Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Granola Frosting

It is my last week at both jobs, The Times and Teke's, and what kind of person would I be if I didn't bring in cupcakes? Not a memorable one.

At the half marathon this past weekend, I took advantage of all the free food they give the runners at the finish line. Most runners used the bananas and granola for recovery fuel. I of course was thinking about how I could use them in my cupcakes. After 13.1 miles of running, all that I'm thinking about is cupcakes.

I was feeling especially banana-ish, since I ate bananas every day in my training for the race. So I found a great recipe on The Cupcake Project for Banana Cupcakes with a Vanilla Cinnamon Cream Cheese Granola Frosting. Perfect!

The recipe itself is very easy and doesn't take much time to whip up. The smell of banana cupcakes baking in my kitchen takes me back to kindergarten when I learned how to make banana bread. Along with chocolate chip cookies, isn't banana bread one of the best smells of the kitchen? I just love it. The little cupcakes crack at the top and you can see the banana, just like banana bread. These would have tasted great plain, without frosting, if you love banana bread.

 

But, frosting makes everything better. I have a few tweaks I would suggest on this frosting recipe however. My cream cheese frosting was very runny and gooped over my cupcakes, making them very messy. I would suggest doubling the butter, and maybe use half the amount of cream cheese. It will still have the cream cheese taste, but should be thicker and less runny.

The frosting tastes incredible. It calls for ground up granola, in which I used a Bare Naked fruit and nut granola sampling pack they gave us at the race. (Refueling with cupcakes should not be frowned upon.) You can use any kind of granola you like, even cereal if that works better for you. As long as there is a crunch in the frosting.

I topped my cupcakes with some granola, too. That gives them the healthy illusion.



The cupcake has received rave reviews from my co-workers at The Times. Hopefully they impress the Teke's crew just as much.

Banana Cupcakes (from www.cupcakeproject.com)

Yield: 18 cupcakes

• 1 stick butter
• 1c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2c. sour cream
• 1t. baking soda
• 2c. flour
• 1t. vanilla
• 2 bananas

Vanilla Cinnamon Cream Cheese Granola Frosting

• 1 8oz. package cream cheese, room temp. (use only half for less runny frosting)
• 1/4c. butter, room temp (double for less runny frosting!)
• 4c. powdered sugar
• 2t. vanilla
• 2T. cinnamon
• 2c. ground granola

Cupcake Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs.
3. Add sour cream, flour and baking soda.
4. Add vanilla and mashed bananas.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Frosting Instructions:

1. Mix cream cheese and butter until fully integrated. Mix in vanilla and cinnamon. Add powdered sugar 1/2c. at a time. Make sure it is fully mixed in, but do not overmix. Fold in granola.

Post-race indulgences: How to make cinnamon roll pancakes

I did it! I finished my first half marathon, the Chicago Rock n' Roll, in 2:20:40, right at my goal time.

Kyle and Axel did awesome. Kyle finished at 1:50 and Axel 2:03.

We had an incredible experience with the race and a great weekend with our friends in Chicago. All the mornings of waking up at dawn to run, the sore legs and embarrassing moments (tripping over sticks and curbs), all came together on this one day of running for two hours and twenty minutes straight. It was so worth it.

The breakfast I indulged in after made the race even more worth it:

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes!

One of my favorite parts of this training has been the extra carbs I got to eat. Now, I still wasn't eating cupcakes and pancakes all day every day like I do in my dream world, but I could certainly enjoy a cupcake without a doubt.

My second post-race indulgent was this beauty:


A red velvet cream cheese frosted cupcake from the bakery near my mom's new job.


While the cupcake was awesome, cinnamon roll pancakes were a pretty great indulgence. It was the taste of a sugary, frosted cinnamon roll in a nice flat pancake, dipped in a little maple syrup. Soooo good! 

No need to run a half marathon to enjoy some cinnamon roll pancakes from a Chicago breakfast diner. You can whip them up at home anytime! Recipe Girl has the easy recipe right here. You basically make regular pancakes, and when the bubbles start to form, you swirl in a cinnamon filling of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Top with a glaze made of cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla. Alas, you have flattened cinnamon rolls! AKA, cinnamon roll pancakes.

