Banana Bread

This is my new favorite banana bread recipe. It's moist without being greasy and it's super tasty with the brown sugar sprinkled on the top. I tweaked it from ourbestbites.com
I also started beating my bananas with a hand mixer when I made banana breads and such because I hate getting lumps of mushy banana in my baked goods - this avoids that.

Banana Bread

·        Prep Time: 15 minutes

·        Cook Time: 1 hour

·        Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

·        Yield: 1 loaf 1x

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3-4 ripe bananas)

1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2–3 tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions

 Spray your loaf pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat bananas in medium size bowl with hand mixer (don’t skip this – it avoid lumpy bananas in bread) instead of mashing them. Mix sugar and butter in stand mixer and beat with at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana (measure from beat bananas), yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until just moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

https://ourbestbites.com/the-best-classic-banana-bread/print/42884/

Lemon Crepes

These crepes have a light lemon flavor and are perfect for spring and summer.  We filled them with sweetened whipped cream.  The original recipe paired them with a raspberry sauce but we had some strawberries and blueberries in the fridge so we mixed some of those with a little sugar and topped our crepes with that.  The raspberry would be delicious, too!  Jeff said he wants these for breakfast on Father's Day and gives them a solid 5 stars.

Lemon Crepes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• fresh lemon juice and zest of 1 (one) lemon
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

non-stick cooking spray or butter

sweetened whipped cream (optional)

fruit topping (optional)

powdered sugar (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a blender until batter is smooth.  Let stand 15 minutes.  Heat a crepe pan or a large skillet over medium to medium high heat.  Lightly grease the pan with non-stick cooking spray or butter.  Pour about 1/3 cup of batter into pan and swirl around to completely cover the bottom of the pan.  Cook until edges of crepe curl up and underside of crepe is golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.  Gently flip the crepe and cook for 1 more minute.  Place finished crepes on a plate and repeat until all of the batter is used.

Serve with desired fillings and toppings and enjoy!

Recipe altered slightly from https://diethood.com/lemon-crepes-with-raspberry-sauce/

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

We made this cake for Ava's birthday and it was really delish. It was very moist. The original called for a Swiss Meringue recipe, but I didn't have a double boiler and didn't want to deal with it, so I just made a strawberry jam buttercream. Also, I found a recipe for ganache with corn syrup in it, which made it drip SO much easier than the standard ganache.

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Cake:

·        1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

·        1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

·        3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder spooned into measuring cup

·        1 1/2 tsp baking soda

·        1 tsp baking powder

·        1 tsp salt

·        1/4 cup vegetable oil

·        3/4 cup buttermilk room temperature

·        3/4 cup hot strong brewed coffee or hot water

·        2 large eggs

·        2 tsp vanilla

Strawberry Buttercream:

·        9-10 cups powdered sugar

·        2 cups butter, room temp

·        1 cup strawberry jam

Ganache:

·        1 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (just use chips)

·        3 ½ oz heavy whipping cream

·        3 Tbsp light corn syrup

Instructions

Cake:

1.                 Preheat oven to 350F, grease three 6" round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment.

2.       Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.

3.       In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients (pour coffee/water in slowly as not to cook the eggs if very hot).

4.       Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. Batter will be very thin.

5.       Pour evenly into prepared pans. I used a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.

6.       Bake until a cake tester comes out mostly clean. A total of 30-35mins.

7.       Cool 10minutes in the pans then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, cut each layer in half horizontally to get 6 layers.

Strawberry Buttercream:

Use hand mixer to blend butter with about a cup of powdered sugar. Add jam. It may separate, just mix until fairly well blended and then add remaining powdered sugar. Add milk or cream, as needed, for preferred texture.

Ganache:

Do not make until cake is frosted and chilling. Place chopped chocolate cream into a microwave safe bowl and heat until nearly boiling. Add chocolate chips and let sit for about 10 minutes. Stir to combine. Once chocolate is melted, stir in corn syrup. Don’t let it cool too thickly before using it on cake.

Assembly:

Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving dish. Top with about 1/2 cup buttercream. Repeat with remaining layers. Frost and smooth the outside with a thin crumb coat. Chill for 20mins.

Frost the cake. Chill for 20 minutes again. Meanwhile, make the ganache. Using a small spoon, place dollops of ganache around the top edges of the cooled cake, allowing some to drip down. Do a test drip. If it is too hot, it will melt the frosting – let it cool a bit. If it is too cool, microwave for about 10 seconds and try again. Do not repeat too many times because ganache will separate if stirred too much. Fill in the top of the cake with more ganache and spread evenly with an offset spatula.

Top with decorative dollops of frosting around top edge (I used Ateco tip 847), whole strawberries (dipped in chocolate), and a pearl border at the base(using Wilton tip 12).

https://livforcake.com/chocolate-strawberry-cake/