Whispering Canyon Cafe's Strawberry Banana Bread

Originally I was going to be making cornbread (who doesn't love that?), but found this recipe and knew I had to give it a try! I have never made any form of banana bread before, and love the idea of trying it for the first time in adding strawberries. It's definitely something my kids love, and will be a family favorite snack!


You will need:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups ripe bananas (about 6 medium size), mashed
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups flour
1 1/2 pounds frozen sliced strawberries, thawed

First, pre-heat oven to 325 degrees, and grease your bread pans. Then, cream the butter and sugar together, and gradually add in the bananas. Once that is well mixed, scrape sides of the bowl, and add the eggs in one at a time (make sure each egg is mixed well before moving on to the next one).

Bananas and eggs

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together. After the butter/banana mix is done, add this and stir well. Add the strawberries and stir until everything is well mixed. Pour into bread pans, and place in oven for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center is removed with no crumbs.

After flour mix has been added

Stirring in strawberries

Completed bread

Liberty Tree Tavern's Apple Cobbler

Disney Apple Cobbler

Thank you for coming back to yet another week in our Challenge! In choosing this recipe, I knew I wanted to do something that was baked, and that I had never attempted before. I found the cobbler, and not only did it sound delicious (I will admit to never trying the Liberty Tree Tavern, but I definitely will now!), but I would get to learn how to make a pie crust! It turned out delicious (though I would make a few, minor, changes), and reminded me of something my Grandmother would have made.

Pie Crust Dough:
3 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter cut into ¼ inch pieces
4 tablespoons Crisco – Vegetable

Start by pre-heating the oven to 300 degrees. Then, sift flour, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Using hands, add the Crisco (personal choice is Butter Flavor) and butter and work everything together until it is coarse and crumb-like. Add 2 tablespoons (may require more) of ice water and continue to mix with hands until dough forms. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Once it is at desired length/width place in a greased 13*9 pan.

Dry dough ingredients

Dough after water has been added

Roll out enough dough to cover the bottom of the pan

Cover only the bottom

Apple Filling:
4 pounds Baking Apples – Golden Delicious
½ cup Sugar
1 ½ cups Brown sugar
½ teaspoon Nutmeg – ground
½ cup Flour

Cut apples into thin slices (suggestion that has been made is to peel the apples as well), and fry in a pan for 2-3 minutes. Sift the sugar, brown sugar, nutmeg, and flour. Mix in with the apples, and cook until apples are soft. Chill the mixture, and then place on top of the dough

Apples with sauce

Apple mix on top of dough

Cream Cheese Filling:
8 ounces Cream cheese – softened at room temperature
1 each large egg
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Mix all ingredients together and pour on top of the apple/dough combination. Slightly swirl the filling in.

Oatmeal Streusel:
¾ cup All –purpose flour
½ teaspoon Cinnamon – ground
½ cup Brown Sugar – packed
¾ cup Rolled Oats (I used regular oatmeal)
½ cup Butter – Unsalted

Combine all ingredients together and, with hands, crumble until a course mixture. Sprinkle on top of the apple/dough/filling combination and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in the center of the oven.

Cream Cheese Filling with Streusel

Finished baking and ready to serve!

Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

Join Krystal tomorrow for the next 365 dining recipe at www.magicaldismom.com

The ‘365 In Home Disney Dining Challenge’!

Some of the girls of the MAGIC 24.7 Radio Crew are proud to announce a project that they feel will truly bring a whole new aspect on cooking with a Disney twist. Taken from the inspiration of Julie Powell in her journey to cook all of the famous Julia Child’s recipes, Ashley from www.acupofdisney.com, Mia from www.bibbidibobbidibake.com and Krystal from www.partnersbehindthemouse.com have teamed up to cook 365 days with Disney. The ‘365 In Home Disney Dining Challenge’ is being set up by them to showcase their cooking adventures of literally cooking one Disney style recipe every day of the coming year. This challenge will also give the different views from an expert cook, to a beloved baker and a busy stay at home mom.

Starting Monday, March 26, 2012, and ending March 26, 2013, they will each blog twice a week by taking turns in cooking from famous Disney cooking books and more every day of the year. These recipes will include everything and anything from Disney inspired meals, desserts, drinks and more. You will be able to hop to each one of their blogs each day for a new recipe and how-to; complete with a difficulty key to let you in on just how much work you will be putting into each recipe. Each Sunday, their blogs will recap their cooking for the week. Each one of their blogs will also host a page with their completed recipes so you will have easy access to cook along with them in your home! Also, be listening each month for a recap show in the works to be on air on MAGIC 24.7 Radio.

