banana split cake

i made a banana split cake for my mother in law yesterday. it turned out really good. here it is...




i used the cake recipe below, then before icing with the frosting below i put on a layer of apricot pineapple preserves. after frosting i added nuts, ganache, cherries and sprinkles.
it turned out really good. here are the recipes i went off of...
enjoy.


Banana cake
from here.
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups unbleached flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup cane sugar or turbinado sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup soy milk
2 bananas, overripe, mashed ( i added and xtra 1)
1/2 cup safflower oil or any light vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
Directions:
reheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch square or round pan with Pam or other baking spray.
Put dry ingredients into a bowl. Blend with a fork. Add oil, soy milk and vanilla. Stir until the mixture comes together, but don't over mix. Break bananas into chunks and drop into the batter, mash with a fork and mix briefly. Fold in chocolate chips.
Pour into prepared pan and bake on center rack for 35-40 minutes, just until cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from oven, place on wire rack to cool. To serve sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy! Also great with crushed pineapple or berries.
Here's a tip. If you like a smoother banana texture, break bananas into a separate bowl, mash and mix well, until smooth, then fold into the batter.
Over mixing your batter will create a more dense cake with a tougher crumb. Cakes should be gently mixed until dry ingredients are incorporated, unless specified otherwise.


Banana Buttercream Frosting

from here.

1/2 cup earth balance, softened

1/2 Cup Non-Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening, softened
1 Ripe banana
3/4 Box Powdered Sugar

mix all together until light and airy. i use a mixer.

yum!!

two very good things.

First up is a wild mushroom curry. This concoction has chickpeas, cabbage, tomato, wild mushrooms, curry seitan and homemade curry spices. so good.we had it with garlic basil couscous and sesame pita bread.
curry pic 1

curry pic 2

we had the curry plate with a ginger vanilla chai iced tea...in mushroom glasses of course!

Next up, Soyrizo black bean breakfast patties with a cheezy verde sauce. that is a mouthful eh?
i love having breakfast for dinner, and with the added bonus of scoring a waffle maker for my birthday(thanks Lynn!), no we can really seal the deal. here we have the patties, the sauce with nutritional yeast, spices and verde sauce. fresh tomatoes, homemade waffles and pineapple.
quite a feast!

curry skills are now awesome. waffle skills are still coming along. i am much too impatient for that waffle maker.......
i will be working on putting together all these recipes in text for anyone interested. my recipe writing down skills obviously need improvment. hopefully i will be posting more lolo porn too...hehe.

testing and other stuff

these are so good. lolo lolois amazing. be on the look out for her book, it will be awesome.
Lolo's Jalepeno Poppers

more poppers

thanks lolo!

also, we went on a mini vacation this month and i picked up some culinary lavender at a local farmers market on the coast! i can't wait to try it out, please send your lavender recipes my way :)
here are some roses i spotted on our trip(after we ate lunch, i forgot to take pics of the food!)

Coffee cake is delicious!

so we decided to have tacos for dinner the other night. really simple, but really really good. we had these awesome avocados and my tacos were loaded with a traditional style guac. yum. the tacos were also filled with tomatoes, cilantro, fresh cabbage, and vegan taco filling. a nice fruit salad(peaches,nectarines,pineapple,banana,and grapes with agave) on the side and a great white beer from lost coast brewery and we are chillin.
here we go:
tacos with fruit salad

While we were at the grocery store buying a few things and getting stuff to make tacos, we saw a box mix of coffee cake. we thought this looked great. so, after we had tacos i made
a version of this coffee cake. It was so good! I only took one picture of it though...which really doesn't do this enough justice. I did make a few adjustments in the egg replacer department and it turned out wonderful. our new favorite dessert. here it is
coffee cake

And also, while i was making the cake i caught these too little buggers hanging out together.
how cute
Bijou and Sadie

pasta, veggies and frozen patties.

Take that Rachel Ray.

i hate rachel ray. heck, who doesn't. anyway, why does she put freakin frozen chicken and what not in everything. yuck. so when i got home tonight and decided that instead of a chicken sandwich i would have my frozen delight with a nice pasta and fresh tomato sauce with fresh garlic and basil...i thought, hah take that rachel ray.
i don't know why. i just did. so, this is what was for dinner. pasta and skinny green beans, with a fresh chunky tomato and basil sauce. topped with fried vegan chikn patties touched with a bit of nutritional yeast. oh and some cracked black pepper.
freaking yummo.

cupcake fun

Falafel and Tabouleh

Yum. So the last time we went out for falafel, which is quite a rare thing because we have to drive kinda far...i bought a few things in the restaurants' little shop area. i bought a box of falafel mix, some tahini, and some pickled turnips. last night i decided to try out the falafel mix. It was delicious. I had it with a bed of mixed greens, pickled turnips and tahini sauce. did i already say yum? yum. Served the falafel salad up with some tabouleh..(also from a box..shhhh.) and some spicy black bean hummus(not pictured). really really good. Also, there is still over half a box left of the stuff and i made 12 good size falafel balls. These pickled turnips are amazing. They are colored red/pink from beets. so good.

Falafel plate with Tabouleh