Banana Cake

Ok, this is for you Ty. Or should I say Laura, since you will most likely be the one to actually prepare the cake...while Ty will most likely be the one to *eat* the cake.

We made this cake when Ty came to play work here last week. Although it was only two days, we had a blast with him here and it was yet another reminder of how far away they are. Boo hiss! :( Anyway, he LOVED the cake so I thought I'd share. It is one of those cakes that starts with a box mix so it is sooo easy and sooo good! Seriously the way everyone carried on about it, you would have thought I had slaved in the kitchen all day! Not the case at all. So here goes!



Banana Cake

1 package (18 1/4 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ripe medium-size bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan (or 2 - 9 inch cake pans) with shortening, and dust with flour. Shake out excess flour. (I used Pam cooking spray)

Place cake mix, brown sugar and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add mashed bananas, 1 cup water, oil, eggs and, if desired, liqueur. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed 1 minute. Stop mixer and scrape down side of bowl with rubber spatula. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed until well blended, scraping side again if needed. Pour into prepared pan(s), and place on center rack of oven.

Bake until top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes (for the 2 cake pans, I'd start checking them at about 20 minutes and increase the time from there. I think I cooked for 30 minutes and they were a tad bit overdone for my taste). Remove from oven, and cool on a wire rack.


Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons ( 1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
2ish cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 t. banana extract
1/2 t. vanilla extract (if you can't find banana, you can just use 1 full teaspoon of vanilla)

Place cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Add confectioners' sugar a bit at a time, and blend on low speed until well incorporated, 1 minute. Add flavoring, and blend at medium speed until fluffy, 1 minute more.

Use at once to frost top of cake.

*I also topped the cake with chopped walnuts, but that was only for looks. I kept it in the fridge also, only because I am only on a cold cake kick right now. Cold cake with cold milk = heaven.

(the cake was gone before I got a picture of it; it only lasted 2 days! So I swiped one from google. It looks amazingly similar!)

Grilled Jerk Shrimp over Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Black Eyed Pea Salsa and Chipotle Sour Cream

Yesterday I took the kids to a friends house to swim. We got home around 2:30 and I put Eden down for a nap. Jacob stayed behind at the friends house, so the only person awake in the house besides me was Parker. I turned on a movie for him in my bed and he was down to rest for a few hours.

So what to do with myself.....but cook!?? I have not been to the grocery store since BEFORE we left for San Diego (which was on June 4th!!) besides once just to pick up some lunch meat, bread and milk. So basically I had NOTHING in the house. But I really wanted to cook!

I opened the pantry, the fridge, the freezer to search for anything I may have that I could make a decent meal out of. I had 2 bags of frozen shrimp. Ok, I can work with that. I had 3 large sweet potatoes in the fruit basket that I had bought before I left that we never used. They weren't sprouting yet, so they'll do too. I also had lots of frozen veggies. But what the heck do you make with shrimp and sweet potatoes and some random bags of frozen veggies?

My first thought was a chowder. I knew I had some frozen corn, chicken broth and some skim milk, so I could do something with that. But really, who wants chowder when it's 100 degrees out?

Then I thought I would put together a marinade for the shrimp, grill them and make sweet potato fries (which my family LOVES). But then that wouldn't solve my boredom and desire to cook.....so I started brainstorming...and here's what I came up with.

Grilled Jerk Shrimp over Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Black Eyed Pea Salsa and Chipotle Sour Cream

Jerk Seasoning

1 T. dried minced onion
1 T. onion powder
1 T. garlic powder
4 t. dried thyme leaves
2 t. salt
2 t. ground allspice
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
2 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. ground chipotle chile powder
1/2 t. cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients and blend well. Store in a covered container.

Grilled Jerk Shrimp

2 lbs. large shrimp (fresh or frozen), peeled and de-veined with tails on
4 T. jerk seasoning
4 T. vegetable oil
Wooden skewers, soaked on water for one hour prior to grilling.

Combine jerk seasoning and oil. Rub onto shrimp and refrigerate for one hour. Thread shrimp onto skewers. Grill on medium heat just until shrimp turns pink; do not overcook!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

3 large sweet potatoes
Yogurt butter (or regular if you prefer)
Skim Milk
Salt and Pepper

Peel and chunk sweet potatoes. Add to a pot of salted, boiling water and boil until you can pierce with a fork. Drain and return to pot. Add a few splashes of milk and a scoop of butter. Mash with potato masher (I don't like beaters for mashed potatoes...I like them a little bit chunky). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Black Eyed Pea Salsa

1 small bag frozen black eyed peas (or you could used 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
1/4 C. frozen mirepiox (this is all I had in the house. You could just do a couple T. each of diced onion and diced green pepper)
3 T. diced pickled jalapenos and a few whole sliced ones tossed in.
1 T. pure maple syrup
1/2 t. dried thyme
2 T. white vinegar
1 T. vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Add black eyed peas to a pot of water. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer for 40 minutes. Drain and cool. In a bowl, toss all ingredients. Refrigerate for several hours in advance to allow flavors to blend.

Then finally for the chipolte sour cream, I just added some chipolte Tabasco to some light sour cream. Put in in a squirt bottle and drizzled it over the top.



So how was the creation? Pretty good! The shrimp were pretty darn spicy so next time I would either cut down the cayenne pepper to 1/4 t. or just simply add cilantro to the top to cool it down. Or just maybe plain sour cream as opposed to the spicier chipolte. But all in all I was proud of my creation and had a fun afternoon preparing it!

Bon Appetit!