Scared ya with the title … Didn’t I ? Well, allow me to assure you that yes you are reading correctly, your eyes are not playing tricks on you and I did, infact, make an eggplant cake and it tasted DELCIOUS!
Yes! D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!
When I told my mom I was going to make an eggplant cake, she said that even the the thought of that was making her nauseous…. hahah.
But, let’s think about it for a second….
We all eat carrot cake… right?
We eat zucchini cake too… right?
We also eat zucchini bread…. right?
So, using veggies in cakes is normal!
But, for some reason, the thought of an eggplant cake makes people “nauseous”? lol
The mission was on! I had to somehow make an eggplant plant that wouldn’t make people want to puke! I tweaked around my favorite carrot cake recipe and an eggplant cake recipe was born! YAY!
Just look at this gorgeous slice! How can anything that looks this moist taste bad?! It tasted kinda like carrot cake but with more moisture. Mmmmmmm
If you want to be brave and make it too, you will need the following ingredients:
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup finely chopped eggplant
2 tbsp shredded coconut
And here are the steps:
Step 1:
Chop your eggplant as small as you can and keep it aside.
Step 2:
In a deep bowl, add sugar, eggs and oil.
Step 3:
Mix everything until it’s well-blended.
Step 4:
Add flour, eggplant, milk, cinnamon powder, vanilla extract, baking soda and baking powder. Mix everything.
Step 5:
When everything is blended, add shredded coconut.
Step 6:
Give your batter one last beating.
Step 7:
Pour this batter into a greased/floured pan and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
TIP: This cake makes a dome when it’s done baking. I don’t like cutting it out and wasting it. Instead, when I take it out of the oven, I use a clean kitchen towel to press gently on the top. That’s it! The top of the cake will flatten out.
Time to dress up this naked cake! 
I have seen a lot of banner cakes in the blogosphere but they are all made from paper or ribbons. I wanted to try something different with cookies. It’s simple and looks patriotic. Just what I was going for!
Here’s what you need to do:
Step 1:
Wrap two bubble tea straws in red white and blue ribbons. Use tape to secure the ends in place.
Step 2:
Stick these straws into the cake.
Bend a floral wire into the shape you want for the banner and then put it through the hollow openings of the straws on either ends….
…until it’s all the way in and firmly in place.
Step 3:
Cover this wire with some more red, white and blue ribbon. You can use melted chocolate to stick it in place or even a glue gun though I don’t like using glue guns when it comes to anything edible.
Step 4:
Cut out some more red, white and blue ribbons and make a small bouquet and hold it together with tape. Make two of these bouquets.
Step 5:
Push them into the hollow openings of the straws on either ends.
Step 6:
Now, bring out some cream filled cookies such as golden Oreos and scrape off the icing. You will only need the cookies and not the icing.
Step 7:
Cut out red, white and blue fondant circles using a round cutter.
Brush some corn syrup on the cookies. This will act as glue.
Step 8:
Place the fondant circles on top of the cookies and stick them in place.
Step 9:
Cut out red, white and blue fondant stars.
Brush some corn syrup on the cookies.
Step 10:
Stick the stars on top of these cookies.
Step 11:
Use a black edible marker to write the letters U, S and A on each cookie.
Step 12:
Pull out your straw banner from the cake and lay it down on a white sheet of paper.
Use three plain cookies and arrange them underneath the ribbon covered wire.
Squeeze out a decent amount of melted chocolate so that the cookies and the wire are covered.
Step 13:
Now, place your fondant cookies on top of this melted chocolate and press gently so that everything sticks.
Let it all dry for about 10 minutes.
Step 14:
Pick up your banner and stick it into the cake and you will notice the top view of the cookies is not that pretty. So, brush some corn syrup on all that chocolate between the cookies and ….
Step 15:
….add some sprinkles. It looks neater!
Let’s move on to the cake now…
Step 1:
Place your cake on a turntable. Remove the banner and set it aside.
Ice your cake with my new favorite marshmallow chocolate buttercream icing. There should be a thick coat. No need to be neat. We are going for a “pretty but messy” look since you want the focus to be on the banner and not on the cake,itself.
Step 2:
Press the back of your spoon into the icing and move it in random movements until you have these cool indentations. Do this for the top and the side of your cake.
Stick your banner into the cake and you are done!
Happy early 4th of July everyone!
And OHH… my brother is thanking all of you for those warm birthday wishes 