Banana Parfait

I've noticed over the course of writing over the past few years about this, that and the other ingredient that there are a few things that folks have a particular love and devotion for.   One of those things is bananas.  We do love our bananas!  And what's not to love - they are the perfect, scrumptious, portable, non-sticky/drippy/messy fruit.  (Not that I don't sometimes love peach juice running down my chin.)

 

And one of the others is chocolate.  Duh.  So when I run into a recipe that has both chocolate and bananas, I know that soon I'm going to be digging into something good.  It happened to me with the Banana Bites that are still one of my most popular posts EVER, and here we go again...and this time with some angel food cake, a few almonds, some mascarpone cheese, all in a dessert that will take you, oh, about 15 minutes to assemble, and that's if you are going really slow.

Here's the scoop.  Find some pretty wine glasses, the rounder the better.  Now take some angel food cake (the kind you can buy in the bakery section of your supermarket is perfectly fine) and slice it up.  You want the initial slices to be about an inch high, and then trim those into whatever shape will fit nicely into your wine glasses. Don't worry too much about making them pretty and precise, because they are going to be drowned in this.

That's my mind-blowingly good favorite chocolate sauce from the mind-blowingly good Stonewall Kitchen, but you use whatever your favorite is.

Next you are going to whip up a mixture of mascarpone cheese (which is like a sweet cream cheese, and you can find it in the supermarket either in the cheese section or sometimes right near the cream cheese), some sugar, a little cream and if you are feeling frisky, a little amaretto.  And here we go!  Drop a piece of cake in the wineglass.  Add in some banana slices, a spoonful of the cheese mixture, some chocolate sauce and a few sliced almonds.  Repeat the layers, ending with the almonds.

The perfect, perfect ending to that special dinner party.  Or you can go ahead and have it on a regular Tuesday night.  Or both!

Banana Parfaits, adapted from Bon Appetit

• Your favorite chocolate sauce
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, divided
• 3/4 cup mascarpone cheese
• 3 tablespoons amaretto
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 8 1/2-inch-thick angel food cake slices
• 24 1/3-inch-thick diagonal banana slices (from about 3 bananas)
• 1/3 cup (about) sliced almonds, toasted

1. Whisk mascarpone, amaretto, sugar, and 2 tablespoons cream in medium bowl until blended.
2. Using 2 1/2-inch-diameter cookie cutter, cut out round from each angel food cake slice, or just cut into irregular pieces - either is fine. Place 1 cake round in each of 4 wine goblets or old-fashioned glasses. 

3. Top each cake round with 3 banana slices, 1 heaping tablespoon mascarpone mixture, bittersweet chocolate sauce, and sprinkling of almonds. Repeat parfait layering 1 more time and serve.

Print this!

Applesauce Cake

Now, I am the first one to admit that when it comes to dessert, I am usually all about the chocolate.  Oh yes.  Chocolate Cookie Truffles.  Chocolate Caramel Cookie Brittle.  Even, I admit it, Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips.    But every once in a while, even I, chocolate-lover that I am, get a yearning for something Other Than Chocolate.  And when that happens, it's good to have a quick and easy recipe like this one on hand.  First of all, you probably have just about everything you need to make this cake somewhere in your kitchen right this second.  By itself it makes a lovely, easy apple spice cake that is the perfect non-chocolate treat.

But if you really want to kick it up to the next level, the special place where all really wonderful desserts live, take an extra few minutes to make the delectable apple cider sauce to spoon over the top of it.  It will make your applesauce cake truly all that it can be.

And with that, who needs chocolate??

Okay, I do.  But that's a post for another day.  :)

Applesauce Cake, from Betty Crocker's Smart Cook : The Essential Everyday Cookbook

• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vinegar

Sauce Ingredients

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup apple cider or orange juice
• 2 tablespoons cream

1. Heat oven to 350. 
2. Mix flour, sugar, allspice, baking soda and salt.  Mix in applesauce, nuts, water, oil and vinegar and pour into greased 8x8 baking pan.
3. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes.  Cool slightly while preparing sauce.
4. Heat all sauce ingredients until boiling in a medium saucepan.  Boil for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
5. Cut cake into squares and serve with sauce.

Print this!

Devil's Food Butterfinger Cake

Oh, this cake.

I'm kind of at a loss, and probably the best thing to say is simply the following:

1. Devil's food cake.

2. Caramel glazed poured OVER the devil's food cake. While it is still warm. After you have poked holes in it so that the caramel can soak deep into the warm cake.

