.

Add all cake ingredients to a large bowl and mix until well blended using a hand mixer.

Bake for an hour (check at 50 mins) or until the cake springs back when touched lightly with a finger.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.
Glaze

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and hot water.

Cook, stirring often over a medium heat until thickened slightly.

Remove from the heat and add the vanilla and butter, and stir until the butter melts.

Set your cake over a rack with something to catch all the drips and then pour the frosting over the cake.

Let the frosting set a little before adding sprinkles.

Let set for at least an hour before eating and enjoying.

I was very happy with the results. It took minutes to put together and everyone really seemed to enjoy it, even going back for seconds (which is good as it meant less to take back home with me). Oh, and everyone loved the puppy too!
March 28, 2018