Time for another English dessert! Banoffee pie. According to the internet, the inspiration for banoffee pie came from an American dessert, but the pie as we know it today was created in Sussex. Apparently when the US heard wind of this incredible pie, we began serving it in our restaurants and selling it in grocery stores, and we said it was an American pie. Hah! Silly, America. We lost that argument, but I can absolutely see why we'd want to take credit for this pie. It's delicious. If banana pudding was made into a pie and doused in caramel, I imagine it would taste something like banoffee pie. (banoffee=banana + toffee)

The recipe I used has a few ingredients that aren't so easy to find in American grocery stores. As I've mentioned, I'm still upset about our lack of "double cream" over here in the US, but heavy whipping cream will work instead. You can tell in the top picture how the double cream produces an almost meringue-like sheen. Amazing. If anyone knows where I can find this in the US please let me know.

Digestives are available at some US grocery stores, but if you can't find them, plain graham crackers will do. Digestives taste to me like a less flavorful mix between Biscoff cookies and graham crackers. I realize that doesn't sound appetizing, but I enjoy them. The use of store-bought dulce de leche instead of homemade will save you time and trouble. I have no idea why it is necessary to add more butter and brown sugar to the dulce de leche (aka caramel) in this recipe, but I don't ask questions when I know the results will be incredibly delicious. Is this pie good for you? No. Is it incredible and simple? Yes. Cheers to you and your delicious Banoffee Pie, Britain!

Banoffee Pie
Recipe from The Guardian (adapted slightly for substitutions)
 

Base
225g (8oz) digestive biscuits
100g (3.5oz) pecans
125g (1 stick/8 tbs) salted butter, melted

Filling
125g (1 stick/8 tbs) salted butter, diced
100g soft brown sugar
400g dulce de leche or caramel
½ tsp salt

Topping
60g (2 oz) pecans*
15g (3tbs) icing sugar or confectioners sugar
4-5 ripe bananas
Squeeze of lemon juice
275ml (1 1/4 cups)  double cream or heavy whipping cream
¼ tsp coffee granules

*Note: I skipped the addition of candied pecans on top for lack of time, but I recommend adding them if you have a few minutes to spare. I think they'd make this recipe even more delicious.

Pulse the biscuits to crumbs in a food processor until finely crumbled. Stir together biscuit crumbs, roughly chopped pecans and melted butter until completely blended. Press the mixture into a 23cm (10-inch) loose-bottomed tart tin/springform pan to line the base and sides. Chill while you make the filling.

Melt the butter and sugar together in a pan, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the dulce de leche and the salt and bring to the boil, stirring constantly until smooth. Pour over the base, and chill for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F), line a baking tray and rinse and drain the pecans. Put into a bowl and sprinkle with the icing sugar, then spread out on to the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, shaking occasionally. Allow to cool. (The pie can be made up to this point up to 48 hours in advance.)
Thinly slice the bananas and toss with the lemon juice. Arrange on top of the cooled caramel in concentric circles.

Whip the cream and the coffee granules into soft peaks and spread on top of the bananas. Arrange the candied pecans on top and serve.

 

The few days leading up to Christmas are always a baking marathon for me. By the time Christmas finally gets here I'm just about sugared out. It's that time when you start thinking about eating more dessert and feel slightly nauseous. Do I keep eating desserts anyways? Yes. But I think twice before grabbing that last cookie, and it takes a lot of sweets to get me to that point. 

I wanted something easy to prepare for Christmas dessert with my family. I go to my grandparents house for lunch on Christmas so that leaves about four hours of cooking before the other side of the family comes over for Christmas dinner. Basically I need to prepare Christmas dessert early so I can leave those four hours for cooking for the 15 people arriving at 7pm. This meringue was just the trick. It's beautiful and easy, and it's supposed to be made ahead of time. It needs to be assembled the day/night before, but it's nothing too tricky. The original recipe says it serves 8-10, but I've changed that to 10-12, and as I said, I served 15 with a bit left over.

My only complaint is that it's nearly impossible to cut a pretty slice of meringue cake. Maybe I was just doing it wrong, but the second I started cutting it I immediately decided I would need to make meringue parfaits because the slices were going to look like a mess. By the second or third slice it got slightly better, but I'm just warning you about that in advance. If the cake isn't cutting well, make them into meringue parfaits. In the words of Donkey from Shrek, "Parfaits gotta be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet!"...True words, Donkey.  

Enjoy!