Who says we can't have a little something sweet to start off the day?

Sprinkles Cupcakes

No baking for me today. I'm home sick with all kinds of stomach problems, which couldn't come at a worse time. On Sunday, I am running my first half marathon! Even better, it's the Chicago Rock n' Roll Half Marathon. There are bands performing at every mile and a concert after the finish line. It sounds really cool.

No cupcakes or sweets of any kind today (worst day ever), just rice and applesauce. I'm doing whatever it takes hoping this will pass in 24 hours. I'll be devastated if all of this training was for nothing.

I tend to get stomach pains when I'm anxious or stressed, so I'm not really surprised this happened with all of the anxiety of the race coming up. (Although it could be some bad Subway I had last night...)

To try and soothe my anxiety, I'm thinking past the race and on to the best cupcake bakery in Chicago: Sprinkles Cupcakes. Cupcake lovers, whenever you're in Chicago, Sprinkles Cupcakes is a must. I'm hoping to make a stop after we conquer this race.

www.sprinkles.com

 

Sprinkles Cupcakes was the world's first cupcake bakery, opened by Candace Nelson in Beverly Hills in 2005. Candace Nelson is a judge on Cupcake Wars. I got to go to the bakery in Chicago a few months ago and fell in love!

This is why...

Yes, that's exactly what it looks like: a cupcake vending machine! Well, they call it a Cupcake ATM. You pick which cupcake flavor you want, swipe your credit card, and your beautiful cupcake comes out in a box with a fork, which, along with all of their packaging, are made with recycled materials.


www.sprinkles.com

The bakery itself is a cute little shop with a beautiful display of flavors to choose from and a cupcake bar (my kind of bar!). Sprinkles also sells their cupcake mix at the shop. I wanted to get a box, but the line was pretty long and I had my ATM cupcake in my hand, waiting to be eaten.

I chose a classic flavor, vanilla milk chocolate, mainly because I didn't want to keep the line waiting and it was the first choice. It was incredible. The frosting was rich and creamy, while the cake was moist and delicious. Although it comes out of a machine, it tastes just as fresh. The vending machine was what really made the experience unique, and I highly recommend it.

They top their cupcakes with colored dots to mark the flavors.



thechicbrulee.com

A cupcake from Sprinkles will be the reward I look forward to after the race. I'm thinking either the chocolate coconut or red velvet.

For now, I'm going to focus on that cupcake rather than the thirteen miles I will run before the cupcake. I would think that cupcakes dancing around in my head can lower anxiety.

Readers, any tips for lowering anxiety?


Happy cupcake thoughts!

Summertime S'mores Cookies

It was hard to type the title without drooling. I hope I can make it through the whole blog post.

The very thought of these S'mores Cookies makes my heart melt. They are that good.

www.smells-like-home.com (I was unable to get photos of mine, but this is pretty much what they looked like. Mouthwatering.

And what's more perfect for summertime? There haven't been too many nice nights to make s'mores outside, so let's make them inside! Let's take it one step further, and make them inside a COOKIE!

This recipe is very easy, and a lot of fun. Those of you with kiddies, this would be a fun cookie to let them help with.

Start by making a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, use your own recipe or mine listed below. Refrigerate it for an hour like you normally would. In the meantime, unwrap a few Hershey bars and have your marshmallows and graham crackers ready.

Scoop out a 2" ball of cookie dough and press it flat on your cookie sheet. Assemble a mini s'more (graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate, graham cracker) on top of the dough. Top the s'more with another ball of dough. Sandwich your s'more in middle of the two cookie dough balls and spread the dough so you can't see any part of the s'more. Getting hungry yet?

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Assemble a dozen on one cookie sheet, careful, these are going to get huge when they bake. Bake for about 12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Try to wait until they cool to eat one. I know these are already the longest twelve minutes of your life.

