Banana Layer Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

As I mentioned in my recap of my birthday weekend, my twin sister Genevieve and I always look forward to making our own separate cakes for our shared birthday.  We each love choosing a recipe, making it our own, baking the cakes, and best of all, decorating them!  We also love that it's the only time of year when we can make a cake exactly designed for our own tastes (aka NO chocolate) without worrying about whether or not everyone else will like it!

This year, Gen made a delicious vegan pina colada cake, and I chose to make a banana layer cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting on the inside and a whipped cream cheese frosting on the outside.

Whenever the highly anticipated birthday-cake-choosing time of year rolls around, I always think that I want a banana cake but never have any bananas that could be ripe on time to bake it.  This year, I was well prepared ahead of time to ensure that I could finally make my banana birthday cake!

I wanted a three-layer banana cake (three seemed birthday-worthy) that somehow incorporated peanut butter, because peanut butter & banana sandwiches are one of my favourite things in the world.  I didn't want the peanut butter to be too overpowering though, so I chose to incorporate it into a cream cheese frosting that would go in between the cake layers.  I decided to frost the outside of the cake with a plain cream cheese frosting (because I hate buttercream frosting), then decorate it with the remaining peanut butter frosting and some banana chips.

Cutting the first slice of a layer cake is always so nerve-wracking because you can't exactly take a sneak peek or taste before it's time to serve all your guests.  Fortunately, this cake not only looked impressive but tasted amazing too!

The cake itself had a very strong banana taste and was dense like banana bread, which is exactly what I wanted.  It's definitely not light and fluffy, so if that's what you're looking for then you might want to choose a different recipe!

The peanut butter taste was subtle but delicious whenever you got a bite of it.  It complemented the banana really nicely, as did the cream cheese frosting on the outside of the cake.  If you want a stronger peanut butter flavour, you might want to use the peanut butter frosting on the outside of the cake as well, or try adding peanut butter chips to the cake.

If you're a chocolate fan, you could try adding chocolate chips to the cake or even make it a peanut butter-chocolate-banana cake by adding a chocolate frosting to the inside of the cake and using the peanut butter frosting on the outside.  There are lots of variations you could try with this cake, but it's delicious as is too!

This served a lot of people and everyone who tried it really liked it.  I'm so happy I finally got to have my banana cake after all these years of wishing for it!  I don't want to have to wait another whole year before I can try another one, but since everyone else I make a cake for seems to request chocolate, it might be a while!  I'm actually baking a chocolate cake for my dad's birthday today, so I'll let you all know how that turns out!

Banana Layer Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Sour Cream Banana Cake Recipe

Adapted from Margaret Wehling via All Recipes and also seen on Food Mayhem

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

4 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sour cream (I used low-fat)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray three 9” round cake pans with non-stick baking spray and set aside.

Cream butter and sugars together with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla, and beat until just combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Sift through a sieve at least once.  Add to the wet ingredients in three additions, folding with a spatula until just combined.

Pour the batter equally into the three prepared pans.  Weigh each pan to ensure that they are equal, and spread the batter in each pan as evenly as possible.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean, rotating pans halfway through.  Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from multiple sources

1 8-oz package cream cheese, at room temperature (I used reduced fat)

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

Pinch of salt

1 cup icing sugar

Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about one minute.  Add the butter and beat for another minute until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add the peanut butter and pinch of salt and beat until combined.  Slowly add the icing sugar and mix on low until incorporated. Taste and add more icing sugar if it’s not sweet enough for your tastes.  Store in the refrigerator until ready to use, but remove from fridge at least 10 minutes before frosting so it is easier to spread.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Bon Appetit via Epicurious

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature (I used reduced fat)

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups icing sugar, divided 

3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth, about one minute.  Add butter and beat for another minute until smooth.  Add vanilla and 3/4 cup icing sugar, and mix on low until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk whipping cream and remaining 3/4 cup icing sugar until medium-firm peaks form.  I did this by hand but you could use an electric mixer to make it easier.

