Supermoist Banana and Almond Cake

Belated birthday cake for my friend Joelle...you can split the little layers and fill for extra frosted goodness :)

The first time I made this cake was years ago for book club and never posted it...too good not to. Scottie never got a cake on his actual birthday this year, so about a month later when we had friends over to dinner we called this his birthday cake.  For this occasion I baked what is typically a one cake pan recipe in two smaller  6" pans.  You can stack them to feed more folks, or share one with a neighbor like I did and serve the singleton to 4+.  You can even wrap the layers well in Saran and a Ziplock bag and freeze in advance.
This is wonderful served with nothing more than plain Greek yogurt as an accompaniment, or for a special treat you can whip up a batch of Whipped Cream and Cream Cheese Frosting* like I did for Scott's cake (pictured at bottom).  So darn good. Make it extra purty by decorating it with edible flowers (the flowers in the top photo are NOT edible...couldn't find any this time).

I was afraid I'd lost the recipe and wasn't able to find it again online.  Luckily I found it stashed in an old binder from the days I actually used to print out recipes.  Going on the blog in case I misplace it again!
Hope you have a scale because the measurements are mostly by weight as found in the original recipe.

Supermoist Banana and Almond Cake:
serves 8
(Adapted from Janni Kyritsis' Wild Weed Pie)

250g raw whole almonds (I've also just used 250g of blanched almond flour)
2 eggs
110g (1/2 cup) evaporated cane juice crystals
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
250g ripe bananas, peeled (approx. 3)
juice of 1/2 a lemon (I use a bit less)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I use a combination of about 1/4 tsp almond extract and 3/4 tsp vanilla)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
Plain Greek yogurt, to serve, or make a batch of Cream Cheese and Whipped Cream Frosting (minus the cocoa powder!)

Preheat oven to 300.

To make one larger cake use a 22cm. or an 8-9" tart pan with a removable base, lined with
parchment.

To make two smaller cakes use 2 6" regular cake tins lined with parchment bottom and sides.

Pulse almonds in a food processor until finely ground.
Beat eggs and sugar for 10 minutes until pale and fluffy.
Add almonds and baking powder to egg and sugar mixture.

Puree bananas with lemon juice and vanilla, then add to the almond mixture, stirring to combine.

Pour into tin (or tins) and sprinkle sliced almonds evenly over the top of the batter.

If baking in one tin bake 40-50 minutes (rotating midway through baking), or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

If making two smaller cakes, I think I baked them for about 32 min, but start checking them at 20 minutes.  Rotate pans midway through baking if your oven heats unevenly like mine does.

* If you make the cream cheese frosting just buy an 8oz container of whipping cream, use 2/3 cup sugar and 5.33 oz of cream cheese, so that you don't have as much leftover.

Scott's birthday cake

Chocolate Sweet Potato Torte

This is such a lovely cake...well, maybe lovely isn't the word as it doesn't seem much to look at, but it tastes wonderful. I reduced the amount of sugar by a quarter cup both times I made this as my sweet potatoes were plenty sweet. Folks I served it to had no idea it was a "healthier" cake until I told them. No butter, no oil, and as it happens no flour if you're looking for a recipe that is gluten-free (make sure you use gluten-free chocolate if that's what you're going for).

Chocolate Sweet Potato Torte:
(Vegetarian Times Magazine)
Serves 12

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided (original recipe calls for 1 1/2...1 being added to the sweet potato cocoa mix, the other 1/2 to the egg whites. I used evaporated cane juice crystals.)
1 cup packed cooked, mashed orange-fleshed sweet potato, such as Beauregard, garnet, or jewel (I roasted them wrapped in foil at 400 for about an hour, till soft, then peeled once cool)
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened dark-chocolate cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2 Tbs. milk, or any plant "milk" you prefer

Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.
Blend sweet potato, 3/4 cup sugar, almond flour, cocoa, and salt in food processor 30 seconds, or until smooth, scraping bowl as necessary.
Separate 3 eggs, placing whites in bowl of electric mixer. Add 3 yolks and remaining whole egg to sweet potato mixture; pulse to combine. Transfer sweet potato mixture to large bowl.
Beat egg whites with electric mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar; beat 2 minutes more, or until stiff, glossy peaks form.
Fold one-third egg white mixture into sweet potato mixture with spatula. Gently fold in remaining whites. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (mine was done at 40 min). Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack. Remove springform sides; cool completely.
Melt chocolate in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in soymilk. Alternately, you can just put both chocolate and soymilk in a bowl in the microwave for ~15-20 seconds taking care not to burn the chocolate. Spread chocolate mixture over top of cake. Let stand until chocolate sets.

Per slice: Calories: 227, Protein: 6g, Total fat: 9g, Saturated fat: 2g, Carbs: 37g, Cholesterol: 71mg, Sodium: 61mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugars: 29g

Pear Cake with Streusel

Pears have been plentiful in the stores of late and this recipe caught my eye in one of the blog's I read. I added a streusel topping to her recipe and changed out the regular flour for whole wheat pastry flour. A few other changes here and there and I came out with a yummy not-too-sweet cake for us to snack on. Check out the original recipe...as you might like to just make it as originally written.

Pear Cake:
(adapted from All Buttoned Up's blog)

Streusel:
6 Tbs rolled oats
3 Tbs whole wheat pastry flour (for some reason I'd halved the amount of flour from the fruit crisp recipe's struesel...I might use all 6 Tbs next time)
1/4 cup Sucanat
a good pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 -1 tsp ground ginger (honestly, I can't remember how much I used)
a couple rasps of nutmeg
4 tsp agave nectar
6-8 tsp canola oil (can't remember exactly how much I used for this either :-)

Mix all together then set aside.

Dry bowl:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I'd like to try a combo of spelt flour and ww pastry flour next time)
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs Sucanat, brown sugar or reg. sugar
couple rasps of nutmeg
~1/2 tsp cinnamon

Wet bowl:
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 Tbs canola oil
1 egg (or egg replacer or 1/4 cup applesauce to make it vegan)
1/2 cup yogurt (regular or soy)
1/3 cup liquid sweetener (I used agave nectar, but recipe said brown rice syrup, maple syrup, or barley malt would work out too)
1 tsp vanilla
1 or 2 pears chopped up (I used 1 1/2 largish Bartletts and didn't bother peeling them)

Mix wet and dry bowls together and pour into a greased 8" by 8" pan. Add streusel to top and bake for ~35-45 minutes at 350 degrees. Do the toothpick test to make sure it's done in the middle.

Let it cool for about 5 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Serve alone or with some agave sweetened Fage Greek yogurt. :-)