Baking on a row

Friday- the usual treat day. I chose to bake a Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake for OCT lab meeting last week. It's a recipe from Fine Cooking, nothing too fancy, but I guess after the many feasts over the year end holidays, they may appreciate something lighter. I like the marble effect on the cake, but thought the texture was mediocre at best. At one point, I even contemplated a coffee or chocolate glaze to dress up the cake. But I was too tired after making another cake for the next night's dinner at OCT's soccer mate's place.Still, the chocolate banana cake received positive responses from OCT's colleagues, and not a crumb left. Even his boss who doesn't like anything sweet had a piece. There was a little accident though, while making this cake. Instead of using a cake tester, I used an angel hair to test for doneness. Unfortunately, the crisp hair broke right in the cake. I have used this tricks countless times, and this was really the first time it broke! I tried to make a mark on the cake, but I couldn't find it after inverting the cake! I told OCT to warn his colleagues about the presence of the tiny "hair", but none of them seemed to have eaten it.

For the dinner, I made a Chocolate Cake! It's from Ina Garten's latest book: Barefoot Contessa At Home. The cake benefited from 2/3 cup of strong brewed coffee. An interesting way to add moisture and intensify the chocolate flavor. The cake was moist and not overly sweet. To lighten the cake, I used only half of the frosting. Which was a mistake. I ended up not having enough frosting, and had to frost the cake really thinly. It certainly didn't look appettizing.....So, with the limited creativity, I chopped some walnut, and cut some chocolate curls to camouflage the poorly frosted cake. The end result was passable, as you can see below. It would be nicer with more frosting. But using 2 sticks of butter for the frosting? You can't blame me from chicken out, and cut the recipe half in a heartbeat.