Banana Cake with Lemon Icing

Growing up, whenever we had extra and overripe bananas my mom would make this cake for us.  It was a favourite!  I loved the combination of banana and the lemon icing.  For the best results, use three very ripe bananas.  I don't know the original source for the recipe.  My mom would have these little pieces of paper that looked like tracing paper with recipes typed up on them.

Naseeba if you are reading this...I made this cake for Eid when you were away for Hajj...that is how behind I am on my posts...Lol...

Cranberry Orange Loaf

I absolutely love baking!  Lately, I haven't been baking very much because we have been trying to eat more healthy and reduce the amount of sugar in our diet.  This past weekend we had an event at my boys' school and I volunteered to bring an item for refreshements.  I took a Lemon Almond Loaf and this Cranberry Orange Loaf so I could get a chance to do some baking.  This Cranberry Orange Loaf was a recipe I had pinned awhile ago and was excited to try.  I love the flavour of cranberries and oranges together and this loaf did not disappoint!

Baklava Cheesecake #LifesBetterTogether {Plus a special offer from #Evite}

When celebrating special occasions like anniversaries, an elegant dessert is a must.  The Baklava Cheesecake recipe I am sharing with you today would be perfect to serve when celebrating an event such as an anniversary.  It combines two of my favourite desserts, Baklava and Cheesecake!

Lemon Almond Loaf

 

My last post was for a Lemon Olive Oil Banana Bread.  Today I'm posting another lemon loaf but it is very different from my last post.  This is more like cake and is absolutely delicious!  I love all things lemon and was excited to give this recipe a try.  The first time I made this was when my childhood best friend came to visit.  It was great to catch up while enjoying a slice of this Lemon Almond Loaf.

Coffee Cake with Pumpkin Flax Granola Streusel & Nature's Path 30th Anniversary Giveaway

This year Nature's Path is celebrating their 30th anniversary!  Nature's Path is a family-owned Canadian company.  Their products are organic.  While browsing their website, the one line that kept coming up is their commitment to leaving the Earth in better condition than they found it.  I love this statement!  With so much mass production of just about everything, it feels like we are abusing our Earth.  I love to find companies that have such a strong commitment to treating our planet well.

Upside Down Pineapple Cake with Blossom & Bean Vanilla Extract

I love to bake but one of the struggles I've had in the past was finding an affordable good quality alcohol-free vanilla extract.  I've tried some vanilla powders that were white which immediately tells you that it's not real vanilla.  I've tried some high end vanilla powder which was great but it's not readily available where I live and it's pretty pricey.  Actual vanilla beans aren't a good alternative as they are expensive and I bake quite often.  So I was very excited when Blossom & Bean started selling alcohol-free vanilla extract.

Mini Pumpkin Bundt Cakes

The pumpkin recipes continue in our home.  We've still have a lot of pumpkin puree to go though after the boys each brought home a pumpkin from their field trip.  I recently shared with you some Soft Baked Pumpkin Cookies I made that were a huge hit.  Today I'm sharing Mini Pumpkin Bundt Cakes.  I saw this recipe last year on My Ninja Naan.  They looked so cute.  The original recipe topped the cakes with a chocolate glaze.  Henna skipped this step and I totally agree.  The cakes are delicious on their own and any sort of glaze would overpower it.

Pistachio Topped Vanilla Cake & Eid Eats 2014

Ramadan is almost coming to an end which means Eid will be here soon.  Today is Eid Eats 2014, a virtual Eid Party, that Sarah from Flour & Spice and I are hosting.

We asked all of you to make a dish that you would make for Eid.  For many, this is a time to make extravagant meals and have family over.  Personally, I have never done a lot of cooking on Eid.  We used to go to my parents for a big lunch and now we visit my brother and his family.

Carrot Cake

My husband loves carrot cake and I've been searching for a great recipe for awhile.  In the end I ended up at Cook's Illustrated and of course the recipe was a winner!  I'm not a fan of a lot of icing on carrot cakes.  I find it takes away from the cake and it becomes more about the icing than the cake.  I like to have a very thin layer of cream cheese frosting.  Originally I was drizzling it on which would be a better presentation but I screwed that up and I ended up spreading it.  I tell you I always have big dreams about how I'm going to decorate a cake and in my mind it looks amazing but I have yet to execute any of my ideas well.  For this icing I used a little bit of cream cheese and mixed in some icing sugar to taste.

Apple Coffee Cake

I love desserts with apples in them.  This recipe was originally a Cranberry Coffee Cake.  It used fresh cranberries.  I don't think I've ever had fresh cranberries and I was scared if I used them the cake would be too tart.  The first time I made it I skipped the cranberries and the cake came out too dry.  For my second attempt I replaced the cranberries with apples sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Everyone liked it, especially my mom.

