Banana Muffins

Don't let those over-ripe bananas go to waste!

Okay, here it is... The banana muffins recipe! It's a basic banana bread recipe that I add a streusel topping to. I like making muffins instead of a loaf because they cook faster and evenly. By the way, this is a lot of batter - it made 30 muffins so use a big mixing bowl.

Muffin ingredients:
5 super ripe bananas
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Streusel ingredients:
1/4 cup butter at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Streusel directions:
- Using electric-mixer, beat butter until creamy. Mix in granulated and brown sugar.
- Add flour and cinnamon until well blended. Mix will be crumbly.
- Set aside

Muffin directions:
- Preheat oven to 315 degrees
- Mash bananas then mix in eggs. Using a electric-mixer, mix in vanilla, shortening, applesauce, granulated sugar and brown sugar.
- Sift flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to batter. (I mixed it until it was super smooth)
- Fold in pecans/walnuts
- Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full of batter
- Sprinkle each cup with streusel, covering the entire top of muffin (I liked the ones that were totally covered, see picture below. The ones above were lightly sprinkled)

- Bake for 30-35 minutes. Insert toothpick to check for doneness (it should be clean when removed from middle of muffin)

Dirty Snowballs

My niece Bianca gave me this easy-peazy boxed cake mix cookie recipe. She was right when she raved about how pretty they looked with their cracked topping, but she didn't push how super scrumptious they would be! The first dozen I baked were gone from the cooling rack immediately! Ben's mom and grandmother each had two and loved them. Reese said they tasted like brownie cookies... mmmmmmmm

Ingredients:
- Box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil's Food Cake Mix
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- Small bowl of sugar (to roll cookie dough in)

Directions:
* You will not be following box instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Pour cake mix, oil, vanilla extract and eggs into mixing bowl. Mix until dough forms

- Shape dough into 1" balls and roll in sugar. Place dough on ungreased cookie sheet (I line all my cookie sheets with parchment paper)

- Bake for 8-10 minutes (I baked some smaller portions since they were disappearing, which took 8 minutes).
- Allow to cool, but my family ate them before they could =)

Enjoy with a glass of milk!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 everyone!

New year, new treats to try! Here are some photos of past treats that I've done with love. You may have seen them on my FB site.

Spider cupcakes for Reese's Halloween party in preschool


Random designs on leftover red velvet mini cupcakes


Monkey cupcakes for Taylor's 2nd Birthday


Curious George cupcake theme for Taylor's 2nd Birthday


Dora cupcake theme cuppies for Taylor's 3rd Birthday at daycare(I don't really like those sugar things, but they worked for this)


Valentine's Day mini cupcakes for Reese's class

Cake Bites

Photo by Ben's cousin Jasmine G.

Merry Christmas! My gift to you is my favoritest "almost home-made" super easy decadent and fabulous looking cake bites!

It's exactly just that, a cake bite. A pefectly sized tasty morsel of cake, frosting, and candy coating. It's the lazy version of Bakerella's cake pops.

Ingredients:
- Box cake mix (and ingredients as directed)
- Cannister of vanilla frosting
- Packages of chocolate and vanilla Wilton candy melts (can be found at Michael's Craft store and Joanne Fabrics) or Almond Bark (can be found in baking aisle)
- Sprinkles

Directions:
- Bake cake as directed. Once cake is cool, crumble cake until fine.
- Mix about 1/3 to 1/2 of the frosting until the cake has a doughlike consistence (start with less rather than more since some cakes are more moist than others)
- Form "cake dough" into 1" balls and place on wax paper lined tray. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Melt candy melts as directed (I usually do it by microwavie - ultimate laziness)
- Dip balls into melted candy and make sure that it is thoroughly covered. Tap off excess and place on wax paper to set.
- If using sprinkles, add them right after dipping so that they stick on.
- Drizzle vanilla candy melts on the plain ones (I place a few vanilla candy melt pellets in a plastic ziplock, melt in the microwave, cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag, and drizzle over the cake bite in a zig-zag pattern).




Cakepop variation:
- Dip lollipop stick tip in melted chocolate then insert into cakeball
- Gently dip and roll cakepop in melted chocolate, tap off excess
- If adding sprinkles, add immediately
- Place cakepop on plastic wrapped styrofoam to set

My favorite cake/candy melt combinations are chocolate devils food cake with milk chocolate candy melts and lemon cake with vanilla candy melts.

This is such an easy and fun process, and the results are pretty. I'm so craving a chocolate one with a cup of coffee now... ;)

Baking Party!

What a wonderful way to spend the day with girlfriends catching up!

I spent the afternoon with my high school girlfriends Gail and Michelle baking holiday treats. We had a bunch of recipes, but it took us some time to decide which to do first. Next time, we need a timeline! Here are a few of the treats we created while spending quality time.

Chocolate Fudge, Whoopie Pies, Magic Cookie Bars, Peanutbutter Cup Cookies, Peppermint Bark Snowflakes (not pictured)

T-Day Treats

I am not a good cook, but my baking skills make up for it! My contribution for this Thanksgiving will be a buffet of sweets which will include one of my all time favorite desserts for the holidays, Pumpkin Crunch Cake*. It's easy and super delicious! I'll admit that it's not the most visually pleasing of my treats, but once someone is brave enough to try it, the word spreads of its yummy goodness, and it disappears! I swear! Unfortunately, I have no pictures at this time but will post after T-Day.

Ingredients:
- (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
- 4 eggs 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon salt 1
- package yellow cake mix 1 cup chopped pecans (I substitute walnuts since they're less expensive)
- 1 cup margarine, melted 1 (I love butter so I use unsalted sweet cream butter instead)
- container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
- Lightly grease one 9x13 inch baking pan
- In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix well, and spread into the prepared pan
- Sprinkle cake mix over the top of the pumpkin mixture, and pat down
- Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over the cake mix, then drizzle with melted margarine (The drizzle covers the whole top, so it's basically covered in butter)
- Bake for 60 to 80 minutes, or until done
- Top with whipped topping when ready to serve.


*Recipe shared by allrecipes.com

Lollipop Stick Treats

Lollipop sticks make so many treats even yummier! Here are a few things that I've "lollied."

Cakepops
Bakerella has an excellent website of ideas, and her book is awesome. My next adventure is to try cakepopping cheesecake... mmmm


Cookiepops
Already made dough with holiday kisses make an easy fun treat for the kids


Krispiespops
Another easy treat on a stick - rice krispies treats dipped in milk chocolate. Add sprinkle to make festive!