I had a bunch of 6 bananas that went brown very fast, so I decided to find a banana bread recipe to try, I didn’t have any eggs in the house so this limited my options and I didn’t have high expectations… but OMG it was awesome.


I found the recipe on Food.com and doubled it to make a Banabundt.

Ingredients:

• 6 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup melted butter
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 4 cups flour

Directions:

1. Mix mashed bananas and sugar.

2. Add melted butter, salt and baking soda.

3. Mix well.

4. Add flour.

5. Pour batter into well greased and floured loaf pan.

6. Smooth the top.

7. Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of NECTRESSE™Sweetener for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I don't stick to many 'diet' codes successfully, but one thing I do consistently avoid is 'empty drink calories' , real coke and super sweet teas that fill you up just aren't my thing. Coffee wise, I'm a 1 sweetener kinda gal and I'm ready to go. Splenda has been my 0 calorie sweetener of choice since it came out in 1999, when I saw that they had come out with this new Monk fruit based NECTRESSE™Sweetener I knew I had to try it.

For the past few days I've been using 1 packet of NECTRESSE™Sweetener in my coffee each morning, and have loved it, it's a different kind of sweet than the splenda. The best way to explain it is to give it a try, for free! Get your own FREE sample of NECTRESSE™Sweetener.

Here's what the packets look like, they each have fun Monk fruit facts on them =)

Determined to give NECTRESSE™Sweetenera 'fair' test I decided to use it in some of my favorite cookies, to bring to our family dinner on Thursday nights. Since that was yesterday and ALL the cookies are gone, they were definitely good! The texture was very similar to that of a 'sandies' cookie. Baking with it went pretty well, the dough was really crumbly but I also used over softened butter (yup set it out and forgot it) so I think that was the issue.

When you cook with NECTRESSE™Sweetener you replace your sugar, with 1/4 the amount in NECTRESSE™Sweetener.  The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe calls for 1 cup of brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar. This equated to 7 packets of sweetener, and to make up for the lack of brown sugar I added 1 teaspoon of molasses.

 

Ingredients:
½ cup (one stick) butter, softened
7 packets NECTRESSE™Sweetener
1 teaspoon Molasses
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the butter, NECTRESSE™Sweetener, and molasses in the work bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds, until the mixture is fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla for 30 seconds longer, until well combined.

In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the mixer, while beating on slow speed., Beat for about 15 seconds, stir in the chocolate chips and espresso powder, and mix for 15 seconds longer.

Bake on a baking mat for 25 minutes at 300 degrees.

Learn more about NECTRESSE™Sweetener from Lisa Ling.

I’m the official “Sharp Gathering Dessert Provider” and when I asked Andrew’s Sister Jane what her perfect birthday cake would be she said strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. After some pinterest perusing I landed on Sweetapolita’s Strawberry Layer Cake with Whipped Strawberry Frosting, I added even MORE strawberry to it and thus named it Strawberry Strawberry Cake, and the birthday girl LOVED it!

Strawberry Strawberry Cake: Minor adaptions from Sweetapolita.com

Printable Recipe

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups (350 g) sugar
• 1 package strawberry flavored gelatin
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 3 cups (300 g) sifted cake & pastry flour (you can make your own by adding 1 tbsp. of cornstarch for each cup of all purpose flower).
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon  pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup  strawberry puree made from thawed frozen strawberries

Whipped Strawberry Frosting Ingredients:

• 3 sticks + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 4 cups sifted (500 g) confectioners’ sugar (icing, powdered)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup strawberry puree made from frozen strawberries (if you want the frosting seed-free, you can put the puree through a sieve before adding to frosting)

