CHOCOLATE BANANA CAKE: Retro Ad & Recipe

I adore Chocolate and Bananas, so I was very pleased to find this Retro Ad & Recipe for Chocolate Banana Cake. You can use a chocolate cake mix or make from scratch.. Follow the rest of the directions for the delicious Chocolate Banana Cake with Chocolate Banana Icing!

Be Festive in February: Retro Ad & Recipe

Love this Retro Ad & Recipes from Jell-O Pudding. I especially like the Chocolate Charlotte Pie recipe. You can always make your own chocolate pudding and substitute for the box.

 

Icicle Cake: Retro Ad & Recipe

Brr.. it's cold outside. Time to make an Icicle Cake. This Retro Advertisement and Recipe is for Dexo, an all purpose hydrogenized vegetable shortening similar to Crisco. "So Blendable. So Dependable."

Howard Johnson's Retro Ad

I remember long summertime car trips on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. We'd always stop at Howard Johnon's for ice cream.  This advertisement is from July 2, 1951. With 28 flavors, I find it fun that the cone in the ad is chocolate!

BEAT THE HEAT! FRESH UP WITH 7-Up (Chocolate Cake!)

Love this Beat the Heat! "fresh up" with Seven-Up! Great Ad from July 5, 1948! Family days at the Beach. Mom packs the picnic basket, Dad drives, and the kids fill the cooler with 7-Up. Seems like a lot of 7-Up from the photo. But they all look like they're having fun at the Beach--with 7-Up.

Another way of enjoying 7-Up, a very retro carbonated beverage, is to use it as a leavening agent in a chocolate bundt cake. I've posted 7-Up Chocolate Cake recipes for my Mad Men Marathon, but this is a 'from scratch" easy recipe. I usuallAs I mentioned, the 7-Up is the leavening agent. Enjoy! Try to beat the heat!

7-Up Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
2 cups butter, softened
2 tsp Madagascar vanilla
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup DARK cocoa
1 cup 7-Up
1 cup dark chocolate chips  (or a cup of dark chocolate broken into chunks)
 
Directions
Cream butter.
Add sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, beating well after each one.
Stir in salt, flour and cocoa. Blend thoroughly.
Add 7-UP.
Fold in chocolate chips or chunks.
Bake in greased and floured Bundt pan for 60 minutes (or until tester comes clean).
Cool on wire rack. 

Optional: Glaze when cooled with dark chocolate Dobash Frosting. 

Dobash Frosting
1 1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup Ghirardelli cocoa
pinch of salt

Combine all in saucepan and bring to a boil.
Add 1/2 cup water to make a paste. Stir into cocoa mixture with whisk over heat until it thickens. Pour while hot over cake and spread.

Mini Chocolate Eclairs: National Eclair Day

Knowing that National Eclair Day was right around the corner, I started thinking about my "holiday" post. My favorite eclairs are not the long thin "traditional" hotdog shaped eclairs (although I like those), but rather, the mini-eclairs. Pâte à choux.. little puff pastry.. that I've been making for years that  are simple to make and easy to fill. Well, I checked my blog, and I've already posted about these eclairs, but they're worthy of a repost. They're soooo easy and yet look so beautiful and taste fabulous! Hope you enjoy making these as much as I do!

I've adapted this recipe for Mini Chocolate Eclairs from Paula Deen. It is one of my favorites because it's easy and fabulous! I never use margarine, so I've dropped that alternative from the recipe. Real butter is always best. As always, I use the very best dark chocolate for the topping. I've changed a few measurements and directions in the recipe for the novice Eclair Chef. If you're a purist, just click on Paula Deen's recipe above.

Because these eclairs are so small, feel free to have 3 or 4. :-) Yield depends on how small you make them, but I usually get about 40 small eclairs from this recipe. They're great for a crowd!

Want to make these even more chocolate-y?
Add a handful of chocolate chips to the egg cream filling or fill with chocolate cream instead: just add 1/4 dark cocoa to the dry ingredients. To fill the eclairs, I use a pastry bag, but if you don't have one, you can always fill a Ziploc bag and cut the tip off to pipe the filling into the eclair.

You will probably have some extra icing. Half the recipe if you ice sparingly. I'm for  more chocolate, so there's never much left.

MINI CHOCOLATE ECLAIRS

Pastry:
1 cup water
8 tbsp butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
3 eggs

Filling:
3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

Icing:
3 ounces unsweetened dark chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Heat water and butter to boiling point. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is smooth and forms a ball when tested in cold water. Remove from heat and let cool. Beat in 3 eggs, one at a time. Drop dough from teaspoon, elongate slightly to form small eclairs (or drop in 'puffs'), onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until light brown. Set aside to cool.
3. Prepare filling by mixing all dry ingredients. Very slowly add milk over low heat and cook until mixture thickens (don't let heat get too high), so you don't have any lumps. Then pour this custard  into the beaten eggs, stirring quickly (so eggs don't cook). Cool and add vanilla.
4. With a serrated knife, slice pastry puffs lengthwise (or if you have puffs make a hole), but not all the way through. Pipe custard mixture into the center.
5. Melt chocolate for icing, add sugar and cream. Cook over medium heat until soft ball stage. Let cool and beat until smooth. Ice tops of eclairs.

And, a Retro Ad.. I don't use pudding for my filling... but had to post this Ad.

Eclair Photo: Food Network