Goji Berry & Walnut Muffins

Sorry guys, I am a tad busy this week and slightly caked-out (gasp!). All I can offer this week are muffins. It’s not to say that these muffins aren’t good.

For goodness sake, their packed full goji berries and walnuts. I have been so busy lately, that I literally don’t have time to eat anything. I keep telling myself to pack a lunch, and then I stare into the fridge and nothing seems appealing.

I finally decided that I would bake muffins that I could just pop into my purse along with a couple of tea bags. I know what you’re thinking. A muffin Gigi? Muffins are bad for you.

These muffins do have some redeeming value. What could it be? The goji berries of course! Goji berries are dried red berries that look similar to cranberries. They have been used for thousands of years for their “healing” properties. They are packed full of antioxidants, help eyesight, protect the liver, and boost immune function. How could you not like this muffin? Right?

Go ahead and bake yourself some super muffins! In addition, goji berries are available at organic supermarkets and specialty food stores. These particular berries where given to me by Katie. Thanks Katie!

Goji Berry Walnut Muffins
Adapted from The Essential Baker
Makes 12

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups of AP flour
2/3 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
Pinch of nutmeg

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
4 ounces of melted unsalted butter, cooled
2 extra large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla

Mix in:
½ cup of goji berries
½ cup of walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with baking papers.

In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside. In a medium bowl whisk together all the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to dry and using a large spoon just mix until incorporated. Do not over mix muffins, there will be lumps. Gently fold in the goji berries and walnuts. Divide the batter among the muffin pan and bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.

Carrot Cake

First off, I would like to apologize for the poor quality of the photo. The last couple of cakes, I have photographed in other people’s homes and …well, my mini fake studio was not available. This particular cake was for my friend Lucy’s birthday.

She had requested a carrot cake, a four-layer carrot cake, to be exact. Last week she came over, went through all my baking books, and finally settled on …Melissa Murphy’s Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting.

I also made her a batch of carrot cupcakes (halved the recipe) for any children that were present at the party. The batter seemed a little dense as I made it and I was worried it would turn out a dry cake. When the cakes came out of the oven, they were tall and fluffy. (Whew!) The cream cheese frosting was marvelous. The orange zest really made the icing special.

Once the cake was cut, I was even more pleased at the moist and tender crumb the cake had. (Whew!) I had never made this recipe before, and I usually do a practice cake on new recipes, especially if they are for a party. This was not the case this time around. With my busy schedule and my birthday all falling on the same week as hers, I just ran out time. I was so thrilled that it tasted delicious and that the birthday girl was pleased as well.

Carrot Cake With Fresh Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
From The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy

For the cake:
2 cups of AP Flour
1 ½ tablespoons of cinnamon
¾ teaspoon of baking soda
¼ teaspoon of baking powder
4 large eggs
¾ cup of canola oil
2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 pound freshly grated carrots
¾ cup of walnut pieces

For the frosting:
12 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
2 ½ cups of powdered sugar
Zest of one orange
½ pound of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Butter and flour two 8x2-inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper, set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs on high speed until light and fluffy. Decrease the speed to medium and add the oil, sugar, and salt. Mix to combine. Decrease the speed to low and gradually add the flour.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the carrots and walnuts with a rubber spatula.

Divide the batter evenly among the pans. Spin the pans to level the batter. Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes before removing from pans to cool completely.

Frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together cream cheese, sugar, and zest. Start on low speed and then gradually increase speed to med-high and beat until smooth and fluffy.

On medium speed add the butter and mix until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. Do not over beat.

Tiger Cake

I went back and forth, back and forth and finally decided that I would share this little bit of personal info. Today is my birthday. No big hoopla or party. Just dinner, cake, and friends.

I was also going back and forth, about what type of cake I wanted. I could not decide between yellow and chocolate, almost annoyingly indecisive. Go ahead ask Katie, every time we exchanged e-mails I changed the flavor of the cake.

I went through my binder of "must try recipes" and came across “Tiger Cake”. A yellow and chocolate swirled cake! It was like an “a-ha moment”. Immediately all the stress of finding the perfect birthday cake dissipated.

The “Tiger Cake” is from Alice Medrich’s book Bittersweet. Putting the cake together was very easy! Seriously ...easy peasy. It did call for two odd ingredients 1) one cup of olive oil, 2) ½ teaspoon of white pepper. Oh man, was it hard not to change the recipe! In the end, I am so glad that I followed the recipe according to Medrich. The pepper adds just a bit of warmth but since I glazed the cake with a milk chocolate ganache, I doubt anyone will suspect the presence of pepper in the cake.

