LiveSTRONG With a Taste of Yellow Opéra Cake!

I KNOW! Leave it to me to post way late. Jebus. Right off the bat, I must state how wonderful it was to work with such nice gals this month. Not only did I get the opportunity to co-host with my lovely partner in crime again, but I also got to share the honor with a gorgeous fellow Ohioan, Fran! And that sexy whisk lover, Shea! It’s been a pleasure, girls! I know I wasn’t much help – this really was Ivonne’s baby – but I sure enjoyed working with ya’ll! You did a magnificent job! :D My main objective this month was to keep whatever we chose to make either yellow or light in color. Because May is LiveSTRONG month, we wanted to dedicate our posts to all of those out there that have been touched by cancer, but especially to Barbara. You know, I don’t know Barbara all that well, but the respect I have for her is truly heartfelt, to say the least. Barbara is unfailing in her efforts to keep awareness high when it comes to cancer prevention and living with cancer. Her annual, A Taste of Yellow, supports Lance Armstrong’s LiveSTRONG movement and is a major event in the foodie blogger’s world. And I can say I always feel proud to be a part of it. Thank you for all that you do, Barbara! You are an amazing woman. Figuring out what flavor combination I was going to go with was a no-brainer. Bananas. Caramel. A whisper of cinnamon. RUM. Or, simply put.. A Bananas Foster Opéra Cake. C’mon.. ya’ll groan aloud with me.. yess yess.. feel that lil shimmy of sheer delight trickle down your spine.. Mmm hmm… now THAT’S what I’M talkin’ bout. I knew that I was going to add the cinnamon to the jaconde, that I was going to make a caramelized banana mousse in lieu of the white chocolate mousse and a caramel buttercream. Or was I? After much discussion with my BFF, I went with banana buttercream and made her toffee sauce (only mine was a drunken version complete with spiced rum hiccups!) to brush on the cake layers.. there you have it kids – all the components of a Bananas Foster Opéra Cake. squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! The Opéra cake was not as hard to make as I had thought it would be. It certainly looks like you have to pay the devil your very soul to be able to whip up the thin layers of jaconde, buttercream, ganache (or in my case, mousse) and glaze.. but you really don’t. The components of the cake can be made in advance and separately. Since my guru taught me the proper way to fold when she was up for a visit last summer, making the light and airy jaconde was a cinch. I didn’t fear the buttercream, since I’ve become a seasoned pro thanks to The Martha (God love her and damn her fakkin crepe cake) and the mousse.. well I’ve made it before. So what were my challenges? I think the biggest hurdle was layering the cake so that it didn’t look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa when I was finished. It certainly can’t be said that it was perfectly even and flat – but it did end up looking pretty good for a change. har! The second biggest hurdle was discussing with my BFF the technique to incorporate fruit into the buttercream without taking the chance of the buttercream separating. He had made his Opéra already and had created a kiwi infused buttercream. When he explained how he did it, I was flabbergasted! But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he is just a fakkin’ genius. All he did was process kiwis until they “made babyfood look chunky”, as he put it. heheee! Then he added that puree straight to the white sugar with only ¼ of the water called for in the recipe. He brought it all to a boil and up to the required 225º then drizzled it into the meringue being made in the stand mixer. Voila! Add your butter and you’ve got fruit infused buttercream that was incredibly creamy and delish. I followed his direction and used one very ripe banana.. whizzed it until it was liquid, poured it in my lil pot and boiled it up with the sugar & water.. drizzled that heavenly smelling liquid into my meringue and tossed in a couple sticks of butter.. and OHMYGOD I had the best smelling banana buttercream in ALL THE WORLD. My only regret was using just one banana.. next time two for sure. The last hurdle was what to glaze my cake with as I cannot tolerate white chocolate. I was going to melt down some pineapple preserves I had recently purchased and just poured it over the cake.. but again, brainstorming with my BFF.. we started discussing banana jam. Homemade banana jam. I found a recipe.. it was too easy to NOT make.. so I did. And let me tell you.. if you’ve never had banana jam and you like bananas.. you MUST make this stuff. Dear sweet Jebus. YUM! Especially spread thinly on a cracker with a slice of a semi-soft cheese on top.. HEAVEN. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that fantastic on the Opéra cake. It was too dark and pinkish – I KNOW WTF?? - I have no idea why it turned pink.. maybe something to do with whatever it is that turns quince pink when you cook it?? And it was a little too strong for such a delicate cake. So I scraped it all off and went back to my original idea of the melted pineapple preserves and was quite happy with the results. The pineapple actually brought out the banana taste and didn’t take away from it at all.. I still had my Bananas Foster Opéra cake. :) what did I think about my very first Opéra cake? Well.. it looked quite pretty, but unfortunately it wasn’t my cup of tea. I wasn’t fond of the texture of the jaconde. I couldn’t taste the most magnificent caramel/toffee/spiced rum sauce that I had brushed the layers with. And it was sweeeeetttttt. Ohhh my goodnassss it was sweet. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.. but I think I prefer my Bananas Foster warm and my banana cakes slathered in chocolate. hehee Will I make it again? Yes and no. I’m definitely trying the traditional version, but I doubt I’d ever make the light version again. I also purchased 2 lbs of dry roasted pistachios.. so next time it will have a pistachio jaconde and then the traditional flavors of coffee and chocolate for the buttercream and ganache. I look forward! My advice to you would be to go stretch your legs and maybe use one of those eyeball washer thingies to rinse out your peepers after reading this long winded post of mine. Then grab your favorite beverage and start clickin’ on the Daring Baker Blogroll because just from the few I got sneak peeks of earlier this month, you will be AMAZED! and AWED! at the gorgeous cakes that are floating all over the blogosphere today! xoxo

