February 8, 2010

First Birthday Cupcakes

So, I have two kids now (which partially explains the long absence) and my youngest is already a year and a half old. But for her first birthday I made some scrummy vanilla cupcakes with organic raspberry buttercream frosting. I was seriously surprised at how PINK the icing came out with just using raspberries.





She liked them so much she had two




The Cupcake Courier

I got a cupcake courier with the intention of, well I'm not too sure really since I have little time to bake large quantities of anything these days. I've wanted one for awhile now though and thought I'd have to order it online. But I came across one in Winners and it just follwed me home.

I promise I'll use you one day cupcake courier!!

Image from - http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/the-cupcake-courier



The peanut butter banana cupcake

The peanut butter banana cupcake started out as a muffin but it looked so cold and naked that I had to clothe it with icing. What goes better with bananas then peanut butter? NOTHING, that's what!! Sorry if you have a peanut allergy, or an aversion to bananas (OMG penor fruit!) but you're missing out!

Banana Muffin
  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp mayo
  • 6 very ripe bananas, mashed
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tins.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter & sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. Stir the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the mayo & bananas. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder & baking soda.
  4. Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture. Stir just enough to evenly combine.
  5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes come out clean, about 16 minutes.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp milk or cream
  1. Cream peanut butter and butter together
  2. Add in powdered sugar and mix on high for about 1 minute
  3. add vanilla, mix again
  4. add the milk or cream and mix on high for about 3 minutes

The ATTACK of the pink globules!

Well it indeed has been forever since my previous post and I do have a few things that I should have posted on here! I'll start with the most recent cupcake encounter... cupcakes from the grocery store bakery *shudder*. Now kids are not usually picky when it comes to treats and my kids are no exception! They ate those globs of disgusting icing nestled on top of the teeniest of "cakes" with utter abandon. Like "OmNomNom" style! Which of course made me think of this video, it fills me with a sense of happiness :D




Now I can forgive them for the cake itself, it wasn't half bad, I can even forgive them for the horrible "buttercream" icing. What I can't forgive is the crazy food colouring!!! That shit got everywhere and my kids faces are still stained pink 2 days later. What the hell? I personally vow to try my very best to never use the stuff now that I've gone through a half bottle of stain remover.




With Valentines Day coming up I was thinking of making some cookies so we'll see how I do with that. I'm thinking of adding some raspberry jam to the icing to make it pink-ish and avoid this whole food colouring situation again. We'll see how that experiment goes.