Gently fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture in 3 additions.  Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Assembling the Cake

1. Trim the tops of the cakes with a large serrated knife or cake leveler to level them, if necessary (I just took a bit off the top centers).  Place one cake layer on a cake stand or large plate and insert strips of wax paper or parchment paper underneath for easy clean-up later.
2. Spread about 1 cup of peanut butter frosting over the cake.  Try to make it thicker around the edges.
3. Top with second cake layer, then spread another 1 cup of peanut butter frosting on top, and top with third cake layer.  Make sure you're lining the cakes up evenly.  You should have a bit of leftover peanut butter cream cheese frosting which you can save for decorating the cake later.
4. Spread a thin layer of cream cheese frosting over the top and sides of cake to form a crumb coat.  Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. 
5. Spread remaining cream cheese frosting over the top and sides of cake, smoothing it out as evenly as possible with a spatula.  Decorate with reserved peanut butter cream cheese frosting and banana chips, if desired.  Remove wax paper strips from base of cake.

Easter Basket Lemon Mousse Tarts

When I returned from my trip to Asia (aka two weeks of eating out for every meal), I was very eager to get back in the kitchen and start cooking for myself - though I certainly did not miss having to clean up after meals! And with only a week until Easter, I wanted to make sure I fit in at least one Easter recipe on the blog before Sunday!

Easter nest and basket recipes seem to be really popular this year - I've seen a lot of cupcakes and cookies that are either topped with toasted coconut and mini eggs to resemble a bird's nest, or green coconut and jelly beans to resemble an Easter basket, both of which look absolutely adorable!

When I saw this recipe for Easter Basket Cookies from Betty Crocker, I thought it was a great idea because it looks just like a little basket and can be filled with any type of filling you like! I decided that instead of using a cookie dough to form a basket, I would take an even easier approach and use mini tart shells.

I wanted to fill the tarts with something other than a standard icing (which I hate), and since lemons always remind me of spring and Easter, I decided to fill the tarts with a light and fluffy lemon mousse.

The coconut and jelly beans were obvious choices for the top, but I had a hard time thinking of something edible to make the basket handle out of. I saw some recipes that used shoestring licorice, but I didn't really want to buy a big package of licorice that I would never eat.

Then my genius sister suggested that I use fruit bars instead:

The SunRype fruit snacks I bought were already shaped in little ropes that could easily be cut apart, and they were the perfect length for a basket handle. Plus they made for at least one (semi) healthy ingredient in these tarts! I do wish I could have found something more basket-coloured to match the tart and make it look like a complete basket, but I couldn't think of anything - if you have an idea, let me know!

Once the lemon mousse is made, assembling the baskets is super easy and really fun! Even the lemon mousse isn't difficult to make, it just takes a bit of time because you have to allow for cooling. The only hard part is not eating the whole bowl of lemon mousse with a spoon before it makes it into the tarts - it's soooo good!

The end result was these adorable little Easter baskets that I was so happy with! I love that they're bite-sized so they would make a great addition to an Easter dessert spread. The lemon mousse is creamy, fluffy, and tart, and is complemented nicely by the coconut.

I admit that jelly beans and fruit bars don't exactly go with lemon mousse tarts, but the idea is that you would pick those parts off to eat first or save to eat later (or not at all in my case, as I'm not really a fan of jelly beans!), then eat the lemon mousse tart on its own. Kids would probably have no problem eating them all together though!

If you want a more grown-up dessert to serve on Easter, or if you don't celebrate Easter, you could of course leave off the toppings and serve simple lemon mousse tarts - they're still delicious on their own!

And if you're looking for other Easter dessert ideas, I've started a Pinterest board with lots of incredible Easter treats from other blogs, so be sure to check it out!

