Banana oat cupcakes

In an effort to provide a healthier alternative to the banana cakes and cupcakes I have made in the past, I decided to give these a go. There is no butter in the recipe and it is packed with oats. 

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar (minus 2 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 egg

1 tablespoon of honey
3/4 cup low fat milk
1/3 cup rice bran oil
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed bananas

Method

Grease and line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper bake cups,
Place flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg then add in the honey, milk, oil, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Add the mashed banana, and mix thoroughly until well blended. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture and mix until just combined. Don't over stir the batter! 

Divide the batter evenly between them.
Bake at 200 degrees C for 18 to 20 minutes.

Adapted from All Recipes

I iced them quickly with the always popular lemon cream cheese icing and sent them off with Mr X to work. Looking back, I should have put more effort in and actually piped the icing onto the cupcakes. I guess there is always next time...

Happy birthday Mr X! Cookie monster cookies

As I mentioned in my last post, Mr X loves cookies. So I really wanted to incorporate cookies into his birthday cake. I came across some adorable cookie monster cupcakes using a google search. There are multiple sites featuring cookie monster cookies - by no means did I come up with something that cute and clever myself!


Ingredients:
Banana cupcakes, popular with Mr X (Recipe makes 16).
Cookies (Qty 8)
Cream cheese icing tinted with blue food dye.
White chocolate buttons (Qty of at least 32)
Dark chocolate, melted (Approx 6-8 squares)


Equipment:
Microwave safe bowl to melt the chocolate
Toothpicks


Method:

White chocolate button eyes 
Dip a toothpick in melted dark chocolate and add a small circles of dark chocolate to each white chocolate button. Try and make them all a similar size but don't be concerned if they all look a little different, I think it adds to the cookie monsters character. Leave to dry.

Icing
Slowly add blue food dye to the cream cheese icing until you achieve desired blue consistency. I made the icing the day before I needed it and left it in the fridge over night so it was nice and firm.


Bake cupcakes and cookies according to their instructions, and leave to cool to room temperature.

To assemble the cupcakes
Cover a cupcake with cream cheese frosting. You want it to be relatively smooth but not too smooth - you are creating a monster, after all. Add the eyes and the cookie - you may need to use a little more icing to hold the cookie in place. The icing will act as "glue". I popped them into the fridge to firm up. 

I know, there are a few steps involved if you make the cookies and cupcakes from scratch. I personally think it is worth baking them yourself, but that is entirely up to you. But once you get to the assembly stage, it all comes together quickly.

Double the apple - Apple cake with apple filling

My Dad has been helping us a lot lately in our search for a new house. So as one way to say thank you, I baked him an apple cake.


Ingredients:
Cake (Adapted from Simply Recipes)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch salt
1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 white, one quarter brown)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 cup apple sauce (plus extra to fill the cake) - recipe here is enough for the cake plus filling.
1/4 cup buttermilk


Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Greese and line a 20 x 20 cm square baking pan.
Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt into a large bowl and set aside.
Place the butter in another bowl and beat until pale, add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat to combine after each. Add the vanilla and the applesauce, and beat until combined.
Mix in half of dry ingredients. When nearly combined, add the buttermilk. Mix in the remaining dry ingredients, until fully incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and place in centre of the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until cake is done. Test for doneness by lightly pressing the cake - it should spring back to the touch. Alternatively poke a toothpick into the centre of the cake - if it comes out clean, its done. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and leave to cool on wire rack.


Once cool, carefully slice in half and fill with the extra apple sauce.

Ice with cream cheese icing.

"Muffin top" Banana Cookies two ways

After reading the comments on the Simply Recipes website about these cookies, I was intrigued. They were described by one commenter on the site as Banana Muffin Top "Cookies", which explains them perfectly. Baked until lightly browned, they are slightly crispy on the outside and soft and cake-like in the centre. The banana allows the cookies to be lovely and moist. The reaction that takes place between the banana and baking soda gives the cookies their rise as they bake.


I baked half of them plain and iced them with cream cheese icing. The rest I filled with snickers. Mr X tasted both and said while both were good, he preferred the plain iced ones. That surprised me - I actually had made that flavour combination with my Dad in mind and the 
snickers ones for Mr X to take to work. Ooops!

The original recipe called for more spices and pecans but I chose not to add them. If you want to add the nuts, add them at the end to the whole batter where I added the snickers (1 cup). I also added vanilla bean paste. 


Ingredients:
Cookies
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup of mashed bananas (3 large bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
3/4 cup snickers, chopped

Cream cheese icing
75g cream cheese, softened
30g butter, softened
Heaped cup icing sugar, sifted

Method:
Cookies
Preheat the oven to 176 degrees C. Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and beat the butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy.

In a bowl, mash the banana and mix in the baking soda, letting it sit for 2 minutes. This is an important step as I mentioned above, so don't skip it.

Add the banana to the butter mixture. Mix flour, salt, and spices together then sift this into the butter and banana mixture. Stir until just incorporated.

Remove half the batter and set aside. With remaining batter, mix in the chopped snickers. Drop heaped tablespoons of batter onto prepared baking tray for big cookies which I did - this makes 20 to 25 cookies. I think next time I would try making them a bit smaller. They do spread a little so space them far enough apart.