I am planning to serve the cake with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, a fanned strawberry, and an iced cappuccino. Hopefully everyone will enjoy the cake and maybe even manage to take home a slice.

It can’t wait to share cake with friends and loved ones. Even though I’ll be surrounded by loved ones, one person will still be missing …Katie. That is where the candied flowers come in. The flowers on top of the cake were a gift from her and I had been saving them for a special occasion. Even though she could not be here in person, (she lives on the other side of the pond) I know her “spirit” was here. Katie, than you for the friendship, flowers, and birthday gifts.

RECIPE: TIGER CAKE

Cheesecake Pops

The Daring Bakers are at it again, this time they are in the pop business. Cheesecake Pops that is. The recipe was chosen by Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell. This was a fun recipe, a little tedious, but worth it if you’re into cute desserts.

The recipe was easy to put together and easily halved. This is what I did. I used two 6-inch pans, one was a cake pan and the second pan was a spring form. The cheesecake in the spring form pan did not stick at all, not on the bottom or sides. Once I realized this, I shouted a loud woo-hoo!

The reason is, I am all for cheesecakes that are graham cracker free. Remember the cheesecake that I raved about? Well, this is it. See, I told you it was worth the wait. Most of you probably had the recipe in your hands the whole time (insert evil laugh)!

The cheesecake was excellent. I am definitely going to make this again as a large cheesecake. The cheesecake pops I made were dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with colorful non-perils. I found cute labels and used them as “flags” for the popsicles sticks. Since, I give away almost everything that I bake; I placed the pops on treat cups and took them to work to be enjoyed by all.

Cheesecake Pops
From Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

Five 8-ounce packages of cream cheese at room temperature.
2 cups of sugar
¼ cup of AP flour
¼ teaspoon of salt
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
¼ cup of heavy cream
Boiling water
Thirty to forty lollipop sticks
1 pound of assorted chocolate for dipping and decorating


Preheat the oven to 325F degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat (on low speed) together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. Add the whole eggs and then the yolks making sure to beat well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and heavy cream.

Lightly grease a 10-inch pan. Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan and place in a larger pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water until the water reaches half way up the sides of the cheesecake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and lightly browned on top, about 35-45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours.

When cold and firm scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Insert a lollipop into each of the balls and freeze uncovered 1-2 hours.

Prepare the dipping chocolate. Dip the cheesecake pops in your choice of chocolate and decorate with sprinkles. Store in the fridge until ready to use.

Cheesecake

Today all I am going to do is tempt with this photo. That’s right, no recipe. (Insert evil laugh.) Just trust me …it’s worth the wait. I know I am heartless baker. How dare I post a cheesecake with a tart cherry topping and no recipe? Did I mention this is a New York style cheesecake with no annoying bottom crust? Yeah, no graham crackers here baby!

The cheesecake before you is rich, creamy and has a hint of vanilla. Did I mention the missing graham cracker crust? I like my cheesecake sans the crust. I’m in it for the artery clogging, stroke inducing, and sugar high that is classic cheesecake.

I rarely have cheesecake because I would rather live a long and healthy life. Therefore, when I do make or have a slice of cheesecake, I don’t want or need graham crackers to detract from it.

So please just hang on for a couple more days and I’ll show you the light that is classic New York style cheesecake …sans the crust or “a la Gigi Cakes”.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

I was not going to post these cupcakes at first that is until Laurie of Quirky Cupcake convinced me to. You see, while I was waiting for the oven timer to go off, I decided to browse the net. And as luck would have it, I discovered Laurie’s Black Bottom Cupcakes! I leave her a comment stating that mine are in the oven as “we speak”. Laurie leaves me a comment to make sure that I go ahead and post them anyway. So here I am, posting Laurie’s world famous Black Bottom Cupcakes courtesy of David Lebovitz.

This is the second time this has happened to me. Not too long ago Katie of Apple and Spice baked a batch of cookies that I was going to post. Because of these lovely bakers beating me to the oven, I am going to keep next week’s post top secret.

I have not even decided on what to bake yet. When I do decide, I will make sure to close the windows, pull down the blinds, and turn off the lights. I cannot have anyone getting a hint of what is in the oven.

Before I go, let me share this bit of info: these cupcakes are outrageous! Deep dark chocolate cake with a layer of cheesecake. Yes, cheesecake! There are also chunks of chocolate throughout the cake. Hello?! Can we say …death by chocolate cake with a smidgen of cheesecake heaven!

Grab the recipe here.

