Memorial Day Honors

Memorial Day honors our Military Heroes past and present.  The military who served in every war and action that keeps the USA proud and free.  Happy Memorial Day Weekend -whether you march in a parade, wave your American flag, go shopping or BBQ with family and friends, please remember to take some time and honor our armed forces who sacrificed everything for our freedom and their families.

Patriotic and Military   Thanks Especially Sent To The Military Families, Wives and Husbands, Daughters and Sons, Parents and Grandparents. Friends and Family that have sacrificed so much also.

Banana Bread Chocolate Bundt Cake

Banana Bread Chocolate Bundt Cake

If you love banana bread and you love cake and you are looking for just the right combination then I just have to share my recipe with you. It's quick. It's easy. It's elegant enough to serve to guests and cozy just right for a family to enjoy.

I love a touch of chocolate with my banana so I added some scoops of Nutella chocolate, oh yes, right into the batter just before baking up this wonderful cake. The glaze on top adds just a sweet hint of goodness that tops this off as one of my family favorites. It's a family banana bread, it's a cake, it's a wonderful snack with coffee or tea and a great dessert for holidays, birthdays or just during the week to have on your counter for a snack time pick me up!

Is it easy? Oh yes! Trust me most of my recipes have 5 ingredients or less, are easy to follow, easy to clean up and way wonderful to enjoy. Hope you give it a try and enjoy it too! Oh and sorry there is a slice missing from the main photo but as soon as it was done, the family was already digging into it. Feel free to be creative with this yummy recipe and if you love the super banana taste it's a great idea to mash up a ripened banana that's just sitting around on your counter and add that to the batter mixing it in real well before pouring it into the bundt cake pan.

Easy Banana Bread Cake Ingredients

Easy Quick Banana Bread Cake

The perfect recipe for any cake, dessert, bread, main dish, appetizer or well, any thing I bake or cook has really easy to follow instructions, a little flexibility so I can conform it to my taste buds, has not too many ingredients, not too many steps to follow and definitely ends with an easy clean up!

Banana Bread Cake Batter

Banana Bread Chocolate Cake Recipe is so easy to make and even better, totally easy to adapt to your favorite taste sensation. You can add the Nutella like I did for the hint of chocolate or leave it out if it's not your thing (or you don't happen to have Nutella around), you can add some chocolate chips to the top or even a handful of walnuts. You can add some sugar glaze or dust it with confectioners sugar, or leave it plain. The recipe instructions for the Vanilla Sugar Glaze Icing is below with step by step too easy instructions.

The most important thing is to bake it how you love and be creative with your recipes to let your own taste shine through.

• 
  
• Prep time: 15 min
• Cook time: 45 min
• Ready in: 1 hour
• Yields: About 14 Servings

Ingredients

• 2 Boxes Pillsbury or your Favorite Banana Quick Bread Mix
• 2 Cups of Water
• 1/2 Cup of Oil
• 4 Eggs
• TO ADD NUTELLA
• 1 cup of reserved batter after mixing ingredients above
• 1/2 cup Nutella
• FOR THE GLAZE
• 1 1/2 Cups of Powdered Confectioners Sugar
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 + tsp Water or Milk adjusted to your desired consistency

Instructions

1. Add the first four ingredients together in a nice size bowl probably whatever you mix your usual cake batter in will be perfect. No hand mixer needed at all, the batter comes together really nicely. Mix until batter is smooth and all ingredients are completely blended.
2. Scoop off about 1 cup of the batter and set aside, then pour the mixing bowl of batter into a VERY WELL GREASED OR SPRAYED WITH NON-STICK COOKING SPRAY bundt pan.
3. Now take the cup of batter you set aside and start adding Nutella to it. I heated my nutella a little bit at a time in the microwave to make it easier to work with. Use more nutella if you like it very chocolate and mix the two ingredients thoroughly. The batter is now dark, rich and chocolate looking.
4. Drop tablespoons of the Nutella Cake Batter onto the top of the batter in the bundt pan. I chose to do about four different spots of the chocolate mix and once that is dropped into the batter you can take a butter knife and reach into the circle of chocolate and swirl it around a little. A little down so it will go through the depth of the cake. A little to the left, a little to the right, well you get the idea. I didn't want it to all be chocolate I wanted to see the swirls so I kept the swirls kind of small.
5. Place the bundt pan in the pre-heated oven at 400 degrees and bake for about 40 minutes depending on your oven.
6. After baking, let the cake cool a little, turn bundt pan over and release the cake onto a large enough plate or tray.
7. Add your glaze as much or little as you like it.
8. Delicious served still warm from the oven or all cooled off!