3. Freshly whipped sweetened cream on the top of the cake.

4. Crushed Butterfinger bars sprinkled liberally over the cream topping. And I do mean liberally.

At this point you may need to breathe into a brown paper bag because of all the excitement. This recipe comes from a great new cookbook called SOUTHERN PLATE that holds a particular special place in my Southern husband's heart, for obvious reasons. I think you'll be able to see from this cover why he was very happy to see this particular book on the kitchen counter.

It's full of all sorts of great stuff, but the desserts are what really caught my eye. Many of them call for packaged ingredients like cake mix, which is just fine with me because they are combined in various ways that make me need to breathe into a brown paper bag. As a matter of fact, this particular recipe called for using Cool Whip instead of homemade whipped cream, and I'm sure that would have worked out just fine. I happened to have some cream in my fridge that needed to be used, but I am certainly no stranger to the wonders of cooking with Cool Whip.

Luckily for me, my house was full of teenagers the weekend I made this cake, or there is an extremely good chance that I would have just sat down with the entire cake and a fork. You have been warned...

Butterfinger Cake, from SOUTHERN PLATE

• 1 box devil's food cake mix
• 1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12 ounce jar caramel topping
• 1 12 ounce container whipped topping (aka Cool Whip. Or make your own by whipping 1 cup heavy cream with 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla until soft peaks form.)
• 1-2 Butterfinger bars, crushed.

1. Prepare the cake according to package directions. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, poke several holes in it with a fork or a skewer. Mix the condensed milk with the caramel topping and spread over the entire cake.

2. Cool cake completely, then spread the whipped topping over the top, and sprinkle the crushed Butterfinger over the topping.

3. Stand back!

Click here for printable recipe

More About Florence

    When we lived in Florence more than thirty years ago I didn't have a camera and so have very few pictures of those long ago days. I am now making up for lost time.

   
     A  vinaio on via dei Neri. The chianti nuovo has arrived. Quite delicious -- even if the guy in the bar where we have breakfast says it's like spremuta (fruit juice).

    
     Early morning on the Ponte Vecchio before most people have got up.

   
     The fruit and veggies are so fresh and lovely.

    
    The colors just about pop out at you.

   
     If you have eaten your veggies, you certainly deserve cake and lots of it......

   
     Florentines take books and writing and printing and paper very seriously indeed as we all should.
     I have so many pictures they have spilled over here

Blueberry Cheesecake Squares

Now this is one of those recipes that has a backstory, so hunker down. A few weeks ago, we celebrated my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. We had a wedding cake and great music, and many many friends and family, and it didn't rain. Thank you, Lord.

They had a wonderful time, and then they went off to Maine on a little 50th anniversary honeymoon trip. (Aren't they adorable??). And while they were there, they visited one of my favorite, favorite makers of all things delicious, the amazing Stonewall Kitchen. And they brought me back some delectable Stonewall Kitchen goodies. Including this...

I have big plans for this that involve caramelized french toast and cinnamon and berries. Stay tuned for that one. They also brought me this...

I'm considering my peach jam options. Suggestions welcome. Now brace yourself for this next one...

I don't even know what to say. I am seriously considering just hiding somewhere and eating it straight out of the jar with a spoon.

Last but not least, this was in the Stonewall Kitchen bag...

Along with a recipe card for Blueberry Cheesecake Bars. (Talk about the gift that keeps on giving!) Anyway, this scrumptious recipe calls for making a super-easy shortbread cookie crust. On top of that crust goes a classic cheesecake batter...and then comes the fun part. You take that whole jar of wild blueberry jam (and when you open it up you will see there are tons of teeny tiny whole little baby blueberries in the jam. Deep breaths.) and drop it in spoonfuls on top of the cheesecake batter. Then take a knife and swirl, swirl, swirl the jam through the batter.

Bake. Cool, counting the minutes. Cut into squares. Try not to eat all of them at once. And if you have the self-discipline to put them in the fridge to chill down for a while -- well, the only better than a blueberry cheesecake square is a cold blueberry cheesecake square.

Stonewall Kitchen, have I told you lately that I love you??

