An afternoon in the Kitchen.

Yukon was ready for cake. He stayed close by in case I dropped anything.

So in less then a month my nephew turns 1. I get the honor of baking his cake. So today I practiced. Its a monkey themed birthday, so I found a recipe for a banana cake. See the full thing here.  I also made two buttercreams. One vanilla and one chocolate. Both really yummy. Probably ate too much as I iced the cake. But I couldn't resist.

Mise en Place. Getting everything ready.

Have I mentioned how much I am excited about our new found counter space. I rearranged out kitchen last week and gained tons more room to work with. If you have spent anytime with me, and if the topic of bananas have come up then you know I am not the biggest fan. (Although I did enjoy them in Uganda this summer.) But I do enjoy banana bread so banana cake intrigued me.

 

 The batter after the bananas were mixed in. Its an alternating recipe which means you add dry then wet, till all is incorporated. 

 

So part of the recipe was to fold in whipped egg white. Seeing as the batter was in our kitchenaid and we have no electric mixer. I took a stab at it with good old elbow grease. Took a bit of time but they stiffened up to make peaks.

So while the cake was in the oven I went to work on the buttercreams. Starting with soft butter, of course.

Chocolate. This is light with a calm chocolate flavor. I found the recipe on the blog Mommy in the Baking. It is really easy and turns our irresistible.

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

 Directions

Mix together all ingredients. May need to add more milk (slowly) until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. Pipe on to cupcakes or cookies.

 The cake out of the oven and looking golden. It may have been in a tad too long but I don't think that will hurt it at all.

The final product. It was my first time piping monkeys. Overall I think it turned out well. I will have a totally different look in a round cake. With that I want to pipe monkeys on the side around the cake. You will have to check back after the 10th of October.