Wish Me Luck! Also, My Mad Frosting Skillz are Back!

I'm up at the crack of freakin' dawn on a Saturday when I wanted to sleep in until AT LEAST 6:30.. Gah. What happened to the days of staying up (and usually out) until 4 in the morning and sleeping until noon? Yanno.. this growing up/old shit is for the birds. :P Anyhoo.. I guess excitement might have a little bit to do with why I'm up so fakkin early. You see, today we are headed off to a casino! My very first casino ever. I use to be a bingo freak. Yeah, I know.. but Shuuuushz! I don't tell that to many people. :P Anyhoo.. I wouldn't go for the actual Bingo, I went for those damn instant win tickets.. if you've ever been to a bingo hall or a Catholic church festival, you know what I mean. Colorful tickets about the size of an Ipod with little paper tabs on the front.. you open up the tabs to find out what you've won - IF you've won. Addicting. Horribly bad - close to 12 step - addicting. At least for me. And then.. THEN some moron decides it'd be a good idea to open up little shops all through the city that sells the lil tickets! No Bingo! Just the tickets.. OMG I would count the SECONDS until my lunch hour so I could go rip through $20-$40 a day. A DAY. So you see.. gambling and I are bad juju. I haven't been to a bingo hall in years and I haven't ripped through any instant win tickets since this past summer (Hey! I support my Catholic churches! Do not judge me!) and that was only 2 festivals. :P Hubbs has wanted to go to one of these casinos that have popped up everywhere for years now and my response has always been, "We can't afford it, dear." Well this year, the pathetic look on his face when I announced that I was going to go pay off all sorts of bills with our tax refunds got to me. So I asked how much he wanted and what he wanted to do with it. "Casino trip!" was all he said. So everyone keep their fingers and toes crossed.. and send the good juju, folks! For we are casino headed. Woot! And since I've got all this time this morning, I decided to forego some behind the scenes DB work and post another Kitchen Disaster!! It's been so long.. I have missed my KD posts so muchly. Bobby Deen. Paula's hunky and still single youngest son. Twas his birthday and the Deen folks decided it'd be a cute episode for Paula's Home Cookin' - the premise was Paula tricking her youngest son into helping her cook his favorite foods for his own birthday party. ha! ha! Gah. If you are a Deen fan, like myself, and own any one of her dessert cookbooks, then ya'll know that Bobby's favorite cake is a caramel cake. I've looked at the instructions for this cake many times and nothing about it ever tripped my trigger. Until! Until I watched them make it. The recipe says to poke lots of holes in the cake with a toothpic so the caramel sauce can seep in.. well Paula, bless her buttery clogged arteries, used the end of a wooden spoon to poke LARGE holes in the cake before pouring the sauce on. Yes, kids. THAT'S what tripped my trigger. (it never does take much for me) So off I went.. as per usual, when baking cakes, my cake turned out beautifully - it rose to a lovely height and turned all goldeny brown and delicious looking. The smell was heavenly, as even Paula's recipes are not sacred in my kitchen. I gave it a lil twist and added 3 ripe bananas to the batter. *swoon* My caramel sauce turned out beautifully as well. As it pretty much should have, considering I've been making it for years now (is essentially the same recipe as Gracie's Toffee Sauce for her Croissant Bread Pudding). The poking of big holes went without a hitch.. the pouring of the caramel sauce was also a breeze. And then. And then it was time to frost with caramel frosting. The making of the frosting started off well - again with the caramel sauce base, then you transfer the sauce to a mixer and beat in a pound of confectioners' sugar and vanilla. It's a little thin at first so you beat until it becomes "spreading" consistency. Well my loves, somehow I drove past spreading consistency and crashed head on into fudge consistency. Seriously. I now know how to make caramel fudge. Seriously good caramel fudge. But did I press my fudge into a pan, cut it into little squares and enjoy it as fudge? No. I figured it was still spreadable. Yeah. No. I'll let my photos do the rest of the talkin'. And if you are wonderin' if it still tasted good.. well it did. The cake was moist, sweet and banana-y. The caramel sauce and the caramel "frosting" was buttery with just the right amount of salt to counter the super sweet that caramel can get. It was just a long chew to get through a slice. :P Have a fabulous weekend! If you're bored.. make yourself some caramel fudge! Perfectly baked cake with perfectly cooked caramel sauce Bottom layer covered with the caramel sauce Top layer with oozing caramel sauce *swoon* Caramel fudge covered Banana Caramel cake - not the best looking, but not THAT bad, right? Right?? The Other Side. :P A slice of delicious Banana cake filled with decadent caramel sauce and slathered with a very thick layer of caramel fudge. Gah. xoxo

More banana goodness!