Blueberry Cheesecake Squares, from Stonewall Kitchen

Cookie Crust:
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon ice water

Cheesecake Filling:
• 16 ounces (2 packages) softened cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup blueberry jam. I highly recommend Stonewall Kitchen Wild Maine Blueberry Jam!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9X13 inch pan.
2. Place flour, sugar and salt in food processor and pulse.
3. Add butter and process until the dough begins to form a ball, adding ice water if necessary.
4. Press dough evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake until crust is lightly golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes.
5. While cooling, prepare filling. Mix softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until well blended.
6. Add eggs and mix just until eggs are incorporated.
7. After crust cools for 30 minutes, pour cheesecake filling evenly over the crust.
8. Spoon Blueberry Jam randomly on top of filling and then swirl to combine.
9. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 35-45 minutes or until center is set. Allow to cool in pan.

Click here for printable recipe

Ace Of Cakes Book Contest!

I haven't done a cookbook giveaway in AGES, and I apologize about that. And the book that I am giving away today isn't exactly a cookbook, but the behind the scenes look at what happens at that wacky, amazing place called Charm City Cakes. I will get to that giveway eventually, but as usual you are going to have to suffer through the backstory, which I have titled "The Teenager's Sculpture Class Final," otherwise known as "Don't Try This At Home."

So, the teenager has been taking a sculpture class in school this year, which has resulted in a beautiful green bowl that sits on my desk, a life mask that she made by layering plaster all over her face (I'm glad I found out about that one AFTER it happened), and various different incarnations in pottery of the Joker from the Batman movie. The final exam for this class, however, took the cake. Literally. The assignment was this: sculpt something out of food.

The teenager, being the teenager, decided that the very best thing to sculpt out of food would be a life-size electric guitar. I immediately cancelled any plans I had for cooking anything in my kitchen that night.

So, armed with mounds and mounds of cake, frosting, M&Ms and licorice, the sculpting began. First the cake was painstaking carved out according to a pattern she had made, and put on a platform of heavy foam core. Luckily I was not home for this part, because I think it would have given me a nervous breakdown. Then she slowly, methodically, painstakingly began applying the frosting and the M&Ms in sections.



Frosting first, then M&Ms applied in a pattern that matched the look of the guitar she was modeling this thing after.

One M&M by one M&M at a time.

"Pwweeaaase can I have some???"

Then came the Twizzler guitar strings, measured, cut and applied with frosting "glue."

"PUHWEEEEEAAAASE???????"

I have to say, I had my doubts. Big, serious, doubts. But dang if the girl didn't pull it off. She brought it in, got a A on the final, and then became a minor celebrity in school as she carried the thing around for the rest of the day giving away slices.

So in celebration of the end of school, a good report card, and a job well done, I'm giving away two copies of the fabulous book ACE OF CAKES, with my heartfelt advice not to try any of this at home. Enter this giveaway by leaving me a comment telling me your favorite cake. (My wonderful email subscribers - click on the title of this post and it will take you to the website where you can leave your comment.) I will let you know next Saturday who the two lucky winners are.

And if your cake suggestion doesn't involve a thousand M&Ms, I might even try to make it.

Chocolate Believe Cake

My blog is almost one year old now, and one of the absolute best things is all the people I have “met” by way of the emails and comments they send me here. They make me laugh and give me ideas and keep me humble, and every once in a while they completely touch my heart and remind me that behind all these computers are some amazing, amazing people.

For example, this is JoAnna and her mom Diane.



A couple of weeks ago JoAnna emailed me to ask if I had a recipe for a chocolate cake. Her mom used to make this specific cake for JoAnna’s birthday every year, and it was really special to her. The recipe had gotten lost, and all JoAnna could remember was that it involved Karo syrup, Baker’s chocolate and walnuts – and how it looked and tasted, like a rich brownie with a chocolate glaze. She had been trying to find it for ages, even calling the Karo Syrup folks to see if they had it, with no luck. Did I have this recipe, she asked?

I did.

And so I emailed it back off to her, and she kindly told me I could share the email she sent me in reply:

Dear Kate,

I just wanted to tell you that you were an answer to a prayer. That is exactly the recipe I was looking for.

My Mother had a recipe that she got either off of a Karo bottle or out of a Karo coupon ad. She made this cake for me every year for my birthday until she was diagnosed with cancer. Right after she was diagnosed my parents finished remodeling their home and the recipe was lost. She could not ever remember the recipe. She died May 27, 2007.

I have been searching the internet and calling the Karo Syrup company often trying to find my birthday cake recipe with no luck what so ever.Today has been a really rough day as it would have been her 58th birthday.

I read your recipe and could not control my tears. I began to shake when I realized that this is the recipe that I have been searching for. I found my birthday cake recipe on my mother's birthday and it is all because of you. Thank you so much- you have no idea what it means to me.