Quick Chocolate Cake

To date this is my go-to recipe for chocolate cake.  It is very easy to whip up!  I go easy on the frosting whenever I make it (but honestly I would love to make more and pipe nice pretty flowers).  You can easily halve the recipe which I have done on numerous occasions.  I usually make this cake the day before because I find chocolate cakes and brownies usually taste much better the next day.  This time I made the frosting a little thicker so I could spread evenly around.  Sometimes I thin it out a bit and spread it over the top and just let it drip down the sides.  I usually use half of the frosting recipe I have written below.

Orange Streusel Coffee Cake

This is a recipe I got a long time ago from my cousin.  When we were growing up we would drive to Chicago to visit her and her family in the summer. She made this for us one day and we all loved it.  It is very quick to put together.  It is not overly sweet and goes great with a cup of tea.  It tastes best when made with freshly squeezed orange juice but you can substitute regular orange juice if that is all you have.  When the cake is done baking I usually turn the broiler on to crisp up the topping.

Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Cake

I think this blog is making me fat....I keep making desserts over and over to get them right and then when I finally do I realize after it's all gone I didn't get a decent picture so I make it again.  This is an example of one of those recipes.  I believe I've made this cake at least 4 times.  I started with a recipe from Smitten Kitchen and made some changes.  This cake is super quick to make and you can experiment with different berries as well.  This makes a thin cake and is absolutely delicious.  You should definitely give it a try.  It's quick to make and bakes in 20 minutes!

Cake Pops

Ever since I discovered Bakerella I have been dying to make cake pops.  They just looked so cute!  The first time I tasted them was when my cousin made them.  She has a cupcake business called Polka Dot Cupcake Shoppe.  They were so amazing...actually everything she made was amazing...looked awesome and tasted even better.

 

Eggless Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

I need to start paying more attention to what I'm doing...but then again sometimes my lack of attention turns into something delicious...like this cake.  This is not supposed to be an eggless cake but I forgot the egg.  I had put this in the oven and was upstairs and it dawned on me...I FORGOT THE EGG!!!  This was the second time in a week I forgot to add the egg in something I was baking.  But this time I have an excuse....Hasan was helping me and I was trying to make sure he didn't make a mess.  At the same time I had to keep one eye on Bilal too.  But in the end I couldn't stop eating this cake.  I think I ate half of it in one day!  (But it's a thin cake so really it was like eating a quarter of a regular cake)  I usually don't like raspberries but I loved the tartness of the raspberries and the subtle sweetness of the cake.  It would definitely go well with a cup of tea.  My husband wasn't very fond of this cake..he thought there were too many raspberries but I think he also ate almost half the cake in one day.

Strawberry Cake

Now that warm weather is here the grocery store has lots of sweet strawberries.  I had bought 2 packets from Longo's....then I went to my mom's and she had bought a packet for Hasan...so now my house is overflowing with strawberries.  I hate it when food goes bad so I knew I had to do something with them or else I was going to end up with some rotting strawberries.  I found a recipe at Smitten Kitchen which was perfect because it used strawberries, had no vanilla (I am all out of vanilla powder) and it used 4 egg whites (I had exactly 4 egg whites sitting in my fridge).  I replaced the butter with margarine and made a low fat cream cheese frosting.  I made half the recipe because the whole recipe was way too much for our family.  I didn't have cake flour so I just used all-purpose but reduced the amount.  I should have sifted it but I was lazy.  Next time I would do a proper substitution to make the cake less dense.  I omitted the food colouring.  The original recipe uses frozen strawberries which would be a great idea when strawberries aren't in season.  This was so yummy...I am really looking forward to making it again!

Apple Cake

My mom gave me a bunch of apples and I had to think of something to do with all of them.  I came across this recipe at Smitten Kitchen.  It looked delicious and very simple to make.  There was no butter...HURRAY!!!  When the timer went off my baby was napping and so I quickly went to turn the timer off but unfortunately I turned the oven off at the same time.  The cake wasn't done and I didn't realize what I had done until 15 minutes later.  So my cake ended up being overbaked at the bottom.  But I know that if I had not done that it would have been perfect because this is a Smitten Kitchen recipe.  I didn't have any orange juice but I had Mandarins so I juiced that until I got 1/4 cup. 

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Glaze

I adapted this cake from Smitten Kitchen.  I've made this cake with butter and margarine and it turned out good both times.  Of course it's always better with butter.  Also I don't buy buttermilk.  This time I used yogurt.  The time before I used 1 tbsp vinegar and enough milk to measure 1 cup.  I don't have cake flour. I used all-purpose flour but reduced the amount.  I made half the recipe.  The chocolate glaze is from Anna Olsen.  I cut the recipe in half.  I found previously the whole recipe was just too much.  The chocolate glaze tastes just like the chocolate glaze you get on donuts.

I wanted to fill the cake. I didn't have time to make custard so I bought some pre-made vanilla pudding and used that to fill.  It was okay but custard would have tasted so much better.  I like eating this cake chilled.  I know if I had followed all the directions on Smitten Kitchen it would have turned out even better....but I had to work with what I had....