Banana Booze Cake

This was a difficult cake to photograph, but trust me, it's tasty.  Not a recipe of exact proportions and one that is open to additions and interpretation, this variation of it includes pudding, bananas, cookies, and a healthy portion of liquor.  I think that next time I make this I may try a variation with coffee liquor and chocolate pudding.  Be sure to make in advance to allow pudding to saturate the cookies and bananas thoroughly before serving. 

For this you'll need banana liquor, Kahlua and Bailey's Irish Cream, or as close to these as you can get.  Here there are only 2 boxes of pudding shown but to make a cake of the size shown above (approx 18"x9"x4") you will need 4 boxes.  Look for the boxes that call for 2 cups of milk per box as this will give you the correct ratio of liquid to allow the pudding to come together despite the alcohol. 

Put all 4 boxes of pudding powder into a mixing bowl.  Add one cup of milk for each box (4 cups) as well as 2/3rds a cup of each type of liquor. 

Beat pudding with an electric mixer for however long is indicated on the boxes of pudding mix.  Mine called for two minutes at low speed.  Once this is done toss the pudding in the fridge to firm up. 

While you're waiting for the pudding, slice up some bananas very thin, about 1/8 of an inch thick. 

Pull out the pudding and spread a thin layer on the bottom of the the cake pan you are using. In this case I used a tupperware for ease of transport and storage, just pop on the lid and you're ready to go.  You could easily use a loaf pan, brownie pan, or your usual round pie plate. 

Spread a layer of cookies on top of the pudding, then a layer of bananas on top of them. The type of cookies isn't important. I've considered using chocolate chip, vanilla wafers, oatmeal, anything works as long as the pudding will be able to soak into them, so nothing totally coated in chocolate. 

Top the layer of bananas with more pudding, then repeat the pattern of adding cookies then bananas.  Continuing doing this until all pudding is gone, finishing with a layer of cookies.  Put cake in the fridge to allow pudding to saturate cookies and bananas with flavor, about 3-4 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, garnish with whip cream if desired. 


Banana Booze Cake

6 bananas
2 boxes of vanilla pudding
2 boxes of butterscotch pudding
4 cups milk
2/3 cup banana liquor
2/3 cup Kahlua
2/3 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
60 cookies

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

These cookies are like little miniature pumpkin pies!  Each one contains its own small amount of pie filling and is quite delicious.  The original recipe I found these in calls for them to be shaped like pumpkins and have jack-o-lantern eyes and mouths cut into them, however, since it was after Halloween that I made them I went ahead and added white chocolate and caramel as decoration and they turned out just excellent!

No pictures of the mixing stage of the pastry, unfortunately  I realized too late that this dough needs refrigeration for 'several hours to overnight' so I was forced to make the dough quickly to give it time to rest.  It's fairly easy though. 

Mix the flour, sugar and salt with a fork, then add in butter and cut in with pastry mixer (or fork or potato masher if you're without) until there are no lumps of butter bigger than a pea.  After this, mix in just enough cold water until the dough holds together.  Probably best to just use your hands to mix at this point! Then divide the dough into two and wrap in plastic wrap as seen here, then pop it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. 

Once the dough is ready roll it out to about a half to a quarter centimeter thick.

I didn't have a perfectly round cookie cutter handy, so I used this one that was shaped like a Christmas ornament and just sliced off the nub to make round cookies.   You could use a cup if you're without a cutter but it doesn't work quite as well. 

Place the rounds on a parchment-lined baking pan.  Put about a tablespoon of pumpkin pie filling on each one, then top with another and push the edges down with a fork. Be sure to create deep indentations here as the cookies will puff up while baking and if you don't make them deep enough you will lose that super cute "pie" look.  Bake at 350C until bottoms are lightly browned and tops no longer feel soft or wet. 

While those are baking melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler until smooth and runny. 

Use a proper icing bag and tip if you have it and fill with white chocolate. If you're like me and don't have those things, put a ziploc over a tall glass as shown, with one corner pointed towards the bottom and fill it up with chocolate.  This makes for a much easier and cleaner fill up and gives you somewhere to rest the bag if you have to put it down for a couple seconds. 

Snip the corner off the bag and drizzle chocolate back and forth across the cookies.  Repeat the same melting and drizzling process for caramels. Beware that caramel will be MUCH stiffer and take longer to melt, however the process is the same. Just make sure there are no lumps left before transferring to the plastic bag and consider wearing an oven mitt as you drizzle, as I found the caramel to be much warmer than the chocolate. 

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

2 ½ cups flour (whole wheat pastry or all-purpose)

6 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 ½ sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed

~½ cup ice water

1/2 can pumpkin pie filling

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup caramels

recipe adapted from: Building Buttercream