my first post. my first blog.

Well. I think that at this point in my culinary love affair, I'm going to start posting and sharing and learning.

I suppose this post should be in regards to the baking I did this past week for my cousin, Lana's wedding. When she approached me two weeks before her wedding to ask me if I would be willing to bake mini bundt cakes I thought she was a little crazy. Of course, though, I said yes. She handed me three mini-bundt cake pans and the inspiration for the bundt cake idea, a photo from a 2004 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings and said "Thanks!" The rest was up to me.

Through some trial and error I finally nailed down the recipes to a variation on Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing and a modified version of Orangette's Sour Cream-Banana Cake.

I've posted some photos here of my mom and I decorating the cakes. I would say in general the whole process was a great success. I baked a total of about ten hours prior to the wedding day, freezing batches as I went. I baked a total of 60 coconut cakes and 70 banana cakes. The wedding was about two hours outside of Minneapolis at a old barn in Wisconsin. This did not provide much in way of preparation options on-site, but luckily I have an aunt who lives only ten miles from the wedding site! So, morning of, my mom and I made the drive to said aunt's house and set up shop glazing, icing, frosting and caramelizing bananas for all of the cakes. We then loaded up the car with the cakes on cookie sheets and drove paved and dirt roads as carefully as we could and made it to the barn without incident.

The wedding was beautiful, the cakes were awesome, and I got my first glimpse of the feeling of a successful gift of baking on such a grand scale.

I will post the recipes that I used, and simply include the modifications I made, making them my own.

Sour Cream-Banana Mini Bundt Cakes with Caramel Glaze, Caramel Buttercream and Caramelized Banana Discs

For the cake:
2 cups sifted cake flour
¾ cup plus 2 Tbs sugar (I used fine-grained unrefined cane sugar, which worked fine)
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 large ripe bananas (about 225 grams, peeled)
½ cup sour cream (not low- or non-fat)
2 large eggs
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
10 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the glaze:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp Kosher salt

For the buttercream:
1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup - 1 1/2 cup reserved glaze
2 Tbs heavy whipping cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners sugar

For the caramelized banana discs:
1 -2 bananas
2 Tbs butter


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray two miniature bundt cake pans with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a food processor, purée the banana and sour cream until completely smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla, and process briefly to combine. The puréed mixture will be light yellow and quite loose. Add the softened butter and about ½ of the puréed mixture to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Beat to combine on low speed; then increase the speed and beat for about 90 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and add the rest of the purée, beating to combine well. The batter will be light tan in color and should be smooth and creamy. Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pans (I feel that 1/3 cup in each of 12 mini bundt cake molds is the appropriate amount). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cakes are golden and toothpicks inserted in the center come out clean and dry. Remove the cakes from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, and then flip the cakes out onto a drying rack. Allow to cool for at least 10 additional minutes before icing.

While the cakes are cooling, prepare glaze. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and sugars over medium to medium-high heat. Add salt. Cook for two minutes. Add heavy whipping cream and stir to combine. Boil for an additional two minutes. Remove from heat and stir. Allow to settle for a few minutes. To glaze cakes, simply drop into saucepan and turn with tongs and a spoon. Remove from saucepan, allow to drip, and set on parchment paper. Reserve leftover glaze for caramel buttercream.

For the buttercream, cream the shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add 2/3 cup of the reserved glaze, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla extract. Gradually add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, add up to all of the reserved glaze and additional heavy whipping cream until buttercream has reached a consistency that will be conducive to piping in a drizzle over cakes. Spoon buttercream into plastic bag or pastry bag. Snip end for a very small drizzle and pipe drizzle in back and forth motion over all glazed cakes. Be generous!

To prepare caramelized bananas, slice bananas into 1/8" thick discs. Melt butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Place all banana slices in pan at once, allow to cook for 4-5 minutes. Flip with one or two forks. Allow to cook to a deep brown on other side before removing and placing on paper towels to dry. Garnish bundt cakes with one to two caramelized banana discs.

Hopefully this is the first of many posts. I will post the coconut cupcake recipe soon, and hopefully many more sweet things will follow.