Fruit Financiers

I was going to tempt you with another “Sweet Melissa” recipe but I was unable to photograph it. Do not worry I will be baking it again very soon and photographs will be available.

One of things I really enjoy baking is individual desserts. I do not know if it’s the concept of receiving my very own dessert or the fact that it is a miniature version of a larger dessert. Whatever the reason I just love the individuality of a personal dessert.

I made these the other day for my friend Lucy. We meet once a week for coffee and I usually provide the dessert. She is one of my dear friends and I treasure the hour here and there that we can get together to catch up.

Back to the financiers for a moment, you can use just about any type of berry with the recipe. Heck even frozen, I used organic frozen raspberries this time around. The recipe also called for a half cup of almonds I only sprinkled a few. Again, my personal preference, but you can sprinkle as much you like. The financier is a magnificent blend of a cake and cookie. It also provides a great excuse to purchase tiny tart pans.

Fruit Financiers
From Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri

¾ cup of ground almonds
¾ cup of AP flour
¾ cup of sugar
¼ teaspoon of salt
Grated zest of one lemon
6 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon rum
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 large egg whites
1 pint raspberries
½ cup sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Butter and flour nine 4-inch tart pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the almonds, flour, sugar, lemon zest, and salt with the paddle until combined. Add the butter and continue beating for 2 minutes.

Beat the rum and vanilla into the egg whites, and then add to the butter/flour mixture in two additions beating for 2 minutes after each addition. (Scrape down the sides of the bowl as well.)

Fill each pan with ¼ cup of batter. Sprinkle with berries and almonds.

Bake for 35 minutes. Un-mold and serve plain or with whipped cream, fruit sauce or fruit compote.

Orange Scented Scones

Oh, I cannot tell you enough how much I am enjoying “The Sweet Melissa Baking Book”. This time around, I made the Orange Scented Scones. I just adore any baked goodie that I can have at breakfast. In my world, a naked cupcake counts as a muffin. However, these scones are just perfect for those lazy days that include the newspaper and an endless pot of coffee.

First off, the recipe makes only 6 scones, which is perfect for small families (example: Mr. Gigi Cakes & I). Second, I was intrigued at the addition of oat flour. I was worried that the scones would have an oatmeal taste to them but I was a worrywart for nothing. The scones were tender and flaky just like a well-baked biscuit. The hint of orange added a nice citrus note.

The recipe also has suggested fresh/dry fruit add-ins and how to adjust the liquids if using fresh fruit. I just love all the tips that are in the book. They are really helpful especially if one is baking something unfamiliar. Well, I’m off to drool over which recipe to bake next.

The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

Orange Scented Scones: Makes 6

8 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter
½ cup of oat flour
1 ½ cups of AP flour
2 teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of freshly grated orange zest
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 large egg

For the Glaze:
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of sugar

Place the rack in the center oven. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cut the cold butter into ½ inch pieces. Keep cold.

Place the oat flour in the bowl of a food processor. Add the AP flour, baking powder, salt, sugar , and zest, and pulse to combine. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse until the size of medium peas.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream and egg until smooth. Fold the flour into the egg mixture and combine. Don’t over mix.

Turn the dough out into a little floured surface and pat into 7-inch circle. Using a sharp knife cut the circle into 6 wedges (even triangles). Place them at least 2-inches apart on the cookie sheet.

Brush the scones with the heavy cream and then sprinkle the sugar on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove to a wire rack and cool.

Perfect Party Cake

It's that time of the month again. Daring Bakers every where are baking perfect party cakes. Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake to be exact. This months challenge was picked by Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts. And what a fantastic recipe! I have baked this particular cake a handful of times and I know I will be baking it many more times. Five more times to be precise. Yes, FIVE. I have 6 friends who have birthdays in April and 5 out of the 6 picked Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake as their birthday cake.

I was starting to panic. Not because the recipe is difficult, but what to do with all those leftover egg yolks! I finally settled on crème anglaise ice cream. A incredible ice cream recipe from Ina Garten. This will mean each of the birthday friends will receive a birthday cake and ice cream for their party.

As for the cake, I did not make many changes to the original recipe. The exceptions were the filling and not covering the top of the cake with coconut. I filled the cake with a homemade strawberry filling and then placed a large fanned strawberry on top.

If you would like to see more Perfect Party Cakes click here. If you would like to see the original recipe click here. The recipe for the strawberry filling is just below.

P.S. Unfortunately, I have to work today, so I cannot visit blogs until Monday morning. I promise I will visit and drool over all the perfectly baked party cakes!

