Name: Banana Cake W/chocolate Fudge Icing
Ingredients: 1/2 c Unsalted butter; 3/4 c Granulated sugar; 2 Eggs; 1 ts Pure vanilla extract; 3 Ripe bananas, mashed; 2 c All-purpose flour; 1 ts Baking soda; 1/4 c Sour cream; 4 oz Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate; 2 tb Cocoa; 1/3 c Milk; 1/4 c Unsalted butter; 1 1/2 c Icing sugar, sifted (more if needed); 1 ts Pure vanilla extract

Do not be afraid, dear children of God, you that have fallen into a mournful state, do not be afraid to cry out to God. I know we sometimes feel as if we must not and dare not pray. We have become so dull, so lifeless, so unworthy, that we do not expect to be heard, and feel as if it would be presumption to cry. But our heavenly Father loves to hear his children cry all day long... If you can cry out to Jesus, he will joyfully hear you. If you will give him no rest, he will give you all the rest you need. The Lord finds music in his children’s cries.

C.H. Spurgeon

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Fruits, Eggs, Dairy		Desserts, Fruits, Chocolate	1	9" cake

INGREDIENTS

1/2	c	Unsalted butter
3/4	c	Granulated sugar
2		Eggs
1	ts	Pure vanilla extract
3		Ripe bananas, mashed
2	c	All-purpose flour
1	ts	Baking soda
1/4	c	Sour cream
4	oz	Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
2	tb	Cocoa
1/3	c	Milk
1/4	c	Unsalted butter
1 1/2	c	Icing sugar, sifted (more if needed)
1	ts	Pure vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

           CAKE:
           CHOCOLATE FUDGE ICING:
Preheat the oven to 350&deg;F.  Butter a 9 inch springform pan (or heart-shaped
pan.)
Cream 1/2 cup butter until light.  Gradually beat in the granulated sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Beat in 1 tsp.
vanilla and the mashed bananas.
Sift or mix together the dry ingredients and add to the batter alternately
with the sour cream.  Spoon the batter into the prepared pan evenly and
bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the cake springs back when gently
pressed in the centre.  Cool for 10 minutes and invert. Cool on a wire
rack.
For the icing, melt the chocolate, cocoa, milk and 1/4 cup butter in the
top of a double boiler.  Cook until smooth and cool slightly.
Beat in the icing sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Place the bowl over a larger
bowl of ice and water and stir until the icing is spreadable.
Ice the cake and decorate as you wish.  Yield: One 9 inch Cake. Typed in
MMFormat by cjhartlin@msn.com Source: Cooking with Bonnie Stern.
Recipe by Cathy Luchetti's Hot Flash Cookbook
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest  by "Cindy Hartlin" <cjhartlin@email.msn.com>
on May 29, 1998

A Message from our Provider:

“Faith without works is empty – and vica versa.”

Surely Paul could have made the gospel more palatable – and less dangerous – by saying it was about something else. Something cleaner and less ridiculous than the cross. Something more glorious. Less disgusting. He didn’t do that, though. “I decided,” Paul said, “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). In the face of the worst cultural prejudice imaginable, he fixed the entire gospel squarely and immovably on the fact that Jesus was tacked to a stauros and left to die. If he had been trying to find a surefire way to turn first-century people off from his “good news,” he couldn’t have done better than that! So why did he do it? It’s simple. He did it because he knew that leaving the cross out, or running past it with a glance, or making it peripheral to the gospel, or allowing anything else to displace it at the center of the gospel would make it, finally, no gospel at all.

Greg Gilbert