Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have been in a major winter funk.  It's too cold to do anything.   I absolutely do not like cold weather, I don't understand people who take vacations to the cold mountains to ski.  Do they not know about beaches and sun and sand and vitamin D and what it does for your life?  Apparently not.  So to break myself out of the funk yesterday I decided it's time to start baking again.  I had all the ingredients for this recipe on hand so I went with it.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Here is what you'll need:
2-2/3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 sticks butter
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions
Firest pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees 
Then whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside for later

Next in a large mixing bowl (or in your new Kitchen Aid mixer that you got for Christmas!!), beat butter using paddle attachment. Add sugar and beat for a few minutes.

Add your eggs, one at a time while continuing to beat on low, then add vanilla. Add mashed bananas on low as wel.

Mix in the flour and buttermilk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour.

Fill into cupcake pans about 2/3 full.  It is important to try and make them all the same size, a few of mine turned out a little more brown than I would have liked since they weren't all exactly the same size.  I am in love with this batter filler that my brother and sister-in-law bought me for Christmas.  Next time I will be using it properly! 

Bake the cupcakes for approximately 18-minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  A tooth pick or this cute handy tool!

The cupcakes can be stored in room temperature for up to 2 days!

Recipe yeilds 18 cupcakes.



 

Jello Cupcakes

 These are super fun and easy cupcakes to make.  You can use any combination of colors or flavors

you wish.  I used orange, strawberry and lemon for this batch but feel free to mix it up however you’d like.  Here’s what you’ll need:

 

Ingredients:

1 pkg. white cake mix

3 different flavors, ¼ cup of each dry Jello packets

1 container of vanilla frosting

Directions:

Prepare cake batter as directed, then divide evenly into 3 bowls

Stir in different flavors of dry gelatin mix into batter

Spoon from each bowl into cupcake liners (about 2 tablespoons each)

Bake according to package directions

Let cool, spread icing, and enjoy!

Jamaican Banana Fritters

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

1/2 cup of sugar

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4-1/2 cup milk

Directions

Peel and mash the ripe bananas.

Beat egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Next, blend egg mixture with mashed bananas.  Make sure it is all incorporated.

Then sift flour and baking powder into the banana/egg mixture.  Mix it all together.

If the batter seems to be too thick add a little milk… I added about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of milk.

Add oil to a frying pan and place on medium high heat.  Drop spoonfuls of the banana fritter batter into the hot oiled frying pan. Flip when you see the edges starting to get brown and golden.

Lastly, combine cinnamon and sugar together to create your cinnamon sugar.  This is used to sprinkle on top of the fritters once they are finished cooking and still hot.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.

Frito Dip

Ingredients:

2 bricks of cream cheese

1 can of corn

Juice of one small lime

1 Tablespoon cumin (or more to taste)

1 Tablespoon chili powder (or more to taste)

1 small chopped/diced onion

Directions:

First mix together cream cheese, juice of lime and spices.  Once they're combined do a taste test.  If you taste more lime than spice add a little more spice until it taste yummy.

Second add in onion and corn mixing together thoroughly.

Lastly, enjoy!

Cherry Chocolate Cake Balls

I'm especially proud of these cake balls because it was my first attempt at making them and I used my own recipe.  It's really simple.


There are two ways to make these cake balls.  I used a Baby Cakes Cake Pops Maker:

This method is super simple.  I used a Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe- Devil's Food cake mix and followed the recipe on the box EXCEPT for the water, I used maraschino cherry juice in place of that.  Once the batter is complete you just pour the batter into the baby cakes maker and it takes only a few minutes for each to cook.  For some I cut up a maraschino cherry into fours ( I know that's small but so are the cake balls) and pushed a piece into the batter before I closed the lid.  After they're done cooking I let them cool and then covered them in white chocolate.  

I always use two things to melt chocolate, Crisco butter flavored shortening and Wilton's Candy Melts:

I used about half the bag of chocolate pieces in a microwavable bowl, add about 2 tablespoons of the Crisco and microwave for about a minute, stir it up and continue to melt in 20 second intervals as needed.  I also have a Babycakes Chocolatier Mini Dipper

This is obviously not needed but really helps keep the chocolate warm while dipping.  Since this was my first time, they didn't come out looking as pretty as I originally envisioned.  This is because I dipped them in the white chocolate and then put them in mini cupcake cups.  In the future I've decided to save Styrofoam so that I can use that and tooth picks to elevate the pops until they dry.  An easy way to make sure the tooth pick sticks in the pop is to dip it in chocolate before you stick it in the pop, let that dry and then cover the pop in chocolate.  You of course can also use sticks like the ones pictured above to make them into true "cake pops."

The second method, if you do not have a cake pop maker, is as follows:

First make the cake as usual in a regular cake pan.  Once it cools put it in a bowl and crumble it up.  Add icing to the bowl little by little.  The first time I tried this method I added the entire can of icing and the cake/icing mixture was too moist.  Add just enough icing to bind the cake together so that you can roll it into balls.  Roll the mixture into balls the size of golf balls or slightly smaller.  If you're going to make cake pops dip the stick in chocolate and then insert into cake ball, or tooth picks into chocolate and then the cake ball and let cool in refrigerator for at least an hour.  I would work on about 10 cake balls at a time.  The first time I did this I took all of them out and didn't work fast enough, by the time I got to cake ball 20, they had thawed some and were hard to work with.

This was an okay first attempt but I have an obsession with cupcakes and cake pops, so I'll be back.  It's easy to play with recipes and to decorate for different occasions!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Prep Time: 40 minutes | Bake Time: 17 minutes

Cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness stout
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Whiskey Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons Irish whiskey

Baileys Frosting:
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

1. To Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

3. To Make the Whiskey Ganache Filling: Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

4. To Fill the Cupcakes: Using a 1-inch round cookie cutter (or the bottom of a large decorating tip), cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down. Transfer the ganache to a piping back with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

5. To Make the Baileys Frosting: Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

6. Using your favorite decorating tip, or an offset spatula, frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container.

Valentines Day- Rolos

Use decorative paper to wrap the Rolos in. On the inside as the candy is unwrapped write I like the way you roll.