delicious

Saturday was my dad's birthday, so Chris and I went to Mobile for the day. I brought along this cake, which I spent alllll Friday night baking. I even got to whip out the Kitchenaid mixer I got for Christmas last year! I hardly ever get to use it, especially in our small apartment. I searched for a recipe that I knew my dad would love, and finding nothing exactly what I wanted, I combined two recipes. I used this one for the cake, and this one for the praline-crusty-goodness. I just used a good ole' store-bought cream cheese frosting... I know, I cheated. Shame. Anyway, the result was what I have so lovingly dubbed, a Brown Sugar Praline Upside-down Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Quite a mouth full, right? Wait until you taste it! Oh my, it's all sorts of sinful. I wish my dad loved pumpkin as much as I do so I could've made the Praline Pumpkin Cake as it was written, but I guess that just means I'll have another excuse to bake something pumpkin! I have a problem, I know, but it's only a few months of the year, so it's okay.

pumpkin bread

I love love love fall and with that comes a love (love, love) of one of the most important signs of fall: PUMPKINS! I love Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Lattes, I love pumpkin muffins, breads and scones... heck, I was so eager for fall that I made use of some pumpkin pancake mix leftover from last fall for breakfast back in July. My intentions were pumpkin scones, since I love scones and I have yet to ever make my own, but a pumpkin bread kit I found at Sam's decided for me that I would make pumpkin bread instead. Low in funds, and determined to not spend $10 on a mega-pack of butter (even though it would get used) I used the kit that only required eggs, oil, and water. All of which I already had on hand.

The kit makes two batches of two loaves each. So, four loaves of pumpkin bread. YES PLEASE. Since Chris and I are still on a diet (for real real this time), and knowing that two loaves of delicious pumpkin bread would be hanging out in the kitchen, begging to be eaten as fast as they can be to prevent them from "going bad," I made one loaf and about 40 mini pumpkin muffins instead. The mini muffins went to work, where I was easily able to pawn some delicious and inevitable pumpkin-induced fall poundage off on to my co-workers. I don't think they noticed my hidden agenda.

I'm mainly just excited because I have a whole 'nother kit of pumpkin bread just waiting to be whipped up on a pumpkin-fall-craving-moment's notice.

banana mini cupcakes

Chris and I went to a little Mardi Gras party where he works today and we were supposed to bring food to share, so I made these cupcakes! They're a banana cake with cream cheese frosting topped with walnuts. I made this as a sheet cake once before and it was incredibly good, so I thought they'd make perfect mini cupcakes. I adapted the recipe from here. I made a few changes that I'll explain later!



I used my cute little nesting doll measuring cups that Chris got me!


To start, mash the bananas in a bowl with lemon juice and set them aside






Then mix flour, baking soda, and salt together and set it aside. Here, I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose. I really like the nutty flavor from the wheat flour, and it makes them a little more like a muffin and less like a cupcake... or in other words, not quite as sweet. Ha, I also have to sub three times the amount of baking soda with baking powder because I SWORE I had some, but couldn't find any!





In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. I did this by hand because I don't have a hand mixer and I didn't have time to unpack my fancy Kitchenaid mixer.






Next, add in the eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla.





Alternate adding buttermilk and flour mixture. I used a little lemon juice and fat free milk since I hate to buy a whole thing of buttermilk and not use up the rest. The first time I made this though, I did use the buttermilk, and it made a little difference in taste and texture, but not much.





I used a make-shift pastry bag by cutting the corner off of a zip-top bag and piped the batter in to each muffin tin. I then abandoned this technique and opted for a big spoon after I left the bag hanging on the side of the bowl and it fell in :/






Mine ended up taking 25 minutes in a 275° (yes, thats a TWO, not a three) oven in a mini-muffin tine. And while they're baking... it's frosting time!!! Mix together softened butter and cream cheese, then add the vanilla and powdered sugar.






To frost them, I actually had a little cheap-o pastry bag on hand, so I piped on a bit of frosting, sprinkled on some chopped walnuts, and voila!







And that's only about half of what I made! We took the ones pictured above to Chris' work party and I still have some to take to work tomorrow! Please make these! They are so incredibly out-of-this-world. Now I have to go let Jillian Michaels shred off all the junk food I ate today. I'm giving up fried food for Lent, so only 2 more days of naughty eating! Outfit post tomorrow!