Best Banana Cake Ever!

I'm a banana lover--banana bread, banana shakes, banana ice cream, banana cake, or just plain bananas--I'm a big fan!  
It seems like most banana cakes taste basically just like  banana bread, but this one is definitely cake.  It is the very best banana cake recipe I've ever found--it's awesome!  Don't be afraid to put the cake right from the hot oven into the freezer, but make sure you use a metal or pyrex baking dish.
(I meant to take a photo, but it got snarfed up before I had a chance, so this is lifted from the 'net.)


CAKE:

3/4 c. butter

2 1/8 c. sugar

3 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 c. flour

1 1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

2 t. lemon juice

1 1/2 c. mashed banana

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat over to 275 F. Grease & flour 9x13" baking dish (pyrex or metal).

In a small bowl combine mashed bananas and lemon juice.  Set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream 3/4 c. butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time; add vanilla.

Beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk.  Stir in banana mixture. Pour batter into baking dish.

Bake in oven for 1 hour, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from oven and immediately place in freezer for 45 minutes.

FROSTING:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

DIRECTIONS: Beat all ingredients in order until smooth.  Spread on cooled cake.

Pistachio Cheesecake

Every year my husband has the same dilemma when his birthday approaches: does he choose the cake he grew up eating on his birthday--a great cold pistachio pudding cake--or does he eat my cheesecake? Invariably he goes between the two three or four times before I finally tell him, "Look, I'm making your cake tomorrow. Tell me what you want so I can get the stuff and make the blasted thing!" This year was no different. Pistachio was answer number one this year, but was ousted by cheesecake the next morning. 

But then it hit me: there has got to be a pistachio cheesecake recipe out in the universe somewhere. Surprise, surprise: there was. But none of the recipes wowed me. Not that I made them mind you--hello! This is cheesecake! I can't afford to make demos! So I used my basic cheesecake recipe adjusted for size (this is a smaller cake), and changed a few things around until--VOILA!--the creamy, nutty, pistachio-flavored, green cheesecake my husband hadn't dreamt of in his wildest mind-wanderings! (Okay, I don't know that it's that good, but he really liked it.)

And now I share it with you:
Ingredients:
6 oz. shelled pistachios
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. butter, melted
------------------------
16 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temp.
2/3 c. (scant) sugar
1 t. almond extract
2-3 large eggs, room temp.
2/3 c. sour cream
1 (3.4 oz.) pkg. pistachio pudding
1/2 pint whipped cream

Directions:
Crust
1. In blender or food processor, process pistachios until finely ground. Pour out 1/2 cup and save it. Add walnuts to the blender and process again until walnuts and pistachios are finely ground and mixed. Pour into a small bowl. Add melted butter to the mixture and mix until all is moist and crumbly.
2. Pour crumble into the bottom of a 6-inch, greased, spring-form cake pan. Pat down with your fingers to cover the bottom (and lower sides, if desired) of the pan. Set aside.
Filling:
1. With an electric beater, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and almond extract. Beat until blended. Add eggs one at a time until just blended. If batter seems too thick and pudding-like, add another. Add sour cream and pistachio pudding mix and beat well.
2. Bake at 325* F. for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the center of the cake is set. When done, turn off oven and crack door slightly. Let cool entirely in the oven. (This is usually where I go to bed.) Run a knife around the inside of the pan before loosening the spring. This helps to prevent cracks.
3. Top with whipped cream and remaining pistachios and chill until you serve.

NOTE: A waterbath helps to prevent cracks in your cheesecake. I usually don't do it 'cause the cheesecake is topped with something anyway, but here's how in case you're interested: After filling the cake pan, set it inside another pan wider than itself but just about as deep. Carefully pour water into the outside pan until it reaches between 1/3 and 1/2-way up the inside pan. Bake as usual.

Consider This

About a month ago I saw a book in the library called All Cakes Considered, by Melissa Gray. I grew up listening to "All Things Considered" on NPR and the title caught my attention--not to mention I was looking for a book on cake-making, obviously since I was in the cooking section looking at titles that had "cake" in them. I grabbed the book and brought it home. 

It's a great idea: Gray--who works at NPR--started making cakes and taking them into work once a week to improve upon her hobby. She decided to write a cookbook that covered the topic of cakes and how-to from start to finish. Basically, she has written the book for people who start out their baking lives not knowing the difference between a bundt pan and a rubber spatula, though she does invite those of us who maybe a little more experience to feel free to jump around a bit. Anyway, each cake has a little story that goes along with it, you know, a fun little cake cookbook right?

I read the whole book before I ever even read a recipe. I loved it! I wish text books were written by Melissa Gray because maybe then I would have read one or two of them. Unfortunately, the due date for the book came before I could try many of the cakes in her chapter entitled, "Layer Cakes, Angle Food Cakes, Moderately Sinful Cakes, All on the Road to Heaven and Hell." I did get to try her "Whipped Cream Cake" though, along with her honey buttercream frosting. (Hey, it was my daughter's birthday, okay?) In fact, the only fault I can find with the book is there is no recipe for carrot cake, which Gray says she hates. She's missing out! Also, and this isn't really a complaint, I'm just letting you know, there are no cheesecake recipes. I love cheesecake, but it's not what I was looking for anyway. I already know how to make cheesecakes, and that is knowledge I shall share with you if you'd like.

