ice cream flavoured cake

would be even better with ice cream.

But I was out of ice cream, which is why I made the cake. Well, that and I'd managed to make it around the sun one more time.

So, you've seen me make mint chocolate chip ice cream. Definitely one of my favourites. Last weekend was the time of year for cake, and so I made a mint chocolate chip cake. And since I have trained my offspring to be aware of food additives, he insisted that we make it without artificial colors or flavours. Which apparently meant I was not allowed to use mint extract either. Had to be mint-mint.

Okay.

I can do that.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

What you need:

• about 2 c mint
• 2/3 c milk
• 1/3 c butter
• 3/4 c sugar
• more mint (about 1 tbsp once it's all chopped)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla (which was allowed for some reason)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 generous cup of flour
• 1 c mini chocolate chips (they're in the other pictures)

What you gotta do:

Don't preheat your oven yet. We've got an extra step at the beginning here. Since I wasn't allowed to use a mint extract, even a non-artificial one, I had to make one of my own.

So, I took a step from the ice cream recipe. Trim and rinse the mint, and put it in a pot with the milk.

You will barely be able to see the milk under all the mint. Don't worry, it's still there. And the mint will cook down like all leafy green things.

Bring this just barely to a simmer, stir it, cover it, and leave it alone for about half an hour.

Set the butter and egg on the counter to warm up to room temperature while the mint milk is steeping.

Once you've strained and squeezed the mint out, the milk will be just barely green.

Not quite green enough to colour a cake. Which is where the other bit of mint comes in. Chiffonade and then cut that up a bit more.

Cream the butter, sugar, and minced mint together.

I was hoping that creaming the mint in with the sugar would mash it up a bit more and spread it around (using the coarseness of the sugar to macerate it) but that didn't quite go as I'd hoped. Oh well.

Add the egg and vanilla to your speckled butter.

Now, we do the three bowl method for the cake. In the big bowl, the creamed butter mixture. In a smaller bowl (the one I started in and then decided was too small) the flour, salt, and baking powder. And in a bowl shaped like a measuring cup, the mint milk.

First, we add about 1/3 of the flour to the creamed butter. Mix this in well.

Now, about half the milk. Also mix in well.

And then about half of what remains of the flour. Mix again.

And the rest of the milk. Mix!

And finally the last of the flour. Don't mix. Kidding! Mix it.

Oh. Um. You should have preheated the oven just before the mixing started.

Now, the chocolate chips. The Boy insisted on chips rather than chopped chocolate. And he was calling the shots with this one; I guess that's his version of making me a cake.  

Butter and flour a cake pan. I had a 9 inch pan, which turns out was too big. You'll see why in a minute. If you have an 8 inch round pan, or an 8 inch square pan that would work fine. I'm going to use the 8 inch square pan next time.

You can also line the pan with a bit of parchment paper.

I would show you how to cut a round piece, but I know I'm going to need a tip to post in a few weeks during midterms and I think that sounds like a good one. Until then, you can leave the parchment out if you'd like.

Bake the cake at 350 for about 30 minutes. You can test after 25 if you'd like but mine took almost exactly 30. Let it cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, and then on a rack until it's room temp.

You see that flat bit in the middle?

That's what I mean about the wrong pan size. There wasn't enough leavening in the mixture to keep everything together enough to lift that far from the edge. Another egg, or a bit more baking powder would work. Or, I could use a smaller pan so I don't have to go messing with recipe proportions.

But, it was still cooked through, and it smelled minty. Tasted minty too, but it wasn't as green as The Boy was hoping. Still, he was glad it didn't have fake colour in it. I doubt I could convince him to use spinach juice though, like Taneasha did with her colourful cookies.

There are definitely flecks of green in there though.

This is a very moist moist cake, with a crumbly, delicate crumb. And the texture kinda reminded me of those "snack cakes" that my mom used to make from a box in the 80s. Quick cakes, never frosted, and always done in a square pan. So, I skipped the frosting step on this one.

A bit of vanilla ice cream on the side would have been nice though.

why are there still bananas in my freezer?

I just made them into cookies!

 

I've been looking for something to do with the bananas in my freezer for a while now. No, not banana bread. That's too obvious. And not muffins either. That's just banana bread in a different form. I wanted to make them into cookies. Plus, the spoiled kids at work have been tugging at my apron strings begging for cookies.

Banana Cakies

(because although they look like cookies, they're super soft and cakey)

What you need:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 bananas
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 ½ cups almond flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp cloves

What you gotta do:

Take the bananas out of the freezer. You can thaw them quickly in a bowl of warm water. In fact, you can even let them thaw while you do the next couple steps.

Cream the butter and sugar (I totally suggest replacing some or all of the white sugar with brown, I just didn't have any), and beat in the eggs and the vanilla.

In another bowl, mix together the flours, spices, salt and soda.

In a third bowl, mash your previously frozen bananas.

Taneasha and I have been discussing food that is not photogenic, and I'm thinking bananas need to go on the list. Her stuffed shells are winning at the moment though. I think they look awesome, like little brains. She thinks this is not a good thing. *shrug*

So, I was winging it with this recipe, and realized I had three bowls of stuff: a creamed butter, a bunch of dry, and a bunch of wet. This is a pretty common set up when making a cake. What the hell, lets make these cookies as if they were cakes.

Start by adding about 1/3 of the dry stuff to the creamed mixture. Stir it in completely.

Now, add 1/2 of the wet stuff (the bananamash), and stir it in completley.

Next third of the dry, the rest of the wet, then the last of the dry. Mix well after each.

If you want to fold in some chocolate chips here, I won't call you crazy.

You'll have a very soft and fluffy cookie dough. I do think it's mostly soft enough that you could spread this into a pan and make something cake-like; it's definitely thicker than your average cake batter, but it's also much softer than a typical cookie dough.

And I really wanted to make this into cookies. So I put it in the fridge.

An hour in the fridge can do wonders for cookie dough. It also gives your oven tons of time to heat up to 350.

Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Leave lots of room between them!

Bake them for about 14 minutes.

The dough spreads a lot, but the cookies maintain a nice puffy shape.

 They'll be super soft when they first come out of the oven, so give them a minute on the pan to cool off. Let them cool completley on a rack, but don't try stacking them. They're too soft and the tops and bottoms will stick together.

These things are perfect little mini cakes. Like the tops of cupcakes, just waiting to be frosted.

They are quite tasty on their own though, with a good bite of spice that makes them perfect to go with a cup of dark roast coffee.

The only problem is that tonight, as I was rooting through the freezer looking for dinner, I found more bananas. I think they're multiplying in there.

What's taking over your freezer??