Buckwheat Banana Mini Bundt Cakes

These are my first ever, gluten free mini Bundt cakes! Actually, these are my first ever Bundt cakes period. I didn't think I was a Bundt cake making gal – even though I ate many a slice anyone happened to pass onto me! Then, last summer, I found myself on the guest list for a cooking demo hosted by Macy's to celebrate their 100th anniversary – with a menu put-together and pre-pared by chef Marc Forgione. Not only was I excited about tasting Marc Forgione's creations, but, when I got to the event, I was given a goody bag with a gift certificate to use at Macy's among all other knick knacks. And, yet another one of the perks of that night was that everyone got Marc Forgione's cookbook to take home with them – so long as they made a purchase at Macy's using the gift certificate in the goody bags. Well, I browsed and browsed, and the only thing I could think to get was a mini Bundt cake pan from Macy's housewares section. After I brought that pan home, it must have sat on my kitchen counter for over a month before I finally put it to use. I had planned on making some Buckwheat Banana Muffins, but, after staring at that mini Bundt pan, I figured, why not turn those muffins into mini Bundts?! I ended up tweaking that muffin recipe a tad bit. In this recipe, I use coconut oil in its solid state, and "creamed" it with brown sugar – much like you would with butter. I also used buckwheat flour in this which makes these Mini Buckwheat Banana Bundt Cakes gluten free as well. These Mini Buckwheat Banana Bundt Cakes turned out so moist – my daughter and I enjoyed these mini Bundts with our afternoon tea, which has become a bit of a ritual at our home when we have a free evening – and hope y'all will too! Print Save Buckwheat Banana Mini Bundt Cakes Recipe Embed Ingredients 1/2 cup Coconut Oil, (solid state) 2/3 cup Brown Sugar 1 Egg 2 Ripe Bananas 1/2 cup Plain Greek Yogurt 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract 1 1/2 cups Buckwheat Flour 1 teaspoon Baking Powder 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda 1/4 teaspoon Salt 1/4 teaspoon Cardamom 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon Directions Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease the mini Bundt pan and place it in the oven to heat up as the oven is pre-heating. Cream the coconut oil and brown sugar together with a hand held electric mixer. Add in the egg and beat well. Then add in the bananas, yogurt, vanilla and beat till well incorporated. Sift the buckwheat flour and add that to the mix, along with the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom and salt. Remove the mini Bundt pan from the oven. Pour/spoon mix into the mini Bundt pan and return to the oven. Let bake for 22-25 minutes. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar when completely cool or mix together powdered sugar and milk till they reach an icing consistency, add in a couple pinches of cardamom and cinnamon (like I did with these) and pour over mini Bundts. Recommended Cuisinart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls Breville Hand Mixer Dreamfarm Supoon via Food Fanatic http://ift.tt/2mfXt4Z Food Fanatic

Chirashi Zushi

Sushi is not just rolled sushi with nori sheets. There are many different types of sushi that exist in Japan, and I am going to share one common and popular sushi called Chirashi zushi. Chirashi zushi is also called scattered sushi in English. As the name suggests, Chirashi zushi is the easiest type of sushi that anyone can make because as long as you prepare the sushi rice and toppings, then you just scatter the toppings over the sushi rice. It is such a simple sushi so the sushi rice and toppings need to be great in order to have a great Chirashi zushi. You need to use Japanese short grain rice, if possible. "Koshihikari" is the best, or you could use specifically marked "sushi rice". I usually cook rice in a rice cooker. Whatever the method you use to cook rice, it is very important when you add sushi vinegar to it. It needs to be cooled down quickly with a fan. That makes the rice grain shine and look good when the sushi rice is served. I have a post on how to make perfect sushi rice, so if you are interested, head over to Chopstick Chronicles. Now the toppings, I used shiitake mushrooms, carrots, eggs and sugar snap peas and sakura denbu. These are suggestions, and you can swap with anything like prawns, sashimi grade fish, scallops, and green beans. I particularly like Sakura denbu. Sakura denbu is the pink coloured topping that you can see in the photos. Sakura Denbu is sweet and pink fluffy flaked fish condiment. Sakura refers pink cherry blossom flower. You can buy this from an Asian grocery store or on line shop, but also you can make this yourself using white fish like cod. I made it myself I made Sushi cake. Chirashi zushi is often served when we celebrate something such as girls' day or children's day and the nice pink colour definitely lights up the table.  Print Save Chirashi Zushi Recipe Embed Ingredients 1 cup Uncooked Short Grain Rice 10 cms Dry Wakame Sheet, or 1/2 teaspoon Dashi Powder 3 Eggs 2 Radishes 20 grams Dried Shiitake Mushrooms 30 grams Carrot 30 grams Sugar Snap Peas Shiso Leaves, for garnish Sakura Denbu, (also known as fish flakes - optional) Directions Soak the shiitake mushrooms in a cup of water. Cook 1 cup of rice in a rice cooker with dry wakame or with ½ dashi powder (If you use wakame sheet, remove wakame sheet when the rice is cooked). Parboil sugar peas, slice thinly and set aside. Cut the carrots into thin matchstick like shape. Make Japanese rolled egg and cut into small cubes (if you can not make rolled egg, the egg can be just fired flat and sliced into thin strips instead). Make sushi vinegar. Put all sushi vinegar ingredients into a small saucepan and bring it to boil over medium heat. Turn the heat off and let cool. Put 100ml of the water that the mushroom soaked in and 2 tbs of sugar, 2 tbs sake, and 2 tbs of soy sauce into a saucepan. Put the sliced mushrooms and carrots into the saucepan and bring it to boil then reduce the heat to low and allow it to simmer until the most of the liquid has reduced and the carrots are soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool down When the rice is cooked, pour the sushi vinegar over the rice and mix using a cutting action with a wooden spatula. Add drained mushrooms and carrots into the sushi rice and mix them together. Serve 1/4 of the rice on a plate and scatter all toppings prepared previously. Garnish with thinly slice Shiso leaves and sakura denbu. Recommended Cuisinart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls Le Creuset 3-quart Stainless Steel Saucepan Wusthof Santoku Knife - 5 inch via Food Fanatic http://ift.tt/2l9X9nB Food Fanatic