Easter Basket Lemon Mousse Tarts

Inspired by these Easter Basket Cookies; Lemon Mousse recipe adapted from Bon Appetit, via Epicurious

Makes 18 mini tarts

Ingredients:

For the Mousse:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 large egg yolks
1 large egg
3/4 cup chilled whipping cream

For the Tarts:

18 frozen mini-tart shells (I used one box of Tenderflake shells)
1 cup flaked sweetened coconut
Green food colouring
54 small jelly beans
18 short pieces of shoestring licorice or fruit snacks for basket handles

Directions:

Make the Lemon Mousse:

Whisk the sugar, lemon juice and zest, egg yolks, and egg together in a medium metal bowl. Set over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Whisk constantly until mixture thickens and thermometer inserted into mixture registers 160°F, around 5 minutes. Transfer lemon curd to a separate bowl and let cool to room temperature, then cover and chill in refrigerator until cool.

Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the whipping cream on high speed in a chilled bowl until medium-firm peaks form. Gently fold 1/3 of whipped cream into chilled lemon curd, then fold in remaining whipped cream. Store in the refrigerator until ready to fill tarts.

Assemble the Easter Basket Tarts:

Bake frozen tart shells according to package directions and let cool.

Add a few drops of green food colouring and a few drops of water to a medium ziplock bag. Add the coconut, close the bag, and toss to coat the coconut evenly. Add more food colouring for a stronger green colour if desired (I used three drops and got a very light green colour, as pictured).

Use a small spoon to fill each tart shell with the lemon mousse (don’t fill too much over the edge of the tart). Sprinkle coconut on top, top with 3 jelly beans, then insert both ends of licorice or fruit bar strand into the tart to form a basket handle, as pictured below:

Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve. You may have leftover lemon mousse and coconut depending on how much you used.

Gingerbread Crepes with Eggnog Whipped Cream

I’m excited to announce that the premiere issue of Eat in Eat Out, Canada’s first (and free!) digital magazine for people who love to cook in or dine out was released today, and I was lucky enough to be featured in it! I was asked to prepare two holiday recipes for the magazine - one will be featured on their homepage at a later time, and the other is featured on pages 48-49 of the current issue: these amazing gingerbread crepes with eggnog whipped cream!

It took more time than I expected to come up with two original holiday recipes that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. For my first recipe, I knew I wanted to incorporate gingerbread in some way, and since I love making crepes, I decided to create a gingerbread crepe. I found a couple of recipes online but none were quite what I was looking for, so I experimented a little and came up with what I thought was the best crepe I’ve ever made! The gingerbread flavour was spot-on and the addition of cocoa powder gave them that dark brown colour I was hoping for.

The crepes are so good on their own, but in keeping with the holiday spirit I wanted to add some sort of eggnog filling to pair them with. I considered making a cream cheese filling, but decided to keep the crepes a little lighter by making an eggnog whipped cream instead. I was a little worried that eggnog wouldn’t whip properly (or at all), but to my surprise and delight, it worked! I’m not sure if it's possible to get stiff peaks from eggnog, but I was able to get soft peaks just fine, which was perfect for filling the crepes. A pinch of nutmeg added to the whipped cream was the perfect addition to bring out the eggnog flavour, and a sprinkling of icing sugar and cinnamon on top of everything added an elegant wintery touch.

I think these would make a festive and crowd-pleasing holiday breakfast/brunch, but they could even work as a unique twist on dessert. Or you could just keep them in the fridge and eat them as a snack all to yourself like I did with all the practise crepes I made :)

To get the recipe, go to page 48 of Eat in Eat Out’s holiday issue. And be sure to check out the rest of the magazine while you’re there, it’s full of lots of amazing recipes, restaurant reviews, and contest links!

UPDATE: I've since added the recipe below to make it easier for viewing and printing.  Eat In Eat Out has also released several new issues, so be sure to check those out!

