Happy Easter

Wishing you a Happy Easter. I hope your spring weather is as great as ours is on the West Coast!

Can't go without chocolate!

Ina's Old-Fashioned Banana Cake

I made this on a busy Sunday. We had friends over for dinner the night before and we were having another over for dinner on the Sunday.

I chose not to recycle the Coconut Cream Pie from the night before so I needed to make something new.

One of my kitchen new year's resolutions was to be mindful and use our vast collection of cookbooks.

I had not used Barefoot Contessa - How Easy Was That? Simple high flavour recipes. This was the aim Sunday.

I had a bunch of bananas just ripened so I made the Banana cake with Cream Cheese Frosting with a couple of tweaks. I decided to make 2 cakes - one for dinner and one to send off to work!

Banana Cake

For this recipe I used:

6 Ripe Bananas

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Midweek baking usually requires some speed. There is not enough time for something complicated so a I always think of crumb cakes.

For this Blueberry Crumb Cake recipe I used a similar berry cake from Martha Stewart.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

My cake trial below......

Saturday Carrot Cake

We were having a friend over for coffee/tea to talk about our past trip to the Big Island of Hawaii and our friend's upcoming trip to the same Island.

I thought a carrot cake would be a great idea.

Carrot Cake

What makes a great Carrot Cake for you?

How I made my attempt below.....

Cinnamon Raisin Brioche Loaf

It's time to try something new! Cinnamon Raisin Brioche Loaf

This recipe is inspired by both cinnamon rolls, a chocolate coffee cake from Martha Stewart, and a great Brioche recipe from Julia Child's book The Way to Cook.

Cinnamon Raisin Brioche

A bit of a labour of love but worth every second. Make 2 at the same time.. one for the freezer.

See how after the jump...

Whole Wheat Brioche

We eat mostly Whole Wheat bread at home. Unless there is something special like the raisin cinnamon bread I made a couple of days ago. My better half asked for a whole wheat brioche. So....here goes....

When you make this yourself be prepared...this recipe takes two days.

I used the recipe from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads - New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor.

Whole Wheat Brioche

More after the jump.......