Banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Banana....one of everybody's favourites!

So, every Sunday night we have a family dinner at my parents' place. When I say 'we', I mean my husband and myself, Destructor, my younger sister and her fiance, and my mum and dad. It's something I look forward to as it's a really lovely way to end the week. We all have a good ol' chat, inevitably end up eating way too much (my mum is Italian and couldn't bear the thought of us going hungry, so we get overfed instead) and then roll home and into bed.

This week, I decided I was going to make cupcakes for dessert. And I decided I'd go with banana as it's my dad's favourite flavour. Rather than doing a buttercream, I thought I'd do cream cheese icing. It's pretty easy and very, very delicious. I'd say it's my favourite kind of topping after the marshmallow frosting. Om nom nom.

So, Destructor hits the hay and I'm off baking. Before I pop the cake mix in the bowl I grab two ripe bananas (about as ripe as the bananas above) and mash them. THEN I pop in everything else and give it a good stir.

Into the patty pans they go. A little fuller than usual, but I'm not worried. There's a little extra because of the bananas.

2/3rds full, as usual!

And, because these are banana flavoured, I'm using bright yellow patty pans. How fun!

These are so sweet! Unfortunately, Destructor got to the leftover patty pans and ate/smooshed them. Oh well! 

So, into the oven, and I rotate them after 7 minutes. I had the timer on for 12, but realistically, they got 16.

Meanwhile, I'm all over the cream cheese icing. I've made it a few times before, so I'm feeling pretty confident. That turns out to be my big downfall. Instead of measuring my ingredients, I just chuck in the cream cheese (two blocks) a bit of butter (no measuring, but probably 30g or so) and start whipping in the mix master. Then I start pouring in the icing mixture. It's about this point that I realise that things are NOT going to go to plan. So, I need to up the stakes. In goes some vanilla and some mixed spice. If the texture isn't going to be perfect, it needs to taste good at the very least.

5 minutes later and it's horrible. Thick and goopy. Not holding any semblance of a shape. And in terms of taste, it's only okay. There's this weird floury after taste and my teeth feel gritty. I hang my head and go check a recipe. To my smallest relief I was supposed to use icing mixture (as opposed to pure icing sugar), but that still doesn't stop the little voice in my head saying 'it still tastes a little like cornflour...'

Okay, so I need a plan b. You always need a plan b. In my Religion classes (because in my non-baking life I teach Religious Education in a Catholic school...don't worry, I'm not about to get preachy!), I tell the kids that plan b in the bible always seems to be murder. King David can't get Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba to cover up his adultery? Has him killed. Solomon can't get two women to stop arguing over a baby? Kill the baby. Sodom and Gomorrah full of sin and won't listen to angels? Kill them all! So you see my point. You need a plan b. However, when it comes to baking, you can't really kill anybody unless they're the one that ruined your recipe. And since I'm the idiot who screwed it up, I'm not about to kill myself. The price of our family honour isn't that high. So plan b is sticking it in the fridge. The whole, huge, hideous bowl of it.

I only have myself to blame for this....

So, about 10 tense minutes later I grab it out. It's thickened up, but not enough to be piped with. Damn. So I put in more (yes, you read that correctly...more) icing mixture and shove it back in the fridge.

More time goes past and out it comes. It's actually workable now. And the taste has somewhat developed...more mixed spice, less cornflour. If nothing else can be said for this frosting, it's that it's silky smooth. So I decide to go ahead with it.

I bought a new piping tip this week (a Wilton 1M) so I'm going to give it a crack. Apparently, the icing comes out like soft serve! Sounds like a bit of fun to me!

The icing does come out like soft serve, however, the texture isn't great. It's okay. But, they look cute. I top them with a little candy banana, some silver sanding sugar and voila!

So cute that a family of monkeys turned up shortly after this photo was taken...

Something else I was aching to try out were the cupcake boxes that I bought a couple of months ago. Lucky for me, a friend of mine was popping in later in the day and I could give them the gift of cupcakes! Hooray! This is how they looked all boxed:

Nawrrrr!

So, all in all, not the most successful session. However, I did learn some stuff:
1. You can add banana to the vanilla cake mix and it will work. 2 bananas is perfect.
2. Follow the recipe for cream cheese icing or you'll regret it.

Time: Had I followed the damn icing recipe, I would have knocked this over in less than hour.