My good friend and mother of Phoebe (who I have a HUGE crush on), Marce over at Pip in the City posted about this "ice cream" a couple weeks ago and the very second I read the recipe, I knew I had to make it. Holy Mother Of All That Is Tasty is this banana ice cream excellent! And it has no added sugar and no preservatives. It's all natural. COMPLETELY natural! I chose to have mine with a drizzle of fat-free caramel ice cream topping over it and Hubbs went plain jane. Although mine was quite tasty, let's just say that indulging in this stuff without any added toppings is blissfully delightful as well. THIS is a dieting gal's dream come true. Without truly measuring anything, I'm guessing that 1/2 cup of the "ice cream" is probably one whole banana, and in WW terms, I think that's 1.5 - 2 points. Not too shabby for an "ice cream" that doesn't give you that grainy texture and icky fake sugar after taste. This banana ice cream is velvety with no after taste. This would also be a healthful treat for kids - they'd never know they were eating frozen bananas and not real banana ice cream! Here are the ingredients: Sliced bananas on wax paper fully frozen (about 6-8 hrs in the freezer, although I left mine in for about a day). and... A food processor! That's it.. process until creamy. At first they didn't look like they were going to get creamy, they turned into a gravel like consistency and I thought for sure I somehow screwed up. It's totally in the realm, people. I COULD screw up a dessert that only had ONE ingredient. But I just kept processing and eventually it turned into thick and creamy "ice cream". =) Marce suggested in her recipe to freeze the "ice cream" for 15 minutes after processing it.. but I couldn't wait (plus I prefer "soft serve" over "hard pack" anyway) and it was just delish! She also said that you probably shouldn't eat this after 3 days in the freezer because it has no preservatives, but uhh.. it didn't make it past 2 days in my freezer. heee! I used 4 bananas and got about 3 - 3.5 cups of "ice cream" Banana lovers - try it! Thanks Marce.. I am forever in your debt. =) xoxo Hi! So I'm TOTALLY goofing off at work.. and as I'm looking for a completely different and NONfoodie article in our local paper, I COINCIDENTALLY came across this and thought I HAVE TO SHARE!! hehe Banana & Coconut Ice Cream Makes 4 servings (about 2 cups) ¼ to ½ cup shredded sweetened coconut 2 very ripe large bananas ½ cup unsweetened coconut milk, chilled 1 tablespoon superfine sugar, or to taste Squeeze of fresh lime juice A few drops of dark rum, if de sired Preliminaries: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the coco nut on a sheet pan and bake, tossing occasionally, until it is golden, about 4 minutes. Watch carefully so it does not burn. Set aside to cool. Preparation: Peel the bananas. Slice into ½-inch slices and place them on a cookie sheet. Freeze until solid, at least 1 hour. Blend the frozen banana slices in a food processor until roughly chopped. Add the coconut milk, sugar, lime juice and rum, if desired, and continue processing, scraping the sides down occasionally until it is the consistency of ice cream, 1 to 2 minutes. (Although at first the mixture will seem granular, as the bananas thaw slightly, it will become very creamy.) Presentation: Serve at once or freeze up to ½ hour before serving. Scatter toasted coconut over each serving. A lil more work.. a few more ingredients.. but way yummy sounding! :D Okay.. get back to work!! Lazy ass. xoxo

Dudes! I'm late for Donna again!