I cried a little myself when I read this message from JoAnna…and then I made this cake for my own mom and daughter for Mother’s Day.

JoAnna told me that when her strong, amazing mom was diagnosed with lung cancer she was given five and a half months to live. She looked her doctor in the eye and said, NO. From that moment on BELIEVE became her motto. She wore jewelry with the word believe on it and bought anything she found with the word on it…and she stayed with her family for three and a half more years.

I had all kinds of ideas about how I was going to celebrate when my blog was a year old, and now I realize that I just did – with JoAnna and Diane’s Chocolate Believe Cake. Here is that very special recipe, and thank you so much to JoAnna, to Diane, and to all of you who have touched my heart so much over the past year.

Chocolate Believe Cake

* 1/2 cup Karo Light or Dark Corn Syrup
* 1/2 cup (one stick) margarine or butter
* 5 squares (1 oz each) Baker's Semisweet Baking Chocolate
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 cup flour
* 1 cup walnuts (chopped)

Grease and flour one 9-inch layer cake pan.In a large saucepan, over medium heat, bring corn syrup and margarine to boil. Stir occasionally and remove from heat after boil is achieved.Add chocolate, stir until melted. Add sugar. Stir in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, flour and nuts. Pour into prepared pan.Bake in 350° oven for 30 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan, allow to cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze

In a small saucepan, over low heat, melt three squares (1 oz each) Baker's Semisweet Baking Chocolate and 1 tablespoon margarine or butter, stir often. Remove from heat.Stir in two tablespoons Karo Corn Syrup and one teaspoon milk until smooth. Pour over top of brownie cake and spread over sides. Let stand one hour before serving.

Click here for printable recipe

American Mother's Day in London

 Most mothers would enjoy an astounding cake from Patisserie Valerie  on Old Compton Street.

I'm not sure that anyone needs marzipan animals, but they are certainly fun to look at.....

Upstairs an attentive waitress brings our tea.

(Most mothers need tea.)

Real tea, the kind you need a strainer for......

Flowers from Liberty would be a great treat too, of course.

My present was three new Persephone books to be gobbled up gleefully.

Caffe Roma

I don't think there is anything in New York to compare with the sorts of coffee shops and cafes Merisi  shows us in Vienna but Mulberry Street in Little Italy has Caffe Roma.....

.....where we wandered on Saturday night....

...and looked at all the canoli and biscotti and Napoleans...

This is what I ate.
My main blog is now here 

Ridiculously Easy Peach Crumble

This incredibly, addictively delicious dessert was SO easy in so many ways, it almost doesn't seem fair. The recipe itself almost doesn't require a bowl, a mixer or even a spoon. The lovely picture above was definitely the easiest one I've ever posted (more on that later). And here's how scrumptious it is: the Southern husband, who is usually not a big dessert person and pretty much the only one I know who can eat ONE fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie at time took a bite of this as it was cooling on the counter. And another. And another. By the time it actually came time to serve the thing as an official dessert, I would say about a third of it had been nibbled away.

Yep, it's that good. No exaggeration. Now get ready for how easy it is.

You take one of those big 28 ounce jars of sliced peaches in light syrup. Dump the whole thing in a 13x9 inch pan, syrup and all. Now take a box of yellow cake mix. Pour the mix evenly over the peaches. Yes, the dry mix, you don't make it into cake batter first...dry mix only. Trust me.

Now take a stick of butter. (I said this was easy, I didn't say it was slenderizing.). Slice it up into about 16 pats and arranged them evenly on the top of the cake mix. Next, pour a cup of brown sugar on top, and a half cup of walnuts on top of that.

Bake it for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Let it cool just long enough to not burn your tongue when you take that first spoonful, and then enjoy it plain or with vanilla ice cream...that is, if you can keep the hungry masses at bay long enough to have a reasonable amount left in the pan to actually HAVE it for dessert. I know, you are thinking where is the liquid, and why won't I just have hot dry cake mix at the end of the baking time, but I guess there is something about the butter and the peach syrup that somehow magically blends with the cake mix to produce peach heaven. I'm not going to think too hard about it so I don't jinx it.

Now about that picture. Two things happened to produce that delicious shot up there. First of all, I actually split this dessert into two 8x8 pans, since I knew my friend and Zen Master photography teacher was coming to visit on the day I made it, and so I sent the other half home with him. I fully intended to photograph a piece of MY portion of the cake after dinner, but see above regarding the cake nibbling that went on before dessert...I didn't have any left.