Post Script: My husband ate one in the afternoon and loved it, but didn't want another after dinner...said they were too rich. The friends who I gave the box of cupcakes to loved them. My sister ate one, which, while it doesn't sound like much, actually is, as she's on a diet (and is doing great!). I ate one and didn't hate it. Mum ate half of one and didn't say anything, which means she didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. Dad said the icing was too soft, but went for a second one, so the cake was clearly a winner.

Lesson learned - will not try to make cream cheese icing without the recipe!!

Lemonade scones - 20 minute recipe!

Today's theme ingredient

So, I also made scones for the Bachelorette Party. But not just any old scones...Lemonade scones.

Generally, I suck when it comes to pastry...I just can't seem to get it right. Probably because one of my life philosophies is 'close enough is good enough'. That's fine when it comes to most things, but not pastry, apparently!

Anyway, my wonderful mum got me on to this recipe. So easy and impossible to screw up. Plus, its super quick...my kinda recipe!

Basically, it's self raising flour, cream, sugar, salt and....lemonade! The actual recipe is here. You'd have to be, well, illiterate to screw it up.

See - five ingredients and two steps!

So, I put Destructor to sleep and off I go! I put the oven on 240C and get a-mixing! I sift the flour into a bowl, then add the salt, sugar, cream and lemonade. Mix it all together and bam! I have dough!

I take it out of the bowl and stick on a floured bench, giving it a quick knead - 30 seconds really. It's only enough to make sure it's all combined properly. I push it down til it's about 2 cms thick all over.

Then, I whip out my super nifty Tupperware cutter (two sided - big AND little!) and off I go, cutting scones like I've been baking professionally for years.

A freebie from a Tupperware party. One of my better prizes!

Onto a tray lined with baking paper and into the oven. You'll have noticed that I haven't properly pre-heated the oven OR brushed milk on the top. Well, I'm a woman on a mission with limited time, aren't I? Those things aren't essential for this recipe!

Okay, so this batch I brushed with milk, but to be honest, there was NO difference, just more mess to clean up.

12 minutes later and they're almost there, so I rotate the tray and give them another 2 minutes to brown up a little more. I find I usually have to do a rotate because my oven is crapola and bakes unevenly.

Anyway, 2 minutes later, out they come and they're gorgeous! Normally there would be a picture, but I was in such a hurry, I forgot to take one. Great work, me!

I wrapped them in a tea towel (still hot) and popped them in a little basket. Sweet!

Anyway, if you really want to make this a quick and impressive afternoon tea, pick up a can of spray cream and a jar of jam and BAM! You're in business.

One tip: use full fat cream - you need the fat as part of the food chemistry. Not sure of the specifics, but trust me on this one.

Time: 20 minutes TOTAL! I told you - best recipe ever!

Cupcakes for a Bachelorette Party

So, today I had quite a challenge - four different flavoured cupcakes!

My best friend is having her Bachelorette Party tomorrow afternoon and I said I'd make some cupcakes. I'm also matron of honour, so I felt a bit of pressure to not only provide a bit of variety, but to make them look all pretty.

But, no fear, I had the essentials!

Firstly, packet mix...

My two favourite cake mixes.

And no ordinary packet mix, Aldi packet mix. This stuff is the shizz. Cheap (79c for the vanilla, $1.79ish for the chocolate) and so, so tasty. I always get compliments - no word of a lie. And another thing, these are cake mixes, not cupcake mixes. Add the word 'cupcake' to a box and the price goes up another dollar. Screw that! These work just as well if you adjust the cooking time (which I'll explain when we get there).

Secondly, I wrote down exactly what I was going to make, what flavour and how I was going to decorate them. This way, if my brain decides to cut out in the time frenzy that is nap time, I have a guide!

Not glamorous, but hey, it works!

In case you can't read my writing, that translates to:
vanilla - lemon/marshmallow - yellow glitter
            - strawberry - love hearts
choc - marshmallow - choc dust
         - mint - choc sprinkles

1x marshmallow (this is the marshmallow frosting - I need one batch)
   
1x 1/2 mint - light green
     1/2 strawberry (this is the buttercream - I need one batch and will be halving it and flavouring accordingly)

So, normally, in the spirit of this blog, I'd be doing all this while my little boy, Destructor (not his real name!!!), is asleep. However, today, it's not just one batch of cupcakes, it's two. And, in case you didn't read the list, I'm making marshmallow frosting...from scratch. Since that requires a bit of extra time, I need to find time.

