Super Easy Fruit Flan

Ever in the mood for fruit flan? You will be after you see how easy it is to make!!
To start, you will need what I like to call, a 'fruit flan pan'. I'm not sure what the technical name is for it, but it looks like this: WHAT?! You don't have one of these???? Come on now, doesn't everyone have a fruit flan pan? Actually, if I had to guess, I'd say that maybe .00001% of the population does. But after you look at this recipe and still really want to make a fruit flan, then I will offer to let you borrow mine(because I know it's just you, Mom, who looks at my recipe blog:)

Back to the recipe...
Other than that pan, you will need:
For the cake:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking pwd
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened (don't even think about substituting margarine in this recipe. Just trust me. I tried. It didn't turn out well.)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup milk
For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
For the fruit topping:
a variety of fresh and canned fruit
For the glaze:
2 tbsp. apricot jam
1 1/2 tsp. water

Preheat oven to 350.
For the cake: Measure all ingredients into mixing bowl. Beat for about 2 minutes until smooth. Pour into a greased and floured 91/2 inch flan pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let stand 2-3 minutes and then turn onto wired rack:


(notice how the outside edge is raised...creating a place for the filling)

To make the filling: Beat all 4 ingredients together until smooth. Spread in hollow of flan. Chill to firm:

Now for the fun part! Drain canned fruit (such as the mandarin oranges) very well. Blot with paper towel in necessary. Make a pattern of your choice as you lay the fruit over the filling:

This was the fruit that I had on hand, but you can certainly use whatever you'd like. I usually put kiwi and raspberries on it too.

For the glaze: Put the jam and water mixture through a sieve and brush it over the fruit. The picture below does not show the glaze on top because I didn't have the apricot jam available to make it, but I would definitely recommend the glaze so the fruit doesn't dry out!

And there you have it. It really is very simple.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Problem:
The most perfect solution:

Sometimes I intentionally buy too many bananas just so they will over-ripen and I can make this cake.

The Cake part of the recipe:

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup sour milk

2 cups AP flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla.

Mix bananas with sour milk (how I make sour milk: add 1 tbsp. white vinegar to the 1/2 cup measuring cup and then add milk to fill cup. Allow it to sit a couple minutes before adding to bananas). Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture in 3 parts alternating with banana mixture in 2 parts, beginning and ending with flour. Spread in 2 greased round 8 inch layer pans . Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes, until an inserted wooden pick comes out clean. Cool.

Now for the best part: The Frosting part of the recipe...

8 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

Cream together the cream cheese and butter, slowly add powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.

Now take one of the cooled cakes and plop it upside down on a platter. Plop some of the frosting on it and spread it around


Place the second cake on top of the first and add the rest of the frosting to it. Spread the frosting all over the top and sides of the cake.

The finished product (Okay, it looks kind of boring, but oh-so-good...if you're a banana cake-loving type person)

Yum. And now I am going to go have myself a slice