You will not want to miss this exciting and innovative project Ashley, Mia and Krystal are embarking on. Follow them on Twitter to keep up with more at Ashley @ACupofDisney, Mia @BibbidiBBakeM and Krystal @MagicalDisMom. They are excited to be bringing Disney Dining home every single day of the week and encourage you to cook along with them all year long.

Yule Log

Merry Christmas everyone! What we're making this month is a yule log (or more commonly known as Bouche Noel) with a yummy peppermint filling, and gorgeous red roses on top. Normally I would make the roses from frosting, but as everyone knows, the holidays are hectic so this time of year is all about producing something quality (and pretty), while simplifying. What I ended up doing was purchasing a few red roses from my local store, and placing them on top of, and around, the yule log to create hints of Beauty and the Beast.

Permet de commencer (lets begin)!

What you will need:

The log
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 egg yolks
5 egg whites
2 tablespoons sherry
Powdered sugar for dusting
jelly roll pan
dish towel

Filling
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 sifted powdered sugar
3 teaspoons peppermint hot chocolate powder

Frosting
2 ounces ghiradelli (or any other brand) unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons of milk

Yeilds 10 servings

Begin by greasing and lightly flouring a 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan, and then set aside. Stir together the flour and salt in a small bowl. Then beat egg yolks and sherry in a large bowl on high for about 5 minutes, till the mixture is thick and lemon colored. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the sugar, beating till sugar is almost disolved. 

Then wash the beaters. Beat egg whits and cream of tarter on medium speed till soft peaks appear. Gradually add remaining sugar, 2 tabelspoons at a time, beating on medium to high speed till stiff peaks form (what that means is the tips stand strait). Fold in 2 cup of the egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture. Fold egg yolk mixture into remaining egg white mixture. Fold in flour mixture, and spread in prepared pan. 

Bake on 375 degree for about 12 to 15 minutes, or till top springs back. Immediately loosen cake from pan. Invert cake on to a towel sprinkled with powdere sugar. Roll up warm cake and towel jelly roll style, staring from a short side. 







For the filling all you'll need to do is beat the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and peppermint hot chocolate powder together until soft peaks form. After the roll has cooled, gently unroll and put a generous helping of the filling, and spread eveninly. Then roll the log back up and prepare for frosting.







To make the frosting, create a double boiler effect by putting the unsweetened chocolate into a metal bowel, and placing that on top of a saucepan that has some boiling water in it. Add in the butter and stir until it has evenly melted. After that, stir in the sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Remove from stove top, and let cool for a few minutes. Then, it's time to frost the yule log. 



After covering with the frosting,the log effect is created by taking a fork and lightly pulling it through the frosting. Then, place your roses and petals on and around the yule log (I added powdered sugar for a snow effect, and actually prefer it with just the dark chocolate). You are now finit!





Avoir un Joyeux Noel et Bonne Nouvelle Annee (have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year)!

Disney Junior Meatloaf Cupcakes

Meatloaf Cupcakes

Happy weekend everyone! As a celebration to end this last week, I decided to revamp a Disney Junior recipe that my friend Holly and I tried (and I briefly blogged about Here) with my two kids, and loved. The original recipe is very health conscious which, while positive, takes away a great amount of flavor. So, by adding a few ingredients back in (and in much smaller amounts than normal), I have made this much tastier, and more interesting. 


You will need:

1 1/4 pound ground beef (or for a healthier option try turkey)
3 large eggs
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1/4 cup shredded cheese (or any cheese)
1/4 cup tomato sauce (any spaghetti sauce works)
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (or piece of bread soaked in milk)
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
4 potatoes (peel if you'd like, I leave the skin on for extra nutrition)
Food dye (can be Jello/Kool-Aid packet or actual food coloring)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and either line a muffin tin with liners (there are some adorable Minne Mouse themed liners at Michaels), or grease the bottom well.

Start cutting potatoes, and placing in a pot of water and bring to a boil.

Season and boil potatoes

In a  bowl mix together beef, eggs, carrots, cheese, tomato sauce and bread crumbs. It's best to use your hands to mix everything well together.

Meatloaf mix

Now, place mixture into cupcake tins and make sure to completely fill it so it is at the surface of the tin. Bake for about 22 minutes (or until completely cooked), and then let cool before removing.

Before baking

After baking

While the meatloaf is baking, mix the potatoes, milk, butter, and salt together until it's light and fluffy. Then, add a small amount of food dye to the potatoes (unless a huge quantity of the dye is used, this will not affect the taste). Spread over tops of cupcakes  with either a knife or use a decorative piping bag. Enjoy!

Pre-frosting

Finit!