Directions for the Cake:
1.Thaw about two cups of frozen strawberries. Place into your favorite pulverizing tool (Magic Bullet) and puree the strawberries until smooth. Measure out 1/4 cup for cake and 1/3 cup for frosting.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Baker’s Joy spray 3 8” Round pans or the pan combo of your choice.
3. In a big measuring cup, combine  1 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup strawberry puree, 1 tablespoon vanilla.
4. Sift dry ingredients together in a medium bowl, and set aside.
5. In your kitchen aid cream, the butter, sugar, and jello, until you get pink puffy butter, after 5 minutes on medium
6. One by one add the 4 eggs. Mixing in-between.
7. Alternate adding your dry mix with your strawberry milk, mix enough to incorporate but don’t over mix.
7. Add the wet & dry ingredients to the creamed mixture by alternating–beginning and ending with dry ingredients and mixing just enough after each addition to incorporate, but not over mix.
8. Divide the batter in 3 cake pans.
9. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes clean when inserted into the center. (Mine took longer). After 10 minutes of cooling flip onto wire racks.
Directions for the Frosting:
1. With the paddle attachment whip your room temperature butter for 8 minutes on 4.
2. Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla, mix on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 6 minutes. (YES this recipe didn’t call for slowing adding the powdered sugar mess, and it still turned out.
3. Add strawberry puree slowly, I added about a 1/3 cup, by slowing adding, and tasting, trying to push how much strawberry the icing could handle before getting too watery.
4. Frost and decorate to your hearts content.
I made the Happy Birthday stencil by wrapping a thin piece of chipboard in contact paper and cutting it out with my Cricut. I had intended to use it as a reverse stencil using the sprinkles, but it wasn’t showing up as much as I hoped so I left it on the cake.

Printable Recipe


This post is partying here.

We all know that we need an oven thermometer, especially when baking.

But did you know that not all oven thermometers are created equal? Neither did I until I roasted my grocery store one during a self cleaning cycle (yeah don’t do that… luckily the glass didn’t break).

Well even that I googled oven thermometers and learned that the one’s you find in the grocery store are just as off as your oven often times.

Cook’s Illustrated reviews oven thermometer’s each year and ranks them based on accuracy compared to their professional equipment. Also as a general rule it seems like all their top picks are normally NSF listed for commercial use.

These were two top picks, and the one’s I got via Amazon.

Cooper Instrument NSF Approved Oven Thermometer 200/600

CDN Metal ProAccurate Oven Thermometer 

(This one is mainly for needing an accurate read in a special situation like a toaster oven, like I use it, price fluctuates a lot I paid $14).

In use

The smaller one is for my big oven, and the oil filled one I use in my toaster oven, since opening the door on it makes such a drastic difference.  (I didn’t pay much attention to the Amazon reviews, I hold Cook’s Illustrated’s opinion more highly.

All the bakers in my life got the smaller one as part of the Christmas gift too.

So check on your oven thermometer, or if you don’t have one, get one of these that actually work =)

Happy Accurate Baking!

Find the recipe here on their site, and no it's not $250 
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/service/nm_cookie_recipe.jhtml

These cookies are a great take on something a little different than the classic chocolate chip, Andrew AKA Mr.Coffee loves them!

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
(So I used to make this with this, which is like real espresso.  But all I had in the house was some Kroger instant coffee ick. But I guess this is what you should really make it with is this but I never remember to look for it when I'm at a nicer grocery store that's likely to have it.

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

The recipe is pretty straight forward, I upped the instant powder a bit since coffee is weaker than espresso, which I think worked out well.

Don't forget that these are 'drop' cookies, so they aren't supposed to look perfect.

Baking tip: To get perfect cookie bottoms, place your ickiest sheet pan on the rack below your cookie sheet, this helps distribute the heat better giving you nice non burnt cookie bums.  (Tip courtesy of Bestie)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.

4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.
(Since was using my nice wilton non stick cookie sheet I didn’t grease my pan, since I didn’t want them to spread).

