Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Yum yum yum yum yum. I always love banana bread and I just love baking in the morning for breakfast. My boyfriend has expressed slight disinterest (not extreme, just slight, but enough) in banana in the past, so I tried to find a very yummy, sugar-topped, chocolate-filled version for him. These are SO GOOD! A big hit! I was actually fine with just 2 large bananas for this recipe.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Recipe from Better With Sugar

Muffins:

1-1/2 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 large bananas, mashed (or 4 medium)

3/4 C granulated sugar

1 egg

1/3 C unsalted butter, melted

3/4 C chocolate chips (optional)

3/4 C walnuts, chopped (optional)

Crumb Topping:

3 TBS all purpose flour

1/4 C packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 TBS butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners.

In a small bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the Crumb Topping. Stir together with a fork, and then use your fingers to make it crumbly. 

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix this together really well or you'll get that weird baking soda/powder taste!

In a separate small bowl, mash the bananas (with a potato masher if you have one. If not, a wooden spoon will do). Then beat in the sugar, egg, and melted butter. 

Add the banana/sugar/egg/butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined (do not overmix!)

Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts if you are adding them.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin. 

Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of each muffin.

Bake for 22-23 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. 

Let cool in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, and then transfer the muffins out of the pan, and onto a rack to cool completely.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes Encore

I know you probably want NEW recipes, but come on. Look at these cupcakes. LOOK AT THEM. IT'S A CAT PARTY. A CAT PARTY. THERE ARE CATS ON TOP OF THESE GORGEOUS CUPCAKES (ignore my smiley man in the background).

Recipe can be found here. I made these last year for my birthday alongside my red velvet cupcakes that I make ALL the time. This time I made it for my very belated joint birthday party with my soulmate, Sophie, and they were sooo pretty and sooo yummy...of course.

Madeleines

For my birthday this year, my friend Marrisa sent me two Madeleine pans. I've ALWAYS wanted Madeleine pans, but for some reason never got around to getting any. Finally, FINALLY I could make some! A few weekends ago I made these alongside our breakfast coffee. SO good. I was starting off following one Allrecipes recipe, but while using their app, somehow my finger swiped too strong and the recipe changed without me noticing. I was suddenly following another recipe and was slightly confused by the change from what I'd remembered were the portions of each ingredient, but thought that maybe I'd misread the recipe the first time around.

By the time I noticed I'd switched recipes, it was too late, and I decided to just wing it. They turned out deliciously light and buttery. SO good. Love the zesty lemon flavor. I'd make these again in a heartbeat.

Madeleine's
Recipe adapted from Madeleines II and French Butter Cakes

2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/4 cup butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Butter and flour 24 (3 inch) madeleine molds; set aside.

Melt butter and let cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl beat eggs, vanilla and lemon zest with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar. Beat for 5 to 7 minutes or until thick and satiny.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Sift one-fourth of the flour mixture over the egg mixture, gently fold in. Fold in the remaining flour by fourths. Then fold in the melted and cooled butter. Spoon batter into the prepared molds, filling 3/4 full.

Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are golden and the top s spring back. Cool in molds on a rack for 1 minute. Loosen cookies with a knife. Invert cookies onto a rack and cool. Sift confectioners' sugar over the tops. Store in an airtight container.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrating St. Patrick's Day yesterday in the beautiful, clear-blue-sky, sunshiny weather, on a boat. Such perfect weather! We had a little barbecue, had a lot of fun, and I got to make cupcakes for the occasion. These were FANTASTIC! I'm always in the mood to bake cupcakes for people and this was my first time having a filled cupcake. These cupcakes have a Guinness chocolate cake base, filled with Jameson chocolate ganache, and topped with Bailey's buttercream. SO GOOD. SO SMOOTH. SO YOU MUST MAKE THIS NOW. Pretty sure my friends thought this was the best cupcake I have ever made.

This recipe easily made 12 cupcakes. I was afraid that there wasn't enough frosting, but there definitely was. Man that frosting is good.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Recipe from Better With Sugar

Cupcake:
1/2 C Guinness Stout
1/2 C unsalted butter, chopped
1/4 C + 2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
1 C all purpose flour
1 C granulated sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 C sour cream

Ganache Filling:
2/3 C semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 C whipping cream (or heavy cream)
1 TBS butter, room temperature
1 tsp whiskey

Frosting:
1/2 C butter, room temperature
2-1/2 C icing sugar
3 TBS Irish Cream

Preaheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

Make the cupcakes: Heat the Guinness and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until it's simmering, or the butter is melted and it just begins to bubble a bit.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the cocoa and whisk until it's smooth. Set aside to cool a bit.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In another separate, large bowl, beat together the egg and sour cream.

Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, and beat just to combine.

Beat in the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake tin. Bake for 21-22 min, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a rack.

Make the ganache: Heat the cream until simmering over low-med heat, then pour it over the chocolate chips. Let it sit for a minute, then stir it until smooth using a rubber spatula.

Add the butter and whiskey and stir until smooth again. Let the ganache cool until it has thickened up a bit but it still soft enough to be piped or spooned.

Cut out the centers of the cupcakes. I do this using the big open end of my 1M decorating tip. You could also use a sharp knife to cut a hole, going about 2/3 of the way down the cupcake.

You can either pipe the ganache into the holes in the cupcakes using a piping bag, or just spoon the ganache in.

Make the frosting: Using an electric mixer, whip the butter on med-high speed for a couple minutes. Add about 1/3 of the icing sugar and 1 TBS Irish Cream, beat on low. Repeat until all of the icing sugar and Irish Cream is mixed into the butter. Whip the frosting on med-high for another couple of minutes.

** Store in the fridge