Pretty in pink (and red)

There are definitely hassles with having kids in two different places and it's a pain having to plan family vacations around the school schedule.  But there is one advantage to having Brianna in elementary school now--I get to bake for her!  The day care has a policy prohibiting outside food.  They do allow for birthdays and other parties, but the items still have to be store-bought (with ingredient labels).  While I understand the concerns about food allergies, it still pains me every time I have to buy cookies or cupcakes at the grocery store.  I know I can do so much better!  =)

As it turns out, my girls' birthdays are conveniently in close proximity to holidays.  Gillian's birthday is a couple weeks before Halloween, and Brianna's is about three weeks before Valentine's Day.  Somehow it works out well for them.  Gillian wanted purple and orange colors for her cake.  No problem--Halloween m&ms!  And while Brianna has changed her favorite color to light blue, she still seems okay with the pink and red that you can find all over the place this time of year.  The other day, I found some great cupcake papers decorated with hearts, and pink (raspberry) filling goes nicely with chocolate cake and frosting, both in color and flavor.

This past weekend was a busy one.  I had to work Saturday, so I only had Sunday to do all the prep for Brianna's birthday, which was yesterday.  She's now seven--where does the time go?  It hardly seems possible that she could be that old.  It feels like this was just yesterday:

Now where was I going with this?  Oh, right.  Busy Sunday.  I needed to make Brianna's cake, since I knew I would be busy at the Peter Reinhart class as Central Market on Monday night.  (More to come on both the cake and the class.)  I also needed to make cupcakes for Brianna to take to school on Monday to celebrate her birthday with her classmates.  And then I needed to make this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.  For that, Steph of Obsessed with Baking picked Cocoa-Nana Bread.  It looked like a chocolate-banana pound cake sort of thing.  I had no idea how we were going to manage to eat that as well as a great big chocolate birthday cake.  So being of sound mind, I decided to kill two birds with one stone.  I made the TWD recipe into cupcakes!

The recipe was quite easy to mix up.  It's the creaming method, beating together butter and brown sugar, then adding eggs, bananas and vanilla.  Then you stir in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder) and then mix in chocolate chips.  From the full recipe, I ended up with 19 cupcakes, which was perfect for Brianna's class.  I baked them for 23 minutes.  To make sure the cool red heart cupcake papers still looked festive, I used white papers inside them, which worked quite well.  For the frosting, I used both sour cream-chocolate frosting (see this post) and raspberry buttercream (from the Perfect Party Cake, flavored with raspberry fruit butter).  I used them for B's birthday cake, and didn't have a huge amount of either left, so I tried something new--I put both into the same piping bag and got swirls when I piped the frosting.  Very cool!

The verdict?  I only got a small taste--we had one extra, so Jamie and I split it (without frosting).  I thought it was pretty good.  The banana was subtle, but noticeable, at least when still warm.  They struck me as more muffiny than cupcakey, but I figured that it wouldn't be a problem with frosting on top. =)  Brianna reported that most of the kids in her class really enjoyed the cupcakes.  The frosting was a big hit.  Apparently a few didn't entirely like the cake part.  I'm guessing they didn't like the banana, which Brianna didn't know about.  I'm not sure if I'll make this one again or not--I'm kind of curious how it does as a loaf, but I'm not that fond of bananas.  We'll see.

If you want to give this one a try for yourself, head on over to Steph's blog for the recipe.  And be sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else fared this week!

Expectations

I think all parents have high expectations for their kids. And high expectations for themselves, as well. I know I worry way too much about whether I'm doing the right things as a parent, teaching my girls the right things, handling things the right way... the list goes on and on. And things definitely get more interesting with more than one child, especially as they start to interact with each other more. Jamie often shakes his head and asks me "Is it really normal for them to behave like that? Why do they act that way and fight with each other?" Yes, he's an only child. My usual answer, "Yes, it's normal. And why? Because they can!"

I'm the oldest of four girls, so I know how hard that can be. Yet I still find myself saying the same things to Brianna that my mom used to say to me. It's hard, having to be the older, more responsible one. And I'm sure it's particularly trying when your not-quite-3-year-old sister is making your life miserable. I realized that I tend to forget that Gillian is almost four years younger than Brianna, and I probably expect too much from her a lot of the time. It's easy to think that because Brianna can do something when I ask her to (can do it; will do it is another matter entirely), Gillian can too. Add in the fact that Gillian's vocabulary and sentence structure is very advanced, and it's even harder to remember that she's not even three yet.

Case in point... Over the weekend, I wanted to stop by Sur la Table to look for a new bundt pan. I didn't really need one, but the one I have was cheap and not very interesting to look at, so I wanted to explore some new options. So while Jamie and Brianna were finishing up at Borders, I took Gillian and walked over to SLT to check things out. Unfortunately, I forgot that Gillian doesn't really listen when I ask her not to touch things. So I told her that if she couldn't listen to me and leave things alone, she'd have to hold my hand. At that, she sat down on the floor and told me "No!" At that point, I just picked her up off the floor and headed out of the store as quickly as I could while Gillian squirmed and shouted "No! I want to be down! I will listen now!" *sigh* You'd think I'd learn my lesson and not try to take her places like that, but I know sooner or later she'll get past this stage...

The reason I was looking for the new bundt pan was for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. Mary the Food Librarian loves to bake bundt cakes. So I don't think anyone was surprised to learn that she selected the Classic Banana Bundt Cake for us to make this week. I resigned myself to making the cake in my usual pan, but then I remembered my kugelhopf pan! I've only used it once, so it was about time to try it out again.

We go through cycles of eating bananas in this house. Jamie doesn't really eat them much. I will if I'm in the right mood, and only if they aren't too ripe--I like them totally yellow, but not yet brown at all. Gillian--my monkey girl--loves them, and Brianna will usually eat them as well. In fact, banana was the first food other than breastmilk that my girls ate. It's certainly one of the easiest to prepare for kids of all ages. =) I don't really like banana desserts and baked goods, though. I'll eat banana bread sometimes, but don't like things like banana cream pie at all. Still, I like bundt cakes, and definitely wanted to give this one a try, especially since everyone who made it was raving about it.

The cake is very straightforward to mix up. It uses the standard creaming method. Besides the bananas for moisture, it has sour cream, which I love in cakes. (I used reduced fat for this one.) The leavening comes from baking soda. I expected that, because of the sour cream, but was a bit surprised at the quantity. You don't see many recipes that call for 2 teaspoons of baking soda! Then I did some thinking and some checking online, and realized that the bananas are acidic as well, though not as much so as the sour cream. Plus baking soda results in more browning, and this cake definitely comes out a gorgeous brown color. Because of the shape of my pan, my cake didn't take quite as long to bake as the recipe said. I tented it with foil after thirty minutes (that browning thing again), and it baked for a little less than 60 minutes total. I used to worry a lot about bundt cakes sticking to the pan, but I've found that a liberal application of baking spray (like Pam for Baking or Baker's Joy) works wonders.

The verdict? Well, as I mentioned, the cake turned out gorgeous. And besides looking good, it was quite tasty. I added a drizzle of glaze (just powdered sugar and milk). I love glaze. =) Gillian liked it too--she mostly picked off the glaze and ate it, leaving the cake behind. I was surprised to find that Brianna liked the cake a lot. I think she's going through a growth spurt, because she's been eating everything in sight. She actually preferred the cake without the glaze. Jamie liked it, and banana baked goods aren't his favorite. He commented that he liked the lighter texture (as compared to your typical banana bread). I took a bunch of the cake to the daycares, too. Several people immediately commented that banana cake or bread was their favorite. I didn't get any other comments from them yet, but the containers came home empty, so I guess it was a hit. =) I would definitely make this one again, especially if I had people to share it with.

For the recipe, be sure to head over to Mary's blog. And check out the blogroll over at TWD to see what everyone else thought of this week's cake. And I leave you with a new picture of my silly monkeys... =)

Going bananas

My children can be picky eaters.  (I may have mentioned this before...)  Not all the time, but often enough.  Some of that is just because they're kids, of course.  =)  Gillian is actually a lot better than Brianna most of the time.  If she says she doesn't like something, it's usually because she really doesn't like it.  With Brianna, it's all about the power struggle.  It can be particularly infuriating when she claims to dislike something that I know darn well she ate with no problem the week before.  I even get mixed responses to dessert.  They both eat pretty much anything chocolate.  But they often disagree on other options.  For instance, Brianna claims to dislike raisins in all baked goods.  Gillian, on the other hand, sits there and picks the raisins out so she can eat them first.  There are a few other things like that.  But another thing that they agree on is a love of pudding.  (Well, except maybe rice pudding.)

For Tuesdays with Dorie, the month of April will be filled with lots of chocolate, so I know most of the recipes should go over well.  But for this week, we start off with something I wasn't too sure about--Banana Cream Pie.  It was chosen by Amy of Sing for Your Supper.  I didn't mention it above, but I'm pretty sure the girls get some of their picky tendencies from me.  =)  I don't like banana cream pie.  Honestly, I don't really like most things banana, unless I'm in just the right mood.  But I already felt really bad about missing last week, and didn't want to skip another recipe.  What to do?  

First, I decided to only make half the recipe.  And then I decided to skip the pie crust and just make small parfaits.  I asked Brianna if she liked banana pudding.  I wasn't sure if she'd had it, but it turns out they made it at daycare at some point.  She was quick to tell me, though, that she was sure I could make one that was much better.  Wow.  Considering the above-mentioned power struggles that we've been dealing with, that was quite the compliment! =)  She then told me how I need to make them--put pudding in the bottom of the bowl, put sliced bananas around the sides, and put whipped cream in the middle.  So that's what we did.

