Baking in Leather Boots

I am the Pig-Pen of bakers.

Instead of a cloud of dust around me, I am enveloped in a cloud of flour. Traces of my homemade treats decorate the walls, refrigerator, floor, tea kettle, you name it. If I used it as an ingredient, you'll find it on some surface of my kitchen. Once, when making Red Velvet Cheesecake, I somehow managed to track red footprints around the house. Don't worry, Husband. I cleaned them up right away! On a recent Saturday of baking, I was already dressed in one of my favorite vintage Goodwill dresses and my new beloved equestrian-style leather boots. I was comfy and had no desire to change. So, I decided to just put on an apron and have a day of stylish baking.

Given my Pig-Pen ways, you can imagine how this probably wasn't the greatest of ideas.

As I was getting the ingredients out of our overstuffed pantry cabinet, a bottle of canola oil came toppling down and landed with a smack on the kitchen floor. The top to the bottle shattered and thick liquid flowed everywhere. At first, I was so concerned with cleaning up our floor and lower cabinets, that I didn't think about whether any of the oil got on me or my boots. When the thought crossed my mind to actually look at my outerware, I almost didn't dare. I held my breath and slowly let my neck bend down, looking at my boots with squinty eyes and much trepidation....egads, my boots were oil free! What miraculous, magical boots I must have, I thought. Jessica Simpson shoes rock! Must buy only Jessica Simpson shoes no matter how ridiculously priced.

See here, disaster averted. Listen for it...a HUGE sigh of relief.

One would think after such a close call, this Shopgirl would promptly take off boots in favor of old cruddy shoes. You would think wrong. Shoes have proven to be invincible, Shopgirl says.

Enough of talking in the third person. Miraculously, I made it through the rest of my baking fully boot-clad without any mishaps. Except if you count the sliding around I did on the laminate floor due to the oil spill. It was kind of fun, actually...surf-baking. Unsuspecting Husband thought I was trying to kill him. Enjoy the ride, I say. When do you ever get to surf in your own kitchen? Put on Dick Dale's surf guitar tunes and be transported into a Quentin Tarantino movie. But with less violence & red liquid (other than red velvet batter), please.

Anyway, back to the whole reason why I was in the kitchen on this drama-filled Saturday. I was making a dessert for a dinner party at our friends' house. On this day, I decided to make Banana Caramel Cake from Food & Wine's Best of the Best. We received this as a wedding gift and it features several cookbooks that the editors at Food & Wine thought were the best of 2008. This recipe is adapted from The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger & Robert Steinberg. I was drawn to this recipe because our coffee shop serves a dessert called (surprise, surprise) Caramel Banana Cake. Our cake is a moist banana sheet cake topped with thick caramel frosting. Personally, just give me a bowl of this frosting and I'm good. I grew up with this frosting. We ate it on everything from angel food cake to regular ol' box cake. When I saw a recipe for a similar cake, I just had to try it. I had never heard of a caramel & banana combination before Mom made her cake at the shop. I wanted to see how it compared.

Cake:

Unsalted butter and flour for the pan

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (If you are like me, you don't have freshly grated nutmeg on hand. I just used ground nutmeg.)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper(This is my addition. I wanted a little more contrast to the sweetness of this cake.)

1 teaspoon salt(I used Kosher salt, again for more of a contrast.)

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups canola oil

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
3 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips.)

1 1/2 cups diced (1/4-inch) ripe bananas (about 2)

Caramel:

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk (I used 1% without any problems.)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 10-inch nonstick Bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt, pepper, and baking soda.

In the bowl of a stand mixer filled with the paddle attachment, combine the eggs, oil, granulated sugar, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined, stopping to scrape as necessary.

Mix in the dry ingredients, about 1/2 cup at a time, stopping to scrape as necessary.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the pecans and the chocolate. Carefully fold in the bananas; do not overmix.

At this point the recipe says to "Pour into prepared pan." I found the batter to be quite thick and very unpourable. I had to spoon the batter into the bundt pan. But, in the end, everything turned out ok.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Meanwhile, about 5 minutes before the cake is done, combine the brown sugar, milk, and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally as the butter and sugar melt. Once it is amber in color, remove from heat.Remove the cake from the oven and immediately, using a long skewer(or in my case one chopstick quickly sharpened by Husband), poke holes all over the surface of the cake. Pour the hot caramel over the top, poking more holes and pushing the cake slightly away from the sides of the pan as necessary to allow the caramel to soak into the cake's top and sides. Place on cooling rack to cool slightly.

When the cake has cooled, but is still warm to the tough, unmold onto a serving platter. Once I did this, I thought the cake needed just a little something more, so I halved the above caramel recipe and poured it over the top of the cake & poked a few more holes to make it even more caramelly. I let it cool a little more & then sprinkles some kosher salt on the top & sifted a little powdered sugar on top. Without the sugar, it looked a little naked.

Serve warm or at room temperature.


My take on this cake? YUMMY! I loved the chunks of caramel that are strewn throughout. It's moist and really holds up for days. Perfect for taking to a dinner party. Next time, however, I will be sure to put a tarp down on the floor before baking.

Special thanks to Husband for his photography & editing talents. He is a multi-talented Husband.