Gingerbread Crepes with Eggnog Whipped Cream

Recipe by Once Upon a Cutting Board

Makes 10 crepes (Serves 5 people with 2 crepes each, or 10 people with 1 crepe each)

Eggnog Whipped Cream:

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

3/4 cup egg nog (full fat)

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Chill a mixing bowl in the freezer until cold.  Pour chilled whipping cream and egg nog into the bowl and beat with the whisk attachment on high until the mixture begins to thicken.  Add granulated sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form, above 5-10 minutes total.  Gently fold in nutmeg and refrigerate mixture until ready to use.

Gingerbread Crepes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup skim milk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk all crepe ingredients together in a large bowl.  Let sit for 30 minutes.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour batter by the 1/4 cup full onto the skillet and immediately swirl to cover the pan.  Let cook about one minute, until bubbles start to form in the middle of the crepe and the edges pull away from the pan.  Gently flip over and cook the other side for about 30 seconds to 1 minute until cooked through.  Remove from pan.  Repeat with remaining batter, spraying pan in between crepes and separating cooked crepes with layers of waxed paper.

To assemble crepes, fill each warm crepe with about 1/4 cup eggnog whipped cream, and wrap edges around filling.  Top crepes with extra whipped cream if desired, and sprinkle with icing sugar, cinnamon, and/or nutmeg.  Alternately, you could fold a couple of crepes into triangles then top them with the eggnog whipped cream instead of stuffing them - either works!

Coconut Lime Berry Cake with Lime Whipped Cream

The other week we had a family gathering for my Grandma’s birthday and I volunteered to be in charge of dessert. Usually, choosing a dessert for a celebration like this takes me forever because I have to go through my hundreds of bookmarked recipes to decide what would be most appropriate for the occasion, what I would have time to make, what would be the least expensive, and what would appeal to the most people. But this time I had to make my decision pretty quickly as it was already noon and the celebration was that night. Fortunately, I had been eyeing this coconut lime berry cake on Two Peas and Their Pod for a while, just waiting for the chance to make it, so it immediately sprang to mind and I got started right away!

It turned out I made the perfect choice! The cake was so moist and flavorful, but also tasted so light, which was exactly what everyone wanted after eating a big meal. The three flavours (coconut, lime, berries) worked so well together and matched the season perfectly. I thought the fresh berries stood out the most while I was eating it, but others said they mainly tasted the coconut and lime, and Ryan said he tasted all three in different stages. I decided to whip up a lime whipped cream I’d seen on How Sweet It Is, and it was the perfect addition to the cake to make it worthy of a celebration, but I also think the cake would have been delicious on its own.

I will definitely be keeping this recipe in the back of my mind for the next time I need an easy and crowd-pleasing summer dessert!

Coconut Lime Berry Cake with Lime Whipped Cream

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod, originally from Everyday Food, May 2011

Makes one 9 x 13 cake, about 12 servings

Ingredients

For the cake:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¾ cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk (or mix ¾ cup milk + ¾ tablespoon lime juice if you don't have buttermilk)
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 cups mixed berries, such as raspberries and blueberries
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

For the whipped cream:

1 cup cold whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon lime zest

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (I just lined mine with parchment paper).

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 cups flour with the baking powder, salt, and coconut.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar on high, scraping down bowl as needed, until light and fluffy, for about 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined. Add vanilla and mix until combined. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of the buttermilk, and beat until combined. Stir in lime zest and juice. Pour batter into dish and smooth the top with a small rubber spatula.

In a medium bowl, toss berries with 1 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, and the fresh orange juice. Scatter berry mixture over the batter.

Bake until cake is golden at edges and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes before slicing.

While cake is baking, make the lime whipped cream. Chill the bowl of an electric mixer before using. Once bowl is chilled, add cream, vanilla, and sugar. Beat on high until cream stiffens, about 5-6 minutes. Gently fold in lime zest. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve cake warm or at room temperature, with lime whipped cream dolloped on top of each slice.