Anyway, for my birthday, my in-laws sent me a gift card to Amazon.com and I knew exactly what I was going to buy with it: All Cakes Considered. And today--finally--it came! I am so excited to try more of her cakes!

Pistachio Pudding Cake

This is the cake Mike asked for every year before he met me and decided to switch to cheese cake. He was craving it enough the past few weeks to finally call his mother and get the ingredients. (I had to call and get the recipe from his sister, since he didn't do it when he had his mom on the phone.) Anyway, here it is!

Cake:

1 yellow cake mix

3 eggs

1 small package instant pistachio pudding mix

1 c. club soda

1/4 c. oil

1/2 c. nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)

Beat all ingredients well for two minutes. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

Icing:

1 package Dream Whip (or any whipped topping mix)

1 small package instant pistachio pudding mix

1 1/2 c. milk

Mix until thickened. Sprinkle with more chopped nuts if desired.

The cake can be served hot, but it's a lot better served chilled. The colder the better!

Medovyi pirog - Russian Honey Cake

For my Russian culture class, we had FOOD DAY today! (I have been looking forward to this day for months!) We were instructed to bring in anything we liked as long as it was actually Russian. I made медовый пирог (pronounced medovyi pirog... kind of) or, honey cake. It takes a while just because the process requires some cooling periods, etc, but it's really not that hard. I tried to include pictures all the way through because there are times when you wont think it looks like there's any force on this planet that could make it look the way it should in the end, but it will.

Ingredients:

Cake -

2 eggs

3/4 c. sugar

1 t. baking soda

1 T. honey (warm)

7 T. butter

2 c. flour

Filling and Icing -

3 1/4 c. sour cream (about 720 g)

1/2 c. sugar (it's to taste, but it comes out to about 1/2 c. Too much and it loses it's tanginess)

1 T. honey

ground/finely chopped walnuts

crushed plain sweet biscuit crumbs*

1. Beat eggs and sugar together well. Add soda and honey.

2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add the eggs/sugar mixture. (Don't let butter burn.)

3. Turn the saucepan to low, add the flour while mixing. Mix until smooth. (It will be very thick and hard to stir.) Remove from heat and allow to cool. It will look like there's no way on earth you will be able to "dip" the dough in anything, but it's actually much more

formed than it looks.

4. Preheat oven to 355 F.

5. Dip the dough in flour, divide, roll each layer

very thin (conversions from metric say .02-.04 of an inch). see picture at left

6. Cut circles as round as possible, about 7 inches in diameter. (I used my 6-inch spring-form pan frame to do this.) Bake on parchment or wax paper-covered cookie sheets for 2-4 minutes. (Watch the first couple carefully to see how your oven does it.) see picture at left

7. Cool completely before assembling.

8. Beat sour cream, sugar, and honey until the sugar dissolves. The mixture will be fairly liquid.

9. Coat each layer with a generous layer of cream. Assemble the cake, coat the finished assembly with cream and sprinkle top and sides with crumbs and walnuts. Allow to set at least 6 hours before eating.

Ta-da! It looks extremely Russian on my blue-and-white plates too! (And you all thought that was strictly a Dutch thing.) Everyone loved it! It has a great balance between tangy and sweet. The Russians love sour cream, and this cake is a testimony to how talented they are with it.

*About the crumbs, I am fairly certain that

whoever translated this either was British or learned British English as opposed to American, which means I wasn't entirely sure what they meant by "sweet biscuit crumbs." I thought they might mean cookies, like Nilla waffers, which would probably work, but frankly, I was too cheap to buy Nilla waffers for the sake of a cake that I knew would taste excellent with just a TON of nuts on top, and it was already too hot in my house to bother baking "sweet biscuits." So I scrapped it.

Ice Cream Cake

I found this cake in FamilyFun Magazine. I made it for my roommate's 21st surprise birthday party yesterday. It was a big hit! The recipe is really easy, but you have to move fast. I've modified the instructions slightly, but nothing crucial. Details, details...

12 Oreo cookies
About 1 t. of Milk
8 or 9 Ice Cream Sandwiches
1 pint each of three different Ice Creams/Frozen Yogurts
8 oz. of Frozen Whipped Topping, thawed.

-Grease the sides and bottom of a spring-form pan. Wrap waxed paper around sides, using grease to stick. Trim down sides to top of pan.
-Finely crush cookies in a blender. Add milk and blend just until cookies hold slightly. Set aside.
-Take out 4 ice cream sandwiches and cut lengthwise and widthwise, to make equal quarters.
-Line sides of pan with sandwiches, pressed tightly together. Repeat until pan is entirely lined.
-Spread bottom of pan with blended cookies. Press down firmly.
-Put in freezer for 1 hour.
-Take out pints of ice cream and let them thaw for 15 minutes. (Don't let them thaw too much, but you should be able to stir it.)
-Pour pints into three separate bowls. Stir until good spreading-consistency.
-Spread pints in layers in cake pan. Spread them evenly.
-Top with whipped topping. Sprinkle crushed cookies on top.
-Freeze over night. (About 12 hours.)
-To cut, spring the pan and remove the waxed paper.

The magazine suggested mint chocolate chip, vanilla frozen yogurt, and strawberry. I used Haagen daaz dulce de leche, vanilla frozen yogurt, and white chocolate raspberry truffle. Vanilla seems to be a good middle flavor, ya know, to separate the others. I also crushed Melissa's favorite candy bar, Heath, rather than cookies on top. Anyway, everyone loved it. Enjoy!