Erin: Roasted Banana Cupcake

When I told people that I was making roasted banana everyone gave me the same "ewwwww" face but you know what these were SOOOOOO YUMMY!
I would make them again and again.
It would be a really good cupcake for a brunch.
Mmmmmmm
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
The thing is that it only made 12 cupcakes as opposed to the other recipes that made over 30.

I chose The Roasted Banana Cupcake(on page 141) because it just sounded yummy to me and the frosting didn't seem to complicated.

First you have to roast three ripe bananas at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Just in case you were wondering what roasted bananas looked like...

Then sift 2 cups cake flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 3/4 tsp salt. I took Megan's idea of using a whisk to "sift" because I haven't gotten a sifter yet. As a matter of fact sifter, whisk and this are all on my Mother's Day gift list. Last year this was on my Mother's Day list...what a difference a year makes:)

After I sifted my dry mixtures, I creamed 1 stick unsalted butter, 3/4 cup sugar and 3 egg yolks. Then I added my roasted bananas. I then added my flour mixture in three batches alternating with 1/2 cup of sour cream. Then I added 1 tsp vanilla.

I then took my mixture and put it in another bowl, cleaned out my mixer bowl and then beat 3 egg whites until they were peaking.

Honestly this made me a little nervous because I am still a little scared of meringue after my strawberry cupcake experience. But luckily it was rather easy and once my "meringue" was peaked I folded that into my batter. Then I placed my batter in my liners filling them all the way to the top(even though the recipe says 3/4 the way) and baked them for 20 minutes rotating half way through at 350 degrees.

While baking I mixed together 2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar(sifted)

2 sticks of unsalted butter

2 tablespoons of honey

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

To make the frosting

Soooo easy but soooo yummy. I actually added just a little more cinnamon.

The cupcakes were so yummy nice and warm right out of the oven. I would almost make them again and just put a little butter on them.

The next morning I put the frosting on and topped it with a banana....

I think I might be getting the hang of this :)

Over all I would say this recipe was relatively easy.

The taste was AMAZING!

I shared my cupcake love with the girls at church. Everyone seemed to love them and said they were better than last weeks. It seems that the frosting was the biggest hit. I think it's the hint of honey and cinnamon that isn't overwhelming. You almost don't taste it until after you have swallowed.

Next week I am making some cupcakes for a friends daughters birthday, for my book club friends and for a womens shelter. I am still trying to figure out which one I am going to make but I think I might try the Orange-Vanilla Bean, Yellow Buttermilk and peanut butter chocolate swirl...mmmmm.

Barbara; Applesauce spice cupcakes

This recipe was super easy and really, really good, plus it was a breeze with my little hand held mixer. My taste testers enjoyed these more than my last batch of cupcakes. The toasted pecans add just the right flavor. The cream cheese, brown sugar frosting was over the top good!

I made these per my mom's request. She loved them, although I wish I had made them for her last week cause her taste buds and her throat are being affected by her radiation so, it took her all day to get it down. :(

This recipe is on page 55.

First I whisked together 2 cups flour, 1 esp baking soda, 3/4 tsp salt, 2tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ground cloves.

Then with my hand mixer on high speed I creamed 1 stick unslated butter, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar and then added 4 eggs one at a time. Then reduce speed to low and add 1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce and flour mixture.

Then stir in 1 cup toasted pecans.

I backed them for about 20 minutes.

While they were baking I made the Brown Sugar Cream-Cheese frosting.

This was very easy only three ingredients. Next time I will double it because I ran out. To make it's 1 stick of unsalted butter, 8 ounces of cream cheese and 1 cup packed light brown sugar. Beat with mixer until smooth.

I actually wound up baking them for 17 minutes and they were very moist.


The finished product!

I would say that these cupcakes were easy and very good.

I gave my cupcake love to my girls at the office (remember to tell people you give baked goods to if it contains nuts), my mom's radiation team, and my family. I'll definitely make these again, maybe for a brunch. I need to branch out to my recipients. I will always give some to my mom's docs since I see them everyday. Next week, I think I'll take some over to my son's shop and my mom's dentist, and my son Kyle picked snickerdoodle cupcakes for my next run.

Erin: Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes

For my next baking attempt I decided to go with Cookies and Cream Cheesecake(pg 104) because it was in the Simple and Sweet chapter and frankly I wasn't in the mood to tackle frosting.
The recipe calls for 2lbs of cream cheese. Now in case all of you didn't know that is four 8oz boxes which I totally knew right off the top of my head and did not have to Google to find out. Nope.

