Who likes cake?

I know I do! I look forward to a good celebration for a nice slice, but why wait for a special occasion when you can bake one up today! That's exactly what I did a week or so ago. (Apologies for it taking me so long to post this.) I was looking up cakes to make for Mitchell's birthday, of course on Pinterest, and I stumbled across this beauty. I couldn't wait until Mitchell's birthday to bake this one up, so in the oven it went!

Nilla Wafer Banana Caramel Cake
adapted from seriouseats.com

What you'll need:

First, melt some butter in a pan,

Meanwhile, mash up the bananas,

Add the bananas to the pan with the butter along with some brown sugar. Cook for about 10 minutes until the bananas cook down to a paste. Set them aside and let it cool.

Meanwhile, crush up the Nilla wafers.

Mix the cookie crumbs together with flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In another bowl, combine buttermilk, vanilla, and the bananas.

Now, with either a hand mixer or a stand mixer (I love any chance I get to use mine, even if it's not a KitchenAid...yet!), beat two sticks of butter and brown sugar together. Then add eggs, one at a time.

Then add about a third of the cookie crumb mixture to the mixer.

Then add a third of the banana mixture. Repeat until both mixtures are fully combined.

This is where I realized after the fact that I wanted to add caramel to the cake. Looking back I would have added more than I did. And I would have added it to the mixture to combine it more. You can add caramel now if you wish.

Then pour the batter into a greased cake pan. I used two 9" round pans so I could make a stacked cake. You can choose your preference, but the cook times will vary. (The times used in the recipe are for two round pans.)

I poured caramel over the top of the batter in the pans. I would use a lot more if I did this recipe again. You could use as much as you like, but the taste is very faint if you use just a little.

Use a knife to swirl the caramel throughout the cake batter (for full flavor enhancement!)

Then comes my favorite part, the taste test! Make sure you lick those beaters clean. ;)

Pardon my poor decorating skills, it's part I cut the whole in my "piping bag" (aka ziploc) way too big and part I just have no real experience decorating. That is soon to change though, I had some Amazon credit from trading in some text books and I ordered a decorating kit and a book with tips on how to improve. But anyways, behold the finished product! It tasted amazing!! Try it, I dare you!

Get the full recipe here. (Don't forget to add caramel, you won't regret it!)

Wishing for cake...

So I'm really excited! For two reasons that are actually really only one reason but still. So (1a) is the delicious Nilla Wafer Banana Caramel Cake in my kitchen that is currently cooling and waiting for a nice blanket of delicious cream cheese frosting. (1b) is that I'm preparing to do my first ever blog post with step by step pictures of this amazing cake recipe. I adapted the recipe from SeriousEats.com and basically I followed it step by step but added my own little twist at the end. You will have to just wait for the post, though ;)

I can't believe it has already been almost a month since I started this challenge. It's been fun, I've forgotten some posts, but that's okay. And I think I'm learning a bit too. Today's post is whether or not I wish for something at 11:11. I really don't. Sometimes if I realize it's 11:11 I might wish for something, but I don't make a point of it. I may wish for something good to happen that day, or to ace a test, maybe happen across a bunch of money. :) Do you wish for anything special?

Happy Saturday, hope you're hungry for cake!

The Next Great Blogger

I feel like a failure. I was so disappointed that I missed a day of blogging, and then I go and do it again. Ugh! Well anyways, it was a pretty great weekend. Unfortunately, this morning ended that great streak. 

I was on my way out the door to head to work (almost fell on the ice by the way, not cool) and I started my car let it warm up a bit and started to drive away. Well, something wasn't quite right. It was driving really weird, like my tires were not moving, but nothing was wedged in the tires, no ice. Nothing. So I tried again. Nope. Definitely not working right. So I pulled into a driveway by UWM and called Mitchell who was already at work. He had to punch out at work and come out and help me. We figured out it was my back driver's side tire. It was locked and wouldn't spin. He called his friend who is a mechanic and asked him what may be causing it. He gave him a few things to look at and he said it would be okay if we drove real slow and skidded the car to my boyfriend's house which was a couple blocks away. 

The weird thing is the tire would spin normally if I was reversing, but not if I was driving forward. Once I backed up into the street and tried to drive away to his house, the tire unlocked and I made it almost all the way to his house with no problem. Once I was turning to pull into his parking spot the tire locked up again. Great. So I took his car to work and it was out of my hands until 5pm.

Mitchell just got inside from looking at my car (he was probably out there on and off for 2 hours..poor thing! He must really love me!). No luck. Nothing is off or loose. The e-brake is working fine. The other back tire seems to be working the same way, yet it has no issues. 

His friend is coming to look at it tomorrow night, and if he can't figure it out...I have to tow it to a car shop and they have to fix it. I have no idea what this will cost me. I just hope my little car will keep working for a little while longer. I don't know what I would do without it. My work is too far away and I don't know of any bus lines I could take that go out that way. Plus they probably wouldn't even run early enough for me to get there on time. Sigh. 

Anyways, that is not what this post is supposed to be about. Yesterday's was the TV show I am addicted to right now. The Next Great Baker. I love that show. There are some really annoying people on the show and there have been moments that I wanted to rip their heads off, but I am so into every challenge. I get so nervous for the contestants when they have to face Buddy's criticism. I just love it. I want Nadine to win. She's so cute and I think she really deserves it. I really want Ryan to go home. He is arrogant and has a horrible temper and he's really just not that great.

Today's post is about all the places I have lived. This will be a very short and sweet list:

Janesville, WI (from birth til 18)

Milwaukee, WI (UWM Dorms) my freshman year

Milwaukee, WI - 2 blocks from the dorms Sophomore and Junior year. I lived in three different rooms in the same house. The first year was fun living with 8 girls. By the end, I was ready to shoot someone, I needed out.

So then I moved in with 2 girls (from the previous house who also wanted to shoot someone, just not me) a few more blocks from campus. This is where I currently live. It's a very cute house and we have cleaned it up very nicely. However, it is freezing beyond belief and our upstairs neighbors are elephants (and by that I mean that they are quite possibly the loudest people I have ever met in my life). Literally, they are. It sounds like they are dropping bowling balls on the floor all the time. One time I was in a dead sleep and it sounded like they dropped a large microwave (I couldn't think of anything else to compare it to) on the floor above me. I literally almost hit the ceiling from jumping so high. I was scared to death I thought someone was breaking in. So, if you are my neighbor and you are reading this... please be quiet!! Love, Downstairs.

Sorry for that rant... I'm gonna go get Mitchell some dinner for working on my car. Later! :)