Lucky for me, this morning, Destructor is feeling quite happy and is content to play by himself (read: make a mess everywhere). So, I take advantage of this and start making my first lot of cupcakes - the vanilla. Why vanilla? Because if I have to abandon ship due to Destructor's neediness, the cake mix will be fine. The chocolate wouldn't, as it's got melted chocolate in it, and it tends to harden up as time goes on (and then is harder to deal with etc.)

So, looking at the box, I need eggs, butter and milk. Easy!

Off I go, mixing it all together, blah blah. It's very straightforward. I add a bit of red food colouring to make it pink (because us girls like pink) and it's ready for my really cute patty pans. I bought some super cute ones last weekend and have been itching to use them.

Yup, those are my slippered feet. Look at the patty pans, dammit!

So, I fill them 2/3 and pop them in the oven at 180C for 12 minutes.

I know it's hard to see, but trust me...they're 2/3 full

Meanwhile, Destructor is living up to his name and has created a pretty impressive mess! But, he's still happy playing on the couch with Thomas the Tank Engine, so I give him a quick hug and kiss (while he squirms) and I hop back in the kitchen.

Mess: the price you pay for having time to get stuff done!

While the cupcakes are baking, I measure out the ingredients for the chocolate cupcakes and separate the eggs for the marshmallow frosting.

Next thing I know, the timer for the cupcakes has gone off. So, I check them and they need a little more time. I rotate them and stick them in for another 5 minutes (bringing the total time up to 17 minutes)

Meanwhile, Destructor is tiring of his alone time and starts clawing at my leg. He's also kinda tired, so it's bed time...but not before I wait for the timer and take the cupcakes out to cool. His face lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw all the cupcakes and he started pointing at them and making his 'gimme one of them' noise. But, alas, my little boy, no cake as it's too hot and I don't have any screw ups that you can eat. Boring old bed instead.

So, three stories and a song later, Destructor is in bed and I'm back in the kitchen. The oven gets turned down to 150C and I'm whipping up the chocolate batter.

Muuuud caaaake....drooooool...

Now, these instructions are a pain the arse. So, here are my tips!

1. Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave. Stuff the double boiler. Do it in 30 sec increments and stir in between. You'll see it melt together nicely.

2. Use more chocolate chips than it tells you to. Chocolate is awesome, therefore, more chocolate increases how awesome something is. I keep putting the choc chips in until there are this many left in the packet:

I'd confess to eating these, but that would be really embarrassing....

So, mixture mixed and in the patty pans. These, I fill a bit more than 2/3, only because they don't rise as much as the vanilla. Into the oven for 15 minutes (they take longer because the cake is denser).

Meanwhile, it dawns on me that I don't have any lemon curd for my vanilla cupcakes. Oh crap. I don't have any time to go to the shops. So, plan B. Jam? No, too sweet. Cream? Nope, too rich. I open the cupboard and there it is...the answer:

I love this stuff. Skippy is my personal favourite!

Now, I do have regular peanut butter. However, there's already a lot of sugar in the cupcake and especially enough sugar in the marshmallow, so I figure this will be a nice contrast. Kinda like a fluffernutter.

I need to keep moving, so I get out a 500g block of butter for the buttercream and start whipping it up (after I microwaved it a bit to soften it up). The timer goes off, so I check the cupcakes, but they're not done, so another five minutes it is (making it a total of 20 minutes).

On I go with the buttercream until the timer beeps again. The cupcakes are perfect! Hooray!

They join their vanilla friends and the baking is done!!!

Right now, my husband is singing 'Ebony and Ivory'. He's such a dag...

With that done, I crack on with the buttercream. When I'm happy, I halve it and flavour it/colour it accordingly. Then, cut open half the vanilla cupcakes and pop in a teaspoon of peanut butter. Next, I decorate the lucky little chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with buttercream.

Now it's time I embark on the marshmallow frosting. I know that I've said that doing stuff from scratch is for people who have too much time, but this you simply must do from scratch. And that being said, you can't make this in advance either. Bummer, huh? I tried once, and ended up with a consistency that was way less than flattering. So, lesson learned, I only make this right before I'm going to use it.

The recipe is easy...you can find it here. It does involve a bit of time - say 10 minutes or so - but well worth it. It is sooo yummy. It's worth noting that you need to make sure that all the utensils that come into contact with the egg whites are totally clean of any egg yolk, butter or oil. If not, you'll end up with slop (which a bit of cream of tartare should fix). I use a bit of paper towel to just give everything a quick wipe. Seems to work.

