My Two Year Blogiversary!!

Can it really be two years since I started this little hobby of mine?  Indeed it has!  It all began when I made some candy for our Fire Department bake sale for the local food drive. I decided to document the experiment for something different to do with the new camera I had recently acquired.  Now, 185 posts later I'm still at it.

What an interesting two years it has been trying out new recipes, some with great success and some not so much, but all great learning experiences.  I have tried to expand my horizons, work on my writing, photography, as well as food styling while cooking new dishes which sometimes pushed me beyond my comfort zone.  More than a few times I have thought to myself (or screamed aloud from the kitchen) "Why am I doing this?" yet I just keep going with no sign of letting up.

I celebrate my blogiversary by again making something for the annual food drive bake sale and I must say that this recipe certainly challenged me.  The recipe for these "Fauxtess" Cupcakes can be found all over the Internet and I have thought numerous times how fun they would be to try but have always been a little turned off by the number of steps involved.   Instead of writing out the entire recipe today I will direct you to an absolutely great food blog called Annies Eats.  Her recipes and pictures are always fantastic.  I doubled the recipe and made 18 cupcakes instead of the 9 in her recipe.

Once I got in the groove things went very well.  Step one was to make the amazingly rich and chocolately devil's food cupcakes.

Step two was the marshmallow creme filling.

Step three was to make a totally decadent chocolate ganache frosting.  Step four consisted of decorating the chilled cupcakes with the trademark squiggle using the leftover marshmallow creme.

All in all, a great baking project and a very fun way to spend Saturday morning.

Thanks to all of you who check in on my blog faithfully and leave such generous comments and thanks to The Husband who so patiently tries out my dishes and supports (particularly his computer tech skills) this blog of mine.  Here's to another year!!

Too Many Bananas

I usually buy 5-6 bananas a week and sometimes we get through them and sometimes, as was the case this week, we don't. Unfortunately during the hot days of summer, bananas don't keep so well on the kitchen counter so I stuck 3 spotty looking specimens into the fridge to do something with when I felt inspired.

Inspiration came today in the form of some wonderful, moist and very flavorful banana cupcakes. This recipe is fairly easy to put together with most items easily found in a well stocked kitchen. It can be made into either a 2 layer cake, a 9 x 13 sheet cake, or as I did, 24 cupcakes. The addition of toasted coconut and the rum are optional flavor elements, but I think they both really added a special dimension to this delicious recipe.

Banana Cake

2 2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. dark rum (optional)

1 1/2 cups very ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup whole milk

1 cup toasted shredded coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Prepare pans with cupcake liners or grease and flour cake pans and set aside.Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugars and beat at medium speed for a couple of minutes, then add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition, followed by the vanilla and rum. Lower the speed and add the bananas. Still on low speed, add the flour mixture and liquid alternately, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until everything is well incorporated then stir in the coconut by hand with a rubber spatula. Divide the mixture evenly into the pans. For cupcakes, use a 1/4 cup measure to get 24 even sized cakes. Bake cakes for about 45 minutes or cupcakes for about 20 minutes until they are a deep golden brown. A thin knife inserted into their centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a cooking rack and cool. Frost with a cream cheese icing. I cheated and used a prepared icing which was a fine addition to these moist little cakes.