Chocolate Meringue Cake
Recipe from Heat Oven to 350

Ingredients

• 6 large egg whites (about 1 cup)
• 2 cups sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• Chocolate shavings for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Draw two 8-inch rounds on one sheet of the parchment and one 8-inch round on the other.
2. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk, beat the egg whites with the salt at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the granulated sugar at high speed until stiff and shiny. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts and cocoa powder. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the melted chocolate down the side of the bowl and gently fold until the meringue is lightly marbled.
3. Spread the meringue in the drawn circles. Place in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 300 degrees and bake for 1 hours and 20 minutes, until crisp; rotatating the pans halfway through baking. Turn off the oven and leave the door ajar to let the meringues cool completely.
4. In the bowl of the standing mixer, beat the cream with the powdered sugar until firm. Remove the meringues from the parchment paper. Spread the whipped cream on the layers and stack them. Refrigerate or freeze the cake overnight. Cut into wedges (this is done easiest with a serrated knife when the cake is frozen or very cold) and serve cold, but not frozen. Garnish with chocolate shavings before serving.

Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 1 hour 20 min Serves: 10-12

Cookie cake reminds me of elementary school when every birthday was an all out celebration. That's my style. Someone's parent would send them to school with a cookie cake. The teacher would cut it into a million tiny pieces. You'd hope you got the piece with a small portion of the balloon made out of icing. No one wanted the plain cookie square. Ah, those were the days. As I get older I've realized people place less importance on birthdays. Gone are the days of cookie cakes. How depressing!

So what's a grown up cookie cake? This right here. You don't even need a birthday for it. This is one of my all time favorite recipes. It's three layers of wonderful. The first layer is a delicious cookie, the second is rich ganache, and the third is cold, sweet whipped cream. It's also a simple recipe despite the three parts. It may take a little extra time to allow the layers to cool, but it's definitely worth it. I've yet to meet a person who didn't love it!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cream Tart
Elinor Klivans' The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook 
Mixing time: 20 minutes for crust, filling, and topping
Baking: 350 F for about 17 minutes

Crust
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces ) semisweet chocolate chips
Filling

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2/3 cup (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Crust
Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a 10-inch springform pan.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smoothly blended. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until blended, about 1 minute. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until it is incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Use your fingers to spread the dough evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake just until the top begins to turn golden but the center is still soft, about 17 minutes. Cool the crust in the pan on a wire rack.

Filling
In a medium saucepan, heat the cream and butter over low heat until the cream is hot and the butter melts. The mixture should form tiny bubbles and measure about 175 F on an instant read thermometer. Do not let the mixture boil. Remove pan from heat, add chocolate chips and let mixture sit for 30 seconds to let chips soften. Whisk chocolate together smoothly and add vanilla. Let the mixture cool and thicken at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Spread sauce over crust leaving a 1-inch edge uncovered, refrigerate for about 30 minutes to firm the filling.

Topping
In a large bowl beat cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until firm peaks form. Spread the whipped cream over the chocolate filling, mounding it slightly in the center. Serve or cover carefully and refrigerate. Serve cold.

It's time to get serious here. This coconut cake is the BEST coconut cake that there is.

You may say, "Well it's not a real coconut cake recipe because it uses boxed cake mix." To that I respond: any cake that takes 48+ hours to make from beginning to end is homemade to me!

You also may think, "No thanks, coconut isn't for me." That means you fall into the category of the rest of my family. I made a coconut cake that I posted on here one other time and declared it amazing or something of the sort. Now I feel I just might as well delete that post. This is the one and only coconut cake recipe you will ever need. I have made it twice and served it to over 30 different people without having one person who didn't end up gushing over it.

I wouldn't have found the recipe if it weren't for my granddad. He likes to find recipes he thinks would be good and mark them for me. I must admit that I usually don't get around to them, especially when they are various sorts of fruitcakes. Sorry, granddad. But this one I thought I would give a try. It took me about two months to get around to it, but I made it a month or so ago to give my grandparents a little pick-me-up during a rough week for them. He ate two slices in the hour I visited. I think it made his month. Just one of the countless reasons baking is wonderful.

One more anecdote before I leave you to this amazing cake. My great aunt is 80+ years old. I made this cake for Christmas dessert as well, and after cleaning her plate she told me how her mom used to make coconut cake every Christmas for their family. Then she went on to say that, as good as that cake always was, she can't remember ever having a coconut cake that was this good.

Enjoy!

Coconut Cake
Recipe from Our State magazine

Filling
2 (8-ounce) cartons sour cream
2 cups sugar
1 (6-ounce) package frozen coconut, thawed

Mix above ingredients. Cover, and store in refrigerator for 24 hours

Cake
Prepare 2 layers using Duncan Hines Yellow Cake mix. When cool, divide the layers, making 4 layers. Stack, spreading filling on top of each later, including the top layer.

