B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Wow it's been awhile!  Life has been crazy and I've constantly been on the go enjoying it!  First we vacationed in Italy for a week, then we moved from Northwest Indiana to the BIG city of Chicago, and then it was fourth quarter, which is always a blitz of busy in accounting/finance.  It's still Q4 and I'm still racing around super busy, but I've been meaning to get back to two things: A) exercising and B) blogging.  Since I did Jillian's yoga DVD yesterday, I suppose I'll blog today.  What better to start back with than Banana Daiquiri Cupcakes, right?!

So the hubby went to the store last week and got all ripe bananas.  Naturally that means some of them turned to mush before I could work them into my daily menu, so I was on the search for mashed banana recipes.  Here is this week's winner.

Banana Daiquiri Cupcakes
(adapted from this recipe)

Cake:
1/4 cup unsalted butter - melted
1/3 cup Domino Light
1/3 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1/3 cup Jell-O Banana Pudding Mix
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 mashed ripe banana
1 cup + 2 Tbs cake flour
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup banana liquor

Icing:
4 Tbs butter
4 oz. light cream cheese
1 Tbs rum
1 Tbs banana liquor
1/2 tsp rum extract (to enhance the flavor if you don't add extra booze)
3-4 cups powdered sugar depending on what consistency of icing you prefer
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with 15 liners.

Whip together the melted butter, sugars, and pudding mix.  Add in two eggs and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth.  Mix in the mashed banana and begin adding dry ingredients once the banana is thoroughly incorporated in the mixture.  Add the liquor and mix until well blended.  Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

For the icing, beat together the butter and light cream cheese until the blend is one consistency.  Add the liquors and rum extract.  Mix well.  Gradually add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until the icing has reached your desired consistency.  You can also refrigerate the icing for 30 minutes while the cupcakes cool. 

This recipe is definitely a keeper; the cake baked wonderfully and was literally perfectly done at 20 minutes!  The one thing I may change next time is the icing.  The cake recipe calls for 1/3 cup banana pudding mix; since this isn't the full package I will probably add some leftover mixture to the icing next time to give it a bit more banana flavor and thicken it up all in one swoop. 

Cheers!

Kentucky Bourbon Cupcakes

As you all know, my dad loved bourbon; specifically Maker's Mark.  Four years ago, for his birthday present he and my mom came to visit in Kentucky and I treated them to Woodford Reserve and Four Roses tours.  It was such a great weekend.  This year, his 57th birthday would've fallen on Labor Day weekend so we had an extra day.  An extra day usually makes for a lovely, lazy weekend.  With my extra lazy time, I decided it was fitting to bake bourbon cupcakes.  With Maker's Mark of course.  The cupcake is a fabulous recipe that tastes like a spice cake and the buttercream tastes delightfully like the inside of a bourbon ball.  So go ahead, bake these babies up!

Maker's Mark Cupcakes with Bourbon Buttercream
(cupcakes adapted from Maker's Mark; icing from this recipe)

Cupcakes:
8 Tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup Splenda brown sugar blend
3 large eggs
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup skim milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 
1/2 cup Maker's Mark bourbon

Icing:

1 cup unsalted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs Maker's Mark bourbon
2 slight pinches of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking pans with cupcake liners.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Add in the eggs and molasses.  Next, begin adding in all the dry ingredients.  Mix in the skim milk until all ingredients are well incorporated.  Add the bourbon and fold in manually with a spoon.  Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 27 minutes.  Let cool in pans for at least 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.

For icing, cream the room temperature butter.  Slowly add in the powdered sugar in increments.  Follow that up by adding the vanilla, bourbon, and salt.  Mix until the icing has that 'whipped' look.  Frost once the cupcakes are cool.  Cheers!   

Tooty Fruity Sangria Cupcakes

One can only wander through airport bookstores for so long without buying something.  And let's be serious, for me that 'so long' is not really long at all.  While traveling to Hermosa Beach, CA for a work trip, I stumbled upon a Kitson shop with all kinds of odds and ends, thus scoring the amazing cookbook Intoxicated Cupcakes: 41 Tipsy Treats by Kate Legere.  This cookbook is dynamite.  I want to try every single one of the recipes!

