Banana Upside Down Cake

For my birthday cake this year I made a banana upside down cake. I made the same banana cake I used in the triple threat challenge with the addition of 1 tsp of cinnamon. Before pouring the cake in the pan, I mixed together 3/4 cup brown sugar and 6 tablespoons melted butter. I spread that in the pan and topped it with slices of banana. I poured the cake batter over that.

I'm baking at my friend's house and she didn't have cake pans so I filled two of her pie pans with the batter. Only one pan had the bananas on the bottom.

After the cakes cooled I stacked them and frosted them with fluffy peanut butter frosting. I decided to pour dark chocolate ganache on top but in the end I wish I hadn't because the ganache was to heavy and rich. This cake is really light. If I made it again, I'd leave off the ganache but add some cinnamon to the brown sugar and butter mixture. I, also, think that if frosted it should be a cinnamon frosting.

Cookie Time!

Since I have been baking from Korea, I have baked exactly twice. My New Year's resolution is to up that number just a tad.

The first thing I made was a hot (spicy) apple pie which was delicious.

The second thing I made was a big batch of black sesame chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. My recipe can be found here and I was inspired by Joy the Baker's chocolate chip cookies.

The black sesame seeds make the cookies taste really toasty and a little nutty. I'm not going to disclose how many of these babies I put away in one day. I think I'm going to have to include black sesame seeds in all my chocolate chip cookies from now on. It can be my secret weapon  ingredient.

So, Ms. Hotglue, now that I am back in the land of ovens and fully stocked grocery stores, I am ready for a new challenge!!

In the Kitchen Goals

This year I want to learn and do:

1. Make vegetable stock regularly.

- I can and do make chicken stock pretty often but I haven't tried making vegetable stock yet.

2. Learn to make beef gravy.

- I have no problems with chicken gravy but for some reason my beef gravy just doesn't turn out right.

3. Make a fried dessert.

-Being oven-less, I figured this is a good way to try and get some baking in. Doughnuts, beignets...any other ideas?

4. Make a rice cooker cake.

-Another option for the oven-less. I gotta learn how to read the buttons first.

5. Try brownie pancakes (with peanut butter sauce?).

-Noticing a theme here? I'm wondering if I can use brownie batter to make pancakes with since I don't care for the texture of microwave brownies.

6. Learn to make tortillas.

-I've made tortillas before but they were a bit on the dry side. I want to perfect the recipe so when I go home I can have tacos and burritos galore.

7. Learn how to make a Korean dish from scratch.

-I really want to learn how to make dakgalbi and miso soup so that Mike can have his two favorite Korean foods after we move home.

Double New Year's Challenge and a Dare

Hotglue!

In the spirit of the new year and making resolutions I have 2 challenges for you:

1. Bake up something that sounds healthy (i.e.: vegetables, fruit, oatmeal or other healthy sounding ingredients play a star role in the name)

2. Create a list of baking and/or cooking resolutions. I'll share mine with you too.


Oh! And I almost forgot the dare.

Dearest Luisa, I double dare you to cook and something from this list of important recipes to know before you're 30. I can't believe how quickly we're approaching that mark.