Make sure you have friends around who will stop you from eating the whole batch yourself.

Please try these cookies and let me know what you think. You can even by store-bought cookie dough, just this once. You just have to try them!

Chocolate chip cookie dough:

1/2c. butter, softened
1/2c. shortening
2 eggs
3/4c. sugar
3/4c. brown sugar
1t. vanilla

Mix all that together, then add:

1t. salt
1t. baking soda
2 1/4c. flour

Refrigerate for one hour.

For s'mores, have three Hershey chocolate bars, one bag of marshmallows, and a box of graham crackers.

Happy baking!

thesweetdetail.blogspot.com

Slutty Brownies

Pardon my language. I'm not sure where the naughty name came from. My thought is that these brownies are easy and they get around. They have a lot to offer. I guess they're "slutty" brownies. The noises people make after trying them might have something to do with it, too.

Momma gave me this recipe a couple years ago, and I was wowed. It's a little insane how good they are.

Slutty brownies consist of a layer of chocolate chip cookie, topped with Oreos, and covered in a layer of brownie. Sounds pretty slutty, right?

They're pretty easy to make, but be prepared to get a couple bowls dirty. Make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, or store-bought dough, and refrigerate it for an hour. Make brownie batter, either from scratch or from a box. Spread the cookie dough into a 9x13 baking pan. Top with 12  fine-looking Oreos. Pour the brownie batter over the Oreos, covering all of them. Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes.

The hardest part about this recipe is not eating all the Oreos before you put them in the brownies.
And then of course waiting for your brownies to cool before digging in. That's always the hardest part about baking anything in my opinion.

Cut into 12 squares and try to share. Make these any time you want to win someone over, apologize for something, or want to earn some extra, ahem, brownie points.

Ingredients:
1 box cookie dough mix and ingredients the box calls for (or from scratch)
1 package brownie mix and ingredients the box calls for (or from scratch)
1 package Oreos

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Make cookie dough as directed on the box. Spread across the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
3. Lay Oreos side by side across the sheet of cookie dough.
4. Make brownie mix as directed. Pour over top of Oreos, completely covering.
5. Bake for 45 minutes.
6. While they're baking, go for a run or do some push ups, cause you're about to eat a whole pan of brownies.
Enjoy!

National Pina Colada Day!

Do you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain?

Apparently, today, July 10th, is National Pina Colada Day! It's officially my new favorite day of the year.

The thought of pina coladas takes me back to our Florida vacation earlier this spring. Kyle's family and I sipped pina coladas topped with Meyer's Meyer's Rum floaters by the beach, under the sun, and life was beautiful.

Kyle's dad, John, and I enjoying our pina colada buckets. YUM!

Pina coladas are my favorite drink. For one thing, I'm obsessed with coconut and Malibu. Throw in some pineapple, maybe some strawberry flavor, I'm in heaven.

You know what's coming next, right?

Pina Colada Cupcakes!

www.cupcakeproject.com

Make a cupcake out of it! I'm sharing with you a recipe from my one of my favorite cupcake blogs, The Cupcake Project. Check it out. It's a cupcake made with coconut rum and pineapple. It calls for coconut milk, but I'd assume you can use regular milk. Not many of us have coconut milk on hand. The coconut cream cheese frosting sounds incredible! I haven't made these yet, but this blog won't steer you wrong.

I've always wanted to make a pina colada cupcake. I'd make them tonight, but Mom keeps hiding my cupcake pans. For some reason, she doesn't want me to bake while we're trying to sell our house. I have no idea why.... If you try these, let me know how they turn out and send me a photo!

A healthier cupcake

When I'm not baking cupcakes, or doing my real job, I'm out on the road running. Yes, running, uggghh.

I've been training for a few months for the Chicago Rock n' Roll Half Marathon, which I'm running with my boyfriend and another friend on Sunday, July 21st (yikes, less than two weeks away!).

When I tell people about my training or they see me running, the common response is: "So that's why you can eat all those cupcakes."