Jeez.. I hope this pattern of tardy entries to HHDD doesn't continue any longer! I apologize for being late, Helene my love! So yes, it's that time again and this is my second submission for a Hay Hay It's Donna Day event! This month's host is one of my closest and dearest friends, Helene of Tartelette - she is the incredibly talented winner of last month's HHDD with her dreamy Pillow Cheesecake with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce. *swoon* This month it's her turn to host this popular event and she's chosen mousse as the theme. I am especially happy over this because I heart mousse but have never made it before. What a simple dessert to make that yields such creamy, rich rewards. But you'd never know just how easy making mousse is if you were to have witnessed me trying to decide which flavor to make this past month! Ohhh and then when I decided exactly what I wanted (Thursday NIGHT)? I didn't have the damn ingredients! I ended up writing Helene and begging her to allow me to slip my entry in a day late.. why do I stress over things like this so much? Is it my extreme dorkiness? Is it the pressure to live up to what Donna would approve of? After all she is the Australian equivalent to The Martha and we all know how I love The Martha. Shhhh you haters! :) I don't know what the reason is, but I am quite relieved now that my mousse has been decided upon, shopped for and finally made. WOOO! And I gotsta say.. I'm quite delighted with the results.. and it's too bad that Hubbs went on a overnighter with his brother this evening, because it's highly doubtful there will be any left come tomorrow evening when he returns. So much for behaving for my diet*! I am weak.. especially when it comes to the most amazing tasting caramelized banana mousse covered in the most decadent dark chocolate mousse I've ever had.. Let's start from the bottom, shall we? Caramelized Banana Mousse - ripe bananas sliced and bathed in a hot buttery caramel sauce until they are warmed through and soft, the caramel is so silky and the bananas melt in your mouth. It's a miracle that there were enough caramelized bananas left for the mousse as I had an extremely hard time walking away from taste testing - you know, for quality control? Mmm hmm.. After that luscious component of my double layered dessert was finished and tucked away into my fridge to set, I began preparing the Deep Dark Chocolate Mousse. Not your ordinary chocolate mousse, kids.. No, this mousse uses 12 ounces of fine semi-sweet chocolate. TWELVE. It is without a doubt and unarguably the deepest, darkest, richest chocolate mousse I have ever had. This mousse will stop you in your tracks. Most definitely THE chocolate lovers answer to a quick and easy way to get your fix. Two equally decadent mousses paired together for one phenomenally creamy, rich and luscious dessert. Deep Dark Chocolate Covered Caramelized Banana Mousse Both recipes found on a new recipe collection site I've found called Food Down Under Caramelized Banana Mousse 2 TBS. butter 1/2 c. brown sugar 2 c. sliced bananas 1/2 c. plain yogurt 2 egg yolks 1/3 c. sugar 1 pkt. unflavored gelatin 4 oz. orange juice 3 c. whipping cream 3 TBS. sugar 2 egg whites Melt butter in nonstick frying pan. Add brown sugar and bananas. Saute bananas until they are well coated and soft. Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes. Add yogurt and puree with bananas in blender. Beat egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar in stainless steel bowl over hot water bath or top half of double boiler until mixture lightens in color and becomes fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add gelatin that has been softened in orange juice to egg mixture and continue beating for another 2 minutes. Remove mixture from heat and combine with banana puree, mixing thoroughly. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, whip cream and 3 TBS. sugar into soft peaks. Beat egg whites until they form firm peaks (make sure you don't whip them until they are dry. You want firm peaks but still slightly wet). Fold 2/3 of the whipped cream (reserving 1/3 for garnish - Or if you are going to do the double layer mousse, I used the remaining whipped cream in the chocolate mousse.) into the chilled banana puree. Fold in egg whites. Chill for 4-6 hours. Serves 6-8. Deep Dark Chocolate Mousse 12 oz. top-quality semi-sweet chocolate 1 c. whipping cream 1/4 c. hot coffee 1/4 c. hot water 3 egg yolks, beaten 1 tsp. vanilla 5 egg whites 1/3 c. sugar Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. Keep an eye on it, stirring often, to make sure chocolate does not burn or seize, then take it off the heat immediately. Whip the cream and set aside. Pour the hot coffee and hot water slowly into a bowl with the egg yolks, whisking briskly as you go until completely mixed. Add the vanilla to the egg yolks. Whisk in the melted chocolate. Keep whisking even after the mixture is completely combined, this will help to cool the chocolate. Whip the egg whites and the sugar until peaking but not dry. Fold the egg-white meringue into the chocolate mixture carefully with a wooden spoon. Fold in the whipped cream. The key to a great chocolate mousse is that you can't incorporate hot melted chocolate into whipped cream. The chocolate mixture must be cool to the touch or the cream will break. Lightly blend the two mixtures until uniform. Chill for 4-6 hours. Once both mousses are set, simply layer them, banana first - chocolate on top, into decorative bowl or glass / cup. Serves 4-6. As always, I'd like to thank the beautiful host of this month's HHDD - Helene! Also I'd also like to give a shout out to Barbara of Winos and Foodies for she is the creative genius behind the Hay Hay it's Donna Day! event, started wayyyy back in October of 2005. Thanks Barbara! And before I get into my notes on the recipes, I'd also like to make mention for anyone who is not aware of Barbara's LIVESTRONG Day event: "A TASTE OF YELLOW is your chance to participate in LIVESTRONG Day by doing what food bloggers do best - bake. LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation's (LAF) grassroots advocacy initiative to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about cancer survivorship issues on a national level and in local communities across the country. LIVESTRONG Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, May 16." What say we all participate in this event to show our support of such a worthy cause! *I should have made this tomorrow - the very last day of submissions, so I could take the bulk of it to work the next day. As it is right now, my fridge is calling me in this sing-songy voice that is totally mesmerizing and completely obliterating my will-power to stay away from the bad (no, the OH SO GOOD) food.. to succumb to the overwhelming desire to sit on the floor in front of the fridge with a spoon in one hand and a bowl of mousse in the other, until all evidence of such debauchery has been eliminated. My. God.

