TWD: All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake

This pumpkin dessert was liked a little more by my family compared to the previous scones or cupcakes/muffins. Thank god because I didn't want to finish the entire bundt myself, even though I halved the recipe (which is why it looks a little funny and short). I really liked the texture of the cake and was glad I omitted the apples. As nice as apples in desserts sound, I find that they add sogginess, which eventually leads to questions like 'eww, why is this cake raw?' and me replying, 'it's not raw, it's apples'. Since there was already so much pumpkin puree in this, I decided that any more moisture would scare my family away. I also used dried instead of fresh cranberries to keep the wetness down. Overall, I really enjoyed this cake, which would have surprised me a year ago when I wasn't exactly open to the idea of pumpkin in desserts... I blame the pumpkin pie!

Thanks to Britin of The Nitty Britty for choosing this recipe!

TWD: Classic Banana Bundt Cake

The best part about bundt cakes is you never really have to decorate them because they're so pretty by themselves... that is, unless if they stick because then you have something that's a little tricky to fix. This was the first time I've ever had a cake stick on me. I knew something was wrong when the cake wouldn't budge as I was wiggling the pan around before turning it over. This was actually a pretty scary moment because the thought of having to dig my fingers down the sides and try to pry it out didn't sound too fun. Luckily, with enough shaking and jiggling around, the cake was loose enough so that I could turn it upside down. A few pieces remained stuck on the pan, but at least it came out in one piece!


This was really moist and so tender that it literally melted in my mouth. I had to retoast it because it was a little mushy. The banana flavour was good, but not as strong as I would have liked. I wish I loved this as much as everyone else seemed to on the P&Q, but I think I'm just not a banana cake person even though weirdly enough I love banana bread. I didn't like the banana cake recipes from Sky High or Chris Kimball either because they were also too sweet and a little mushy. I guess I'll just stick with banana bread, especially the Silver Palate recipe with its strong banana flavour and sturdy yet tender crumb. There's also less fat, which is always a plus!

Thanks so much to Mary of Food Librarian for choosing this recipe! You can find the recipe on her blog or in Dorie's book. Don't forget to check out the TWD blogroll!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread... Melted or Creamed?

With 2 bunches of ripe bananas, there wasn't anything better to make than banana bread, but I hope you aren't sick another banana bread post (this is my 5th one!). I love the Silver Palate Banana Bread recipe, but I don't like repeating a recipe without doing something a little different. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do a little recipe comparison, which I love! Since many banana bread recipes use melted butter, I thought it would be fun to compare melted vs creamed. It seemed kind of pointless, since it was no surprise that melted butter would produce a denser bread, but I was curious how big of a difference it would make. This usually drives my family crazy because sometimes the differences are very tiny yet I'm still forcing them to choose between 'A or B' 'left or right'?

Melted is on the left with the more open crumb and creamed is on the right. In case you were wondering, they went into and out of the oven at the same time, baked in the same pan and each banana was cut in half so there was no difference in banana ripeness. Both versions were really good, but I prefer the creaming method because I liked its lighter yet still dense texture. The rest of my family was divided so it was a tie between creamed and melted. The differences were noticeable so if you're finding that your banana bread is too dense, I would try creaming the butter to see if it improves. Next time I make this, I'll have to use whole wheat flour. I'll probably do another comparison even though I know it will probably be denser, may as well, right?

Silver Palate Cookbook Banana Bread: (makes 1 loaf)

