Woo-Hoo Wednesday-Maryanne from Ward Recipes

I am on Maternity Leave from September 4th till October 12th: The following is contributed by Maryanne blogger at Ward Recipes.

Hi, Maryanne here from Crafty Mommy Diva and Scrappy Gifts. Did you know that I also started a recipe blog: Ward Recipes a while ago in attempts to learn new foods and share recipes with friends and family.

Here's some of my favorite simpe cake recipes that I've tried from other sites, but tweaked a little bit on my own. See the bottom of each recipe to read about my modifications. All Pictures are my own (sorry I'm not a food photographer =D )

Banana Cake from allrecipes.com, 611 reviews 4.5 stars

Great recipe if you're sick of making banana bread with your old bananas.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter


• 2 1/8 cups white sugar


• 3 eggs


• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 3 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk


• 2 teaspoons lemon juice


• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 large bananas)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened


• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened


• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas with lemon juice, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.


2. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.


3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.


4. For the frosting: In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high until frosting is smooth. Spread on cooled cake.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 453 | Total Fat: 18.4g | Cholesterol: 84mg

My Notes

Instead of doing the cream cheese frosting, I used some Betty Crocker Lemon Frosting that I had on had that was going to expire in a couple weeks. Delicious!!!
I had a lot of bananas to use so I used extra bananas too - so a total of 2 cups. Worked just fine still.

Oh and I accidentally only did half the amount of butter that I was supposed to. It didn't taste as good, so I put holes in my cake and poured the other half of butter (melted) over it. Perfect!

Next time I'd like to try adding some cinnamon it it for more flavor.

Fruit Filled Coffee Cake from Delicious Dishes

Delicious Dishes found this on Kraft Food and Family Magazine. You can find it here.

• 1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix
  
  


• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  
  


• 1 cup Breakstone’s or Knudsen Sour Cream
  
  


• 3 eggs
  
  


• ¼ cup water
  
  


• 1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
  
  


• ½ cup Planters Sliced Almonds, toasted*
  
  


• 1 cup powdered sugar
  
  


• 1 ½ T milk

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat first 5 ingredients with mixer until well blended. Pour into greased and floured 13x9 pan; top with spoonfuls of pie filling.


2. Bake 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; sprinkle with nuts. Cool 10 minutes.


3. Mix sugar and milk; drizzle over cake. Cool completely. Note: If glaze is too thick, add milk by teaspoonfuls until thin enough to drizzle.

My Notes: I added about a 1/2 a tsp extra of cinnamon - I feel like you can't have too much of that. I forgot that I didn't have powdered sugar so no frosting, but it still tasted great. I tried this again with lemon cake mix - and it was amazing!