Recycling Really is a Good Thing

I've always been an adamant recycler.. we've got several bins to sort our trash in. Gotta do my thing for the environment, yanno? Well actually for the fishies, if I'm to be truthful.. I saw a picture of a poor lil fish that was strangled by one of those plastic thingies that links the cans in a 6-pack. So now, not only do I recycle my plastic 6-pack thingies, but I also cut them up into lil pieces - just in case. No one will ever be able to say that I killed a poor innocent lil schmelt. Okay well now that I've given a lil too much information on one of my weirdnesses, I should explain that this post is not about recycling my aluminum and plastic products. No.. this post is about recycling banana cake! Dorie's banana cake, to be specific. =) I've probably made this cake about 8 times since November when I originally tried it. We both love it and think it's the best banana cake ever. This last time that I baked it, I wanted cupcakes/muffins to take to work, so I baked the batter in my cupcake tins. The good thing is they turned out wonderful, the bad thing is - the batter made 36 cupcakes! Not that's a really bad thing.. just way too many cupcakes for us to eat before they started going a lil stale. I really didn't want to throw the last dozen or so out but it was too late to freeze. I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to make Peabody's bread pudding again - I'll just sub the banana cupcakes/muffins in lieu of the croissants. Sheer genius! This time the pudding was even creamier as the cupcakes were still pretty moist. I added the jumbo raisins and they lent the perfect chew (I heart those jumbo raisins) to the very banana-ey bread pudding. And that's just it - this banana cake gets better with time - so the banana bread pudding had an outstanding banana flavor because the cupcakes were made about a week prior. I also made the toffee sauce and although these were plenty sweet on their own, yanno me.. gotta go for the over kill. =) I'm very happy with my first attempt at recycling a baked good and I look forward to trying this with something else one day. As for a recipe.. I just made the banana cake batter as always, baked it in the cupcake tins for about 20 - 30 minutes. I stored them all in an airtight container, and a week later I tore them up and divided them up into 6 ramikins and then made Peabody's custard to pour over. Baked them for about 45 minutes until the tops were golden.. served 'em warm with a drizzle of the toffee sauce. *swoon* If you decide to recycle your own banana cake into bread pudding - be warned that the sauce, although big D lil licious, really is overkill as the pudding is sweet enough. =)

Speaking of Bananas

I've been debating on whether it's okay for me to share this and have decided that I think it's okay, as I've seen a few of my favorite bloggers share more recipes from that now (I'd say) famous book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Oh yes, my friends, I did not stop baking from it after the Cookbook Spotlight event, oh noo I did not. :D You see that picture? That's me showing off my brand new fancy pants Bundt pan. Okay well it's that AND it's showing off the best freaking banana cake recipe in all the world. I thought I had a really good banana cake/bread recipe in my repertoire already, but oh how wrong I was. This is now my favorite and I truly doubt I'll ever go in search of a new recipe again. Moist, extremely banana-y, not too dense and with each passing day it just kept getting better and better. All of that and I even think I baked it too long. It browned up pretty quick in my new cake pan, next time I'll shave a good 5 minutes off and cover it with foil around the 30 minute mark. I didn't even wait for my bananas to ripen much. But by the taste you would think that they were brown/black by the time I used them and they weren't at all. There's even an added bonus to this recipe - you will not believe how good your WHOLE house will smell while this baby is baking. Hello! To give credit where credit is due, this is not an original Dorie recipe, but a favorite recipe of Emily Einstein, who with her husband, Dan, owns Sweet Sixteenth bakery in Nashville. Way to go Emily! =) Classic Banana Bundt Cake Adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006 3 c. all-purpose flour 2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 c. sugar 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature about 4 very ripe bananas, mashed (you should have 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups) 1 c. sour cream or plain yogurt 1 generous tsp. vietnamese cinnamon (Optional, recipe didn't call for it but I always add cinnamon to banana cake/bread) Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350º F. Generously butter a 9- to 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan. (If you've got a silicone Bundt pan, there is no need to butter it.) Don't place the pan on a baking sheet - you want the oven's heat to circulate through the Bundt's inner tube. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, if using, together. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas. Finally, mix in half of the dry ingredients (don't be disturbed when the batter curdles), all the sour cream and then the rest of the flour mixture. Scrape the batter into the pan, rap the pan on the counter to de-bubble the batter and smooth the top. Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Check the cake after about 30 minutes - if it is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool to room temperature. If you've got the time, wrap the cooled cake in plastic and allow it to sit on the counter overnight before serving - it's better the next day. Dorie also provides a Lemony White icing recipe to drizzle over the top of the cake, but I didn't feel it needed anything to improve it. Lemony White Icing: Sift 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar into a bowl and squeeze enough fresh lemon juice (start with 2 tsp. and add more by drops) to make an icing thin enough to drizzle down the Bundt's curves.

