PEANUT BUTTER BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP LAYER CAKE

I have always admired cake bakers and cake decorators. Their artistic creations and imagination to make pretty or stylized cakes can be a work of art.

I have never made a double or triple layered cake. I have shied away from it and kept to muffins, regular cakes, loaves, cookies and bread. I am a regular reader of the blog from Ambitious Kitchen and seeing this peanut butter banana chocolate chip three layer iced cake (Ambitious Kitchen) intrigued me. It was time to venture into trying something new.

Because I love kitchen gadgets, tools and baking bans, I invested in a few things as I didn't have some of the required cake making tools in my arsenal. For valentine's day, the DH bought me a cake decorating turntable and some decorating tools and I bought three - six inch cake pans (3 inch deep) along with some icing knives. I realize if I want to make some different cakes, I will need some eight inch cake pans.

There are numerous recipes for peanut butter banana layer cake. This recipe from Ambitious Kitchen interested me because I have already made many recipes from her blog site; the ingredients include almond and coconut flours; it doesn't have an excess amount of sugar; and, I understood her baking instructions. I did do some additional research on how to bake a layer cake, how to prep baking pans and decorating a cake. Baking and decorating cakes is a new world for me and I might try to make some novel cakes in the future.

The frosting requires powdered sugar. I made my own powdered sugar from coconut sugar. It is easy to do and involves blending in a high speed mixer the sugar required for frosting until it has a powdered texture. To make it more powdered, you can add one tablespoon of arrowroot or tapioca flour for every one cup of coconut sugar added to the blender. If you are not making it paleo, you can also use corn starch.

There are lots of ways you can decorate a cake with chocolate chips. I tried to be simplistic and not over do the number of chips pressed into the icing. I did measure the height of the cake with the icing and it is five inches. You can make the cake using two - eight inch cake pans and the height of the finished cake would be less.

I baked the cake batter the day before I was going to serve the cake. I lined the bottom of each cake pan with a round of parchment paper and used a cooking oil spray under and over the parchment paper and also sprayed the sides of the pans. I lightly floured the sides of the pans after applying the cooking spray. I let the cakes cool in the pans and they were very easy to remove from the pans. I continued to cool them on baking racks. Once the cakes were thoroughly cooled, I wrapped each one in plastic wrap and stored them in the fridge. The following afternoon I made the peanut butter icing.

Everyone who sampled the cake gave it a thumbs up.

COUNTRY VEGETABLE SOUP

For this week's soup, I decided to make a vegetable soup with chickpeas to provide some protein. The freezer has some frozen garden vegetables which need to be used before summer arrives. It is time to use the zucchini and green beans. I shred zucchini during the summer and freeze it in quantities of two cups. I also froze several bags of green beans in half cup quantities. I used fresh tomatoes in this recipe but you can use frozen or canned tomatoes. I added frozen parsley as I froze chopped parsley last fall to use in cooking during the course of the winter. I did add another cup of water while the soup was cooking as it was getting too thick. You can add other vegetables to the soup pot as a country soup is really about using what you have available.

The soup is a flavourful vegetable soup and will be great for lunches.

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 of a medium size cabbage, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
5 mushrooms, chopped
4 tomatoes, skinned
2 cups zucchini, shredded
1/2 cup green beans (optional)
1 can (540 ml) chickpeas, drained
1 tsp Italian seasoning
6 to 7 cups of chicken/veg/beef broth or water
handful of parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Add the oil to a large soup pot and heat to medium high. Once hot, add the onion, garlic and cabbage, reduce the heat to medium and sauté for a few minutes. Stir as you don't want to burn the onions or garlic. Add the carrots, celery and mushrooms and continue to sauté for another few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients. Cover the pot with a lid and bring the soup to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer. If the soup is getting too thick while simmering, add some more water. Simmer for 45 to 60 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Taste to see if more herbs or spices are needed and serve. Serves 8.

CHICKEN VEGETABLE TORTELLINI SOUP

A friend sent me a link to a popular slow cooker chicken tortellini soup. The recipe has been on reddit. There are a number of different versions you can find. I decided to create my own based on some of the common ingredients used.

I made the soup in a slow cooker but it also lends itself to being made in a soup pot on the stove. I used frozen multicoloured tortellini. After adding the frozen tortellini to the slow cooker pot, I cooked it on high for ten minutes but the frozen uncooked tortellini had cooled the soup when added. The slow cooker pot I was using has a number of features including one for reducing sauces. I selected that feature and got the soup to bubble.

The soup is very good and both the DH and I enjoyed it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
3 tbsp flour

6 cups chicken broth
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 small can (14 oz) tomatoes or equivalent frozen tomatoes
6 to 9 fresh mushrooms, chopped OR 1 can of mushrooms
1 stalk celery, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

2 cups frozen or fresh tortellini
2 to 3 cups fresh spinach
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

In a soup pot or in your slow cooker, if it has a sauté function, add the oil and butter and heat to medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, garlic and seasoning. Sauté for a few minutes to soften the onions but to not burn or brown the onions or garlic. Add the flour and stir to make a roux.

Add the broth, chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, celery and salt and pepper to the soup pot or slow cooker.

If using a soup pot, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer for about two hours.

If using a slow cooker, cook on low heat for four to six hours or on high heat for two to three hours.

Take the chicken out and shred it or cube it into small pieces. Add it back to the soup.

Add the tortellini and spinach to the pot and cook for another 10 minutes on high if using a slow cooker or on medium heat if using the stove top method. The pasta needs to cook. Frozen pasta will require more time to cook in the slow cooker, likely 20 minutes. Add the Parmesan cheese and serve.  Serves 4 to 6 people depending an appetites.