Bake Me More

Yes, you read that correctly, peanut butter, bananas and pudding. I had already planned to make banana pudding for dinner and just happened to come across this recipe and decided to “tweak” tonight’s dessert.

This was a very simple recipe and turned out to be a quite delicious combination. If you like peanut butter and banana’s, I highly recommend trying this recipe. My kids, had seconds and would have gone for thirds if I let them.

To check out the original recipe, head over to Peanut Butter Boy.com.

Peanut Butter Banana Pudding

Ingredients:

• 8 oz sour cream*
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (Jif)
• 2 cups skim milk
• 8 oz whipped topping, thawed for 30 minutes
• 2 small packages instant vanilla pudding
• 3 bananas, in 1/4″ thick slices
• 1/2 box (16oz) Nilla Wafers

Instructions:

In a large bowl whisk together the sour cream and peanut butter. Then whisk in the whipped topping and milk until no clumps remain. Stir in the instant pudding until well incorporated and mixture begins to thicken.

In a large glass serving dish or trifle bowl, form a layer of Nilla Wafers, flat side facing up. Cover with a thin layer of pudding, followed by a layer of banana slices. Add another thin layer of pudding and repeat, wafers, pudding, bananas… Garnish with extra wafers on the side if desired.  Top with a few vanilla wafers and any other garnish. Peanut Butter Boy suggested chocolate shavings and/or fresh berries. I used some honey roasted peanuts.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

*The original recipe calls for non fat greek yogurt (or sour cream) but I had to toss my greek yogurt as it was slightly past its expiration date, and I didn’t want to chance making anyone sick!

Today I was on a chocolate baking frenzy. I woke up early, too early. My body has an internal alarm clock that usually goes off around 4 am. So I took advantage of my time this morning and baked two different chocolate desserts. I needed on for our Bible study, and my oldest daughter was scheduled to bring “something sweet” also.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide what kind of cake I would make. Finding that I was completely out of powdered sugar pretty much sealed the deal on this cake. I would definitely make it again. It was easy to prepare and quite impressive! The cake is from the Eagle Brand milk people. The recipe call for sweetened condensed milk, hence, the reason they have it on their site! (duh!)

I was hesitant about how the “swirl” would take place with the described preparation. I was amazed though at how the cream cheese mixture dispersed all the way through the cake batter to the top of the cake (i.e. the bottom of the pan). There was a nice 1/2″ or so “tunnel” on the top of the finished product. Kudos to the Eagle Brand company for good directions!!!

The changes I made to the recipe were: 1) I used a dark fudge cake mix, and 2) The ganache… remember, I didn’t have any powdered sugar, so I had to compromise. I used a recipe from Anna over at Cookie Madness, one of my favorite daily blog visits. Check her blog out!

Fudge Ribbon Cake (via Eagle Brand Milk)

Cake Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 oz.) box chocolate cake mix, plus ingredients called for on box
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 (14 oz.) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache (from Cookie Madness)

• 3 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli Bars)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Heat oven to 350ºF. Spray 10-inch fluted tube pan with flour no-stick cooking spray.

Cake Directions:

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Beat cream cheese, butter and cornstarch in medium bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk, egg and vanilla until smooth. Pour evenly over cake batter. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan. Cool. Drizzle with Chocolate Glaze or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Ganache Directions:

In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining 3 ounces of chopped chocolate with the corn syrup and butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let the ganache glaze cool until thick but still pourable, about 5 minutes.

Pour the ganache over the cooled cake.Let the cake stand until the glaze is set, at least 30 minutes, before serving. I set some of the ganache aside and once the first layer cooled, I topped it with some re-headed ganache lending a more decorative look.

**Looking back over this post, I noticed that I made an intial mention of sweets for my daughter… but didn’t mention what it was. I threw together a (lazy) Duncan Hines brownie mix together. It’s nice to have from scratch brownie recipes, but it’s also nice to have a quick fix that tastes great!

As a last-minute “birthday cake” I found this recipe on my iPhone while working out. Yes, I iPhone while on the elliptical…  Anyhow, one of my apps is a Betty Crocker recipe search. I was looking for a quick easy recipe to put together. I didn’t have a lot of time, or to be honest desire, so this recipe fit the bill. A plus was I had all the ingredients called for.

The recipe is highly rated on the Betty Crocker site. Some of the reviewers noted that the caramel hardened quite a bit once cooled, but I didn’t have that problem at all. The cake is very moist, but not “mushy”. It is very rich too, I do suggest adding whipped topping or ice cream to mellow out the richness of the cake a little. I served the cake warm with vanilla bean ice cream. It was wonderful.

Photo from the Betty Crocker site

(I still have to photograph the dessert and post it, but I dislike posting recipes without pictures to influence you to make it!)

Chocolate Turtle Cake

A Betty Crocker Recipe -

Ingredients:

• 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil’s food cake mix
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 bag (14 oz) caramels
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 bag (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup) *I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate discs
• Ice cream or Whipped cream, if desired
• Caramel and chocolate topping, if desired
• Chopped pecans, if desired

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease or spray bottom of 13×9-inch pan.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low-speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour half of the batter into pan. Bake 22 minutes (25 minutes for dark or nonstick pan). Refrigerate remaining batter.

Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan**, heat caramels and evaporated milk over medium heat, stirring frequently, until caramels are melted. Stir in pecans. Pour caramel mixture over warm cake in pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spread with remaining batter. Bake 25 minutes (29 minutes for dark or nonstick pan) or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cool at least 30 minutes. Serve with ice cream, drizzle with topping and sprinkle with pecans. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

**I microwaved the caramel according to the directions on the bag. It resulted in the same product a saucepan would have.