Spanish Bar cake in the Round

This is the weekly Monday treat for work for this week.  As a kid I grew up in NY and one of my fondest memories is the taste of this cake.  My mom used to buy it at the Local A&P in Smithtown.  It was my favorite.  A while back my daughter made this "down east Maine pumpkin bread"  that tasted very close to this cake.  For months I've thought about this cake but never knew the name of it.  One day while searching on Pinterest, wala there it was.  There are many versions of this out there but after reading reviews and the recipe I chose this one.  The one thing I changed was the oil.  It had called for 1/4 of melted butter which I sub melted coconut oil for.  I felt there was more than enough butter in the icing.  Oh yes I also cut back 1/2 stick on the butter.  
This cake is normally made in a long rectangle but today I jumped outside the box and went with the round.  I also found a good trick to make your cake for further.   Will share that in my next post.
I adapted this recipe from here  

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoons ginger
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup applesauce
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups raisins, soaked in warm water until plump and drained

Preheat oven to 350°F.Prepare a 8  in. round (this recipe was originally made in a 9x13 pan) baking pan with cooking spray and flour.  Plump the raisins in warm water.
In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together. Add oil, applesauce, sour cream, and eggs. Mix well. Add in raisins and walnuts and stir to combine.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cake cool completely before frosting.
*can make with or without nutmeg*

Icing:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 1% with stellar results)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) butter, cut into 20 pieces and softened at room temperature

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk until the mixture is smooth. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium saucepan and pour the milk mixture through the strainer into the saucepan. Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture boils and is thick enough that it starts to become difficult to easily whisk. This could take anywhere between 5-10 minutes, depending on your stove, heat, etc. It should bubble quite a bit at the end (be careful of the splatters) and thicken considerably.
2. Transfer the mixture to a clean bowl and cool to room temperature – this is extremely important! If it is even slightly warm, the frosting won’t beat up properly. I refrigerated my initial mixture overnight. If you do this, make sure to pull it out in time to let it warm back up to room temperature. If you try to proceed with the rest of the recipe and the mixture is too cold, the butter won’t absorb into the frosting like it should.
3. Once the frosting is completely cooled to room temperature (it should have no hint of warmth at all!), beat the mixture with the vanilla on low speed until it is well combined, about 30 seconds (a stand mixer will work best for this). Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat the frosting until all the butter has been incorporated fully, about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and let the mixer work it’s magic. Beat the frosting for five minutes, until it is light and fluffy. Let the frosting sit at room temperature until it is a bit more stiff, about 1 hour. I suspect if you chill it for an hour or so, it would be stiff enough to actually pipe with instead of frosting with a rubber spatula.

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week and Always Remember to Find the Time to Do ALL the things YOU L♥ve.
D♥onna

Orange Spice Bread

I took one of my pumpkin spice bread  recipes and adapted it to make this bread.  I love orange desserts and bought some oranges last week when they were on sale so what better to do with them then bake.  Of course, they're good to eat too.
This bread has just enough spice and orange flavor and is very moist.  The recipe goes together very quickly too so if you're looking for a quick bread to make this would be one.  I would guess that it would freeze well also.

Ingredients:
 1 1/2 oranges, peel and all (make into puree)
1 Tbl water
1/2 cup sour cream
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1 1/2  tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray two loaf pans.  You could also make these into muffins, large or small.
In blender put oranges which you cut into pieces and 1 TBL of water and puree.
Add this to a large bowl with the eggs, water, oil and sour cream, whisk until
well blended.  In another bowl mid all the dry ingredients.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Mix til blended, don't over mix.  Add nuts.
Spread into loaf pans and bake for about 45-55 minutes until golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean.
You can put a cream cheese frosting on these loaves if you like or a sugar glaze, eat it plain or put some butter on it,  just enjoy.

Thanks for taking time to stop by,  have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to Do All the Things You love.
Donna

Pecan Raisin Spice Banana Cake

My friends Patsy and Michael came over the other day for lunch, well actually I was suppose to go to their house and I was going to make pizza. I packed everything up arrived there and forgot the dang pizza dough. :( I had made a list of all the things I needed to take, like pizza stone, peel etc but didn't put the dough on the list because I THOUGHT I wouldn't forget it. Wrong. Well anyway I had also made this for our dessert. This cake is just wonderful and would be delish for breakfast. It has just enough spice and the nuts and raisins go so well with the banana.
I found this recipe here.
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3 large ripe bananas, mashed (1 1/2 cups) *I used 4*
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups raisins

Directions:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar and butter, creaming until light and fluffy. Add oil.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.

Combine mashed banana and milk; add to creamed mixture alternately with flour mixture, beating until smooth after each addition. Stir in nuts and raisins.

Turn batter into a greased and floured 10 inch fluted tube or Bundt pan.

Bake in a preheated 325°F oven for one hour and 10 minutes or until cake tests done.

Cool in pan 10 minutes.

Invert onto a wire rack to cool. Dust powdered sugar lightly over cooled cake or frost with confectioners icing.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful week and Remember to Find the Time to Do ALL the things You Love.

Donna