Anyway, the marshmallow is perfect, so I pipe it on. Looks great!

Out come the sprinkles, glitter, love hearts and drinking chocolate - time for details! They look great, and my little one is still snoozing. Meanwhile, I'm covered in so much sugar and butter that I could kill a diabetic at 10 metres!

Finished product:

Vanilla cake, strawberry buttercream, love hearts:

Chocolate mud cake, marshmallow frosting, drinking chocolate:

Chocolate mud cake, mint buttercream, chocolate sprinkles:

Vanilla cake, peanut butter filling, marshmallow frosting, pale purple glitter:

I stick them in my nifty travel cases and they're ready for tomorrow. Hooray!

Total number of cupcakes: 34. 14 vanilla, 20 chocolate.
Time: Less than 2 hours - 20 mins while Destructor was up, 1hr 20 while was asleep.

I sat down to have lunch after this effort (and after I'd done most of the dishes) and the minute my bum hit the chair, guess who was up?! So, we had lunch together. Kinda nice, really :)

Strawberry cupcakes with gingerbread buttercream

Strawberry cupcake with gingerbread buttercream

Okay, so today, I have a play date with one of my friends from Mums' Group. I should say "Parents' Group", but only the mums have gone thus far...except for my hubby, who braved the estrogen onslaught one week...but that doesn't count.

But I digress. So, I don't like going empty handed when I visit friends. Partly cos I feel bad rocking up and eating other people's food (the Italian mindset I had instilled by my mother) and partly because it's nice to bring something pretty.

Now, first thing you need to know about my baking style - I rarely do things from scratch. Scratch is for those who have too much time and for those who are anal. Oh, and for the odd think you just can't buy. Damn.

So, I look in my magical baking cupboard and lo and behold, there's a packet mix. Hooray! And it's cute and girly...even better! I haven't used Coles brand before, so I'm keen to give them a go.

I have a look at the back, and sure enough, I have all the ingredients required - an egg, butter and milk.

Now, here's an important bit of info: always have eggs, butter and milk on hand. You can make just about any packed mix with these ingredients. The milk can be powdered or long life as well, as long as it's milk. Margarine/olive spread/spreadable butter can be used if you don't have a stick of butter. You're just about screwed if you don't have eggs. It's at that point that you pull out the random box of chocs you keep in the cupboard 'just in case' and sadly realise that you have to take them instead of cake.

I also have a look in the fridge for any buttercream I have got stashed away. Sure enough, I have the choice of gingerbread, vanilla or chocolate buttercream. Gingerbread it is! So, I get it out and pop it on the bench, giving it a chance to soften up (multi-tasking!)

Yum yum yum! This stuff keeps for AGES! Love it. 

While I'm using buttercream, I should mention that this packet mix does come with its own icing mixture. However, if you want it to look like the box, you'll have a hard time! I stashed the icing away for another day when I run out of icing mixure and need just a little more.

Okay, so I mix everything together with a whisk (I only use a mix master or a hand mixer if I'm doing a double batch or something really intense) and I notice that it's a cream colour. My problem is that it's strawberry flavoured, and so should therefore be pink. So in goes the food colouring!

To hell with natural food colouring! Bring on the dead bug bits! 

I pop the patty pans in my mega muffin tins (I don't have the storage for a bajillion different cupcake tins!) and in goes the cupcake mix. I'll be honest, I wasn't comfortable with the amount of mix I was popping in the patty pans. Normally, I only fill them up two thirds of the way, but the amount of mix I had, I was really packing it in. Having not made this packet mix before, I shut up my little OCD voice and go with it. No tweaking the first time (food colouring doesn't count)! 

Please ignore my grotty tins. If I had time to scrub the damned things after each time I baked, I wouldn't be using packet mix!

So, into the oven they go. 13 minutes at 160 C. In the meantime, I grab all the dirty dishes and shove them in the sink for a wash. I also grab all my decorating stuff!

I have lovely little butterflies that came with the packet mix. You can also buy them at the shops. They're very sweet (figuratively...literally, they taste a bit like chalk).

Nawwrrr...

I'm also using coloured sugar (which I don't have a photo of), but you can get it at the supermarket in lots of colours. 

