Little Stacy in Big Girl Heels and eating cake.

I decided to go out this weekend and explore garage sales in my area. As I was driving around enjoying the BEAUTIFUL sunshine (and my FREE smoothie for joining mypanera.com) I left the radio off and had some time to reflect. I haven't been to a garage sale in years. Which in itself isn't the worst thing ever but it reminded me of being a little girl and going to them with my dad. I bought my first pair of Jelly's on a saturday morning. This then spawned a whole thought process about who I was all of those years ago and what I wanted to become. My thoughts about not going to garage sales had me pondering what in me had changed since I was that little bossy girl.

Life happened. Not the way I planned. As a kid I wanted to be on PBS Saturday morning cooking shows (there was no food network back then), I wanted to be a teacher, a ballerina, a mom, a movie star. I wanted to be married to the love of my life, go to Stanford, be the boss of something big and wear amazing clothes.

Here's the deal. We all know that the ideas you have as a kid rarely come to fruition. After getting kicked out of ballet, being too scared to try out for a big part the school play and having a steady B average in school I never made it to Juilliard, Stanford or Hollywood. But that's ok with me.

Things didn't happen exactly how I wanted but my thoughts kept returning to that little girl I once was. I thought she was pretty cool. Did I stray to far away from her? I've been through plenty of ups and downs in my life, had different attitudes about things, tried new things etc. But, did I get so caught up in life that I forgot how little me wanted to live?

Reflecting on things I think I've done pretty well. I did get a bachelors degree (not from stanford), I married a wonderful man(the love of my life), I teach at church, I bake for fun and post pictures here (not PBS but it keeps me entertained),I'm working on the mom thing and I wear stilletos almost every day. (I think little Stacy would have loved my hot pink ones and that I let my hair grow out) But most importantly I think Little me would be happy to know I'm trying to do good in the world and that I'm happy. 

Now for the cake! I had some over ripe bananas so instead of making bread for the millionth time. I though some cake might be delicious. I found a recipe on food.com and modified it as always.

1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 Tablespoon of cinnamon

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

2 1/8 cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups buttermilk ( i don't buy buttermilk often so a great subsitute is 1 1/2 cups milk an 1 1/2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. let sit for 5 minutes and then use as buttermilk)

                                              GET MEXICAN VANILLA IF POSSIBLE!!!

1 Preheat oven to 275°.

2 Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. ( I used 2 9in rounds)

3 In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice and cinnamon; set aside.

4 In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

5 In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.

6 Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.

7 Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.

8 Stir in banana mixture.

9 Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

10 Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.

                                                               Dog Begging for cake #1

Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened ( i used 2. the frosting is thick and sweet!)

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups icing sugar

11 For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

12 Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla.

13 Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.

14 Spread on cooled cake.

Here is the original recipe if you would like to see it.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/best-ever-banana-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting-67256#ixzz1OEO0zX8o

                                               BEBE still begging after she had been banished.

Now for the decorating. I wanted to do something pretty so I found a tutorial at http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/2011/02/rose-cake-tutorial.html

 It was a little lopsided...  but I was rushing : P

This was super easy and super fun.  You end up having a ton of frosting on your cake but it looks great : )  I purchased 2 tubs of vanilla frosting from the store and used my pastry bag with a 1M tip.