Strawberry Summer Cake

My friend asked me to dinner while I was in Oklahoma City visiting this past week and I offered to bring dessert. Obviously. But, I was at my mom’s house and she is definitely not a baker. I have to check her pantry sometimes to see if she has baking soda or even flour. More than once she hasn’t had those things…. So I wanted a very simple recipe with just a few ingredients so I didn’t have to grab too many things at the store. I went to my favorite bloggers' website (www.foodblogsearch.com) and typed “summer” into the search box and this recipe came up. I was pretty sure it would be a hit because I have never made anything from Smitten Kitchen’s blog that wasn’t amazing! I was right. I ended up making 2 since they were so simple and one went to my friend’s and one stayed at the house. Both were gone by the end of the night!!

 

I served this with freshly whipped cream, but I'm confident it would be delicious on it's own. Or with ice cream. Whatever floats your boat :) I am going to try this with other fruits soon because I have a sneaking suspicion it would be delicious with other types of berries as well! Maybe strawberries and blueberries for July 4th!!

 

Strawberry Summer Cake

Recipe from www.smittenkitchen.com 

 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pan
 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
 1/2 teaspoon table salt
 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
 1 large egg
 1/2 cup whole milk
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan or a 9-inch round cake pan (what I used).

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer (though I had to overlap a few to get them all in). Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.) Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges. Serve with lightly whipped cream.

Symphony Brownies

This is not my picture. I couldn't get mine to rotate after uploading it!! This recipe used an almond toffee candy bar instead of milk chocolate.... so ignore the nuts ;)

Sometimes you just can't beat a Paula Deen recipe. Years ago my little sister made some brownies she saw Paula Deen make on the Food Network and I just remembered when she made them I thought they were the most insaley chocolate-y things I'd ever eaten. I don't crave chocolate that often, so when I do I go all out. I do blame my friend Sarah for this one because she MADE me eat a chocolate parfait from Whole Foods while I was visiting her in Austin this weekend!! She didn't really make me, but it makes me feel better about myself if I blame my chocolate binge on someone else ;-)  Anyway, I searched the web yesterday for the recipe, found it, made it, LOVED it! It's super easy and super delicious. Enjoy!!



Paula's recipe used the Symphony bar with almonds and toffee, but
since I'm allergic to almonds I used milk chocolate :)

This was the largest size mix I could find that wasn't dark chocolate.
The recipe calls for a 20 oz. mix.

 

 

Symphony Brownies

Yield: 24 small brownies (or 12 large)
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 40 min

Ingredients:

1 (appx. 20-ounce) package (family-sized) boxed brownie mix
2 King-sized Symphony brand candy bars

Directions:

1. Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions.

2. Generously grease a 8x8-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon in half of the brownie batter and smooth with a spatula. Place the 2 candy bars on the batter so they cover the surface of the brownie batter. Cover with remaining batter.

3. Bake according to package directions (mine took 42 minutes). Let cool completely, then devour!!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

For the last two weeks I have been 75% successful at eating "clean" and healthy.  I had a few bad days in there, but I'm starting again tomorrow. My mom made these when I was at her house in Oklahoma 2 weeks ago and they. are. great. These cookies have only THREE ingredients: ripe bananas, quick oats and chocolate chips. These are a healthy way to satisfy your sweet tooth and chocolate craving!

I bought barely yellow bananas and let them sit wrapped in a paper bag for 4 days to get them the color below. The riper the banana, the sweeter the cookie. Since these cookies have no sugar, the banana sweetens them. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you could certainly use dark chocolate if you prefer. You must use quick oats. I tried this recipe the first time with regular oats and it was a complete failure.

These are the nutrition facts for 1 cookie, if you make 20 out of the recipe (which is what I got). 

Calories: 56
Fat: 2g
Carbs: 9.5g
Protein: 0.6g

 

 

 

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Yields: 20 cookies

 



Ingredients

2 large bananas, ripe, dark and speckled
1 cup quick oats
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mash the bananas into a thick paste.

Stir in the quick oats and chocolate chips.

Drop dough (2 T. per cookie) onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes then enjoy.

NOTE: I like them best cold, so pop them in the fridge for 15-20!! They taste like chocolate chip banana bread when they come out of the fridge.

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

Have you ever seen Sally's Baking Addiction website? It's AH-MAZING!! She is a genius. Everything I've made from her blog is delicious! Try these monster cookies! I saw a cupcake recipe on Sally's blog and since I'm barely into the 5 pound can of peanut butter I got from Sam's Club I decided to keep using it up... and this is what happened:

Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

Brownie Bites

 

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup all-purpose flour.

 

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray mini muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

 

2.  Melt butter in the microwave in a large microwave safe bowl. Mix in the sugar until smooth and microwave for about 1 minute. Stir the mixture until smooth again. Whisk in the vanilla and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together the salt, baking powder, cocoa powder, and flour. Slowly add to the wet ingredients and stir until completely combined.

 

3.  Place 1 tablespoon brownie mixture into muffin tins. Bake in the prepared muffin tin for about 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

 

Peanut Butter Frosting

 

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup confectioners sugar

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup heavy cream

1.  In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or an electric handheld mixer), add the peanut butter, confectioners sugar, butter, vanilla and salt. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy and smooth. Slowly add the cream and beat on very high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Spread on cooled cupakes and top with sprinkles (optional).

Boozy banana bread

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (I used dark rum)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl mix butter into the mashed bananas. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then the spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Gently stir in the flour until just combined. Pour mixture into a well-buttered 9×5 inch loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.