STRAWBERRY FILLING:

1 pound of clean and hulled strawberries; quartered
½ cup of sugar
2 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch
The juice of half a lemon



1. Place the strawberries, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the strawberries burst and start to look like jam. Remove from heat and squeeze half a lemon. Cool completely to room temperature.

2. Put the strawberries in a food processor and pulse until small pieces of strawberry remain. It should look like a thick puree with an occasional piece of berry.

3. Move strawberry filling to a bowl and cover. Refrigerate a couple of hours. Fill cake once filling is cooled.

Chocolate Malted Layer Cake

I cannot tell you how many malted milk chocolate cakes I have made in my lifetime. Too many. The problem seems to be that most recipes call for crushed “Whoppers”. Which is okay, but the malted milk flavor seems to get lost during the baking. The recipes then try to redeem themselves by adding more “Whoppers” in the frosting. That only results in a cake looking bumpy and unappetizing. Until now.

The cake before you is from “The Sweet Melissa Baking Book” written by Melissa Murphy. The Chocolate Malted Layer Cake …oh does it live up to its name. It has a whole cup of malted milk powder in the frosting. I could have ate the icing with a spoon and then died utterly content. The cake is moist, tender and absolutely chocolate-y. Paired together, it has a too die for combination.

There are a myriad of recipes in the book that I want try. So many recipes, so little post-its. Yes, the book is under attack by post-its. Almost every single recipe has a post-it on it to remind me “I must try this soon”.

There are over a 100 recipes in the book! The book is divided into six chapters: dessert for breakfast, after school snacks, birthday, and gifts and so on. The recipes are written in a manner that allows one to “set-up” their “mise en place”. Melissa even offers “pro-tips” which I found extremely helpful. Simply a great book packed full of recipes and tips that can only lead to stunning delicious desserts.

I cannot wait to try more of the recipes out. For example, Orange Scented Scones, Bee Stings, Pistachio Linzer Thumbprints, Lemon Icebox Cake, and Pistachio Opera Fudge. Are just a couple of the recipes at the top of my list.









FOR THE CAKE:
6 ounces best-quality unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup canola oil
2 & 2/3 cups sugar
1 & 2/3 cups AP flour
1/3 cup of unsweetened dutch cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon of kosher salt
2/3 cup of sour cream
3 large eggs
1 & 1/3 cups of hot fresh brewed coffee


FOR THE CHOCOLATE MALTED FROSTING:
1 pound best quality milk chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup malted milk powder
¼ cup light corn syrup
8 tablespoons of butter, at room temp.
8 ounces of malted milk balls

Position the rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Butter and flour two 9x2-inch cake rounds (I used two 5x2-inch pans and halved the recipe). Line each pan with parchment paper.

1. In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. When the chocolate is melted whisk in the oil until smooth. Remove from the heat and keep warm over the water.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.

3. In a small bowl whisk together the eggs and the sour cream smooth.

4. Add the egg mixture to the flour and mix until well combined, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the melted chocolate and mix well. Add the hot coffee in a steady stream until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl (the batter is thin).

5. Divide the batter evenly among the pans. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool for 25 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and cool completely on the wire racks.

FROSTING:

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a medium bowl.

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat bring the heavy cream to a simmer. Whisk in the malted milk powder to combine. Pour over the chocolate. Do not stir. Wait five minutes, and then whisk chocolate until creamy. Stir in the corn syrup. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the chocolate and let cool to room temperature.

3. When the chocolate is cooled, place it in the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter one tablespoon at a time and mix on low until smooth.

4. The icing is the filling and frosting for this cake. I chose to cut my cake into four layers and placed a small amount of icing in between each layer. I stored the cake in the fridge.

Apple Raisin Muffins

Have you ever wanted to bake something and didn’t have all the ingredients? Did you go ahead with substitutions and hoped it would come out? That’s where I found myself last night.

I wanted to have a muffin for breakfast, a raisin muffin, to be exact. I searched through all my cookbooks and I did find recipes. But the ingredients were another story. My next step was the internet, where I found a recipe that was simple, yet I was still missing some the ingredients. I crossed my fingers and hoped that all the substitutions would yield me an edible muffin.

What I got was a large humble muffin, whose taste surpasses any of those overpriced dry muffins available at coffee houses. Oh, is this muffin soft and so good. The recipe originally called for 12 muffins, but I wanted big breakfast muffins, so I used a Texas muffin pan. I still cannot believe how well the muffins turned out. I guess if a recipe is well written substitutions will still yield one a good result.