Yield:
  2 dozen cookies

Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake via epicurious.com

 I made this cake for Andrew's Sister's birthday and served it with fresh cut strawberries and whipped cream. It was perfect!  This recipe was a perfect found too since Andrew's Granny loves Elvis and actually went to high school with him =)

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for buttering pan
• 3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) plus additional for dusting (They have you sift it twice)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups sugar
• 7 large eggs, at room temperature 30 minutes (Sounds weird but go with it)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Special equipment: a 10-inch tube pan (4 1/2 inches deep; not with a removable bottom) or a 10-inch bundt pan (3 1/4 inches deep; 3-qt capacity) (If you use a smaller one your cake will get burnt while trying to cook the middle)

Kirstin Additions

• Fresh Strawberries sliced
• Whipped Cream

1. Put oven rack in middle position, but do not preheat oven. (I love the quirkyness of this recipe, makes it seem more likely to be true)
2. Generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour. (I just super baker joyed)
3. Sift together sifted flour (3 cups) and salt into a bowl. Repeat sifting into another bowl (flour will have been sifted 3 times total).
4. Beat together butter (2 sticks) and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or 6 to 8 minutes with a handheld mixer. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add half of flour, then all of cream, then remaining flour, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down side of bowl, then beat at medium-high speed 5 minutes. Batter will become creamier and satiny.
5. Spoon batter into pan and rap pan against work surface once or twice to eliminate air bubbles. Place pan in (cold) oven and turn oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out with a few crumbs adhering, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes. Run a thin knife around inner and outer edges of cake, then invert rack over pan and invert cake onto rack to cool completely. (Mine took about this amount of time)

Sorry for the camera phone pics, my camera bit the dust =(

Whipping

 The point where i should have just made a second cake in a loaf pan, but I didn't...

Crusty yummy goodness.

This recipe is on the back of the Swan's Down Cake Flour Box

 1-2-3-4 Cake

Cook Time: 25 to 30 minutes
The Ingredients:

•  1 cup butter or margarine (I used unsalted butter)
•  2 cups sugar
•  3 cups sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
•  3 teaspoons baking powder
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  4 eggs
•  1 cup milk
•  1 teaspoon vanilla
•  1/2 teaspoon almond extract (makes it taste sooo good!)

Baking Instructions:
Cream butter. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add eggs one at a time to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk and flavorings, beating after each addition until smooth. Baking: Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch layer pans, using about 2-1/3 cups batter in each pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans and finish cooling on racks.
Visit the Swan's Down site for alternate pan directions.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting - from Betty Crocker

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk

In medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar. Frosts 13x9-inch cake generously, or fills and frosts an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake. Makes 12 servings, about 1 3/4 cups frosting (I needed a double batch to frost my 13x9 cake well, i recommend adding the powdered sugar gradually.)

 Softened butter is important, you looks for an easy thumb print, I always slice my sticks and spread out on a plate so it softens faster and blends better.

 Cake flour and other dry ingredients all sifted, this helps make the cake fluffier

 A unique ingredient to the 1-2-4-5  is milk, I used 2% and it worked out well.

 Be sure to Baker's Joy your pan well.

 Tasty Batter

 All golden and out of the oven, took mine about 35 minutes since it wasn't the 3 rounds like the recipe.

 I don't have a cake board but heavy duty foiling a cookie sheet actually looked pretty good and fit the theme.

 Betty Crocker cookbook classic buttercream. Awesome green achieved by adding gel food coloring with an egg spoon rather than a tooth pick, much faster!

 After I frosted it I stippled the top to look like grass with a silicone basting brush, this had to be done very carefully or else it would peel up the frosting.

 The end product, the lines are fondant, the football is a specialty tooth pick, I made the field goals with yellow straws and some hot glue.

It tasted great too! Buttercream with a lite almond flavored cake.

We got plain cheese pizzas from Costco and added lots of toppings to fit our guests' tastes 

 Andrew topping some pizzas.

 Some of our toppings.

Some more toppings.

Doing the Costco pizzas worked out great since we have a few left over and were able to cut them up and freeze them for later, two pieces toaster oven great!

This is my rendition of Pioneer Woman's Dreamy Apple Pie, and it is divine.

