Sunday, April 15, 2012

Banana Nut Muffins with Nutella

I was browsing some of my favorite blogs today and I happened upon this yummy posting by Bake at 350 , Nutella-filled Banana Muffins. I ran to the kitchen with my laptop to do an ingredient scan and I had everything, score.

I whipped these up for dessert tonight.  If they last overnight we might even get to eat some for breakfast! Not likely, but we can hope...


Banana Nut Muffins with Nutella

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 regular size muffin tins with liners and lightly spray with cooking spray (this will keep the muffins from pulling away with the liners). Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.

With and electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the egg, mashed banana, and milk. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.

With a spatula, gently stir the walnuts and dry ingredients into the wet. Divide the batter into the 12 muffins tins. Bake 13-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  


Spoon Nutella on top of each muffin and sprinkle additional walnuts on top. 


Happy Baking,
AJ

Recipe adapted from Bake at 350: http://www.bakeat350.blogspot.com/2012/04/nutella-filled-banana-muffins.html#comment-form

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Strawberry Showcase

I have been asked to bake 6 dozen cookies for a church bake sale next week. I decided to take to the Internet to look up new enticing recipes that I could whip up. I found these Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies and then I was sucked into a strawberry nirvana!

Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
Image by Lauren Lilling from Keep it Sweet Desserts
On the same page were all of these related strawberry recipes, and man do they look yummy. Check out what I found!

Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream frosting
Image by Lauren Lilling from Keep it Sweet Desserts

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Image by Lauren Lilling from Keep it Sweet Desserts

All of the sudden I feel the urge to stock up on strawberries and whip up cookies, a cake, and cupcakes today! Happy Saturday, bake something!

Happy Baking,
AJ

Friday, April 13, 2012

Butterfinger Birthday Cupcakes

Butterfingers are one of my top 3 favorite candy bars. They also happen to be my friend Pam's favorite as well. Even my daughter knows it. Every year Pam goes trick-or-treating with us, and my daughter always sets some of her Butterfingers aside for Pam to take home. :)

Pam celebrated her birthday this week and I told her that I would make her some cupcakes. I had these on my "to bake" list, and I knew that it was finally time to try them out. The end result was a great cake with an out of this world frosting. You must put this on your "to bake" list immediately.



For the cupcakes:
2 large eggs separated, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup milk
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
½ cup creamy peanut butter
3¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed
Top with chopped fun-sized Butterfingers

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare cupcake pans. Separate the eggs. Put sifted flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
In a mixer, beat the butter until soft and creamy, about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of sugar and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Now add egg yolks, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Add vanilla and almond extract until combined, about 30 seconds.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated. Now add 1/2 milk mixture, mix until combined. Add half the remaining flour, combine. Now add the rest of your milk and combine. Add remaining 1/3 of your flour mixture, and go ahead and mix until combined.
In a separate clean bowl with clean whisk attachment, whip eggs whites until foamy then add the cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks occur, and then gradually add in your remaining sugar (4 tablespoons). Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Fold the eggs whites into the batter. Make sure they are fully incorporated, but do not over stir the batter.

Put batter into prepared pans and bake for 13-15 minutes.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter and peanut butter until smooth. Slowly mix in the confectioners’ sugar, beating until smooth and well blended. Mix in the whipped topping until smooth and fluffy.

To assemble the cupcakes, place a candy bar half on top of each cooled cupcake.  Pipe frosting onto the cupcakes, covering the candy bar completely.  Sprinkle with chopped Butterfingers.

If not serving immediately, store the cupcakes in the refrigerator.

Happy Baking,
AJ


Sources:
Cupcakes: I am Baker
Frosting: Annie's Eats

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Easter Cupcake Shooters

A while back I was browsing Pintrest and stumbled upon these things calls "Cupcake Shooters." Basically, they are mini-cupcakes layered between frosting in a plastic push-up pop. How cool is that?!?

With Easter approaching it gave me the perfect opportunity to make some. I ordered the pops from Etsy and plotted out my concept, Carrot Cake Cupcake Shooters. I layered mini carrot cake cupcakes in between yummy cream cheese frosting. I then topped each pop with green pipe cleaners made to look like the leafy green top of a carrot. To display them I put them in a container and filled it with Easter grass. NOTE: I kept them in position with a foam block.




When I delivered them to my daughter's school everyone thought they were so cute. I was really pleased with how they turned out and how easy they were to make. I have another dozen pop containers in my pantry. I have already started thinking of what to fill them with. Here are some of my ideas:
  • Neapolitan (strawberry and chocolate cake layered with vanilla buttercream)
  • Cake n' Ice Cream (any flavor cake layered between mini ice cream scoops)
  • Cookies n' Cream
The push-up pop containers are so versatile you can fill and present them in many different ways. The possibilities seem endless...

Happy Baking,
AJ