I then grab my piping tip (today I'm using a Wilton 2D, but I also like to use the plain 'ol round ones) and, my secret weapon...disposable piping bags from Daiso!!

Oooh baby! So good!

I do have a proper piping bag...honest, I do! But I hate washing the damned thing. And no matter how well I wash it, it still smells like rancid butter. And the worst part is that apparently you can't get rid of that smell, no matter how you try (I talked to a couple of pros). So, I saw these babies one day in Daiso (the Japanese $2.80 shop) and thought I'd give them a go. Talk about a life saver! You chop off the tip, stick in your piping tip, fill with whatever you're using (buttercream etc.) and off you go. Then, when you're done, retrieve your tip and CHUCK THE BAG AWAY. All you have to do is wash your tip. Mega time saver. Not so great for the environment, but if you make other efforts in other places, you can assuage your guilt.

Also, these are sooo much cheaper than the ones in the supermarket...a mere $2.80 for 12!! In the supermarket, they want almost $5 for 5. Up yours, Coles and Woolworths!

Meantime, the oven timer has gone off and the cupcakes are done. They look good; puffy and pink. I need them to cool quick smart, so into my freezing cold laundry on a cooling rack they go. I even open the external door to make it quicker. 

5-10 minutes later they're cool enough to ice. Meanwhile, they've gone all wrinkly on the top. But who cares? I'm going to cover that with buttercream!

I fill my piping back with buttercream and do a quick practice squeeze but alas, the buttercream is too hard, and there's a breach :( So, buttercream goes into a bowl, and into the microwave. But, 10 seconds is too much (arrgghh!) and it's too soft. So, that goes into the fridge. 

While I'm waiting for it to cool, I grab my cupcake carrier. $15 at Spotlight and a great investment. Even better when they're on sale at half price!!

Love these babies!

Okay, so I go to the fridge and the buttercream is ready to go. Piping bag number two is ready and waiting (no washing, see?) and off we go. One swirl, a bit of coloured sugar and a healthy smattering of butterflies. Totally gorgeous.

You so pretty!

Meanwhile, my darling little boy was still asleep and it had only been about an hour. Yay me!

The verdict:

A great packet mix, although my only criticism was that the cake started to come away from the patty pans almost straight after they came out of the oven. Not sure if it was the cake or the patty pans, but will find out in future trials.

Flavour and texture was great, as was the pairing with the gingerbread buttercream. I think I'll make them regular size next time, as the mini ones were a little too small. I'll just use my own patty pans.

Diving In...

I guess this is how I'd describe my approach to pretty much everything in life. I just get right in in there...no mucking around! Not to say that I'm reckless or lack common sense (although sometimes I do wish I'd thought things through a little better, I suppose!), but sometimes I find that if you don't just do something, it'll never get done.

So, what do I mean? Well, I did jury duty a few years ago. They asked who the foreman (or foreperson) was going to be. Guess who put their hand up? I just knew there'd be that inevitable silence, people looking at each other, and it'd never get done. Screw that. So I said I'd do it.

Having a baby was one of those things as well. My husband and I kinda had a chat about having kids (we were both in agreement that we wanted have them!!), but we never decided when. So, one day, I upped the health insurance and he was cool with that. And then I came out with "Let's try and have a baby". He was also cool with that. But there was no consideration of what time of year the baby would be born, what we would do for money, what obstetrician we would use etc etc. Again, too much effort.

So, here we are, quite a bit of time later, with a 15 month old little boy whom we both adore. And talk about diving in! This kid is like an octopus on speed. Hands in everything, on everything and running around from one thing to the next.

Awww....isn't he adorable? We're thinking about renaming him Destructor...

However (and this is where my blog idea came from), I still find time to bake. I friggin' love it. It's my ME time...which, as a mum, is like wearing clean clothes....both rare and kind of exciting. Nothing I love more than mixing up a cake (trying not to eat most of the batter in the process) and then decorating the damn thing. Bliss. The best part is watching people enjoy it.

Anyway, people are ALWAYS asking me how I find the time. So, I thought I'd share my secrets via a blog. My little shortcuts aren't just for mums, they're for anybody who is pressed for time, but still wants to take something to the party. And why shouldn't you? I mean, a box of Cadbury favourites is nice, but cakes are AWESOME!

I made these...no joke. And I didn't need a babysitter to find the time!

So, stay tuned! I have plenty of tips and tricks for getting cakes made and decorated in minimal time with minimal effort...and maximum impact!