Friday, January 2, 2009

New Year's Eve Cake

So, Melly's mini-meme got me thinking, and I pulled out the Nordicware Castle cake pan and made up an abbreviated cake for New Year's Eve. (Abbreviated because the batter didn't fill up the pan more than halfway.) I had a Pamela's brownie mix in the pantry (gluten-free and so yummy), and it turned out beautifully. Finely textured, light and tender.



It's not much to look at, really, as the batter had a lot of air in it, which made for a cake which looked a lot more like a Fairytale Castle cum-nuclear warfare, pock-marked and blurry. However, nobody seemed to mind. ;o) (Please excuse the photo, too. You think, after all this time, that I'd have the concept of contrast down by now. lol)

I whipped up some incredible strawberry coconut ice cream, and we all felt like royalty.

Strawberry Coconut "Ice Cream"

1/2 can coconut milk (I love Thai Kitchen's Organic non-lite milk.)
2 medium bananas (the more ripe, the sweeter they are--covered with brown spots is perfect)
2 c. smallish frozen strawberries (or Marionberries -- talk about decadent!)
10-ish medium ice cubes (the size that are 16 to a tray)
25 drops Sweet Leaf stevia extract
~1/2 t. vanilla extract

Put all of this in your smoothie-maker or good blender, and go to town. With a Vita-Mix, like we have, or a smoothie maker, you'll need to use the tamper while it buzzes. Otherwise, stop blending every 10 seconds or so to mix it and scrape the sides.

And now, this fairy tale queen is off to conquer the laundry . . .