Tooty Fruity Sangria Cupcakes
adapted from Tooty-Fruity Sangria Cupcakes in Intoxicated Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 16.5oz box yellow or white cake mix
2 3.4oz boxes instant vanilla pudding mix
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sangria/red wine
4 large eggs
1 Tbs red food coloring (if desired)
1 cup canned fruit cocktail, drained (I used the 100 calorie version)

Icing:
8oz (2 sticks) salted butter (at room temperature)
2/3 cup chunky orange marmalade
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 Tbs heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange extract
2 tsp sangria/red wine used for cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake baking tins with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, mix all cupcake ingredients together until well combined.  Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.  Bake for 19-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.  Let cool in cupcake tin for at least 5 minutes and transfer to wire cooling rack.  Let cupcakes cool completely before icing.

For the icing, cream the butter and sugar together.  Add marmalade and mix until well combined.  Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar and then the remaining ingredients, mixing until everything is well incorporated.  Ice the cooled cupcakes.  I used a bag and tip to ice mine, and the frosting didn't hold as well as I expected.  If this is how you plan on icing your cupcakes, I would recommend placing the icing in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set before icing.

I chose these as my dessert to take along to a summer barbeque and they were a hit!  The cupcake is moist and delicious while the icing wonderfully compliments the cake.  You could probably even argue that the icing steals the show because it is also just that good.  Seriously.  Make these & enjoy them with a glass of your favorite sangria!  Cheers! 

Moscato Cupcakes

In another throwback to my Christmas baking spree, pre hospital stay, I baked a batch of Moscato cupcakes with a white chocolate and wine frosting.  At this point, I'd already made the cherry cordial cookies and Kneader's peppermint brownies (which I will post later - also to-die-for) so I needed something light and in the realm of the cake world.  Being that I'm a big fan of Moscato, I settled on these.

Moscato Cupcakes 
(adapted from this recipe)

2/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup Splenda sugar blend
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt 
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup Moscato wine
6 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place liners in your cupcake tin.

Cream together butter and sugar.  Alternate between gradually adding in the wine and gradually adding in the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat your egg whites until they are at the very least heavily foamy.  (The original recipe said they should form stiff peaks, but alas after beating for quite some time I settled with very foamy egg whites.)  Add this to the batter and mix until well combined.

Fill the cupcake trays 2/3 full and bake for about 20 minutes.  This should yield two dozen cupcakes.

White Chocolate Moscato Buttercream

1 1/2 cup butter, softened   
6 oz Baker's white chocolate
2 1/2 - 3 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp Moscato
pinch of salt 

Following the directions on the back of the Baker's box, melt the white chocolate in the microwave and then let cool slightly.  (It's imperative to let it cool enough, otherwise the frosting will be runny.)  Cream the butter in a mixer.  Pour in the cool, melted white chocolate and mix well.  Begin gradually adding the confectioners sugar, wine, and salt.  If you reach your desired frosting consistency before 3 cups then go ahead and stop adding.  I don't like working with slightly runny frostings on cupcakes, as it will slide easily, so I tend to add in a bit more sugar than called for and a pinch of salt to even out that extra sugar.

I will admit I was slightly quizzical about combining white chocolate and wine for the frosting, but it definitely works!  And paired with the Moscato cupcake, it's the perfect combination.  Frost you cupcakes & as always, enjoy!

Pina Colada Cupcakes

The weekend before my big move, I knew it was the last time that I would be able to bake for our friends so I wanted to go all out.  I baked the Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cookies and the Lemon Crinkle Cookies too, but I wanted something to go on my cute cupcake stand and be the center of attention.  Pina Colada always sounds fun and summery to me, so I went with that.

I even scored cute little map cutouts in heart and star shapes from the etsy shop thePathLessTraveled!