Bean cake? I'd love some

 I have been reading about using beans in place of "fats" in cakes, cookies etc.  what??  I know right?  So I was hosting a book club at my house, we were going to discuss "Freakonomics" which-if you have read it- you know it is all about unlikely comparisons....hmmmm as unlikely as beans in cake?? Perfect.

Here is the recipe-as in the whole thing- nothing taken out...all the "modifications" will be listed!  I have no idea where the original recipe came from so I can't give proper "props"  It is my favorite go to cake recipe for box cakes.  SO many flavor combinations--I have yet to have a bad one.....well OK chocolate cake mix and banana pudding=not so good.

BEAN CAKE

1 cake mix (I used white this time)

1 4 oz box of instant pudding (in this case I used white chocolate)

1 cup sour cream

1/2 water

1/2 cup oil (this is where I used 1/2 great northern beans blended up)

4 eggs

mix on low until ingredients are combined then speed it up for 2-3 minutes.

***if you usually use 2 rounds- you might want to consider 3...this will overflow!

350 degree oven for  ?? minutes.  Times will vary I usually check mine after about 18 minutes.  Nobody likes dry icky cake!  Whatever the box says for the pan size, I usually take 5 minutes off.

So YUMMY!  I made a swiss meringue buttercream recipe.  SO light and fluffy!  It uses A LOT of egg whites....so what do you do with all the yolks??  you make lemon curd to fill your cake of course!!

 This might look hard- but it is way easier than trying to get a smooth layer of frosting!  As you might have noticed in the first picture- I did a crumb coat first.  Then using a 1M or 2D (sorry, I can't remember) tip you start from the center of the rose and swirl out.  

It was DELICIOUS!!  So moist, there is no way that you would know it had beans in it.  

What we have been up to....

I LOVE the fall.  Not only do I love the weather but I LOVE  as Mr Putter would put it "all the juicy things to eat!" (Mr Putter books are some of my favorite children's books)

I got these beauties from a neighbor...in hindsight I should have taken all those tart little green guys out, but it still turned out good.

I borrowed this guy from the same neighbor.

mmmmm, "homemade" grape juice.  VERY nostalgic.

 I LOVE grape jelly.  I had never made it before and had a few gallons of grape juice on my hands.  Is that like making lemonade out of lemons??  I guess it can't be, 'cause, since when is having gallons of fresh juice a bad thing?  

 Walmart had peaches for .50 a  pound! I bought 10 pounds and I had to do something with them before my daughter ate them all.

 *sigh* even messy, it is a beautiful kitchen.  I can't wait to get that backsplash done.

There is something seriously satisfying about seeing a counter full of "canned" goods.  Only freezer jams here, I think that they taste so much better than the processed variety.  I can't wait for my counters to be full of canned apple pie filing!!  On to find some cheap apples!

Fish bowl no more!

Sorry that it has been awhile- school started here a few weeks ago and life has been crazy busy!! We have a footballer for the first time and that has rocked our world!! anyway on to the house, which has been as neglected as this blog these days :) 

LOVED these golden beauties from IKEA!  they are an orangy goldy color.  To the right is how they came- you know the type- you wad it up on the rod and it never looks quite right?  We also bought some chocolate brown curtains for our room and they had a tab system on the back--not the hangy tabby things but a tab on the back of the curtain.  I liked how they looked SO much more than the wadded up business, so I took matters and my scissors into my hands.  dun dun dun!

 I made these slits every 5ish inches- and then 1 inch so...every 5 inches there is a 1 inch "tab" does that make sense?

 oooooooooh that hangs so much better, so much neater---so... not "college dorm room".

So the rod actually gets looped on the 1 inch tabbys only.  hmmm If I decide to "invent" the word "tabbys" for the multiple tabs on my curtain....should it have 1 b or follow the double the letter rule, like in rub to rubbing? or should it be spelled tabbies?  hmmm spell checker likes that, but maybe it thinks I am talking about cats?

Anyway, now I just need to hem them up, because right now they hang a little too low, and I am not taking about that nice pooling on the ground that is so hot these days, I mean they are flooding onto the ground, they look a bit silly--it will happen evetually.