Banana-Banana Pudding

One of the guys in our shop brought me some home made banana pudding a few weeks ago. I thought it was very sweet of him. What he didn't know was that I did not really like banana pudding. hehe I had only had it once in my life at some chain restaurant and the vanilla pudding was overwhelming even the taste of the bananas and to me it was just vanilla bland and I didn't like it at all. Which bummed me out as I pretty much love anything with bananas. So I'm looking at this huge container of pudding. I smelled it.. and got quite a banana punch. I noticed it was more yellow than the banana pudding I had at that restaurant and there was a meringue on top. "Ahh, what the hell?" I found a spoon. Holy crap. This was the best banana pudding in alla world. Definitely not traditional, the instant I tasted it I knew the pudding was actually banana flavored and not vanilla. The meringue lended a great layer of flavor and texture. The wafers were almost cake like and the bananas were super sweet. I was in heaven. I had to literally force myself to put down the spoon and have Hubbs take the container away from me. I was going to eat the whole damn thing! And so, I've been wanting to make a big ol' dish of this ever since. I finally got on it this past weekend. Course it doesn't taste EXACTLY like my friend's did - as nothing tastes as good as something made by someone else, but it's pretty darned good nonetheless. ;) Not your traditional banana pudding - instant banana pudding is used instead of slow cooked from scratch vanilla pudding and there is that layer of meringue where I believe most traditional banana puddings have a whipped cream topping. But so, soooo good! A snap to put together and equally as good served a lil warm, at room temperature or cold from the fridge. Try this when you are looking for something easy, quick and creamy good! :D Banana-Banana Pudding 2 boxes of instant banana pudding 4 c. milk (I used 2%) 1 box of vanilla wafers 4-5 bananas, sliced 3 egg whites 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar 3 TBS. white granulated sugar Preheat oven to 350º F. Start with a layer of vanilla wafers, flat side down, side by side on the bottom of a 9" x 13" x 2" Pyrex baking dish. Then layer banana slices on top of the wafers, but put the bananas side by side as well (not just 1 slice on top of a wafer - cover those wafers well with nanners). Prepare the first box of banana pudding with 2 cups of milk and whisk until it starts to thicken (see instructions on box), pour over the first layer of wafers and bananas - using all of it. On top of the pudding, put another layer of wafers and then bananas - you should use all the bananas here and maybe all but 8 or 9 wafers from the box. With the left over wafers place 4 (or 5 depending on how many are left) along the long sides of the Pyrex, tucking them down in the pudding. Prepare the 2nd box of pudding as you did the first, pour over the 2nd wafer/nanner layer and then give the whole dish a lil shimmy shake to even it out and to remove as many air bubbles as possible. In a mixer, preferably using the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs and cream of tartar at high speed. When they just start to come together, add the 3 TBS. of sugar slowly. Continue to whisk until the eggs become glossy and form stiff peaks. Spread over the pudding and create lil peaks with the tip of your knife or spatula. Bake for 10-15 minutes in preheated oven, or until the meringue starts to brown. Allow to cool at room temp. This pudding can be served warm, at room temp or after being chilled for a few hours in the fridge.