Bake for approx 12-18 minutes or until the tops are lovely golden brown (cooking time obviously depends on the size of your cookies - mine took 15 minutes). Turn onto wire racks and allow to cool.

Makes 20 to 25 cookies.

The cookies will keep for a couple of days if you don't want to eat them right way. To help maintain their firm exterior, the advise on the Simply Recipe website was to pop them in a container with the lid not quite on (i.e. not air-tight).

Baby banana cakes with cream cheese icing

I can't believe that my little brother turned 26 this month. I feel like time is flying by at a million miles an hour. He says he hates birthdays because he feels old .... how does he think I feel when he says that? Older.


He doesn't like us to make a fuss on his birthday, but I couldn't resist baking something for him. He is a little bit fussy (but getting better with age), so I made plain, un-iced baby banana cakes for him. Mr X took some to work with him, and I topped those with lemon cream cheese icing.


I used the Exclusively Food banana cake recipe, but replaced some of the white sugar with brown sugar.


Makes 16.
Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar 

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of very ripe, mashed banana (approx 3 large bananas)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional, I didn't use it this time)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C, and grease and line cupcake pans - enough for 14-16 cupcakes, depending on how full you make them.

Place butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor and pulse to combine for approximately two minutes. Add butter milk and pulse to combine.

Sift flour and bicarb soda into a bowl. Add this to the blender and pulse again until just combined, scraping down the sides if required.

Pour batter into prepared liners. I filled mine 2/3 full. I found filling them this amount resulted in a nice, very slightly domed cupcake.

The recipe can easily be doubled, however, in my experience you may find you can't put all the ingredients in the food processor at once! Just mix it up in a bowl instead.

Cream cheese icing

Ingredients:

100g cream cheese, softened

50g butter, softened
2  cups icing sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Method:
Beat the cream cheese and butter in a bowl until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Sift in the icing sugar and beat well. 

Lemon curd filled vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing

After making lemon curd for the first time recently, I was excited to make it again. I asked my taste tester (husband) which he would prefer - a lemon tart, or lemon curd filled cupcakes. He requested cupcakes, so I made these.


Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Lemon curd

• 4 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 7 tbs strained freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 7 tbs unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces
• 7 tbs heavy cream
• 2 tbs icing sugar

Vanilla cupcakes

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Cream cheese icing

• 150g cream cheese, room temperature
• 75g butter, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 2 tbs lemon juice

Method:

Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 176 degrees C, grease and line cupcake tins.
Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds, until soft. Add sugar and beat on medium high until mixture looks pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds in between each.
In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and baking powder.
Mix the buttermilk and vanilla together in a jug.

Add a quarter of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and mix to combine. Add approximately one third of the milk, mix to combine. Repeat steps above, ensuring you end with the four mixture. Make sure you mix until just combined.


Fill prepared cupcake tins each to two thirds capacity. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until test skewer comes out clean.

Lemon curd

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice. Cook on low heat for about 4 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens slightly (enough to coat back of spoon). Transfer to a bowl, cover with glad wrap to prevent a skin forming on the curd. Refrigerate for approximately two hours to cool.
Whip cream and icing sugar in a bowl until stiff peaks form, and mix into lemon curd.


Cream cheese icing
Beat cream cheese and butter by hand or using an electric mixer until creamy. Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and beat to combine.


How to assemble the cupcakes:

• Cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone using a small paring knife
• Fill the hole with approximately 1 tbs lemon curd
• Replace cupcake top securely
• Pipe icing onto cupcake

Banana cake with cream cheese icing

This cake is tried and tested, I've made it many times. If making it for my husband, I ice it thickly with cream cheese icing as that's the way he likes it. When I make it for my brother and Dad, they like it without icing.


This cake is a great way to use up the over ripe bananas often left over in the fruit bowl at the end of the week. I freeze them and when I have a few I'll make a cake.


Ingredients:

Cake

• 125g salted butter, softened 
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 slightly rounded cup of very ripe, mashed banana (approx 2-3 large bananas)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (this gives a mild cinamony flavour - use more if you prefer!)
• 2 large eggs
• 100ml (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon) buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Cream cheese icing

• 100g cream cheese, softened
• 50g butter, softened
• 1 2/3 cups icing sugar
• 1 3/4 teaspoons lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (fan-forced) / 180 degrees Celsius (if oven not fan-forced).

Grease the side and base of 22cm diameter round cake pan and line base of the pan with non-stick baking paper.

Mix butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor for approx 1-2 mins, scrape down sides of processor and ensure all ingredients are evenly mixed. 

Add buttermilk and mix to combine.

Add ground cinnamon, sifted flour and bicarb soda to food processor and process until just combined, being careful not to over-mix the batter. 

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for between 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer or knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. If during baking time you see the top getting overly brown, lightly cover it with al foil to prevent burning.

Cream cheese icing

Beat cream cheese and butter by hand or using an electric mixer until creamy. Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and beat to combine. 

Spread icing over top and sides of cooled cake.

shoeboxgirl