Ingredients

• 1 whole Unbaked Pie Crust (I used frozen deep dish, me and pie crust aren't friends yet)
• Filling
• 3 whole Large (4 Or 5 Small) Granny Smith Apples, Peeled, Cored, And Sliced Thin (Go with three unless they are really tiny, I always had enough left over to as a mini bake, or to make a second pie)
• ½ cups Brown Sugar (Learn to make your own, with this post )
• ½ cups Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour 
• 1 cup Heavy Cream (If you get the big carton you can make homemade whipped cream too, or Pioneer Woman's Hard Sauce)
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• ⅛ teaspoons Cinnamon
• Topping
• 7 Tablespoons Butter
• ¾ cups All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Brown Sugar
• ¼ cups Pecans (more To Taste)
• Dash Of Salt

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Roll out pie dough and place it in a pie pan. Decorate the edges as desired. (Or just pull it out of the freezer!)
3. Add apple slices to a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together cream, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour over apples. Pour apples into pie shell.
4. In the bowl of a food processor (or you can mix by hand) combine butter, flour, sugar, pecans (chop if you’re not using a food processor), and salt. Mix until everything comes together in clumps. Pour topping over apples. (I don't have a food processor, the magic bullet was a failure, so I used my pastry blender)
5. Attach foil to the edges and lay a piece of flat foil loosely over the top of the pie. Place pie pan on top of a rimmed cookie sheet and bake for one hour. At the end, remove foil and allow to finish baking and browning. Can bake for up to 15 or 20 minutes more if necessary. (They need a coat for the oven)
6. Remove from oven when pie is bubbly and golden brown.
7. Serve warm with hard sauce, whipped cream, or ice cream.

I tried a bunch of methods over the 3 times I've made this. I found this used as a decorative object in my mom's kitchen, I eventually got it working and it was good at peeling, then I used my Christmas present chopper (W-S and sooo amazing) , to quarter then, slice the apples into nice thin slices. 

The topping blended and ready to sprinkle on top.

Flour and brown sugar ready to mix with the apples

Yum

Poured into the pie shell once the cream was added.

Topping sprinkled on top.

Bundled up so the crust doesn't burn but the apples bake and get nice and tender.

The final product.

Make sure that you put it on a pan with foil, it will oooze.

So when I made Best Ever Chocolate Cake it was only fitting to find "That’s the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had" to go with it, Pioneer Women and her Tasty Kitchen gals had the perfect combo.
I'll warn ya though, this is an out there recipe that works. It however tastes great! It's best the first day due to the odd combo, if you refrigerate it let your piece sit on the counter a bit (I know it's HARD) to warm back up otherwise the frosting has a weird texture due to the flour.

This recipe is from MissyDew of Tasty Kitchen, Pioneer Woman documented making it in this blog post. 

Ingredients:

• 5 Tablespoons Flour (Be smart and measure and sift this out ahead of time)
• 1 cup Milk (I used 2% since that's what I had, I bet whole would be tastier, darn fat)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter 
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!) (Perhaps my favorite part of this recipe, who else considers powdered sugar a complete messy pain?!)
  

Directions:

1. Bake your favorite chocolate cake and let it cool.
2. In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) Stir in vanilla.
3. While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add the cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.
4. Grab a spoon and taste this wonderful goodness. If there is any left after your taste test, spread it on a cooled chocolate cake.
5. Cut yourself a piece and put it on a pretty plate. Grab a fork and prepare to experience the most divine pairing you can imagine. This frosting on chocolate cake is to die for. Sure, the recipe sounds strange — it has flour in it — but it’s sublime. Try it, you’ll see. You’ll love it so much you won’t go back.

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) Stir in vanilla.If you don't prepare your flour and just dump from your packed table spoon it will look like the sad icky gravy to the left, if you prepare you will make the lovely gravy on the right. I let mine cool naturally since my butter was still rock hard.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add the cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.(Other benefit of this type of frosting, you get to dump the whole gravy mix into the blender, no slowly adding powdered sugar creating a sugar storm)

It looks super gross at the beginning but just let your mixer do it's thing, and it will transform into a beautiful butterfly. 

Add your color into the mixer to save yourself that annoying mixing step.

Here's PacMan in all his icing glory, look at that 3-d eyeball, sadly this is probably the smoothest icing job I've ever done, I dunno what's wrong with me, hehe

So go make yourself some icing.