Lets go Banana's

I took my chances on a recipe I found last week on two peas, and I was totally impressed. I have just recently been introduced to Nutella...and I LOVE it! So I wanted to share how mine turned out, and encourage you to try them out too! I'm copying the this recipe right off of the two peas blog...but please don't hesitate to check out Maria's site...it is awesome. She has amazing stuff on there that inspires me to get in the kitchen. Now if I could just get the sewing machine to fit next to the cutting board.

Banana Cupcakes (Muffins) with a Nutella Swirl Adapted from EveryDay Food and Spork or Foon
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Jar of Nutella
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a mini muffin tin. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
With a toothpick swirl in the Nutella, about a ½ teaspoon each.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

I made mine in the extra large muffin tin I'm in love with, so I baked a tad bit longer than this. Just like banana nut bread without the nuts Dal hates.

Chocolate Covered Cherries

It's another cupcake post! I also made cherry filled cupcakes. Oh yeah, and they taste as good as they sound! I used the devils food cake mix, and filled them with melted cherry chips mixed with vanilla icing. I decided to cover these with Cherry flavoried icing. Having a three year old girl, means you use pink sprinkles on EVERYTHING!

Cupcakes Oh la la!

Lately I'm in love with cupcakes. If I were to list ten jobs I'd love love love, owning my own cupcake shop would be like number 3. Sometimes I get ideas about the things I could do to the cupcakes to make them over the top. I must admit that I'm mostly lazy about them, I always use a box mix. Perhaps someday (in my old age) I will have the motivation to mix up my own batter from scratch. So this past weekend I decided that a raspberry chocolate cupcake sounds divine..and romantic. (sigh) So I sat out to mix up my devils food cake and bake 'em up!

Now where would I get this raspberry flavor? I know that jar of preserves in my fridge that I rarely find a use for...mix it with some vanilla icing (from a jar of coarse) and wallah!

Once my cupcakes cooled I simply used a melon baller to scoop out a small amount from the top, and filled it with a little bit of my magic mix. I let the icing set up for just a bit, and proceeded to top with chocolate icing. I failed to take an after pic...but you get the idea.

A great change for your ho hum cupcakes. And in a way a little sophisticated.

Bleeding Love

These are my bleeding love cupcakes.

Basically I just used the box mix, and added the cherry chips into the batter. The cherry chips look like a bloody mess when they melted up, hence my name for 'em.

They are so delish! And I plan on making another batch up for Valentines.