If find yourself wanting a muffin but lack all the appropriate ingredients feel free to change out the wheat flour, half & half, apple, raisins and whatever else you don’t have. I did and it worked out just fine. The original recipe can be found here in case your are interested.


Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
½ cup of sugar
1 large tart apple, peeled & thinly sliced
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup of raisins
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of salt
½ cup of melted butter
¼ cup of fat-free half and half
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees and line a Texas-size muffin pan with 6 muffin liners, set aside. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In a 2-cup measuring cup whisk together the melted butter, half and half, vanilla and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and combined until just moistened. Fold in the apples and then the raisins. Divide the batter among the liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

S'mores Cupcake

Hey, hey …it’s Cupcake Hero time! The ingredient for this month is marshmallow. Start baking your marshmallow-inspired cupcakes and send them over to Laurie at Quirky Cupcake. If you need more info, you can find it here.

For me, the ultimate marshmallow dessert is s’mores, but this Cupcake Hero folks. And in order to participate, my s’mores would have to transform themselves into cupcakes.

I found a recipe for a delicate graham cracker cake and one for homemade marshmallow icing. The cake absolutely tastes like a graham cracker, that’s because there is very little flour in the recipe. The cupcakes also don’t rise very much during baking so feel free to fill the liners ¾ full. I didn’t fill them up all they way and they barely reached the top if the liner.

The cupcakes were really good plain, yep plain. I can totally see myself eating them plain with coffee in the morning.

If you decide, “plain” is not your style, then add marshmallow icing and a drizzle of melted chocolate on top. And hold on to your taste buds, because these will be the best s‘mores you‘ve ever had. I can totally envision a s’mores cake in the future. I know you’re dying for the recipes so here they are:

King Arthur's Homemade Marshmallow Icing

For the cupcakes From Nabsico Graham Crackers
1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs
½ cup of flour
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
½ cup of butter, softened
¾ cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
¾ cup of milk

In a small bowl combine the crumbs, flour and baking powder; set aside.

Beat the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla.

Alternately add flour mixture with milk, beating well after each addition. Divide the batter into two muffin tins lined with 16 cupcake liners total.

Bake at 350F degrees for 22-25 minutes or until done. Cool in pans for 15 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Banana Dulce De Leche Cake

You didn’t think I would have a BBQ party without serving dessert? Of course, I served dessert. After everyone ate their burgers on freshly made hamburger buns, I brought out a banana cake filled with dulce de leche and iced with a mascarpone frosting. I served the cake with iced coffee because lately it’s been very warm here in Southern California. Everyone enjoyed the cake especially the icing. I was a little worried that my guests would think that the mascarpone icing would be a little too tangy. As it turned out my worries were unfounded.

The cake is a rich banana cake made tender by the sour cream in the batter. The original recipe calls for a banana filling as well, but I decided against that. I had a jar of dulce de leche left over from my last vacation in Mexico.

In Mexico, the best dulce de leche is from the state of Guanajuato. In addition, it is not called dulce de leche. Its proper name is cajeta and is packaged in little wooden boxes. You can have it made with goat’s milk, cow’s milk, or a mixture of both.

My grandmother (father’s side) is from Guanajuato and I have spent many summers there. At the local bakery, they had a toast that was extremely dry and it had a “cream cheese” spread on top. We used to buy the toast and then drizzle cajeta over it. Seriously … unbelievably good!

Well, I am going to have to wait until June to replenish my stash of dulce de leche and other goodies I purchase in Mexico. (Stef-I a put a post it in my passport so I remember to bring you dulce de leche.) Finally, the recipe.

Mascarpone Icing

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook
Makes one 9-inch layer cake
1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 2/3 cups of sugar
2 ¾ cups of all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of salt
3 very ripe bananas mashed
¼ cup of sour cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla
4 large eggs
¾ cup of dulce de leche (cajeta)

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Butter two 9-by-2-inch round pans; line the bottoms with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper and dust the pans with flour; tapping out the excess. Into a medium bowl sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a small bowl mash together the bananas, vanilla and sour cream; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment cream together the butter and sugar (medium speed) until fluffy and light. Scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly after each addition. With the mixer on low speed add the flour in two batches. Using a rubber spatula fold in the banana mixture.

Divide the batter among the pans evenly. Bake rotating the pans halfway through until cakes are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool 20 minutes. Invert cakes on to the racks and remove parchment paper. Reinvert cakes, and cool completely.

Once the cakes are cooled, spread the dulce de leche on one of the layers. Place the remaining layer on top and ice with the mascarpone icing. I had a little extra dulce de leche left in the jar and I drizzled that over the top of the cake.