Monday, October 31, 2011

Haunted House Cake II

A cake for Bayler, who turned 6. My second haunted house cake (the first one is here)- the birthday boy wanted something similar, only he wanted a blue house. The bottom part of the house is vanilla cake with chocolate filling and the top is banana cake with vanilla filling. My favorite banana cake recipe is below.
Happy Halloween!!


Mr Banana Legs
adapted from CakeLove by Warren Brown

One 12-cup bundt cake, two 9-inch-round cakes

Ingredients

Dry:

  • Unbleached all-purpose flour, 10 ounces (2 cups)
  • Salt, ½ teaspoon
  • Baking soda, ¼ teaspoon
  • nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon

Liquid:

  • Very ripe peeled bananas, 6 ounces (3 bananas), mashed
  • Whole milk, ¾ cup
  • Vanilla extract, 1½ teaspoons

Creaming:

  • Unsalted butter, at room temperature, 6 ounces (1½ sticks)
  • granulated sugar, 21 ounces (2¾ cups),
  • Eggs (large), 4
  • Egg yolks (large), 3
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Set rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and line pans with parchment.
Sift the flour into a bowl. Measure the other dry ingredients into a separate mixing bowl, add the flour, and whisk for 10 seconds to blend. Set aside.
Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside. 
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on the lowest speed for 2 to 3 minutes. The mixture should look white, fluffy, and aerated.
With the mixer still on the lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time followed by the yolks, fully incorporating after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl.
Add the dry ingredient mixture alternately with the liquid mixture in 3 to 5 additions each, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Move swiftly through this step to avoid overworking the batter. Don’t wait for the dry or liquid mixtures to be fully incorporated before adding the next.
Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl all the way down. Don’t miss the clumps of ingredients hiding on the bottom of the bowl. Mix on medium speed for 15 to 20 seconds to develop the batter’s structure.
Spread in prepared pans and bake 30 minutes until golden and cake tester comes out clean.
Cool to room temperature, 25 to 30 minutes, before removing from the pan. Use a small offset spatula to loosen the cake from the rim of the pan. Carefully invert each pan onto a flat surface to remove the layers. Remove the parchment from the bottom of each cake and wrap the cake tightly in plastic. Assembling a layer cake is easier if the cake is cold, so refrigerate the layers overnight or for up to 5 days before frosting.

2 comments: