Banana Crepes

• 6.5 oz milk
• 2 oz heavy cream
• 2 oz sugar
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 egg
• 1/4 vanilla bean
• pinch salt
  ** Blend together and strain through a sieve
• 1 oz yellow corn meal
• 1.75 oz graham cracker crumbs

** add to strained mixture and mix by hand

Heat an 8-inch nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Lightly brush the pan with melted butter. Pour batter into the hot pan, twirling the pan so the batter spreads out evenly into a very thin layer. Cook about 30 seconds until the crepe comes away from the sides of the pan. Gently flip the crepe over with your fingers or the help of a rubber spatula and continue cooking another few seconds. Transfer to a plate and repeat cooking crepes until all the batter is used

Caramelized bananas

• 8 oz sliced ripe banana
• 2/3 oz light brown sugar
• 1/4 oz butter
• pinch cinnamon

Heat sauté pan; add butter and brown sugar. When melted add bananas and cinnamon, cook for a couple minutes.

Lay flat one crepe, add a little vanilla pudding, caramelized bananas and roll up. Serve with some chocolate sauce, crushed nougat and some whip cream and enjoy!

This post was sponsored by Heinen’s. When making these crepes for yourself or for your Valentine, Carolyn from the Pepper Pike store thinks giosolo moscato would pair very well. She says a sweet wine will do the trick – even a sweet Riesling would be nice.

Coconut cake with caramelized pineapple and lime scented whip cream

Cake

** cream together until light and fluffy

Eggs 5 ea

** add one at a time to the butter and sugar

** sift together and add to wet ingredients alternating it with the coconut milk and vanilla

** alternate with the dry ingredients

Coconut 2 C

**Fold into finished cake batter

Bake at 350, rotating every 7 minutes until done, check with knife by sticking it into the center and if the knife comes out clean it is done.

Pineapple compote

** melt brown sugar and butter together and add vanilla bean and pineapple. stir until pineapple is well coated with brown sugar mixture.

Lime scented whip cream

** whip the heavy cream, vanilla and powder sugar together until stiff and add lime zest and fold in by hand. Take a slice of cake, top it with warm pineapple compote and top with whip cream.

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The recipe was sponsored by Heinen’s. Laurie Toth, the wine consultant at the Avon store, suggests serving it with the Frost Bitten Ice Riesling ($12.99).  She explains that Frost Bitten has flavors of pineapple and a touch of citrus that would pairs well with this dessert.  The dessert wine is similar to an Ice Wine, but cannot be called an Ice Wine because the process is not the same by law.

I was so excited to finally check out this bakery. I’ve been a fan of Wendy Thompson from her days at Dante and knew this place would be sinfully good. Their shop, which she co-owns with Syndee Klingenberg, is tiny but filled with big aromas of all things sweet and decadent. The shop is easy to find, just look for the one-of-a-kind, beautifully decorated cakes in the window.

There are 12 cupcakes available daily, each at $2.50. I selected a mix of German chocolate, espresso, apple, carrot, PB lovers (chocolate cake with peanut butter crunch, similar to Wendy’s one dessert we loved at Dante) and lemon.

The cakes aren’t the only things that are impressively decorated. Each cupcake is a little work of art. It has to be quite time consuming to assemble and decorate all these tiny cakes. Their effort pays off because these cupcakes tasted as good as they looked.

I tried the lemon with raspberry filling and butter cream. It was very good and surprisingly, not as sweet as I anticipated, although I still didn’t eat all the butter cream, it was almost too much. I also tried a bite of the PB lover and sure enough, that was another winner.

In fact, there were smiles all around the dinner table.

On the menu, I quickly spotted a few specials that almost swayed me, like the cinnamon crepes and pumpkin pancakes, but wasn’t in the mood for something that sweet. Instead, we split our favorite: the breakfast burrito (eggs wrapped in two tortillas covered with thick guajillo sauce, cheese and baked) and pecan-crusted bacon.

The bacon at Lucky’s alone is worth the trip regardless of location. We always say we should try to recreate this at home, but quickly realize it’s probably better that we don’t!

On this particular visit, I noticed all the little ones inside. This of course made me happy since we won’t have to sacrifice visits once the baby comes (unless of course she’s a screamer!).

On our way home, we stopped at the new cupcake shop, A Cookie and a Cupcake, from Wendy Thompson, formerly with Dante. Unfortunately, it was too early and they weren’t open quite yet (not until 11 a.m. on Sundays), but the store really does look cute (as you might expect given the concept) with lots of impressive goodies in the window.

Wendy told me via e-mail recently that they do offer a cupcake similar to the chocolate and peanut butter bar that she created for Dante, which was easily one of the best desserts we’ve had in town. We’re really looking forward to trying this.