Banana Bread

Please don't be confused with the shape of this bread. It's not a cake! I was desperate or should I say I had a bad craving for some banana bread one day and decided that I would bake it in a 9 x 9" baking dish instead of a loaf pan. By doing that, it cut my baking time down by 20 minutes. So hence the shape!

We've been making this banana bread for almost 10-12 years. It's become our family's favorite! The recipe comes from an old Pillsbury cookbook I got shortly after my hubby and I got married. Our oldest daughter has made this several times on her own so the ease of it makes it the perfect recipe for kids to help with. I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Banana Bread

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
(Note: I often add more than one cup, up to 1/2 cup more, it doesn't bother the recipe one bit.)
1/3 cup milk
1 teas. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease bottom of a 9 x 5" loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs; blend in bananas, milk and vanilla. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and nuts, if desired and mix well. Add to creamed mixture; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes; remove. Cool completely on wire rack. Slice. Eat. Yum. Wrap and store leftovers in the fridge.

Julie's Peach Cobbler

If you haven't taken the time to enjoy the peaches from your local grocer or friendly neighbor who's been so kind to let you pick their peaches, then hurry up and get some and make this cobbler. It's our family's favorite!

Once again, I've made a recipe that has no exact amounts to the ingredients. Because the topping can be adjusted to fit any amount of peaches, I usually go by the size of the baking dish to determine how much topping I'm going to make. In this recipe, I used a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with sliced peaches filled to about 1 1/2 inches full. And yes, there is one stick of butter being used in this recipe but one stick is really not much for a 9 x 13 pan. So enjoy...

Julie's Peach Cobbler

5-12 peaches, washed, pitted and sliced
3-4 tbls. sugar (depending on sweetness of peaches)
1/2 teas. ground nutmeg
1 teas. ground cinnamon

Prepare peaches and place into a large mixing bowl. Coat with sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon and toss until fully mixed. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.

Topping:
1 1/2 cups yellow cake mix, dry
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teas. ground cinnamon
1 stick of butter (not margarine) at room temperature, sliced
Vanilla ice cream, optional

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients. Mix and add in sliced butter. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in the butter until mixture resembles a doughy crumble.

Pour prepared peaches into a 9 x 13 baking dish and top with crumble mixture. Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until medium golden brown on top and peaches have bubbled on the sides. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with ice cream, if desired.

Blueberry Yogurt Cake

I made this cake for my hubby for his birthday this year and realized after I had scanned through some photos that I had not bothered to post the recipe here on my blog. It was so versatile and so yummy that I needed to make sure that other people knew of this fabulous dessert. I found the recipe online and after looking over the recipe I also realized that it can be changed up to whatever flavor of yogurt fits your taste.
Blueberry Yogurt Cake

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites
1 container (6 oz) blueberry yogurt (with fruit)
1 container Betty Crocker® Whipped vanilla frosting
1 pint of fresh blueberries
1 jar of all-fruit blueberry jam

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Generously grease and lightly flour bottoms and sides of two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans, or spray with baking spray with flour.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, egg whites and yogurt with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds; beat on medium speed 2 minutes (batter will be lumpy). Pour into pans.

Bake 8-inch rounds 27 to 32 minutes, 9-inch rounds 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around sides of pans to loosen cakes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Stir jam to loosen and spread 1/2 cup jam over 1 cake layer to within 1/4 inch of edge. Layer some blueberries over jam. Top with second layer. Frost side and top of cake with frosting. Make frosting dollops in a circle in center of cake. Arrange more blueberries on top and place some around the perimeter of the cake. Store loosely covered in refrigerator.

My favorite Frosting:
1 large tub of Cool Whip
1 small pkg. of White Chocolate instant-pudding mix

Pour pudding mix into Cool Whip and fold until thoroughly combined. Let the frosting sit for about 20 minutes to thicken. Spread on cake.

Banana Cake

Monkeys will be jealous when they see you eating this cake (if you happen to be eating it in front of monkeys that is). I found this recipe through another site and after seeing it's reviews, I decided to try it. I was surprised by the recipe at first. For two reasons, one because the amounts were a little off to me. I noticed there was no egg and that the amount of flour would not be enough to keep the cake from being runny. I also notice that lemon juice was in the recipe and after seeing how the cake came out, I believe it was to help the bananas from turning brown when baked. I've never had a light colored banana bread before. And I believe that helped with it's color. Also, when making this, I wondered how the cake's density would turn out. If it would be more of a light cake or more of a dense banana bread. Let's just say it's BOTH! A pleasant perfect medium. So with my additions and adjustments, I came up with this recipe.

Banana Cake
1/2 cup shortening, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teas. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. baking powder
1/2 teas. salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 teas. lemon juice
1 container of vanilla flavored frosting
Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) and grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until smooth. Add egg. Stir in milk and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in mashed banana, lemon juice and walnuts (if desired). Spread evenly into prepared baking pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before frosting and cutting. Enjoy!