Strawberry Banana Muffins

About a month ago a friend on my facebook posted a link to this recipe. I knew I wanted to try it. However, strawberries and bananas don't last too long in our house. The kids devour them quicker than I can muster up the motivation to bake. A couple days ago we went to costco and bought fruit and lots of it; apples, oranges, grapefruit, grapes, bananas, and strawberries. With so much fruit in the house I was actually able to try out this new recipe!

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 medium, ripe bananas
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix the bananas, eggs, brown sugar and butter until blended. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Stir in vanilla and strawberries by hand so as not to mush the berries. Spoon into well greased muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
Makes 12-18 muffins.

The Verdict: The house smelt delish! I love the smell of baked goods and banana bread is one of my absolute favorites. The muffins were also very tasty. The banana and strawberry flavors as always compliment eachother. I will admit strawberries are not my favorite mushy foods. I like them fresh. I hate them in strawberry yogurt. I don't like chunks of mushy strawberries so it did take me a bit or two to get past the warm mush of strawberries. I may have to try one later when they aren't warm to see if it helps. If you can get past the mushy strawberries you are sure to love these. I have a feeling they won't last long in the house.

For more yummy recipes visit Nanzinas-Recipe-Swap.

Banana Crumb Muffin Recipe

Tonight while JBody was at Priesthood session for General Conference, I decided to let the kids watch Tangled. We just received it from Netflix. With a movie, often times comes snacks. As I looked around for something for the kids to snack on I found some ripe bananas. I remembered Razy talking about making cupcakes and decided to go muffins. I quickly surfed the web for a test worthy muffin recipe. I found a yummy sounding Banana Crumb Muffin recipe with great reviews.

So what was our verdict?

DELICIOUS, yummy, ScRUMPtious,mmmmmMMMMM! The list could go on.

Here is the original version of the muffins (found on allrecipes.com).  I actually made some additions.  You can find those and some tips at the end of the recipe.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted



1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

2.In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

3.In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

4.Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

So I added 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. of cinnamon to the muffin mix

The topping is seems to cook into the muffin if you add it before putting it in the oven.  I actually did a batch by putting the topping mix on 5 minutes before baking time ended.

In my oven I baked the mini muffins for 7 mins then added topping and baked another 5 mins.

I baked the larger muffins for 17 mins adding the topping at the begining.  Next time I would bake for 12 mins and then add topping and bake another 5 mins. 

Let me know if you tried these out and what you thought.

Wanna share a muffin recipe?  Post one on your blog and send me the link, send me an email (djpeachparty5 at gmail dot com) or post in my comment section.  I love new recipes! 

Winnie the Pooh and Friends Baby Shower Cake

Winnie the Pooh Baby Shower Cake for Baby Drevin.  The Client asked for an elegant Winnie the Pooh cake with bows and characters.  The orginal plan was to sculpt just the Winnie the Pooh and put images of the characters on the side.  After sculpting the Winnie the Pooh I decided to go ahead and do the other characters. The client was so appreciative that I wanted to go over the top with it.  It pays to be thankful :) I love the way it turned out. 

New technique I tried.  I have a little work on it, but I think it brings in that simple elegance to the cake.

I would like to eventually own a fondant diamond impression plate.

Fondant T-I-double G-ER

Doble asked why Eeyore was smiling.  "He is supposed to be sad", he said.

Cute little piglet

Sleepy Pooh

Top Layer: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Bottom Layer: White Almond Sour Cream Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream and Fresh cut Strawberries.

All the Winnie the Pooh characters are sculpted from fondant mixed with tylose to make a gumpaste

Scroll and Swirl Wedding Cake

My largest cake yet was made for my Brother and his new Bride this weekend. I had a lot of fun learning how to pipe for the first time.  I can't wait to do more in the future.  I was so nervous and didn't want to free hand it but I did anyway and here is what I came up with.

So as a litttle tip...you must have confidence when doing piping work.  It takes practice, but the more confident you are the steadier your hand will be.  I was so nervous to do this cake that I practiced a couple times prior to the real thing.  The improvement jump from the first time the the third time was dramatic.  I was going to pin prick the whole image onto the cake.  However, I found that doing that method was actually harder.  If I accidentally didn't cover the pin prick it would look bad.  Freehanding actually was easier.

From Top to Bottom Tier:

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Filling

Vanilla with Lemon Cream Filling

White Almond Sour Cream with Cream Cheese Filling

Chocolate with White Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream and Raspberry Filling

The newly weds cutting the cake.  Thank you guys for trusting me to make your cake.  Best wishes to the both of you.  I love you!

Kali and Kyle's Pinecone Wedding Cake

This cake was made for a friend of the family.  She gave me a picture for inspiration and a paint color chip to match the fondant to.  I was really happy with the way it turned out. 

 The pinecones were made from real pinecones I found in the clearance section at walmart for a dollar.  I then iced them with royal icing to make the snow affect.  The twigs were shaped using 22g wire and then wrapped with floral tape.  Let me tell you floral tape is not my favorite thing to work with.  It is so sticky.  The tiers are all covered in fondant and then wrapped with blue ribbon.  The perfect cake for a wintery wedding. 



Sunflower Cupcakes

These cheery little cupcakes were made for my mom's birthday.  They are vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting.  The flower is made from an oreo with petals of buttercream.  Little m&m lady bugs were placed on a few flowers.

Teddy Bear Baby Shower Cake

This was a baby shower gift for a friend's baby shower.  She didn't know what she was having, but told me the babies room was being done in these colors and teddy bears.  Everything on the cake is edible. 

aww isn't he cute?!

Proud soon to be mama...She had her a beautiful baby girl in December. 

Congratulations Morgan and John!