Banana Bread Cupcakes



Banana Bread Cupcakes with 'Gravy Frosting'


Banana bread has been on my mind  for a few weeks now. It stemmed from having a few really ripe bananas that I didn't want to toss. Unfortunately, I did not share my banana bread making plan with my husband and the bananas were eaten. :( After that I couldn't seem to get banana bread off my mind. So I bought more bananas and had to patiently watch them ripen. With the extra days I had while the bananas ripened, I was able to search for new recipes. I really enjoyed this one. Who wouldn't enjoy banana bread cupcakes with frosting? The frosting is amazing and I am already dreaming up other delicious baked goods to put it on and in.

Banana Bread Cupcakes:


1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped pecans(or walnuts), optional
1 cup mashed ripened bananas

Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease cupcake pan, do not use paper liners. In a stand mixer cream butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add flour mix to butter mixture at medium speed until combined, scrape sides of bowl as needed. Add sour cream, bananas, and nuts just until combined. Fill cupcake pan 2/3 full. I used a jumbo cupcake pan (which makes 6) and 1/2 a cup of batter per cupcake worked perfectly. I had enough batter left to fill an individual bread pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 min. If you are doing normal size cupcakes you may need to reduce the time by 10 minutes, just keep an eye on them.

Gravy Frosting: (sounds weird but SO amazing)

1 cup milk
5 Tbs. all purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar

Begin by pouring milk into a saucepan over medium heat. Add flour while constantly stirring to make sure it is well incorporated. Do not leave this unattended. It will need to be constantly stirred while it thickens. This takes about 2-3 minutes. Just keep stirring until it thickens, then remove from heat and pour into a bowl and let cool completely. Once it is completely cool add vanilla and stir well. In a stand mixer cream butter and granulated sugar together. Add the milk mixture and whip for 1-2 minutes or until it resembles whip cream. It will be light, fluffy, and irresistable!

Black & Tan Cupcakes

Black & Tan

About a week ago my neighbor came across some Guinness recipes that had her drooling. She sent them my way with hopes that I would drool too and make them for the neighborhood, it worked. A week later I made them for my husbands birthday and distributed them throughout our cul-de-sac. Using Guinness was a fun twist for me. The cupcakes and frosting turned out incredible and I will absolutely make them again. The frosting is out of this world, there is definitely a Guinness finish to it along with some hints buttery caramel that are quite addicting.


Cupcakes:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup Guinness or other dark stout
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powder sugar
1/4 cup Guinness

Preheat oven to 350* F. In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the Guinness over medium heat. When butter is melted into the Guinness remove from heat and set aside. In a large mixing bowl combined sugar and cocoa, stir well. Slowly add the butter/Guinness mixture to the sugar/cocoa stirring until well incorporated. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside. Add sour cream, eggs, and vanilla to the cocoa and Guinness mixture, stir until well combined. Continue stirring while adding the flour mixture. Do not over mix once the flour is added only stir until it is incorporated with the liquid, do not beat. Fill lined baking cups 2/3 full (about 1/4 cup) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the frosting, beat butter while adding Guinness until combined then add powder sugar until desired consistency is reached. Wait until the cupcakes have cooled completely before frosting. Enjoy!

Starting An Organic Garden

Recently I was bitten by the gardening bug. It all started when my husband bought me a window box planter for herbs that I kept on my kitchen windowsill. After planting basil, rosemary, cilantro, and parsley in my planter box I wanted to try something more. A lot of people I know have had successful tomatoes with a Topsy Turvey so I decided to try it out.

There are many choices when it comes to tomato plants. Usually I prefer cherry or grape tomatoes but my husband prefers a bigger tomato so I chose Roma's, a well flavored medium size tomato that we can both enjoy. Hopefully by next year I will have attempted cherry tomatoes. Our Roma tomatoes are growing nicely, we have several golf ball size green tomatoes that are getting bigger everyday.

Topsey Turvey with Roma Tomatoes

With the success of the window planter and the tomatoes I decided to go all in and start an actual garden. Off to Lowes we went. My husband got the supplies he need for building the frame while I browsed the surprisingly big selection of organic seeds. I am a picky vegetable eater, I bought only what I knew I would eat. We ended up with green beans, white beans, snow peas, cucumber, multi colored carrots, broccoli, multi colored bell peppers, sweet basil, red basil, oregano, and peppermint. Yikes, maybe I am not so picky after all. Since I bought organic seeds I did some comparisons on regular garden soil vs. organic garden soil . Maybe if there was a huge difference in price I may have stuck with regular soil but it was only around a dollar more a bag and I like being able to say the I have a completely organic vegetable garden.

Multi Colored Bell Peppers

My son Logan was very interested in helping. He ended up helping build the frame, level the ground, and he did most of the planting. I made the holes in the ground and he put the seeds in and covered them up. He looks forward to going to the garden every morning and seeing what has come up. He even helps me water too. The first day that our beans sprouted we were so exited, then he turned and asked me "where are the vegetables?", I love my son. 

Snow Peas

When I had the garden idea I thought it would be enjoyable to grow our own vegetables but it ended up being so much more. Logan and I have something that only him and I do. It is mommy and Logan's garden, no daddy or brother allowed. I love the look on his face when something new sprouts and how excited he is that he did it. We have also started going on rock hunts together, we try to find smooth rocks to paint and put in our garden. Some rocks end up being animals or insect while others are markers for our plants. If you have the time and patience I highly recommend starting a garden, it has multiple benefits.

Cucumbers and a giraffe

Broccoli meets Ladybug