8 T unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c whole wheat flour (I used all purpose)
3 large ripe bananas, mashed (1 1/4 cups - 1 1/2 cups)
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped (I used chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. (I used a bundt pan)
2. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat.
3. Sift AP flour, soda, salt together, stir in whole wheat flour
Alternate dry mixture with bananas + vanilla, ending with dry until flour disappears. Fold in chocolate chips
5. Pour into pan. Bake 50-60 min, (it took 40 minutes in my bundt) or until cake tester comes out clean (I look for a few mini moist crumbs). Cool in pan 10 min, then flip it out onto a rack.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I wasn't expecting to bake a cream cheese pound cake. This actually started off as frosting that I made for fun and didn't want to waste. I'm starting to find that the process part of baking is more fun than the eating part, which usually means that sometimes I make desserts randomly. Lately, it's been frosting, especially ones made with powdered sugar because it's always nice to have a quick and easy recipe for emergencies. With so many similar recipes out there, it is very difficult to try them all and not literally eat a stick of butter. The recipe from the Whimsical Bakehouse looked interesting because the sugar is dissolved first in boiling water and it claims to be non-crusting! I liked that it wasn't super sweet, but so mad that I messed it up. It was not a pretty frosting, looking like it was on the verge of separating. It's probably my fault for overwhipping/underwhipping (I don't know) and substituting the butter for shortening, since the liquid in this recipe is water. I read a lot of great reviews for this recipe so I'm going to give it another try! Since I ruined this batch, I thought it would be fun to throw in some cream cheese to see what would happen. Instead of patiently waiting for my cream cheese to come to room temperature, I just threw half a block that I softened with my hands. That obviously was not a good idea because there were mini cream cheese chunks galore! I turned up the speed, but that only turned my thick, but chunky mixture into soup.

For some reason, I didn't want to give this up and wanted to throw more ingredients into my mixing bowl and hope that something edible would turn out. So far, I had 9 tbsps of butter, 4 oz cream cheese, 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1/6th cup of water. Don't those sound like basic ingredients for cake?! Cream cheese pound cake fit the best so I used the recipe from Deb of Smitten Kitchen as a guide. I was a little worried that the powdered sugar and water would mess this up, but the pound cake turned out to be delicious.. phew! My favourite is still the whipping cream pound cake because of it's velvety and melt in your mouth texture, but this one was good in its own way. It had a nice crust and the combination of sweetness, tanginess and burst of raspberries was really good!

I'm not sure if anyone actually wants the recipe, since it started off as being frosting, the mixing sequence might be weird and it wasn't very tall since the recipe is kind of small.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 cup powdered sugar
1/6th cup boiling water
9 tbsp butter
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 granulated sugar
2 eggs
1.5 cup (6.75 oz) sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup (or more or less depending on preferences) of raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a bundt pan
2. Combine flour and salt in a bowl
3. Beat powdered sugar and boiling water in a mixer until smooth and cool
4. Add butter and cream until smooth and fluffy on medium high.
5. Add cream cheese and cream until smooth and fluffy on medium high.
6. Add granulated sugar and cream until smooth and fluffy on medium high
7. Add eggs, one at a time until fluffy and well incorporated
8. On low speed, add flour until incorporated.
9. Add half the batter and spread evenly using a spatula.
10. Scatter raspberries on top
11. Add the rest of the batter on top and smooth with a spatula
12. Bake 30-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Silver Palate Banana Bread

We were cleaning out the basement freezer and to my suprise, there were frozen bananas! I can't believe it's my fourth banana bread post (I made it here - CI's version, here - lower fat and here - with chocolate chips). Seriously, can anyone ever have too much banana bread?! A while ago, I saw a recipe for banana bread from the Silver Palate Cookbook that I wanted to try because compared to others I've tried, there was no added liquid (milk, buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt). When you consider how much banana is used, I guess more liquid isn't reallly necessary.

This banana bread was really delicious! The texture was soft and light compared to CI's version. It may have been a little too light for banana bread standards, but that's because while the butter, sugar and eggs were creaming, I was trying to multitask by doing dishes at the same time and left the mixer running a lot longer than usual. If you're into dense and chewy, I would try this recipe using the muffin method by melting the butter instead of creaming (or just not overcream like me..haha) because the flavour was amazing!. Doesn't it feel like sometimes that no matter how much banana is added the flavour is still weak, but at the same time adding more banana might turn the bread into mush? I love strong banana flavour, but when there are equal or more cups of banana then flour, it starts feeling gummy to me. I think the yogurt in my previous go-to recipe from CI mutes the flavour of the bananas and makes the batter too wet. The best part about this recipe was not having to wait for the centre to cook while sacrificing the rest of the loaf although I would have to bake this in a loaf pan to be sure (need Goldtouch now!). Bundt pans have way more surface area and allow for even baking. My favourite are the ones from Nordicware, which are just so heavy sometimes I feel like I might drop my cake while I'm pulling it out from my oven.