Yes and no. Well, mostly yes, but really, no.

I'm certainly taking advantage of these extra burnt calories by testing my cupcakes, but I've been trying to eat healthier so I don't feel a container of frosting sloshing around in my tummy while I'm running.

Thus, the Healthy Cupcake.

Okay, you might be thinking, "Hey, this is a muffin!" Spread a thin layer of peanut butter on top. It's a healthier frosting, which makes it a cupcake, a Healthy Cupcake.

I first came across this recipe for "Yum Yum Brownie Muffins" when I fell in love with Hungry Girl in college. However, the recipe I use might actually be original because I misread her recipe.

It's simple. Mix together a box of low-fat brownie mix and canned pure pumpkin. Yes, pumpkin. And that's it! Fill 12 muffin tins and bake for about 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. (Hungry Girl uses a devil's food cake mix instead of low-fat brownie, which is just as awesome.)

 

Now, you're thinking pumpkin in your chocolate cupcake is scary. I understand, but trust me, these are delicious. They do not have a pumpkin flavor, the pumpkin just makes them more creamy and fantastic. I tested these on my college roommates back in the day, and those picky chicks loved them. Of course, I didn't tell them about the pumpkin until after.

Hungry Girl is all about making treats that we love to indulge in, such as cupcakes, low fat and low calorie while still tasting delicious. She has quite a few cookbooks out there, including her latest "200 Under 200: Just Desserts," with plenty of cupcake, brownie and cookie recipes.

I love what Hungry Girl is doing, but my philosophy is that if I'm going to have a cupcake, I'm going to have a real, sugar- and butter-loaded cupcake. But it's all about moderation. I can eat these pumpkin cupcakes more often because they're only about 180 calories and 3.5 grams if fat. And these are so good that my extra-sweet tooth is fully satisfied after one.

Why bake with pumpkin?

According to Hungry Girl...

• It eliminates the need for common fattening ingredients.
• Low in calories, high in fiber.
• Pure pumpkin doesn't have any added salt, sugar, or flavorings, which is why you'll only taste the rich chocolate flavor.

www.hungry-girl.com

What chocolate chip cookies should NOT look like

I've made chocolate chip cookies probably a thousand times. Ninety-five percent of them have turned out beautifully: plump, soft, gooey chocolate chip cookies.

The other five percent have been interesting products that deteriorated from either a missing ingredient, a mistaken ingredient, or sometimes the missing element of my own common sense. There's nothing that gets my frustration going more than a ruined batch of cookies, but sometimes I just have to laugh about it.

How I've ruined cookies

 Fishy cookies: 

My dad used to fish a lot, and we had a Tupperware container of flour that was supposed to be used only for cooking fish. Well, it wasn't labeled and it looked just like white baking flour. The embarrassing part is not that I made cookies with the fish flour, but that I did it at least four or five times, never learning my lesson. (See, Mom, that's why you have to check by eating the dough first!) Needless to say, those cookies tasted funny.

Most forgotten about ingredient? Any guesses?

Vanilla. Such a small one, but it makes the biggest difference. Taste a cookie without vanilla and you may as well have just eaten a piece of paper.

The tricky ingredient is the flour (white flour, not fish flour!) because too much or too little throws your cookie all out of whack. Don't use enough flour and your cookies will spread twice their size in the oven. One time this happened and one of my cookies spread out so far that part of it fell off the pan. I opened the oven door to see a tiny fire ignited under my pan of inflated cookies.

I've had a good streak going, having made at least a dozen awesome batches this year. My time was due.

Every year I try to make cookies for my friends' husbands on their birthdays. Those wives can cook for them, but I get to do some of the baking. Well, Luke's birthday was last week and he seems to have found a new baking mistress where he and Heidi live in Florida. Apparently, this chick makes better chocolate chip cookies than I do.

Challenge accepted...

...and I failed miserably. Perhaps I was so nervous about this other baker that I psyched myself out. When I saw my cookies were spreading in the oven, I knew I had failed. First, I checked for fires. I won that part. Then I tried to think back on any ingredients I might have forgotten or misused. Nothing felt off.

