Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It all started with some browning bananas.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/banana-bars-with-cream-cheese-frosting/

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
• FROSTING:
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3-3/4 to 4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in bananas.
• 2. Spread into a greased 15x10x1-in. baking pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (do not overbake). Cool.
• 3. For frosting, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually beat in enough confectioners' sugar to achieve desired consistency. Frost bars. Store in the refrigerator.

I halved the recipe and used one 6-inch cake pan. I also reduced the sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup. And kept the baking soda at 1 teaspoon instead of halving it with the rest of the ingredients. The cake came out pillowy soft and fluffy. Maybe I should have reduced the sugar in the frosting too. The bananas and frosting made it way too sweet for me. The cake by itself would have been fine, I guess. I added some lemon juice to the frosting, too bad it was not strong enough to counteract the sweetness.

I cut the cake into 1-inch layer since I had lots of frosting. I think it looks like hummingbird cake minus the pecans. I will make this again but without the frosting. 

Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake

To celebrate Mother's Day..

https://cookingwithdog.com/recipe/souffle-cheesecake/

Ingredients

• 100 g

  Cream Cheese

• 30 g	Sour Cream

• 20 g	Unsalted Butter

• 2

  Egg Yolks

• 20 g	Cake Flour (low gluten or protein flour)

• 100 ml

  Milk

• 1/2 tsp

  Vanilla Extract

• 2	Egg Whites

• 40 g	Granulated Sugar

• Apricot Jam diluted with rum

• Powdered Sugar optional

• Lemon Zest grated, optional

Instructions

Coat the side of the cake pan (15cm/5.9”) with a generous amount of butter. Using a pan with a removable bottom will help to remove the cheesecake.

Place a piece of parchment paper cut to fit into the bottom of the pan. Then, cover the outside of the pan with a large piece of aluminum foil.

Bring the cream cheese, sour cream and butter to room temperature and combine them in a bowl with a balloon whisk.

Add one egg yolk and mix thoroughly.

Then add the other egg yolk and mix.

Sieve the cake flour into the bowl. Combine the mixture until there are no pockets of dry flour.

Add the milk a little at a time and mix thoroughly. Be sure to bring the egg yolks and milk to room temperature also.

Add the vanilla extract and mix.

Finally, sieve the mixture into a bowl.

Let’s make the meringue. Lightly beat the chilled egg whites with a hand mixer. Then, add the sugar in 3 steps and beat the egg white for a total of one and a half to two minutes.

Avoid over-beating otherwise it’ll be difficult to combine the meringue and the egg yolk mixture, leading to more mixing and eventually breaking the foam.

Just before the meringue is ready, switch to a balloon whisk and check its consistency. Beat until the meringue reaches a firm peak stage and has a glossy texture.

Add one-third of the meringue to the egg yolk mixture. Mix thoroughly. At this stage, you don’t need to worry about breaking the foam.

Then, add another one-third of the meringue. This time, gently mix and avoid breaking the foam.

Finally, place all the egg yolk mixture into the bowl with the rest of the meringue.

Like shown, lift the whisk from the bottom to gently combine the batter. Be sure not to break the foam. Mix until all of the white lumps of meringue have disappeared.

Pour the batter into a pan and place it into a deep tray. The pan has a removable bottom so be sure to cover it with relatively thick aluminum foil to avoid wetting the cheesecake. If your aluminum foil is too thin, you should cover the cake pan with 2 or 3 layers, making absolutely sure to avoid any leakage.

Slash the batter with a spatula to remove any air bubbles. Pour hot water into the tray about 2 cm deep. 

Place the cake pan into the preheated oven and bake at 160°C (320°F) for 10 minutes. Then, lower the temperature to 150°C (300°F) and bake for additional 40 to 50 minutes.

Pierce the cake with a bamboo stick. If the stick is clean, it is ready.

Remove and place the cake pan onto a cooling rack. Let it sit to cool and then chill the cake in the fridge for over 2 hours.

Remove the soufflé cheesecake from the pan. Gently lift the bottom. Be careful not to damage the side of the cake. Run an icing spatula along the bottom. Remove the bottom of the pan and place the cheesecake onto a cutting board.

Dampen the blade of a knife to help make a clean cut and cut a piece of cake.

Place the souffle cheesecake onto a plate. Finally, coat the top with the apricot jam diluted with rum.

I doubled the recipe because the recipe is for 6-inch pan whereas I have 10-inch pan. Instead of 200 g cheesecake, I just added the whole block of Philadelphia cream cheese, which is 226 g. I did not add apricot jam nor powdered sugar. I added some fresh lemon juice and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar. The cheesecake came out shrunk on the sides (I had to take it out of the oven for other foods) but everywhere else is fine. I had to add 30 mins at 300F (maybe my oven is off, I had to add time to my previous recipe too). The taste is there, feels like missing something though. Maybe I will add some salt next time.