Going Bananas

I had been wanting to make some banana cupcakes for some time.  I bought bananas, let them ripen, and then lost the urge to make anything.  I went through this cycle a couple of times, so the last time I bought bananas, I also bought the other things I knew I would need to create a recipe, banana baby food, yogurt, etc. 

I toyed around with different banana cupcake ideas.  I considered banana-apricot, banana nut, banana-caramel, etc.  I finally decided on Bananas Foster, which is basically caramelized banana, but with a few other subtle flavors.  True Bananas Foster has rum flavoring, but I left this out.  I might use a little extract next time, but I didn't want to use it this time.

The cupcakes were topped with a buttercream-based frosting, which had been blended with butterscotch and caramel.  Turbinado sugar (raw sugar) and caramel dessert topping were drizzled over the icing.

The taste of the cupcake was similar to banana bread, but was not as heavy or dense as most banana bread recipes.  The crumb was soft and light.  The frosting was very sticky, but had the complexities of the different flavors.  The turbinado sugar provided a nice textural contrast to the icing.


I will definitely make these again, probably with a couple of slight variations.  I should do it soon, too, as I have tons of leftover frosting!

Dragonmoon Tea Company

First of all, let me start out by saying I did not make this petit four.  It is one of two that I purchased at Dragonmoon Tea Company in Tulsa this week.  The waitress said these were not made by the restaurant, but were purchased for sale in the shop.  The photo does not do justice to the delicate shading of the butterfly's wings.  The other butterfly looked more like a Monarch, but had blue wings.

This is a chocolate petit four covered in a chocolate ganache-type icing.  The cake was dark and fudgey.  The cake was small (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter), but very rich and satisfying.  The butterfly is made out of rice paper, I believe, and soy-based inks were used, so it was completely edible.  The gold dot is a dragee, also edible (unless you live in California, then they are illegal to sell/purchase/possess, as are the silver ones... weird).

I gave the petit four with the blue butterfly to our clerical aide for Administrative Assistants' Day.  I split this one with one of our part-time case aides.  My butterfly wing had chocolate underneath it, so I didn't notice if the wing tasted like paper or not.  It melted rather quickly in my mouth.  The price was about $4 each, which is a bit pricey, but for a special occasion, it is well worth the cost.

Think Spring!

I named these "Think Spring!" cupcakes.  I wanted to make a green velvet cupcake for St. Patrick's Day, but didn't get around to doing it.  Since I had the ingredients, I decided to make them in honor of Spring.  (We actually had a snow storm on the first day of Spring and I still have patches of snow in my yard!)

I found the basic recipe on the internet, but I used Jones' Green Apple Soda in place of the water called for in the recipe.  You can't really taste the apple, though.  The recipe also called for 1 box of vanilla pudding and 1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream.   I used about 1 cup of yogurt, instead.  Green food coloring was added to get a nice shade of Spring Green.  The result was 24 good-sized, very moist cupcakes.  If I had filled the cups a little less full, I probably could have gotten 30 cupcakes that would still have pleased the average person.

Here is a close-up of the inside:

This design was from What's New, Cupcake?, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  The cupcakes were iced with buttercream frosting.  Mini-marshmallows were cut in half (on the diagonal) and rolled in colored sugars before being placed around the cupcakes in rows to form the flower petals.  Candied licorice was used for the stamens.

Hello, Cupcake! & What's New, Cupcake? Books

These are absolutely the best cupcake books for amateur bakers.  Written by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, the recipes are simple and the decorating ingredients can be purchased at just about any grocery or convenience store.  The designs are really cute and while they look hard, each is broken down into pretty easy steps.  Decorating the cupcakes is usually somewhat labor intensive, but the overall effect will draw rave reviews!

In this blog you will see some of the designs from the books.  From the first book, Hello, Cupcake!, I have made the spaghetti and meatballs, sleepover, and sunflower cupcakes.  My next post will be the chrysanthemum cupcakes from the new book, What's New, Cupcake?

Spaghetti & Meatballs anyone?

I took this idea from the Hello, Cupcake! book.  These were vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting.  The frosting was squeezed out in strands to look like cooked spaghetti.  Seedless strawberry jam was used to simulate spaghetti sauce.  Ferrero Rocher chocolate halves stood in for meatballs and white chocolate shavings were used in place of parmesan cheese. 

A little closer look. 

Are you a fan of delicious flavor?

These cupcakes are a nod to my favorite television show, Psych.  The title of this post is a recurring line in the show and relates directly to today's flavor choice - pineapple.  There is at least one pineapple hidden in every show (sometimes well-hidden and sometimes obvious) and the network even has "Find the Pineapple" sweepstakes each week. 

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/psych/

These cupcakes are called "Pineapple Princess", after a song by Annette Funicello, released in the summer of 1960, on the album, "Hawaiiannette".  It was also in Disney's "Lilo and Stitch 2".  It's one of those songs that just gets stuck in your head.


Annette Funicello - "Pineapple Princess"

These are golden yellow cupcakes with crushed pineapple folded into the batter.  They are very moist and somewhat dense, but they are still tender.  The frosting is Pineapple Mascarpone Cream Cheese.  Each cupcake is topped with a candied pineapple tidbit.

 

The frosting is very susceptible to heat, so it appears a bit gooey after setting at room temperature for a bit.  The other cupcakes were refrigerated to avoid this.  There is no filling in the cupcakes.  The frosting just sort of oozed downward with the knife during cutting.  All in all, these were pretty tasty. 

Cupcakes for a Stay-at-Home Dad

These cupcakes were made for a friend who was quitting his job to become a stay-at-home dad.  He even took on home-schooling.  (That's courageous in my book, because I would never have dreamed of trying it!)  These were vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

These are some of my earliest cupcakes, so try not to judge me too harshly.  They aren't my best work, but there was a lot of time and effort put into them.  From a creative standpoint, I was pleased.

There were remote controls (very primitive ones, with only volume and channel arrow buttons, a red power button, and the name of our local cable provider).  The blue ones represented the family swimming pool.  Tiny green tadpoles swim in the blue water (because they had an infestation of tadpoles the summer before this) among life preservers.

The remotes were made on the back side of miniature Hershey's Chocolate Bars; the tadpoles were made from Starburst Fruit Chews; and the life preservers were actually Peach Rings.

The top two rows you see on the right are "Honey Do" lists, flip flop shoes, sunglasses, "Dad's Taxi" signs, grocery lists, etc.  Fruit Roll-Ups were used for the lists and the sunglasses lenses.  Starburst Fruit Chews were used for the flip flops and sunglasses.

The bottom row was personalized cupcakes for the dad and kids.  The afternoon nap is depicted.  (The mom didn't get a personalized cupcake, because she would not be napping and would be at work.)  The dad is holding a cookbook.  The son is wide-awake because he has been reading a book of ghost stories.  The next two are daughters and they are sleeping soundly with their teddy bears.  The baby has a pacifier.

Marshmallow halves were used for the pillows and bodies.  Vanilla Wafers made the heads; Fruit Roll-Ups were used for blankets and books; miniature Teddy Grahams were used for the teddy bears.  Everything else was frosting and food coloring.

I understand the kids really enjoyed their personal cupcakes.  I hope that's true, because I had a lot of fun creating these.