Then it says you will need a chocolate and cream cookie but didn't specify which type(even though the picture clearly has Oreo on it) so I decided to go with Joe-Joe's because it's cheaper, just as or more yummy(in my opinion) and I shop at Trader's so it's more convenient.

Before I got started I decided that I needed to have a special place for my cupcake ingredients so that a certain someone will not be tempted to eat them.

Then since I was clearing out the top shelf I decided why not clean out the entire fridge?....about two hours and one clean fridge later, I decided to make my cupcakes the next day :)

Okay day two. First I took my Joe's and dropped one in each liner.

Then I put 14(the recipe says 12 but I added two for luck) in a bag and beat them with a meat tenderizer which actually felt really good because honestly I was a bit grumpy.

End result

Then I mixed on Medium-high speed my two pounds of cream cheese and then gradually added one cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Then I drizzled in four eggs that were already beaten and at room temperature.

Then I was to add sour cream....sour cream!...Oh C....how could I not see that I needed sour cream! So I grabbed my son(my daughter was at school) threw him on my hip and ran out of the door. The closest store to me is Albertson's so I tore into the parking lot ran past all the people out front trying to sell me newspapers, chocolates, coupon books, asking for money and wanting my signature and found my sour cream(and a few cereal bowls on sale 2 for a $1) and ran back out the door.

THEN I beat in 1 cup of sour cream and my bag of beat up cookies.

Then I plopped the batter on top of the cookies and then into the oven at 275 for 22 minutes(rotating the tray half way through)


While my cupcakes were baking I helped myself to the most yummy snack. Trader's Pineapple salsa on top of cream cheese with sea salt pita chips....yummy!
Then the oven beeped and it was time to see my masterpiece! First off I have NEVER made cheesecake and I wasn't exactly sure how to tell if it was done. So I sort of tapped the top and it was a bit stiff so I figured that is how you know it's done. Second I was a bit disappointed with the cupcakes. They looked....well they looked like spit-up in a cup.

I went ahead and baked the rest of the batch trying to have a better attitude so that my cupcakes wouldn't look like spit-up.

After the cupcakes cooled I stuck them in the fridge for four hours.


It was hard for me to try one since I kept making the spit up analogy in my head....
But I took a bite and they were pretty tasty! Rich. But good.
Then I let my little tasters split the rest of the cupcake...



lThey thought it was very good.



I gave my cupcake love to my maintenance man Daren to take home to his family.
I gave one to my mailman and I also gave some to the lady at Blockbuster who set aside Avatar for me :)

All in all I would have to say that this recipe is pretty easy.
As far as taste goes I would say it's good. I would add even more mashed up cookies and I would mash them even finer.
The only downside is if you are going for presentation these aren't really pretty.
I am thinking I am going to try this again around Christmas and use Candy Cane Joe-Joe's. Mmmmmm. Now that might be pretty tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes by Martha Stewart, prepared by Barbara "mimi"

Okay, lets just start by saying I am not clever and witty like my daughter so my entries may not be as entertaining. I chose this recipe because it was the first one in the cookbook(pg 22). Erin told me that it was going to be tough not having a mix master and oh my gosh, she was so right. I seriously felt the burn in my arms and was working up a sweat. Lots of ingredients, but very yummy.

I try and get everything possible pre-measured cause I get easily distracted and then screw up.
I first whisked together 3 1/4 cup cake flour, 4 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.

Then I creamed 1 3/4 sticks of unsalted butter and slowly added 1 3/4 cup sugar

(Notice cheap hand mixer, hence the work out.)

Next I reduced speed to low and added flour mixture alternating with 1 cup of milk. Then in a separate bowl mixed 5 large egg whites at room temp until stiff peaks formed then added the eggs whites to the batter and then tossed in 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips along with a tablelspoon of cake flour. The batter was yummy!

Then I filled the pan up and cooked it for about 22 minutes at 350 degrees.

Although next time I will only bake for 2o minutes.


For the frosting I combined 1/4 cup boiling water and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and stirred until cocoa dissolved. Then I beat with my cheap mixer 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup confection sugar and a pinch of salt. Then reduce speed to low and added 1 pound of semi-sweet chocolate melted and cooled until mixed and then added the cocoa mixture.
My frosting didn't turn out as fluffy as Marthas, it was a kind of like ganache but it was really tasty.


