Banana Cake w/ Dark Chocolate & Kiwi Glaze

Every now and then I attempt to bake a cake.  Most of these attempts result in a mess that is burned on the outside and raw on the inside.  I like to blame my oven for this, but sometimes I'm not entirely sure that it is actually the oven's fault.  Tonight though, I somehow managed to bake a perfect, delicious, cake. 

The Cake

1/4 c butter

1/4 c vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 over-ripe bananas

1/2 c milk

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 c brown sugar

2 c flour

grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.  (until toothpick comes out clean)

The Glaze

Cut 2 kiwis in half, scoop out the inside.  I let as much of the juice as possible drip into a glass.  Chop up the kiwi pieces.  Cook them for a few minutes in a saucepan, long enough for more of the juice to come out of the fruit.  Strain out the juice. 

Melt a dark chocolate bar or 2 in a saucepan.  Add the de-juiced kiwi chunks.  Stir well.  Spread on top of the baked cake. 

The Photos

The Notes

1- I used a combo of butter and oil because 1/4 c butter is all I had.  If I had more butter, I would have used just butter.

2- Since I didn't have any butter left after making the cake, I used bacon grease to grease the pan.  A part of me was hoping that I would be able to taste the bacon in the cake.  That part of me was let down.  No bacon taste.

3- I was going to add cream cheese to the glaze, but when I took it out of the fridge I discovered that it was a rather interesting shade of dark turquoise.  Looked like a great science experiment.  Not so great-looking for my cake. 

4- I don't eat dessert.  I had 2 pieces of this cake.  (Okay, I'll rephrase.  I don't eat dessert very often.)

5- The kiwi juice that I saved when I scooped the fruit out of the skin made a delicious cocktail with some strawberry vodka and club soda.  I love strawberry-kiwi flavored stuff.

Bananas, Strawberries, and Dark Chocolate, OH MY!

C and I were watching a show the othe night all about chocolate where Alton Brown demonstrated some ridiculously complicated way to make chocolate dipped stuff.  He went on and on about how this was the only way to make chocolate stick to strawberries.  It took forever, it involved all sorts of fancy things (like laser thermometers), and it was totally UNNECESSARY! 

This evening, we made chocolate covered strawberries and bananas using nothing but a glass measuring cup, a microwave, and a refrigerator.  So quick, so easy. 

Dark chocolate chips go in glass measuring cup.  Microwave for 45 sec - 1 min at a time, stirring in between, until chocolate has turned into melted deliciousness.  Clean and dry the strawberries, slice the bananas into chunks.  Cover a baking pan with a piece of waxed paper.  Dip the fruit in the chocolate, lay it on the wax paper.  The strawberries were still cold from the fridge, so the chocolate actually hardened on them while they were sitting there.  The bananas were warmer, so I stuck the pan in the fridge to harden up all of the chocolate.  15 minutes later, they were ready to eat.  So simple.  So scrumptious. 

Can't let the leftover chocolate go to waste...let's make art!

I can't believe I actually managed to clear out the entire top shelf of my fridge in order to

 make room for this...normally my fridge is full and overflowing.