Wedding Cakes!

This is the first summer in a couple of years that I do not have to make a wedding cake for anyone. The lack of responsibility has left me with a curious carefree feeling.  Here are some glamour shots of the wedding cakes I made last year.  The first was for a former student.  Hers is a yellow butter cake with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream.

I also made a cake for my friends Seamus and Anna.  I went to culinary school with Seamus so it was super awesome to get make his wedding cake.  Anna wanted a carrot cake, so I made her one with white chocolate cream cheese frosting.  Also, I found a really great platter at Value Village and my neighbour who is an amazing artist, customized it with their wedding date, names, and the words fidelity and strength.

Ponderosa Cake aka U-nbelivable B-anana C-ake

I just finished taking a Library Studies course at UBC.  My class was in Ponderosa Annex which is, in my mind, famous for the super delicious ponderosa cake.  I ate a piece of this cake almost every other day when I was doing my undergrad.  I alternated it with the awesome blueberry streusel cake from Blue Chip.  It just so happens that my Grandfather clipped a copy of the Ponderosa Cake Recipe out of the Vancouver Sun twenty years ago.  Here is the recipe broken down.

Tools

• Mixer hand or stand
• three mixing bowls (two if using stand mixer)
• liquid measure cup
• dry measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• spatula
• 9 x 11 baking pan
• parchment paper

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
2. measure out all ingredients
3. Grease baking pan line with parchment, grease parchment (I use cooking spray)
4. Follow method

Ingredients - Must be at Room Temperature

Part A - Wet Ingredients I

1 cup butter (soft!)
2 cups sugar ( I only use 1 & 1/2 cups)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups mashed ripe banana (they don't have to be super ripe.  The riper the bananas, the denser the cake)

Part B - Dry Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

Part C - Wet Ingredients 2

1 cup sour cream (I have substituted yogurt or buttermilk when I didn't have sour cream)

Part D - Streusel

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips ( I use 2 cups!!!)

Method

In a stand mixer fixed with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer:

• from A cream together butter and sugar
• beat in eggs one at a time
• beat in vanilla
• beat in banana

In a separate bowl

• from B mix together dry ingredients
• Have sour cream in a glass measure
• In yet another bowl mix together Streusel

1. Add 1/3 of sour cream  to mix.  Blend for 30 seconds. Scrape
2. Add 1/2 of dry (B) to banana/butter mixture.  Blend for 30 seconds.  Scrape down sides of bowl/mixer.
3. Repeat 1 and 2 - Add final third of sour cream last and blend.

Pour half batter into tray.  Use spatula to spread it out.  Sprinkle 1/2 of streusel over batter.  Spoon the rest of the batter into the tray and spread it out.  Sprinkle the rest of the streusel over the cake.

Bake in pre-heated 350 degree over for 55 to 60 minutes.

A wooden skewer will come out clean when the cake is done.  Also when  a cake is cooked, it will pull  away from the sides of the pan as it cools.

Try not to eat all of the cake in one day.

A note there are only three reasons a baking recipe doesn't work

1. Failure to follow the method.
2. Leaveners (baking soda/powder or yeast) are dead or expired.
3. Oven calibration is off.  Temp doesn't match what is on the dial.