The only question is, how much banana is in 3 bananas? Mine came to 1 1/4 cup. Since that was close to the 1 1/2 cup in CI's recipe, I didn't bother adding another banana. I don't think I would use less than 1 1/4 cup of bananas though or else it probably won't be flavourful enough. There are still 3 frozen bananas left. Maybe next time I'll be confident enough to break into a bag of whole wheat flour, we'll see...

Silver Palate Cookbook Banana Bread: (makes 1 loaf)

8 T unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c whole wheat flour (I used all purpose)
3 large ripe bananas, mashed (1 1/4 cups - 1 1/2 cups)
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped (I omitted)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. (I used a bundt pan)
2. Mix flour, soda, salt together
3. Mash bananas with a fork, add vanilla to the banana mixture.
4. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat.
5. Alternately add dry and wet ingredients to butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry)
6. Pour into pan. Bake 50-60 min, or until cake tester comes out clean (I look for a few mini moist crumbs). Cool in pan 10 min, then on rack.

Light Banana Blueberry Bread

Our bananas ripened to the point where they just couldn't be eaten, but perfect for banana bread. This time, I decided to make light banana bread even though it involves taking out the KA. If anybody would have a tried and tested light recipe, it would be from Christopher Kimball and gang so I got the recipe from Cook's Illustrated.


I'm not usually too adventurous with the addins, mostly because I'm afraid of screwing up a perfectly good tasting recipe by adding in weird flavours or textures. My biggest fear though is from folding in anything extra and create a tough and chewy product. Every time nuts or chocolate is involved I always dump it into the flour first and then mix wet and dry. I could never risk folding it in gently after the wet and dry have been combined. In the beginning, I used to just poke blueberries in my muffins and chocolate chips in my cookies. I wasn't in the mood for chocolate or nuts so I added one cup of blueberries instead. Since there was so much fruit going in, I reduced the amount of bananas to 1 cup mashed and the sugar to 1/2 cup. As usual, I couldn't give up the opportunity to use my bundt pan!


I love blueberries and bananas together! The juicy blueberries squirt in your mouth and both fruits add a lot of moisture. I almost left my banana blueberry bread in the oven for too long, but luckily the irresistable scent of banana blueberry bread caught my attention before it was too late.

Light Banana Bread

Makes 1 9-inch loaf, serves 10

Nonstick baking spray with flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar -- divided (I used 1/2 cup)
3 very ripe bananas (about 1 1/4 pounds), mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups) (I used 1 cup)
1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (I used 1 cup blueberries)

Heat oven to 350. Spray loaf pan with baking spray. Mix flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1/4 cup of the sugar in medium bowl. Set aside.

In separate bowl, mix mashed banans, yogurt and vanilla. Set aside.

Beat remaining 1/2 cup sugar and butter with an electric mixer on medium high until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Reduce mixer speed to low. Beat in half of flour mixture, then one-third of banana mixture. Add half of the remaining flour, then one-third of banana mixture. Repeat once more, being careful not to overmix -- batter will be thick and chunky. Fold in add ins, if using.

Scrape batter into pan and sprinkle with walnuts, if using. Bake about 55 minutes, until toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove and transfer loaf to wire rack.

Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of my favourite desserts. It was actually one of the first 'scratch' recipes I tried (the other being chocolate chip cookies) and the last until I got interested in baking again this past Christmas. I will never forget the first time I made banana bread because it was dry yet uncooked, soapy, chewy and definitely overmixed. Those were the days when I didn't know that the mixing order of ingredients actually mattered, the importance of whisking the flour mixture to distribute the baking soda evenly and when using a handmixer to be extra careful not to overmix. I remember baking 3 loaves before I finally gave up and settled for storebought desserts.

I've tried almost all the recipes from allrecipes.com, but the best version is definitely from Cook's Illustrated. You don`t need to lug out the mixer or anything fancy, just 2 bowls and good wide spatula so cleanup is quick and easy. It has suprisingly good butter flavour without the banana bread tasting like a cake and uses just enough bananas for strong flavour without turning the bread gummy. Most recipes use nuts or chocolate chips or neither, but I decided to put walnuts on one side and chocolate chips on the other so I could get both. This was actually the first time I used nuts in baking and enjoyed it more than I expected. I also used a bundt pan instead of the regular loaf pan so it took 40 minutes instead of the regular 55.


