Bananas Foster Cupcakes

I've made enough banana bread to sink the Titanic, so when my grandmom forced upon gave me more bananas I knew I did not want to make banana bread!   A cake would have struck too close to home as far as bread goes.  Cupcakes were winning, but I wanted to take them out of the muffin territory!  Chocolate and nuts - too obvious...Rum and caramel - delicious win!

Bananas Foster Cupcakes 
Yields approximately 15 cupcakes

Ingredients 
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon 
1 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp rum flavoring 
2 large eggs
1 VERY ripe banana, smashed
1 stick butter, softened
Approximately 2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tbsp caramel syrup
Toffee flavored sprinkles 

To Prepare the Cupcakes 
1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3. Blend the milk, rum flavoring, and oil into the dry ingredients.
4. Add the eggs and banana and mix well.
5. Bake the cupcakes for approximately 15 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
6. While the cupcakes are baking, blend the butter and 1 cup of confectioners sugar together.
7. Add the caramel syrup to the icing mixture.
8. Add the remaining confectioners sugar until your icing has the desired consistency.
9. When your cupcakes are cool. ice them and top with the toffee sprinkles. 

Polliwog Cupcakes

My sister is a creative little artiste, so I cannot say I was astonished when she made an adorable frog cupcake at a program she goes to!  I could not resist making them with her, which was super-duper fun and easy!  Not to mention - they were delicious!  The only problem we had was agreeing on a name for these.  Personally I liked Kermy Kakes...judging by the title of this post, you can guess who won...

Polliwog Cupcakes
Yields approximately 12 cupcakes

Ingredients 
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 jar vanilla icing
Green food coloring
12 marshmallows
36 brown M&Ms
3 pink Airheads
1 white air head
1 small tube black icing


To Prepare the Cupcakes 
1. Prepare the cupcakes following the box directions and allow them to cool to room temperature.
2. When you are ready to assemble, set aside a few tablespoons of icing and dye the remaining icing green and ice the cupcakes.
3. Cut the marshmallows in half and place them on the cupcake.
4. Attach the M&Ms using the white icing that was set aside.
5. Cut each of the pink Airheads into 4 pieces.  Round one side of each piece so it looks like the rounded end of a tongue.
6. Place the Airhead on the cupcake.
7. Using the black icing, draw on nostrils and a mouth.
8. Cut small pieces of the white Airhead and "glue" them to the remaining M&Ms with icing to make flies.
9. Attach the flies to the tongue with a dot of icing, and enjoy!

Mini Lemon Cupcakes

I know I promised you guys Polliwog cupcakes today, but I strained my back and haven't been able to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  They will be the Friday dessert next week.  Fortunately, I had a blog post on the back burner (pun intended)!  These little guys were pretty delicious and refreshing for a summertime treat!

There are times that I am thankful I can pull a recipe out of thin air (or a cookbook), and this particular day was one of them!  My dad needed to bring to a picnic, which normally would end up turning into a $20 - $25 trip to the bakery or grocery store.  That usually results in a lot of cruddy dessert no one really wants, or something that tastes delicious, but does not yield a lot for people to eat - quite the conundrum!

Cupcakes have saved my butt, yet again!  I pulled out a trusty vanilla cake recipe, some confectioner's sugar, butter, and 2 lemons and got to work!

Mini Lemon Cupcakes 
Yields approximately 40 cupcakes

Ingredients 

Cake Batter 
Adapted from a Kitchen Aid recipe
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup low fat milk
2 eggs
Juice of 2 lemons

Icing 
If you do not want to make your icing from scratch, you can either buy lemon flavored icing, or add the zest to vanilla frosting to give it a lemon flavor! 

1/2 cup softened butter
Approximately 1 cup confectioner's sugar
Zest of two lemons
A few drops of yellow food coloring
Yellow decorating sugar

To Prepare the Cupcakes

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all of the dry batter ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Add and mix in the wet ingredients and mix until the batter is smooth.
4. Either spray your muffin tin with non-stick spray or line with cupcake papers.   
5. Spoon the batter into the mini-muffin tins so each tin is 3/4 of the way full. 
6. Cook for 10 -15 minutes, or until cupcakes are firm to the touch and bounce back when pressed on.
7. Remove from the pan and cool on a rack.
8. While your cupcakes are cooling, beat the butter and lemon zest for the icing together in a bowl.
9. Add the confectioner's sugar slowly until the icing is smooth and creamy, and is not runny or lumpy.
10. Once your icing has reached the desired consistency add a few drops of yellow icing.
11. When your cupcakes are cool, ice them, decorate with sugar, and enjoy!