The finished product!


The taste testers

You have to be a dark chocolate lover if you are going to like these. So, I would rate this as medium in the difficult category only because I don't have a mix master. I have a cheap mixer that was getting hot cause it was working so hard.

I gave my cupcake love to some family, took some to work and some to my mom's oncologist's office. Everyone mostly raved about the frosting. What I learned from this cupcake episode, Wear an apron, don't try and do laundry at the same time, and walnuts take really good dipped in the chocolate frosting.... Next up, my sweet mom wants me to make the applesauce spice cupcakes...

I need to fatten her up :)

Erin: Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Buttercream

First off I wasn't sure exactly how all this baking was going to turn out but I knew I needed to look cute doing it. I got this apron here.
I also knew that my current cupcake pans where probably not going to cut it...

So I bought myself a 12 cupcake pan which was expensive which means that it will make better cupcakes...right??

Then I went to the store to purchase Cake Flour and decided I should get some extra eggs because I wasn't sure how many I had. Luckily when I came home I found this...

(note to self look thoroughly through fridge and cabinets before going to store)

I decided to start with Strawberry cupcakes(pg 146) because it seemed a whole lot easier then some of the other recipes.

First step sifting together 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 cup cake flour and 1 tsp salt.

I wasn't positive what it meant by sifting...so I used a spatula and sort of did what I believed was sifting.

Then I creamed 1 cup unsalted butter(at room temp), 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and 2 1/4 cups sugar.

(Ps Mom you are SO going to need to get a mixer!)

Then added 3 eggs individually allowing it to fully beat in each time and then added one egg white...I was nervous about separating the egg white over the mixture so I did it in a cup and then added it.

Now slow down mixer to low and add the flour mixture in two batches coordinating with one cup of milk. Now the KEY WORD is slow mixer...maybe my kitchen looks like it snowed.

After everything is well combined fold in by HAND 2 cups finely chopped fresh strawberries. Now this is my definition of finely chopped...

But I am sure it isn't Martha's definition because as I was spooning it into the pan I was thinking that the strawberries needed to be much smaller.

I then poured the batter into each liner filling up about 3/4 the way as directed. I then baked them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees, rotated the pan and continued cooking for an additional 6 minutes.

(Every stinking time I make cupcakes they never ever look like a cupcake more like a muffin...you know it doesn't have a big top...how do I achieve the big top?)

As I was filling up my second batch of cupcakes my son came out for a drink of water completely half asleep but then saw that I was making cupcakes and it took me almost an hour to get him to go back down.

(don't judge his over sized fading pjs..it was laundry day)

As the last of the cupcakes where cooking I pureed 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries for the topping.
Then I combined 4 lrg egg whites and 1 1/4 cup sugar into my electric mixer bowl and placed it over a boiling pot of water. I stirred it until the sugar was melted and the texture was rubbery.

(note to self buy new whisk)

After I achieved the rubbery texture(does that sound dirty?) I attached the bowl to my mixer and mixed on high speed for 10 minutes until it was stiff. Then I added 3 sticks of butter(hello cellulite) one tbsp at a time. Then I mixed in the strawberry puree and this is what I got...
A big runny mess of a goop! WHAT THE H.....

I was ticked it was 10:30pm and I was tired and I was ready to toss everything into the garbage disposal and call it a night.

Then I got control of myself and went ahead and tried it again...this time I beat the egg white, sugary rubbery mixture for 15 minutes until it was stiff as a board. Then I slowly added the butter but I only added 1 1/2 sticks instead of the three and I added only half the puree.

It still wasn't stiff or what I would call meringue looking but it wasn't too runny. So I stuck it in a container and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next morning when I opened the container I stuck it in the mixer and used the paddle to get the air bubbles out(this is what the books says). The texture was still no where near stiff meringue BUT I didn't have the time to remake it so I stuffed in a pastry bag and started topping the cupcakes.

Yeah so this is what Martha's looked like...This is what mine looked like. Ugh. I am gong to stay away from meringue recipes for awhile.


I decided to give my cupcake love to all the girls at church. The frosting looked a little...weird...but everyone said that they were mighty tasty. And when I came out and started handing them out to all the adults I got some really positive feed back.
All in all my first recipe went okay.

The cupcakes were very tasty. If you are a fruit fan you will love this.

The actual cupcakes I am going to say where easy.

The topping was tricky/hard.

I am going to have to revisit this one.