Bananana nananana....cupcakes!

Banana Cupcakes

with vanilla bean buttercream

Cupcakes

2 Large Eggs

4oz Self raising flour

4oz Caster sugar

1oz Soft brown sugar

4oz Butter/margarine

2tbsp Sunflower Oil

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 mashed bananas 

• Weigh out all your ingredients so they are ready to go
• Mash up your bananas. I do it while they're still in the skin, that way you only have to cut one end off and squeeze the mush out. Plus no dirty extras... I'm on about washing up
• Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour, creamy and kinda fluffy
• add your little eggies
• Whisk like your life depends on it
• Sift in the flour and baking powder 
• Fold together until just combined
• Add your mushed up bananas
• Spoon into paper cases.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 7, 220 degrees Celsius for about 22 mins. Sorry I didn't tell you to pre-heat earlier... awkward.
• They will go fairly golden because of all the sugar. I made them in two sizes and the smaller ones seemed to dome slighty as you can see in the picture. Ah well. Boverrrrd.
• Allow to cool then buttercream those puppies up!

For the vanilla bean buttercream...

I use this recipe from browneyedbaker replacing the cream with milk..as I had no cream.

This frosting can be used for preeeetty much every cake ever, its a good staple and you can colour it with gel or liquid colouring too. Bingo. 

Treasure

A few of my favourite links to click today...

Fruit and fire...on cupcakes :)

Cutest jewellery!!!

I am obsessed with waffles, but you knew that.

Pie pops, nuff said.

I want my boyfriend to make me this awesome breakfast from whatkatieate!

One of the most helpful posts I've read...vodka+vanilla pods= homemade vanilla extract.

I think about lime milkshake most of the time. I am going to try this recipe asap. 

xxx

A tasty mess.

I made a roulade forward slash mess today.
It wasn't pretty.
My heart was in the right place, there were cherries and cocoa and lots of fresh whipped cream... maybe too much.
It was a messy project but tasted divine.
Cherry, chocolate, cream = flavour combo!

But I also carried out a bit of research (google images) and it turns out it's pretty hard to make a pristine roulade (and/or to get a good picture of it.)

Here's the recipe anyway.. A friend's mother gave it to me.

When life gives you lemons...

When life gives you lemons (or Mum over-buys lemons at Christmas for her G&T)

....make lemon cupcakes.

 Why wouldn't you?!

Melanie's Lemony Cupcakes

You will need:

Scales (these are crucial to this method..)

And EGGS.

Eggs are in charge in this recipe.

Numero Uno - Black Dotty Banana Cake

Problem
Sometimes bananas over ripen and go all black and dotty. Don't ignore them. It's not their fault. Don't throw them away either, the riper they are the sweeter they are and the more banana-ry they will taste. Which is a good thing when it comes to cake.

If this happens to your bananas:

1. make this
2. find a friend
3. put the kettle on

Black Dotty Banana Cake

You will need:

3 cups self raising flour
2 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
a glug of milk
1 cup Butter
3 tbsp Oil
3 Very ripe Bananas

Then you will need to:

• Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Sift the flour first please.
•  So that's flour and sugar. Easy.
• Beat the eggs in a jug with a little milk
• Melt the butter. Mix the oil and melted butter in with the milk.
• Add the contents of the jug to the dry ingredients. Whisssssssk it all together.
• Peel your bananas and smoosh them up. Then you can stir them in to the mix.
• Pour into a greased tin, bake at Gas Mark 6 for about 20 mins, it will darken significantly but don't worry it is not burnt, unless somehow you accidentally burnt it - read the instructions, silly.
• Test it by poking with a skewer or knife which should come out clean. (Not dishwasher clean... but it shouldn't have sticky cake goo on it.)
• Turn cake out, slice and serve. It's yummy warm and it's yummy cold.