What's The Buzz

Happy New Year!  I hope that 2011 is already a promising year for all of you!  After a far too short of a vacation in Baltimore, I am back and ready to blog!

Today all of my time in the kitchen seemed to fall around bees and their byproducts.  I made lavender cupcakes with honey icing and garnished with bee pollen, I ate a honeycomb, and I also bought and ate bee pollen granules...it has been a bit of a busy night in the kitchen, but was worth it!  Enjoy!

Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Icing and Bee Pollen
Yields 18 large cupcakes

Ingredients for Cupcake Batter
8 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of lavender
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking soda
3 eggs
1/2 cup of milk


Ingredients for Icing
2 cups vegetable shortening
2 cups confectioners sugar
5 tablespoons honey


To Prepare the Cupcakes
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt 8 tablespoons of butter of a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of lavender.  Continue to cook it over low heat until it browns.

3. Strain the butter through a mesh colander to remove the lavender pods, and set aside the butter in a small bowl.  Oils bind to other oils, so the oils of the lavender (aka the flavor) will stay with the butter even though you are removing the actual flower!

4. Mix 2 cups of flour, a 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of baking soda in a large bowl.
5. Mix a 1/2 cup of milk and 3 eggs into your dry ingredients.
6. Add the browned butter, and beat well!

7. Either place baking cups in your cupcake pan, or spray them well with a non-stick cooking spray.
8. Fill the cupcake cups 1/2 full with batter, and bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are firm and bounce back when the tops are pressed on.

9. When they are done baking, pull them out of the cups, and allow them to cool on a wire rack. 

To Prepare the Icing 
1. Place 2 cups of shortening, 2 cups of confectioners sugar, and 5 tablespoons of honey in a medium bowl.
2. Beat everything together until the batter is creamed together and has the consistency of whipped butter.

3. Ice your cupcakes, and if you would like, sprinkle with a small amount of ground bee pollen granules!

The Bee Pollen Adventure

Recently I entered a cupcake competition that had "adventure" ingredients.  Bee pollen was one of the ingredients that was on the list.  I didn't chose to use it, but was intrigued.  I never thought of bee pollen as a food ingredient, let alone as something that would be edible and on the market.  After a few minutes of research on Google, I learned that bee pollen is easily found at vitamin stores such as Vitamin Shoppe and GNC.  It comes in a few varieties such as granules, capsules, and powder.  After a little searching in my local Vitamin Shoppe, my brother and I found it in the Probiotic/Oil section in a refrigerator.  We bought a 1 pound jar for $12.49.

Impatient as always, I had my brother open it in the car while I started the drive home.  First realization: I should have bought a much smaller jar.  The granules are the size of a pin head!  At least I got my money's worth!  Second realization: They are colorful!  The granules are naturally colored and come in a variety of yellows, oranges, reds, and greens!  Third realization: The odor was...interesting.  It was sweet smelling, but reminiscent of the sweet hay smell that one might encounter on a farm.  Forth realization: The taste was sweet, but had a hay like flavor to it.

My brother, and his sciency-self, let me in on a little secret - when breaking down the granules for cooking, grind them down with a mortar and pestle, pressing between spoons, or rolling them over with a rolling pin.  When they are run through a food processor or mill they lose a great deal of their nutritional value!

Bee pollen, nutritionally, is considered a superfood.  According to the label on the bottle, the granules can be taken as 1 or more tablespoons daily, and can be consumed by either mixing them into drinks or sprinkling them on food.  It is probably important to point out that you should not use bee pollen if you are allergic or very sensitive to bee products!

I've Got a Crazy Craving...for Honeycombs!

Last fall we bought a jar of honey that came with a piece of comb inside it.  My brother and I both had heard of eating honeycombs and have been meaning to try it.  After all of the other bee and honey excitement, we decided there was no time like the present!  We each sliced a piece that was about a 1/4 inch thick and, with a little reluctance, popped them in our mouths.  DELICIOUS!!!  We chewed and chewed and chewed until we has sucked the life out of the wax.  There was a strong honey taste as well as a heavy hint of clover!  When we were done, we were able to pull a small ball of wax out of our mouths.  You can swallow the wax if you want, but we opted for not!