I wish I was able to take a picture of the entire cake, but I couldn't resist eating a slice.. well more like 3! My bananas were speckled, but I wanted them really really ripe so I put them in a baking pan and turned the oven to 150-200F for 20 minutes. The heat carmelizes the bananas, which helps to sweeten and add more banana flavour to the bread.

EDIT: My new favourite banana recipe can be found here. It is a little fluffier than this one by Cook's Illustrated, but if you like denser and chewier, I would say go with Cook's Illustrated.

Banana Bread
Cook's Illustrated, The New Best Recipe

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1 1/4 cups walnuts, chopped coarse
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and walnuts together in a large bowl; set aside.

4. Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

5. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (The bread can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

Lemon Bundt Cake

Ever since I saw this post about the lemon bundt cake, it looked too delicious not to try. Before I try new recipes, I always do a search to make sure that it worked for others and where it is from because I've had too many bad experiences in the past with recipes that are way too advanced or just simply flopped. Luckily, this recipe received great reviews and is also from Cook's Illustrated, which is definitely a bonus. Before I even started on the cake, I had to get a bundt pan, but with so many designs it was hard to choose. In the end, I picked up the anniversary classic bundt pan, since there are only so many times I can bake a castle or a rose cake.

Scanning over the recipe, the first thing that caught my eye was the 18 tablespoons of butter! I was planning on making half the recipe anyway, since that's what I usually do when I try new desserts. I decided that instead of using 9 tablespoons of butter for the halved recipe, I would just do 8 tablespoons. A one tablespoon reduction of butter may not seem much, but in the end, it all adds up! 1.5 flour/8 tablespoons of butter is my usual ratio for flour to butter anyway, any higher and the cake feels a little too rich. To prevent using more butter, I never grease my pans, but I do line it with parchment. I can't line a bundt pan, but this cake had enough butter that it fell out easily. My favourite part of the recipe was the use of freshly squeezed lemon juice and buttermilk. Since both ingredients help to tenderize cakes, it can be extremely helpful for an inexperienced baker like me, especially since this cake calls for all purpose flour.


Its amazing how the addition of an egg can curdle the creamed butter and sugar, but when the speed is increased, the curdled mess transforms into the smoothest and fluffiest mixture. When the cake was done and finally cool, I couldn't wait to cut a slice and hope that the crumb was just as tight and tender as ones I have seen. I ate it plain with no glaze or icing sugar and was so moist and fluffy. This was definitely one of the better cakes I've made.

Lemon Bundt Cake
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Serves 12 to 14

Cake

3 lemons , zest grated and saved, then juiced for 3 tablespoons juice
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk (preferably)
3 large eggs , at room temperature
1 large egg yolk , at room temperature
18 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 1/4 sticks), at room temperature (I used 16 tablespoons)
2 cups sugar (14 ounces)

Glaze

2 - 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (see note above)
1 tablespoon buttermilk
2 cups confectioners' sugar (8 ounces)

1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour (alternatively, brush pan with mixture of 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon melted butter). Mince lemon zest to fine paste (you should have about 2 tablespoons). Combine zest and lemon juice in small bowl; set aside to soften, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Combine lemon juice mixture, vanilla, and buttermilk in medium bowl. In small bowl, gently whisk eggs and yolk to combine. In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, cream butter and sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes; scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium speed and add half of eggs, mixing until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Repeat with remaining eggs; scrape down bowl again. Reduce to low speed; add about one-third of flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk mixture, mixing until just incorporated after each addition (about 5 seconds). Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk mixture. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at medium-low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour. Scrape into prepared pan.

3. Bake until top is golden brown and wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into center comes out with no crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes.

4. FOR THE GLAZE: While cake is baking, whisk 2 tablespoons lemon juice, buttermilk, and confectioners' sugar until smooth, adding more lemon juice gradually as needed until glaze is thick but still pourable (mixture should leave faint trail across bottom of mixing bowl when drizzled from whisk). Cool cake in pan on wire rack set over baking sheet for 10 minutes, then invert cake directly onto rack. Pour half of glaze over warm cake and let cool for 1 hour; pour remaining glaze evenly over top of cake and continue to cool to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Cut into slices and serve.