The pastry cream came together pretty easily.  Of course, I've had a few other opportunities to make pastry cream from Dorie's recipes, so I knew what to expect.  The brown sugar and vanilla added a nice caramel character, and the spices were a good addition as well.  After chilling, the cream was quite thick, but I got to vent some of my frustrations by whisking it until it loosened up. =)  For the whipped cream, I just added a bit of sugar (to taste) to some heavy cream, and skipped the sour cream.  I like the tang that sour cream adds, but I was afraid my young pudding eaters wouldn't care for it.  

The verdict?  This pretty much never happens, but Brianna and Gillian ate all of this week's TWD recipe by themselves (over the course of two days).  Jamie got to finish off a bit of pastry cream left in the bowl, but that was it.  The first day, I made them both dishes with all three elements--pastry cream, bananas, and whipped cream.  Brianna ate all of hers--amazing. =)  Gillian tasted hers, made me take the bananas out (even though she usually likes them), and polished off the rest.  I was pleasantly surprised--I expected some sort of complaint about the spices, but didn't get one.  For day two, Brianna requested that I leave the whipped cream off of hers.  (I was actually kind of surprised she ate it the first day.)  And I left the bananas out of Gillian's.  Again, gone.  All in all, a very good result.  

For the full recipe, be sure to head over to Amy's blog.  And I'm sure the other TWD bakers have come up with some creative takes on this week's recipe, so check the blogroll as well.  

Losing my marbles...

I've got way too much stuff going on in my life right now. There's work, of course, and the usual stuff around the house. My youngest sister is getting married in six weeks in Pennsylvania, and Brianna, Gillian, and I are all in the wedding. So I'm trying to get things organized for that, including travel arrangements (got the plane tickets last week, thank goodness). And Brianna starts kindergarten in three weeks. Wish me luck if you're reading this on Tuesday morning. Registration is from 9:00 to 1:00. I have to be at work at 11:15. Here's hoping I am near the head of the line and can get done in time.

Last week I got online one day at lunch and printed out the list of paperwork that I need to have for registration. Two of the things I need are Brianna's birth certificate and social security card. I knew I had both (I still need to go get a copy of Gillian's birth certificate; I wish they just sent one automatically), so that evening after work, I started trying to figure out where I put them. I couldn't find them. I looked through all the places in the house where I usually keep important stuff. I started to panic. Then a thought occurred to me--maybe I actually put them in the safe deposit box. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd been there. Well, the next morning, I hurried the girls out the door so I could drop them off early at daycare and head over to the branch where my box is (the one I work at doesn't have safe deposit boxes). And sure enough, that's where the birth certificate and social security card were. But I don't have any recollection of putting them there! I swear, sometimes I think I'm losing my mind! Motherhood has definitely had an interesting effect on my memory...

For instance, I have to review recipes more carefully these days. I used to be able to look at something once or twice and I'd be good to go. While I was working on this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, I must have gone back to look at the cookbook sitting on my kitchen table at least 4 or 5 times. And I still managed to forget an ingredient! (The rum, which fortunately was just for flavoring.) Of course, it doesn't help that more often than not, I've got one or both of my children trying to ask me something while I'm trying to cook or bake. I can't use that excuse for this one, though, since I didn't start the cake until they were in bed Sunday night. On second thought, my husband just pointed out that I can still blame it on them indirectly, since they're undoubtedly responsible for the sleep-deprivation that I'm always suffering... =)

Anyway, more about the cake... This week's selection is Black and White Banana Loaf, and it comes from Ashlee of A Year in the Kitchen. It's basically a pound cake, with banana and chocolate marbled together. You make the pound cake batter and add bananas that have been mashed with some lemon juice and zest. Then melted chocolate is added to half of the batter. The two batters are layered in a loaf pan, swirled and baked.  Fortunately, I read the P&Q for this week's recipe before I started, so I was careful not to use too much banana.  And when I put the batters in the pan, I just alternated spoonfuls of the two batters.  I didn't really swirl them together at all, except for a little bit on the very top.  I ended up baking my cake for about 75 minutes, tenting it with foil after the first 45 minutes to make sure it didn't get too brown on top.

The verdict?  My cake was very moist.  A little bit gummy on the very bottom, but not bad.  I usually skip Dorie's instruction to put the loaf pan on a baking sheet, but I did it this time because of the long baking time.  Next time I'll try it without the baking sheet for at least part of the time to see if that helps the bottom bake a bit better.  My marbling came out really nice!  And the taste was pretty good.  I'm not a big banana person--I generally don't like them cooked, though I'll eat the occasional piece of banana bread.  My other taste testers really seemed to like this one, though, except for Brianna (who's been in a picky mood lately).  Want to try it for yourself?  Head over to Ashlee's blog for the recipe, or pick up your very own copy of Baking From My Home to Yours!