Individual Lava Cakes

These decadent little cakes are so good, you'll definitely feel sinful eating them! hehe..
Dusted with powdered sugar and topped with vanilla ice cream, cancel your plans and be prepared to bask in their chocolateyness (yes, my technical term, use it in a sentence today. ha) for awhile after eating.

I regret being so excited, that I neglected to take a good after pic, showing the inside gooey chocolate and vanilla ice cream flowing over the top. Next time I will, because I'll be making these again very soon!

 I modified Paula Deen's recipe for Molten Lava Cakes, I highly recommend watching her video at that link on how to make these, if you haven't made these before. They're very easy, but the video helps. :)
On to the recipe!

• 8 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate (I used one bar of Baker's)
• 10 tablespoons of butter, room temp helps
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, plus some to dust
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks (freeze whites for later use! Waste not, want not!)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and butter the ramekins. I used 4 small and 2 larger. Be sure to butter them WELL so the cakes slip out later, just like on tv! lol
In a double boiler, or a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water, and using a whisk, melt the butter and chocolate.

 Turn the heat off near the end so not to burn it, and continue whisking until everything is melted.

Remove from heat and whisk in the powdered sugar until well blended.
Quickly whisk in eggs, whisking vigorously so the eggs don't scramble, and then the egg whites.
Stir in the flour and divide evenly among the ramekins.

I could just get a spoon and eat it like this!
Put ramekins on a baking sheet and bake 10-15 minutes, about 20 or so for larger ramekins. Sides will be firm, but the center will be soft.

mmm I can almost smell them. Let them stand for a minute or so, then run a knife around the edges to loosen.
Using a pot holder, carefully flip the ramekins over onto a dish or bowl, and the cake should come out easily.
Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!
I discovered the next day they were more like brownies and didn't warm up like a fresh lava cake, but they were still good under ice cream!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

After much agonizing over the loss of my old banana bread recipe, I started a new one, adding to what I could remember of the old one, and adding something new: mini chocolate chips! This is such a yummy, moist bread!  I can't wait to make another one without the chips and with some other ingredients added.


I used something called a SilverBullet little mini-mixer thing my son convinced me to buy a few months ago, and I have to say, it has grown on me and I may love it more than my pesky blender that doesn't seem to do much better than a 20 dollar blender.  Did I say that? I'm sorry blender. :p

Anyway, I took my bananas out of the freezer to thaw, then squeezed the insides out into this mini blender thing that I originally didn't want to buy (lol), and gave it a few whizzes. It took about 7 frozen, thawed bananas to make about 2 cups of whizzed banana.  It seems like a lot of bananas, but it really isn't if you consider that it always seems the last one or two bananas in a bunch start to go spotty and no one wants to eat it, so I toss it in a freezer baggie and throw it into the freezer. Better than throwing it away and having fruit flies until garbage day. ha!  You think I kid!

So go thaw out your bananas, grab your blender or mini-blender because you'll want them more than just mashed, and take your eggs out of the fridge to come to room temp.  Ready? Let's make some banana bread, I'm hungry!

• 1/2 cup butter, softened, don't use the microwave for this, just let it sit out at room temp until you can leave a squishy fingerprint, but the butter isn't melting all over the place.
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, room temp
• 2 cups whizzed thawed frozen bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease a loaf pan with spray pam or similar.

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla in a large glass bowl until smooth and light on med-high speed.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Beat in bananas on med-low speed.

In a smaller bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt, and dump into the wet mixture in the large bowl. Stir with large wooden spoon JUST until combined. You don't want to over stir.
Fold in mini chocolate chips gently.

Carefully pour into your loaf pan and bake uncovered for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Check about 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time and, if needed, cover with foil to keep top from getting too dark.  Uncover when you take it out of the oven to cool.

Serve with soft butter warm out of the oven! MMMmmmm !!