Hummingbird Cake

I made this Hummingbird Cake for my mom and grandmother's joint birthday celebration this year (their b'days are on the 13th and 19th of January). I would definitely describe this as a "special occasion" cake! It's not particularly fancy per se, but it feels a bit more special, I think, because of the double layers, the filling, the frosting, the fun topping, the great flavors....well, it's special because of everything I guess! :) Not to boast, but the cake did get rave reviews from the whole family. I would make this again without any hesitation! It was quite flavorful and also very moist. It is a little bit on the rich side, likely because of the cream cheese frosting, so serving smaller slices is key.

This is another recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook that I've mentioned previously in my blog. I'm going to be lazy and provide a link to the recipe here, rather than type it out from the actual cookbook. Hope you don't mind! I checked, and it's exactly the same as in the book. And this is the recipe for the cream cheese frosting. Here are some pics of the process (I know, the one of the batter before it's mixed doesn't look all that appealing)...

Now, I did vary just a tad from the original recipe... I almost never follow a recipe exactly as it is! Maybe that should be a motto of Barbershop baking...something about improvising. Hmmmm. I'll have to work on that one. Anyway, the recipe calls for spreading some of the cream cheese frosting in between the two cake layers. Instead of doing that, I was inspired by Kraft Foods to spread pudding between the two layers, as is done in this cake from the Kraft Foods Kitchen. I used one box of Jell-O banana cream pudding, mixed with about 3/4 cup of skim milk. I also mixed about 1/3 cup of drained crushed pineapple with the pudding. Mmmmm mmmm good! I thought that would be a nice touch to tie in the banana and pineapple fruits that went into the actual cake.

You'll see here that I have the cake in the fridge before it was frosted! It's easier to frost a cake that's cold, so popping it in the fridge for a bit actually helps! Thanks to my sister for taking the picture of me frosting the cake... I don't usually have someone else around to take a pic of me at work!

All in all, the Hummingbird Cake was definitely a hit! Try it for your next special occasion! Oh, and I should mention that no hummingbirds were harmed in the making of this cake. ;-) Also, I was curious about the origin of the cake's name, and I found this explanation online in several places. Neat!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Looking for a healthy, tasty cookie? Look no further than the Barbershop! Okay, I'm a big dork. But it's true... If you're looking for a healthy, tasty cookie, here you are. :) A coworker of mine loves a good, solid chocolate chip cookie, and we're going over to his house for dinner tomorrow night. I gave him some of the chocolate chip cookies I made last week, so I thought it would be fun to switch it up this time around. That's where the banana and oatmeal come in!

I found this recipe online by googling banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Brilliant, I know. But I did think that it would be a good combination and of course there were many recipes out there! I ended up using one from Cooking Light, here. The recipe actually only gets 3 out of 5 stars in its ratings, but when I read through a few of the reviews, many seemed positive overall about the cookie so I chose to go ahead with this particular recipe. And as I mentioned earlier, it's a bit of a healthier cookie option, which is always a good thing; the nutrition facts are listed online with the recipe, which is linked above. A couple of the reviews online led me to change a couple small steps along the way, and I'll elaborate on that in a bit!

Here's the dough after everything is mixed in, as well as a picture of a ball of dough all ready to hit the oven...mmmmm.

I have to admit that I actually think my cookies look better than the ones pictured with the recipe online...but that's just my opinion. ;-)

Here are the few changes I made. The recipes calls for 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; I chose to split that half and half with all-purpose and whole wheat flour. Additionally, I added about 1/2 tsp. cinnamon to the dry ingredients. You can never go wrong with cinnamon... Finally, because a couple of the reviews online said that the cookie was a bit dry, I decided to make the batter a bit more moist by adding some yogurt (Dannon light n' fit vanilla). I only added about 1/4 cup, but maybe it did something helpful! Also, the recipe says it makes 2 dozen cookies, but I ended up getting 30 out of the recipe.

As for the taste of these cookies, there is a definite, detectable banana flavor, although it is still fairly subtle and not overpowering, I think. The banana flavor pairs quite well with the oatmeal and chocolate! I really liked the texture of the cookie overall too. I bet microwaving a cookie for about 10 seconds or toasting it slightly would be reeeeally yummy!!