Lilo and Stitch Inspired Gender Reveal Cake

Gender Reveal Cake

Last year, my friend Krystal asked me to make her a cake for a gender reveal party she was having. I happily agreed, and got set designing. She had requested something that seemed like April Showers Bring May Flowers. And, since she's as passionate about Disney as I am, I  knew I needed to incorporate something Disney in the cake. In thinking, I remembered the summer after we first met, and how we went and saw Lilo and Stitch in the theaters several times.

There was a part of the movie where Stitch takes the Ugly Duckling storybook from Lilo, and reads it outside. The image struck a cord with me, so I decided to put the ducks with the flowers (I cannot take credit for the umbrella, that was Krystal's creation) to allude to the story. 

To make this cake, I used three 10*10 rounds for the first tier and three 8*8 rounds for the second tier. Since the cake needed to be colored on the inside, I chose to do vanilla cake mix for the flavor - I did use a cake mix as I needed consistency in the layers, and that can be the easiest, and least time consuming, way to do it - and used a packet of jello for the color. All that needed to be done was mix the cake batter, and at the last minute gradually poor in the jello packet until the desired color is reached: Because the amount of batter to jello is so great, the jello flavor will not come through in the cake! Bake as directed on the box.

For the frosting, get the recipe here and do a crumb coating on the cake - a crumb coat is a decent layer of frosting applied to the whole cake, and then putting the cake in the freezer to seal in the moisture and reduce the amount of loose crumbs. After the cake has sat in the freezer for between 15-20 minutes, remove and carefully apply the rest of the frosting with your cake spatula. Place in the freezer again, and start to work on the fondant.

Wilton sells fondants pre-colored that are very easy to use (if you're trying to get a very deep color, purchasing pre-done can be much simpler than mixing your own), and I purchased a box that had pastelle yellow, green, blue, and pink. I rolled out the colors to about 1/8" thick, and use the Wilton Flower Press to make the large flower (bottom) and small (top). Then, for an extra magical look, use a paint brush and dust on some powder. Once the fondant flowers are done, simply place them on the cake in whatever array you choose (the fondant and frosting do very well fusing together). I will admit that I left a little gender clue on the outside, but placing two pink flowers next to each other in the back!

Now that the cake has been decorated, put the final touch of rubber ducks around the top tier, gently pressing into the side of the cake. In order to make sure that the ducks are secured on the cake, place the cake back into the freezer after the ducks are firmly against the frosting. 

If you are transporting the cake, and it is not going to be well frozen before going into the vehicle, trim and insert dowel rods between each tier. The added cost is worth it knowing that your cake will arrive in one piece!

Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen Beignets

Thank you for coming back for another baking segment with me.  I have  chosen to kick off this spring with  Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen Beignets; however, instead of making them in the usual square shape I decided to make them Mickey shaped. This is a two day process, but really isn’t as time consuming as it sounds.

What you’ll need:

1 package Active Dry Yeast (make sure to double check the type of yeast)
1-1/2 cups Warm Water
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
2 Eggs, beaten
1 cup Evaporated Milk (undiluted)
7 cups All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup Soft Shortening (I prefer the butter flavor)
Oil for Frying
Confectioners Powdered Sugar

Yields 5 dozen (really this depends on the size – mine are usually on the large side)

Day 1: To start, sprinkle the yeast over warm water and mix well. Then, add sugar, salt, eggs, and milk and blend. Add 4 cups of flour and blend until smooth. After that add in the shortening and remaining 4 cups of flour.

Now, cover the dough with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Day 2: Fill a pan full of oil about an inch to an inch and a half high, and heat it to about 400 degrees. Then, lightly flour a surface to roll out the dough. Remove the dough from the fridge, and roll it out to an 1/8th inch thick.

It is now time to cut the dough into the shape of Mickey Mouse! Like I mentioned on the show, I would normally make this much easier by using a Mickey shaped cookie cutter, but it hasn’t arrived from the Disney Store yet. So, what I did was use a very sharp knife, and cut by hand.

Shaping by hand (and messing with the dough in general) may sound difficult but it really isn’t – my five year old daughter, Reyna, was right along side me after watching some of Princess and the Frog!

My three year old son, Ken, also tried to get in on the baking action!

After getting the shapes correctly done, place the beignets in the hot pan full of oil.

Because of how hot the oil is, make sure to have full attention on the beignets for safety! The beignets are done once both sides are a golden brown (in my pan, this was about two minutes on each side). Now that they’re done, remove and set on a plate and give a generous dusting with powdered sugar.

I hope every one of you takes the time to do these – they really are a wonderful treat, and something the whole family will enjoy!