Nutella and Side Batter

Nutella Mixed With Side Batter

Adding some chocolate to your banana bread cake is easy! Before pouring the batter into the bundt pan scoop off about a cup of the batter and set it aside. I warmed about a 1/2 a cup of nutella in the microwave, very slowly so it wouldn't burn just to make it a little softer and easier to work with.

After the chocolate was warmed I added it to the batter I set aside and mixed it up thoroughly.

Making It Chocolate

Chocolate In The Banana

Now to add the chocolate nutella batter we made to the cake batter in the bundt pan.

I dropped the chocolate batter by spoonfuls into four separate areas on top of the batter in the bundt pan. Then I used a butter knife and gently lowered it into the drops of chocolate first down so the chocolate would spread to the bottom of the cake also, then back up and very lightly swirled some of the chocolate mixture a little down, a little to the right, a little to the left in circle, swirly motions so that when it all baked up together I came out with cool stripes of chocolate through the cake.

Bundt Pan Cakes

Bundt Pan Cakes

I think bundt cakes are so cool, I love the shape and classy elegance of how it looks once it's flipped out of the pan and becomes round and decorative and I also think the batter bakes up nice and fluffy but firm.

First let the cake cool down some so that it will slide out nice and easy and in one perfect circle. Then upside down over the right size plate or cake server and there it is! Now we can decorate it, frost it, dust it with some confectioners sugar or in this case, drizzle some vanilla glaze icing over it.

Bundt Pans For Classy Cakes

I love bundt pan cakes, I think the classic style and shape makes any cake a little more fun and elegant. I also love that when you slice it you get a real looking slice because of the "hole in the middle".

It's nice for a change of pace with any of your favorite cake recipes or for a special bundt cake recipe.

Vanilla Sugar Icing Glaze

Icing With Sugar Glaze

Vanilla Sugar Glaze is my favorite icing for topping my banana bread chocolate cake. So easy to make and you can sweeten it to your own favorite taste in toppings.

I start with a 1 cup of confectioners sugar. Then I add a full teaspoon of vanilla extract. Then I add about 2 tsp of water (you can use milk or even half and half if you prefer for a little thicker glaze) and I add the water slowly and start mixing by hand. The powdery sugar mixes with the wonderful vanilla then starts to come to just the consistency you choose. If you like your glaze thin, add little bits of water at a time until it's just right for you. If you like more glaze and a little thicker add more powdered sugar. Adjust the glaze until it's the right taste and consistency for your family.

Then I just drizze away. You can use a spoon or mix up the glaze in a 2 cup mixing glass with a pour spout too. I chose to go with a classic striped bundt pattern but it's your cake, drizzle it your way! Add layers of glaze or keep it light. Be sure to reach the inside of the cake too because you want to get that glazey goodness in every bite.

Banana Bread Cake Star

Banana Bread Cake Star

Banana bread cake is the star of the show whenever you bake it up fresh. Here is my home made, in under an hour banana cake featured on a cake plate with dome intact. The first slice is missing because before I could even make my way back to the kitchen to get that perfect last shot, the family was already digging in!

Graduation Gifts With Class

Graduation from school is a milestone in time in everyone's life, starting with adorable graduation ceremonies from pre-school and kindergarten to tear filled eyes at high school and college grad formal receptions.  It's a time of celebration looking towards the future, a time of reflection remembering back to our youth and how far we have come. 

 
Graduation gifts can reflect not only the age and grade of the student, but also the personality and dream for their futures whether they are graduating from public school or medical school.

 

   

Graduation hat tassels, arches and scrolls symbolize the transition from school to school to careers.

     
       

Seniors and Grads proudly wear their "Class Of" t-shirts, charms, bags and hats because graduation is a sign of accomplishment, pride and growth.

  

Shining stars are symbolic of graduation gifts as we encourage our grads to Reach For The Stars,  go for the goal and congratulate them on their shining success.

    

Congratulations to all of our graduates, wishing you luck today, tomorrow and in your future.

Featured Graduation Gift Ideas