Here is my attempt at changing up the photography aspect a bit... No, despite what you might be thinking, I did not sit and eat all of these cookies on this plate with my cup of tea tonight. I managed to have some will power and only ate one. :)

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Crackers

A couple years ago I tried my hand at making crackers and my attempt wasn't incredibly successful.... So, I thought I'd give it another shot! In my The Fannie Farmer Baking Book (a classic baking book that I love!), there are several recipes for all sorts of homemade crackers...graham crackers, white crackers, oatmeal crackers, walnut crackers, mexican crackers (which have a spicy kick to them!), etc. Since I had all of the ingredients on hand (which was only five things) for the whole wheat peanut butter crackers, I thought I'd try them for fun!

Above is a picture of four of the five ingredients; the fifth is water!

The following is the recipe, taken directly from the Fannie Farmer book:

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)

-1 tsp. salt

-1/2 cup warm water

-about 2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350. Use ungreased cookie sheets. Combine the baking soda, peanut butter, salt, and warm water in a bowl, and stir vigorously until well blended. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of the flour and mix well. Add more flour if the dough is too tacky to manage; it should be rather stiff and coarse.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to a thickness of about 1/16 inch. Trim the dough to fit your cookie sheet and, using your hands and a spatula, transfer the dough to the cookie sheet. With a knife, score the dough into rectangels 2 inches by 1.5 inches, not cutting all the way through (You can really make them whatever size you want! Mine were probably about 1-inch square).

Bake for 7 minutes on one side, turn the cracker sheet over and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, or until the crackers feel firm and crisp. Remove from the oven and cool on racks. Break the crackers into individual crackers and serve.

All in all, I was happy with how the crackers turned out. I made the first batch exactly as the recipe instructed. The cool thing about homemade crackers is that no two are alike! They don't really come out to be perfect squares, but who cares? After the first batch, for fun I tried making them more like you'd make sugar cookies. I used the rim of a small glass to cut the crackers into rounds and then baked them each separately instead of in one big sheet. Another point to mention is that it is reeeeally tough to roll out the dough to be 1/16 of an inch! That is very thin... Mine were probably more like 1/10 or 1/12 of an inch maybe? I'm not entirely sure. I didn't actually measure. :) But, as a result, I did have to bake my crackers longer, probably about 10 minutes or so on each side rather than the 7 minutes that the recipe says.

I've eaten a few crackers each day this week for a mid-morning or afternoon snack. They pair quite well with a nice cup of tea or coffee! I have eaten them plain each time too (well, with the exception of the first night I made them - will explain shortly), but I think they might be tasty with a bit of jam on them or maybe nutella? Mmmmm. Or, maybe even a bit of peanut butter spread on them would be yummy! The night that I made them, I had the fun idea of making a mini ice cream sandwich with a couple of the round crackers...here's a picture of it. :)

Fun times with homemade peanut butter crackers! Oh, and the cookbook did not have any nutritional information listed, although my guess is these can't be too bad for you...the peanut butter and whole wheat flour are healthy ingredients so I'm going to go out on a limb and call these a healthy snack. :)

Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Buns

Yummmm...check out the ooey gooey goodness in the picture above. Love it! I made these cinnamon buns on a whim tonight since I wasn't planning to bake anything in addition to the chocolate chip cookies. So here's how I came to make them... After work I had to run a few errands, and during my travels, I was right near a Bertuccis, one of my absolute favorite restaurants. Sometimes I buy raw pizza dough from Bertuccis to make homemade pizza or homemade rolls. I haven't actually made cinnamon buns with the dough before, although my good friend Elizabeth did once when she used to work with us... I have a very vivid memory of that day! They were soooo good. Anyway, I ended up going into Bertuccis today for two random reasons. At the time, I really had to use the bathroom so that was one excuse for going in. And I was also pretty hungry as I was running my errands, so I thought maybe I'll buy dough in order to get a couple rolls! In the past when I've purchased the raw dough they often throw in a few baked rolls, which are super yummy. I wanted a roll as a snack today so I had to buy the dough! Haha. Until I got home though, I didn't really have a plan for the dough. I didn't have pizza ingredients on hand, and that's when I remembered my friend Elizabeth's cinnamon buns that time...so I thought I'd give them a shot! Here's what I did (sans any formal recipe!). Oh, and if you don't live near a Bertuccis, my guess is this would also work with any store bought brand of pizza dough or white bread dough. Read on for the steps to make these, and then you'll see the pictures of the entire process. :)

First I worked the dough with my hands to spread it a bit, and then I rolled it out more with my handy dandy Pampered Chef rolling pin. Next I spread some margarine on the dough. I thought about melting the margarine first but figured it would just melt when the buns were baked anyway! Then I made a mixture of three ingredients with these approximate measurements:

-3 tbsp. white sugar

-3 or 4 tbsp. brown sugar

-1 to 1.5 tsp. cinnamon

Then I evenly sprinkled this mixture over the margarine, and I also sprinkled a bit more cinnamon on after that. Next, I carefully rolled the dough along one of the longer edges (jelly roll style), trying to keep the dough tight as I rolled it. After it was rolled into a "log," I stretched it a bit more so that it was longer so that I could maximize the number of cinnamon buns it would make. Then I took a sharp knife and cut it into slices, with each being about 1 to 1.5 inches wide. I placed them into a greased 3-quart casserole dish and then baked at 375 degrees for about 23 - 25 minutes or so, until the tops were ever so lightly browned. I let the rolls cool before topping them with icing, which included these four ingredients (again, with approximate measurements):

-3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar

-2 tbsp. skim milk

-1/2 to 3/4 tsp. vanilla

-a couple dashes of cinnamon

Voila! That is all. I'm going to bring them into work tomorrow to share with my coworkers. I am guessing they are best served warm, so we'll have to zap them in the microwave for a few seconds before consuming.... Can't wait for the ooey gooey delicious goodness!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's a classic recipe that I really don't make all that often! I actually did not use the Toll House recipe this time either, which is what I would typically do. Instead, I used a recipe that Mike's mom uses and very nicely shared with me! She makes a tasty chocolate chip cookie so I thought I'd try my hand at making one too! Here is the recipe, according to Linda. :)

-1 and 1/2 sticks butter or margarine

-1/2 cup white sugar

-1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

-1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

-1 tsp. real vanilla extract

-2 cups all-purpose flour (OR, 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, or 1 cup of each - I did 1/2 cup wheat flour and 1 and 1/2 regular flour this time)

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1 and 1/2 to 2 cups of Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips

Beat the butter or margarine until it is soft. Add both sugars and beat until mixed well. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat well. Add the dry ingredients (mixed all together and added all at once, or one dry ingredient at a time), and beat until mixed in. Mix in the chocolate chips with a spoon. Add more chips if it doesn't look like the dough has enough... :)

Place spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 12 - 15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. Remove from oven, let sit for a minute on the cookie sheet, and cool on a cooling rack.

Linda also shared with me what she often likes to do, which is freeze the dough to bake the cookies later. I actually did this myself this time around! I made the dough on Monday evening, froze the dough, and then baked them tonight (Wednesday). What I did to freeze the dough was roll the dough into balls and then place them on aluminum foil.

I then wrapped them completely in the foil and stored them in a freezer bag. When I baked them a couple days later, I did not thaw the dough; I just let them sit out for a few minutes while the oven preheated. Linda mentioned that frozen cookie dough will tend to make cookies that rise higher than fresh dough and that don't spread as much. I'd definitely say this was true! The cookies really did not spread too much, and they did seem thicker than usual too.

I made two small variations to the recipe... One was intentional and one was not! Hmmmm, what could it be? Well, once I made the dough and before adding the chips, I split the dough in half; in one half I stirred in just the Ghirardelli chocolate chips, and in the other half I added a mixture of chocolate chips and peanut butter M&M's. Here is a picture of a few cookies with the chips and M&M's.

Okay, as for the UNintentional alteration to the original recipe... After I made the dough Monday night and put it in the freezer, I was at my laptop looking over the recipe again. And lo and behold, I saw that the recipe called for baking soda...and what did I add??? Baking powder!!! Oh my goodness. I always meticulously read over recipes and double and triple check the ingredients. Apparently I was off my game that night! So I panicked at first and starting googling about "what happens if you accidentally add baking powder in cookies instead of baking soda"..... What was said on websites varied quite a bit, but on a positive note, most did say that adding powder instead of soda is a "better" mistake than adding soda instead of powder. So I started to feel a little better. I figured I'd better not give these cookies to anyone (that's why I was baking them - to give them away) without trying them first since I made such a blunder! So right then I went to the freezer, took out two cookies, and baked them in the toaster oven. Megan helped me taste test... And guess what? They were okay!! We both actually liked them. I was pretty nervous about it, so I was quite relieved when they were still tasty. PHEW! We thought there might have been a slight difference in taste, but that may have been because we were trying to detect if they were different. Anyway, so that's that!!

Here is one last picture of a cookie cut in half... It almost looks like it's not cooked quite thoroughly...deeeelish! It's like a cookie dough cookie. ;-)