Tuesday 12 February 2008

Cooking, cooking, cooking.

It seems that most of my life revolves around cooking for my large family.

They wake hungry, come home from school and work staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarving and they raid the fridge and cupboards all day long; did you know if you don't eat every hour your stomach thinks that your throat has been cut?

Well for me, finding yummy and healthy recipes is always a challenge but I think I have found a fantastic one here on farmgirl.blogspot (I will put the link to her incredible inspiring site up in a tic). It is also going to be a great way of using up the black bananas I just found at the bottom of my freezer.

Farmgirl's Mexican Monkey Cake (don't you just love what FG called it!)
Makes One 8-Inch Square Cake

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick/4 ounces) butter, softened (or 1/2 cup trans-fat free margarine, such as Earth Balance)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg1-
1/4 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (they cannot be too ripe)
2 Tablespoons yogurt or sour cream
1 Tablespoon milk
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using a glass pan such as Pyrex). Grease an 8"x8"x2" baking pan.

In a small bowl, combine chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts (if desired), and cinnamon; set aside.In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and egg with an electric mixer until fluffy (I use a hand held mixer).

Add bananas, yogurt, and milk, and mix well. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt just until blended.Spread slightly more than half of the batter in the pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon streusel. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the streusel and then top with the rest of the streusel. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ok, well I discovered that the teen has eaten all the choc chips. That explains her 'unexplainable' eczema! So I adapted a bit. I made the cake batter as directed but put a 'crumble' on top made with butter, rolled oats, honey and cinnamon. It tasted incredible! I give this simple cake 10/10!

1 comment:

karenmc said...

I made a banana cake today, but I'm sure we would have preferred a Monkey Cake! Yum!