Banana Cupcakes

I’ve been looking for a good banana cupcake recipe for a while. I have a wonderful banana cake, banana bread recipe, but I wanted a cupcake with bananas.

This is a great recipe.  It’s more cakey… or cupcakey (?)

Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Enjoy !

 

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla, bananas and buttermilk.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to banana mixture. Fill 18 paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency.

Frost cupcakes any way you like.

 

*  Keep in mind that these are cupcakes and not your typical banana bread muffins.

** For a great article on using butter vs. shortening in baking, click here.

adapted from allrecipes

This Little Piggy – Pig Cake

This one is for Sara.

For Sara’s birthday she requested a pig cake.  Seems she has something in common with my daughter… the love of pigs!

After all who couldn’t love a face like this?

Thankfully Sara had something a little different in mind. She gave me pictures of the pigs she wanted on her cake. It was… a piece of cake!

Here was my main model. Top Pig, as it were.

 

I started out with the Simple Butter Cake recipe. I can’t stress enough how delicious this cake is.  The recipe makes 7-1/2 cups of batter, perfect for a larger cake and it is the perfect cake for carving and dense enough to hold heavy fondant.

Anyway…this little piggy went to Sara’s house.

with a few assorted pigs

And a little pink velvet on the inside

 

Happy Birthday Sara!

 

Guitar Cake

My nephew is an amazing musician and self taught guitarist. So for his birthday I wanted to make his cake musical.

I baked two rectangle cakes and carved them up something like this.

The pick guard and the sides of the body were painted with a brown mixture of gel food colors.  To make the colors mix better and to keep them liquid add a few drops of vodka.  Alcohol will evaporate whereas water will dissolve your fondant.

I couldn’t figure out how on earth to do the strings.  I knew if I had a pasta cutter I could have run some fondant through on the spaghetti setting, but I didn’t have one of those, so after a few tries and failed ideas, I just rolled the fondant as thin as I could.  Here’s a hint when working with thin fondant pieces, use shortening on your hands, it keeps it pliable and it won’t crack as it starts  to dry.

It’s somewhat cartoonish, but I was happy with it.

 

And I think Josh liked it too!

Remember this face, it just might be famous someday.

Happy Birthday Josh!

  

 

Cinnamon Buns in 30 Minutes!

Cinnamon buns go over really big in my house.  Unfortunately I don’t get to make them as often as they’d like.

But with a recipe like this.. you could make them every week!   Without yeast and no waiting for dough to rise, these buns take just 30 minutes.

Yield: 10 to 12 buns

Ingredients

Dough

2 3⁄4 cup flour, plus extra for dusting the counter

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 1⁄4 tsp baking powder

1⁄2 tsp baking soda

3⁄4 tsp. salt

1 1⁄4 cup buttermilk

6 tbsp melted butter

Filling

2 tbsp. melted butter

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp. cinnamon

 

Glaze

1 tbsp. milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

 

 

 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°F 

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients together for the dough (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt).

Stir in the butter and buttermilk.

The dough will be sticky.  Spoon it on top of a heavily floured surface, and add a bit more flour to the top.

With floured hands, gently knead the flour into the dough. Add more to make the dough manageable and fairly smooth.

With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle approximately 1⁄2 inch thick.

Spread the surface of the dough with 2 tbsp melted butter, then sprinkle the cinnamon and sugars on top.

Roll the dough from the longer side, and cut the dough to about 2 inches thick.

Place the rolls in a well buttered pan, and bake at 425°F for about 20 minutes, or until the edges have turned golden brown.

To prepare the glaze, mix the milk, vanilla and powdered sugar, and pour onto the rolls while they are slightly warm.

Originated and adapted from this source.

Enjoy !

Flower Cupcakes

I made 96 cupcakes for a Bridal Shower and each one was different.

They are plain chocolate/vanilla cake, iced with a 1M tip with half & half buttercream icing.  Because these cupcakes will more than likely end up outside for a garden party, I opted to use the half butter/half shortening buttercream, specifically for the melt factor, (you can get that recipe here.)

The flowers were made from fondant that I colored with Wilton gel food coloring.

I used a silicone flower mould with the colored fondant to make these pressed flowers. Simply press into the mould and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.  The flowers pop out perfectly. I make all fondant flowers and decorations a few days ahead to let them dry.

 

 

One more little necessity for flowers. Pearl Dust. Nothing finishes flowers as beautifully as Pearl Dust.

A little glitter goes a long way.

I took pictures of just a few, but my daughter and I noticed, no two were alike.

 

 

 

Congrats Sabrina & Matthew !

Chicken Francese

This is another of my favorite chicken recipes.

"Chicken francese. An Italian-American dish of sauteed chicken cutlets with a lemon-butter sauce. The word francese is Italian for "French style," although there is no specific dish by this name in either Italian or French cookery."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 72)

Either way, it is a must try (in case you haven’t)

Ingredients

4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 1-1/2 pounds)

flour, for dredging

salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 large eggs

3 tablespoons water

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 lemon, with rind, cut in thin rounds

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 lemon, juiced (although I juice just about a whole lemon)

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup chopped parsley

 

 

Instructions

Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Put some flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, beat the eggs with 3 tablespoons of water to make an egg wash. Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet.

Dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden, turning once. Remove the chicken cutlets to a large platter and keep warm.

Toss the lemon slices into the pan and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant. Add the wine, broth, and lemon juice, simmer for 5 minutes to reduce the sauce slightly. Roll the butter in some flour and add it to the skillet, this will thicken the sauce. Stir to incorporate and dissolve the flour.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and return the chicken to the pan. Simmer gently for 2 minutes to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

Enjoy !

 

A Thing or Two about Buttercream

There are a lot of buttercream recipes, some call for just shortening, some are all butter, some are a mixture of butter and shortening.  I prefer the all butter version, but there are times when butter buttercream can fail you.

If you are icing your cake in humid, warm or hot temperatures, pure butter buttercream can definitely give you problems.  Even if you manage to get your cake decorated in the perfect temperature, transporting it can be a problem as well.  This is why most bakers put shortening in their buttercreams. The melting point of shortening is roughly 10 – 20 degrees higher than butter.  Much more stable.

For this roses cake, I followed the basic Butter recipe but added a few more tablespoons of icing sugar to make it stiffer and since I didn’t have to transport this cake, simply refrigerating it was good enough. For roses, use a 1M tip.

The Basic Butter Buttercream

1 cup salted butter, softened

4 cups fresh confectioners sugar (icing sugar)

4 teaspoons vanilla (clear if you want very white icing)

6 tablespoons milk or cream

(makes about 5 cups of frosting)

Butter and Shortening Buttercream

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

4 cups fresh confectioners sugar (icing sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (clear if you prefer)

2 tablespoons milk

(makes about 3 cups of frosting)

Citrus Buttercream

(follow either of the above recipes)

substitute lemon or orange juice for the milk

omit vanilla

Stir in 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel or 2 teaspoons grated orange peel

Shortening Buttercream

2 cups shortening

8 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract

6 fluid ounces heavy cream

(makes about 5-1/2 cups of frosting)

Instructions

In large bowl, cream shortening and/or butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

Enjoy !