My Newest Cupcake Creation

So, I am working on a recipe for a cupcake contest, and here is the end result!  I cannot share the recipe yet, but I can tell you this...

It is a 72% Cacao and Sumatra Coffee Cupcake topped with a Homemade Butter Cream Icing blended with Meyer Lemon Juices, and is topped with Meyer Lemon Zest and Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans!  Not to toot my own horn, but they are flipping DELICIOUS!!!

Sweet Potato Spice Cupcakes with Coconut Curry Icing

For those of you that don't know, I will share two facts 1.) I am OBSESSED with curry, and 2.) I really hate baking from scratch unless it is for a holiday meal or Christmas cookies - too much chemistry involved.  Which brings us to these cupcakes!  I like embellishing on pre-boxed batters instead of making my own (watch your back Sandra Lee...I'm coming for you and your semi-homemade treats!).  In the past I have made a sweet potato dish where I cook down sliced sweet potatoes in coconut milk, red curry, and dark and golden raisins (recipe to follow closer to Thanksgiving).  I loved the combination, and though it would make a beyond yummy dessert.  Thankfully it did not disappoint!

Sweet Potato Spice Cupcakes with Coconut Curry Icing
Yields 1 dozen regular sized cupcakes

To Prepare the Batter
1. Peel 2 sweet potatoes and cut them down into cubes

2. Put in rapidly boiling water, but do not add anything to the water (i.e. salt)

3. When the sweet potatoes are soft enough to break with a fork drain them
4. Break the potatoes down.  You have several options here: 1.) A food mill.  Personally I am a HUGE fan of food mills.  You have the choice of pureeing, grating, or somewhere in between.  You do not have to peel veggies...their peels will stay in the upper part of the mill and never fall into what you are making.  The only downside is that it is a total pain in the butt to clean! 2.) Blender, Mixer, Food Processor, or Magic Bullet.  You will need to peel the potatoes, but you will still get a pureed effect, but might need to beat them for a little bit longer to make them smooth.  3.) Buy pre-pureed.  The only brand I could really find is called Farmer's Market, but I am fairly certain it is much easier to find around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  You could also go the route of buying canned yams or sweet potatoes and smashing them in their canned state.  4.) Fork or Hand Masher.  You have to put a little elbow grease into it, and they will never get down to a pureed state, but it will make your potatoes a little more rustic, and give a carrot cake like texture to your batter.  Today I went with method four!
5. Prepare your actual batter.  I chose Betty Crocker's Super Moist Spice Cake batter.  Follow the directions as usual EXCEPT for the addition of the water!  Instead of the box directions, add 1/4 cup of water and 1 1/2 cups of the sweet potatoes.  Be sure to mix it very well so everything is evenly incorporated!

6. Bake them according to the box's instructions.  I also put a cake pan of water in the oven.  It helps prevent burning around the base of the muffin/cupcake top!

To Prepare the Icing
1. Mix one 16 oz (standard size) container of vanilla icing with a cup of coconut flakes
2. Add 1 tablespoon of curry powder (found in the spice aisle) and mix EXTREMELY well...no one wants a mouth full of curry powder!  (I like to mix my icing the night before so it really has time to absorb all of the flavors.  Put it in a resealable container in the fridge.  Take it out the following day while you are preparing the cupcakes so it has enough time to soften.)

Icing the Cupcakes
1. Be sure to give your cupcakes plenty of time to cool so your icing does not melt off
2. I like to ice cupcakes using a zip-lock bag.  Spoon your icing into the bag and seal it shut after squeezing out the extra air.  Cut off a corner of the bag that is approximately a 1/2 inch long.  If you don't want to go this route, ice as you normally would.

3. Place the cut corner in the center of the cupcake and squeeze, but do not move the bag.  The icing will push itself out and make a delicious and billowy layer of icing.
4. When you are happy with the amount of icing on the cupcake, just stop squeezing and lift the bag straight up

My family and I LOVED these cupcakes!  The platter of 12 was almost gone with in 15 minutes!  The curry adds just enough heat to make you realize that there is more than coconut and spice cake to these cupcakes, and the bits of sweet potato broke up the intensity of the spice cake.  If you are not a fan of sweet potatoes, pumpkin would work just as nicely.  Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!