Then inspiration hit, and I sent an urgent message to the Zen Master, who had the restraint not to eat all of his portion in one sitting. Voila! The easiest picture I have ever created for this blog - it only took one quick email! It all seems too good to be true...but I'll take it!

So there you have it, the easiest dessert you will ever make, with thanks once again to the amazing Bakerella where I found this recipe - go visit her site if you haven't already. Everything on there is just scrumptious.

RIDICULOUSLY EASY PEACH CRUMBLE, from Bakerella

One 25 ounce jar of peaches in light syrup
1 package yellow cake mix
1 stick butter, cut into 16 pieces
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Layer ingredients in 13/9 inch pan in the order listed above.

3. Bake for 40 minutes

4. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Or eat it with a spoon right out of the baking dish.

Click here for printable recipe

Triple Threat Cake

Where to start, where to start? Okay, first of all, this week was the teenager's 17th birthday. Which means she can now drive. Which means the keys to our little white pick-up truck used to look like this:



and now they look like this:



So this called for not your ordinary birthday cake for herself and the horde of hungry teenagers that were coming over to help celebrate her new ability to say "Mom, can I borrow the car?" Luckily it was also MY birthday last week, and my awesome friends showered me with treats they knew I would make great use of in the kitchen. For example, that gorgeous pink glass cake stand in the first picture on top is from my friends B&B. I love love love it. My friend S gave me not one but TWO of these gorgeous aprons from one of my favorite, favorite stores, Anthrolopogie...

So that went on right away, because Triple Threat Cake is full of opportunities to spill stuff on oneself. Then I got out this gorgeous pie plate from my guest-blogging, expert pie-making friend E -- isn't it just beautiful?

And with that I was all set to tackle this dessert. Now credit where credit is due: I found this recipe on CakeSpy, which is an awesome site for anything remotely related to cake. I bookmarked it ages ago waiting for the right event, because this is not something you can make for your casual weekday dessert. You'll see why in a minute. First, line your own beautiful deep dish pie plate with pie crust.

Now full disclosure, I did not make many of the components of this recipe from scratch, because if I HAD, I would still be in the kitchen making it. So that is a Pillsbury pie crust you see there, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I DID then make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough from scratch (follow the recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip package and you can't go wrong), and I pressed about half the cookie dough into the bottom of the pie crust, like so:

Pop the rest of the cookie dough in the fridge for use at another time. Next, mix up a batch of packaged cake mix. I went for broke and used Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix. Pour it on top of the cookie dough until your pie plate is almost full. You'll have leftover batter, which I made into little mini cupcakes. This recipe is the gift that keeps on giving.

The whole thing gets popped into a preheated 350 degree oven. Here's my oven, which I am showing you so that you can see ANOTHER of my awesome holiday gifts, this one from my friend K, who knows how much I truly do love my dog.

I mean, look at her. Look at the crossed paws. Look how patiently she is waiting by the oven, just in case it suddenly pops open and some bacon falls out on to the floor. Hey, it could happen.

So, about 50 minutes later, you will have a something that looks like this. The crust, the cookie dough and the cake mix will all have baked into this golden wonderment of sugar.

Let it cool until it is really totally cool, and then frost with the frosting of your choice. And since you have come this far, go to town with the sprinkles. When all is said and done, here's what it looks like.

Triple threat cake...just perfect for a million or so hungry teenagers! And what a great way to try out some of those great gifts from my peeps. And I haven't even GOTTEN to all of them...wait until you see my gorgeous olive oil carafe from my Italian friend, my La Crueset single serving crocks from my amazing assistant, and the adorable cookie cutters from my Friend/Photography Zen Master B....and my mom and dad actually gave me BACON. Yes they did. Don't you just love birthdays???

TRIPLE THREAT CAKE, adapted from CakeSpy

• One unbaked piecrust
• One batch of your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough
• One batch of your favorite prepared cake mix
• One batch of your favorite prepared frosting
• Sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray deep dish pie plate with cooking spray.

2. Lay unbaked pie crust in pie plate.

3. Press enough cookie dough into bottom of pie crust to fully cover bottom but not sides. It should be about 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep. You will have leftover cookie dough (hurray!)

4. Prepare cake mix according to box directions and pour over cookie dough until pie plate is almost full. You will have leftover cake mix (make cupcakes!)

5. Bake for about 45-55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

6. Cool completely and frost the top. Add sprinkles, candles, sparklers and/or whatever else the occasion calls for.

Click here for printable recipe