Frosting
1 pint heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
1 (6-ounce) package frozen coconut, thawed

In a small bowl (preferably a glass bowl that has been slightly chilled), beat the cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioner's sugar and beat until soft peaks form.

Frost sides and top with sweetened whipped cream. You may have extra, but there are a worse things than having extra whipped cream around the house. Sprinkle cake with coconut. Cover finished cake with foil, and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving. The filling will be liquidy, but that's ok. Once the cake has set in the fridge the filling will seep into the cake creating an incredibly moist yellow cake.

I'll go ahead and admit that I picked the easiest Thanksgiving day dessert possible. My family was coming at 1pm, and I headed to the grocery store to pick up ingredients at noon. Not bad, eh? Of course, there are a few roadblocks that one might run into when procrastinating this much. For instance, every grocery store within 10 minutes was out of heavy whipping cream. I bought Reddi-Whip, and no one noticed. My easy dessert, therefore, became even easier. 

I made a few changes to the recipe--mainly increasing the measurements for all of the unhealthy ingredients. Sorry. I've never been a huge pumpkin pie fan, so this is my solution. I make variations of it every year simply because I feel obligated to on Thanksgiving, but I've realized they are all just less healthy versions of the regular: pumpkin pie cheesecake, pumpkin pie parfaits, pecan cheesecake pumpkin pie, etc. 

This recipe says it makes four servings, but I served seven without a problem. It's incredibly rich, so even though you'll feel like the servings look a bit shallow, it'll be the right amount. Just layer on the whipped cream and gingersnaps to gain some extra height. If you're serving more than seven I'd suggest making extra. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Gingersnap Parfaits
Recipe adapted from The Gourmand Mom

Ingredients

• 1 15-ounce can Pure Pumpkin
• 8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp Ginger
• 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 20 Crushed Gingersnap Cookies + a few extra whole cookies for garnishing

Directions

Crush the gingersnap cookies. Beat together the pumpkin, cream cheese, brown sugar, and spices until evenly combined. In a separate bowl, beat together the heavy cream and sugar until thickened.

To assemble the parfaits, divide half of the pumpkin mixture into four (or in my case seven) cups. Sprinkle half of the gingersnap crumbs over the pumpkin. Spoon about half of the whipped cream over the gingersnaps in the four cups. Sprinkle with the remaining gingersnap crumbs. Spoon the remaining pumpkin over the gingersnap crumbs. Top with the remaining whipped cream. Garnish each parfait with a gingersnap cookie.

Serves 4-6

Is it odd that until a week ago I had never heard of or tried eclair cake (yes, those two need to be separated in my book because I have an awful memory)? I thought this was some new, brilliant concept, but after sharing the cake with friends I realized almost all of them had tried some form of eclair cake in their lives.

Well, basically now I know that this cake is still brilliant, but definitely not new. It's also incredibly easy to make. I think I've said that about pretty much all of my recent posts, but this is what happens when I don't have time to bake. The good news is, my birthday is Monday and I plan on making myself a dessert that's a bit more fancy. It's my 21st, so I'd say that's deserving of something good. Any suggestions?

For the eclair cake, I chose to make homemade chocolate icing instead of using store-bought . I didn't have any store-bought laying around anyways, so I figured mixing up a batch of this was just as easy. It was delicious. The graham crackers lose all of their crunch, but keep all of their flavor. What you end up with is a creamy, dreamy eclair-tasting cake. I wish I had taken prettier pictures, but as you can imagine eclair cake isn't the most photogenic of cakes. If you can stand to keep something this good in your fridge for 24 hours without touching it, you have to put this on your to-make list!

Chocolate Eclair Cake
Recipe from Baking Junkie

1 Box graham crackers (not all will be used)
2 large boxes (5.1 oz) vanilla instant pudding
2 ½ cups skim milk
16 oz reduced fat or fat free cool whip
1 container chocolate frosting

Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan with graham crackers. You will need to break some up to fit the edges. In a medium sized bowl combine pudding, milk and cool whip. Spread half the pudding mixture over the graham crackers. Cover with another layer of graham crackers, the remaining pudding mixture, and top with final layer of graham crackers. Remove aluminum top of frosting and place in microwave for 45-60 seconds, until it becomes melted and thin. Pour over top of cake. Refrigerate for 12 hours before serving.


Chocolate Frosting*
1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2/3 c sugar
5 oz evaporated milk
dash salt
1 t vanilla
Melt butter w/ chocolate in sauce pan – add sugar then milk and salt. Boil for 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool a bit then pour over Eclair Cake.

