BANANAS!

I know, right?  "Bananas?  What does that have to do with cake?"  Absolutely nothing, but read on anyways.

So, I've been seeing this idea floating around for awhile, where you take frozen pieces of banana, blend them, and they magically become this creamy, delicious, ice-cream like treat.  And my reaction was pretty much like, "hmm...I am skeptical."

But today, I was cleaning my kitchen and found that my bunch of bananas from Sam's has already ripened past the stage I like to eat my bananas at (they were green when I got them 4 days ago!).  So I chopped them into little coins, and popped them in my freezer.  I figured, if nothing else, put them in smoothies or something.  But then I remembered this whole "banana ice cream" thing.

So just now, I take some, pop them in my little food processor, start to blend and get...gritty little frozen pieces of banana--pretty much what I expected.  But I decide to keep blending a little more, and add some peanut butter for good measure (because yum).  And then...oh, and then.  :-)

Does it taste like vanilla ice cream?  No, it tastes like bananas--because, you know, bananas are the only ingredient.  But maybe add a dash of sugar and a splash of vanilla, and you have yourself some banilla frozen treat.  Mine was banana with a kick of peanut butter--I think I'll call it frozen Bananas Elvis.  I saw someone online who added Nutella to theirs--OM NOM NOM.

You don't need the silly special machine they sell--I did mine in my little 4 cup Cuisinart, and others apparently have done theirs in a blender.  But if you're trying to be a little better about your sweets, or if--like me--you just have some obscene amount of bananas that have ripened ridiculously fast that you need to use up, I would totally recommend trying this.

"Where's a picture?" you may be asking.  "I'd like to see photographic evidence of this culinary miracle!" you might say.

Well, too bad.  Because I ate it all before it even occurred to me to take a picture.  Because it was delicious and melting.  Make your own and then you can see it for yourself.  :-)

Spongebob Birthday Cake!

Today is the 22nd birthday of a very dear, wonderful, and lovely friend of mine.  She had her birthday party last night, and I knew as soon as she gave me the invite that I wanted to surprise her with an AWESOME cake for the party.  She's a pretty big fan of Spongebob Squarepants--I can't explain it, but we all have our things (Doctor Who and Buffy happen to be mine).  :-)

So, as always, let's start with the finished product (for those of you who just want to see with picture, and not so much the lengthy how-to that follows)!

How it all came about after the break!

Alex and Andy's Wedding, Part 2!

The groom's cake post!  The couple wanted their groom's cake to have a crawfish boil theme from the get-go--the groom is from Louisiana.  I think my favorite part of that meeting was when they started to explain to me what a crawfish boil was, and I was able to hold up my hand and say, "oh, I know--I lived in Louisiana." They looked relieved not to have to try to explain this concept:

The groom's cake!

They sent me several inspiration photos, and this was the end result!  They were specific on a few design points that I needed to be sure to hit:

1) They wanted the cake, itself, to look like a stockpot
2) They wanted the crawfish, red potatoes, and corn on the cob to be inside and around the pot
3) They wanted the board covered in newspaper (a very nice touch, actually--I wish I'd thought of it first)
4) As a last-minute addition, the bride wanted a Coors Light beer can on the side (made of something edible--I suggested just putting an actual Coors Light on there, but she was not down with that)