Delicious Lowfat Banana Chocolate Chip Cake Not From Scratch!

I tend to stockpile things when they go on sale. At least I do at the grocery store. And, during the holiday season it seems that all the good stuff (ie baking!) goes on sale. Yesterday I was at my local Stop&Shop and saw that all the boxed Pillsbury cake and brownie mixes were on sale for just $1 a piece! Doctored up, these can be turned into the most fabulous and decadent treats. So I picked up a few (dozen) boxes... Ok, slight exaggeration!

I had two rotten bananas in the fruit bowl. They needed to be used immediately or tossed to make room for the new ones. I'm a bit tired of banana bread myself, so I decided to doctor up a box of yellow cake mix. My result was spectacular and I was not able to stop after just one piece!

Ingredients:
1 box of packaged yellow cake mix
eggs, as specified on package
water, as specified on package
1/3 cup of lowfat (or fat free) sour cream in lieu of butter or oil
1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
2 (or as in my case 1 and a half) over-ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 -- or as package indicates

In your mixing bowl add cake mix, water, eggs, sour cream and bananas. Mix thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips. (Can it get any easier than this?!)

Spray pan of your choice with a non-stick spray and pop into the oven per directions on your package. Remember, different pan sizes require different cooking times. (I used a springform and baked for 1hour.)

Test for doneness... let cool about 10 minutes or so before serving. This is a very soft and gooey treat and unless completely cooled it will stick to your knife.

A Birthday Cake for my Littlest Hero!

Alexander turned 5 on Tuesday. He wanted a red fire truck Birthday cake. Had he not had one for the past 3 Birthdays I would have indulged. But I got bored. And I wanted something easy. Simple. Let's face it. I'm lazy. I even bought a packaged cake mix. The kids prefer it. I made the frosting from scratch though. Nothing beats homemade frosting. Especially when it is peanut butter! And the middle of the cake is filled with melted chocolate and roasted marshmallows. I totally did good this year!

Christopher offered up his army toys so that I could do an army themed cake.
Seriously. This could not have been easier!
My easiest Birthday cake to date!

The middle layers. After the cake was baked 
(per directions on the box)
I "roasted" marshmallows under the broiler for a couple of minutes...

And melted chocolate... think Smores!
My sister in law has an amazing recipe for graham cracker cake.
But remember, I am lazy!

Melt the chocolate so that you have a nice smooth chocolate bar in the middle of your cake...

Put the two pieces together and frost...
(Click here for peanut butter frosting recipe.)

YUM!

Quick Sour Cream Pound Cake with Cinnamon Swirl

A friend is coming over this morning to help me organize some of our auction goodies for the school. The bigger items and the big ticket items are pretty much all taken care of. But we have some smaller baskets such as Father's Day, Father/Son Day Out, Kid's Day Out, Mother's Day, Mother/Daughter Day as well as some restaurant and food baskets to put together. Most of the donations are in but new ones arrive daily. It astounds me how generous people can be in this economy. Their generosity is truly appreciated and is neither going unnoticed or taken lightly. My friend Mary Jean was instrumental in the acquisitions area of the school's auction. She's coming over shortly with a few more items. And then we will get to work. But I cannot work on an empty stomach. I cannot have someone at the house (expected) without offering a beverage and a bite to eat. So we'll have some lovely warm, frothy cappuccinos (perfect on this cool and drizzly day) with my warm cake.

I cheated. I was short on time so I used a boxed cake mix, Duncan Hines Yellow to be precise. What I did took mere minutes to do and made the cake seem a bit richer than a regular yellow cake. The sour cream also cut down the sweetness a bit making this a lovely accompaniment to a warm cup or tea or coffee.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:

1 package Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
1 cup of sour cream (I always use the lighter versions)

1/3 cup of canola oil
4 eggs

1 tbs cinnamon
3 tbs sugar

Combine all ingredients except for the sugar and the cinnamon and mix well.

In a small bowl mix together the cinnamon and the sugar.

Pour half of cake mixture in a well greased oaf pan then spread half the cinnamon mixture. Add the remaining cake batter and the remaining cinnamon mixture.

Bake in oven for 1 hour.

Cool for about 10 minutes, remove from loaf pan and cool another 5 minutes or so before slicing.