Flat, dull, lifeless. Your cookies should not look like this.

A few days later I was still baffled. Mom reminded me of one thing I did differently: I melted the butter instead of letting it soften for a few hours.

She's good.

I never understood why we had to remember to get the butter out ahead of time instead of just zapping it in the microwave for a few seconds. Ruined, wasted cookies. That's why.

When your cookies spread into gook instead of rise into beauty, all the deliciousness is baked out of them. They tasted dull and lifeless. This was not a cookie I could give to Luke, not when being compared to Miss New Cookie. 

Attempt #2

 

Now that's what a cookie should look like!

Nailed it! If these didn't win Luke over, then I was going to have to give Miss New Cookie a call and threaten her for her secrets. He said they were good, but not sure if they were better. I think he's just trying to get me to keep baking him more cookies.

Fourth of July cupcake ideas

What a fun holiday for baking! Red, white, and blue. Fireworks. Sparklers. Flags. There are so many possibilities, it's hard for me to limit myself. I'm working on my cupcakes tonight and looking for ideas to get the creative juices going. Here are some of my favorites I have found online:


Instant childhood flashback!

fontgirl.wordpress.com

These are some fun patriotic cupcakes



www.squidoo.com

                      

Cupcake snow cones?!?!?!?! I don't know if I can pass these up.

www.bakerella.com

This is what I made last year in my amateur baking days:








That was a fun cake. It was a big hit at the restaurant I was working at. I made the firework by taking a paint brush and dipping it in gel food coloring, then doodling until a firework appeared.

This year I'm feeling some tie-dyed red, white and blue cupcakes. How to decorate them, I'm still unsure. Perhaps I'll try one of each of those ideas. Any recommendations?

What are you baking for the Fourth? Tell me in a comment below.

Bachelorette cakes

Baking for a bachelorette party is a fun challenge, depending on how risque you want to get. I've seen cute booty sugar cookies, martini glass cakes and fun sloppy drunk Barbie Doll cakes. I've also seen a very graphic phallic cake that was both hilarious and embarrassing.


cookiecouturefresno.com

How do you choose between cute or dirty? Where is the line on how graphic your cake should be?

It depends mostly on the bride's personality and who her guests are at the party. The very detailed phallic cake was at a party for a friend of mine who gets embarrassed quite easily. On one hand it was hilarious for all of us to watch her turn red when she saw it. On the other hand, it might have been too much for her. Either way, we got some great pictures and memories with that cake.

The level of dirtiness also depends on who's attending the party. Is the bride's grandma or old-fashioned aunt going to be there? Is there anyone whom your cake is going to offend? Think about that, and if you really want an X-rated cake, bust it out after Grandma has turned in for the night. (But if Grandma plans on partying with you all night, she's probably the type that will get a kick out of a pornographic cake.)

I went to a bachelorette party this past weekend for my college roommate and partner in crime, Kelly. Of course, I wanted to make her a cake. For this bride, her family, and our friends, there was no question whether or not to make a dirty cake.

But there's another element that plays into what kind of cake to make: who the baker is.

I knew I had to make a dirty cake, but I really wanted to do something cute. Something colorful and frilly and girly. Once I started looking on Pinterest, the urge to bake something girly was harder to resist.

Easy fix, I made two cakes. Basically one for the bride and one for me. (Don't worry, she got to eat them both!) The one I really wanted to make was of a sexy pink and black corset. Using Kelly's wedding colors, purple and charcoal, this is what I came up with:

Cupcake Corset Cake

I made this, and the naughty cake, out of cupcakes, so they're both Cupcake Cakes. I was extremely happy with this finished corset. Although it's not as perfected or professional as I would like it to look, it was my first time trying it. I'd really like to try this again in the future when I have more decorating products to work with.

The bride-to-be seemed pleased with both of them. She called the corset cake "boobs." I guess they were both dirty cakes!

What kind of bachelorette desserts have you seen? Tell me!