*If you choose to sub out the store bought variety.

As I sit here waiting to leave for my 6:45 cycling class, for some reason there's nothing I want to do other than bake. I think it may be that cycling continuously kills me (I'm convinced it never gets easy) and baking is just about as far in the other direction as it gets. Maybe I'm just trying to make the excuse, "Well I can't leave while it's in the oven." So, to avoid all of this I figured I should catch up posting some recipes I've made over the past week. I'll start with a delicious strawberry buttermilk cake. This cake is way too easy to be as good as it is. That's not a bad thing, though. I think anyone could make it, and the whipped cream definitely takes it to a whole new level. Truth be told, I was just experimenting around with the whipped cream and don't remember the exact measurements for how I made it, but it was amazing. I think maybe I'll just make lemon-blueberry whipped cream from now on and put it on everything. YUM. When looking at that recipe, if you make it and it doesn't taste quite sweet enough (or doesn't have enough lemon or blueberry flavoring) add to it! I got the idea from Eats Well With Others, where she made blueberry buttermilk cake with strawberry whipped cream. The same strawberry buttermilk cake has been surfacing all over the food blog world recently, but the idea of fruit flavored whipped cream sounded too good to pass up. I know local strawberry season has sadly just about ended, but they're still pretty cheap at the grocery store (or Costco/Sam's Club if you want them in bulk). Enjoy this recipe, it won't last long once you make it!

Easy Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
Recipe from Food and Fun Cafe
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
** Use 1/2 cup buttermilk instead of the egg as an alternative
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh strawberries (about 5 oz)

Method
Preheat oven to 400°F, placing the rack in the middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan and keep ready.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy; this should take about 3 minutes, then beat in the vanilla. Finally add the egg and beat well for another 2 minutes.

Switch the mixer setting to low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Remember, do NOT overbeat.

Fold in half of the strawberries into the batter. Spoon the prepared batter into the cake pan, smoothing it on the top. Scatter the remaining strawberries evenly over the top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, roughly about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the cake pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Invert it onto a serving plate.

Using a knife warmed by placing under hot running water, slice the cake into wedges and serve. You can also make it fancier by topping it with a dollop of whipped cream, or dusting with some more Confectioner's sugar.

Blueberry Whipped Cream
1 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar
1/4 cup blueberries
Zest of 1/2 lemon

In a blender or food processor, puree the blueberries and lemon zest. If you desire a sharper lemon flavor, lemon juice can be added to this as well. Next, beat the cream until barely thickened. Add in the powdered sugar and beat until soft peaks form. Fold in puree and beat slightly more until whipped cream reaches desired consistency.

*Everyone makes whipped cream a different way. Some people use powdered sugar, some regular sugar, some add vanilla.. that's not really what matters here. Make the whipped cream as normal, but add the zest and blueberry mixture to the almost finished product.

You can't go wrong with strawberries, whipped cream and puff pastry. This was one of the easiest, but most impressive looking recipes I've seen in a long time. I was crunched for time so had to skip a few steps and assemble it quickly (hence the messy whipped cream and one less layer than in the regular recipe). I figure if I put the whole thing together in five minutes and it looked like that, imagine what 10 minutes could do.
I don't quite know what is the best thing to cut it with. I think it's virtually impossible to get whipped cream to say in its place while cutting. I had a cake cutter with a serrated edge, but that didn't work very well. Regardless, everyone loved it. Taste is what matters most anyways.


The only change I made to the recipe is instead of simply whipping cream, I made real whipped cream. I wanted it a little sweeter so I went ahead and added sugar and vanilla.


Strawberry Millefeuille
Recipe from Sea Salt with Food ( adapted from Williams-Sonoma Cooking for Friends by Alison Attenborough and Jamie Kimm)


Ingredients
1 Sheet Puff Pastry (1/2 package), thawed according to package instructions and unfolded
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 ½ Cups Thinly Sliced Strawberries
Juice of ½ Lemon
1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
1 Cup Heavy Cream
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting 


Method
Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
On a lightly floured board, roll out the pastry sheet to ¼ inch thickness. Cut in half lengthwise. Transfer the 2 rectangles to a rimmed baking sheet. Prick them evenly all over with a fork and brush with the beaten egg. Bake until the pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, stir together the strawberries, lemon juice and sugar. Set aside.

In another bowl, using a whisk, whip the cream until soft peaks form.

Using a serrated knife, slice 1 rectangle horizontally to create 2 layers. Use the uncut rectangle as the base. Top with half of the whipped cream and 1/3 of the strawberries. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to create 2 more layers, finishing with just strawberries. Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving

Serves 6