Chocolate Cupcakes With Caramel Frosting

I appear to be on a bit of a food kick lately! I made these cupcakes for a meeting I have today. The lab I work in was split into two groups for what amounts to an extended homework problem. Our boss gave our teams names - Team Butterfly vs. Team Cupcake. (Guess which team I’m on!) I promised my team cupcakes for today’s meeting, so here they are. Both the cake and frosting recipes came from my Better Homes and Garden New Baking Book. The cake is the Classic Chocolate Cake and the frosting is Penuche Frosting. The cupcakes baked up very nicely, with the perfectly shaped tops.

I’m a little wary of the frosting. I think it’s supposed to be pretty heavy and dense, but I had a really hard time spreading it onto the cupcakes. I think that if I made it again, I would use less powdered sugar to change the consistency of it a bit. I’ve always been very happy with everything that comes from this cookbook, so I’m sure that they will be well received by Team Cupcake!

That’s Just the Way I Roll…..

As promised, here is another attempt at one of the wonderful recipes from Baking Bites. I multiplied the recipe by 1 1/2 because that is the amount of yogurt I bought (two individual serving cups). It made so much dough; I was afraid it would take over the kitchen! But they are so spectacularly soft and yummy.

I had one straight out of the oven with some butter, there’s nothing like fresh rolls, still warm so that they melt the butter, yum! I’ve also made some egg salad sandwiches and some buffalo chicken subs on the longer rolls. I’m so glad that I’m on a bread kick lately!

Peanut Butter Chip Brownies

These delicious brownies were made from this recipe over at Baking Bites. (Has anyone noticed that in general, I’m in love with her recipes? In fact, look for another one coming up soon here!) I replaced the nuts with 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips - I reserved a handful that I didn’t mix into the batter and sprinkled them on top right before they went in the oven to give them a pretty look.

I also reduced the baking time by 5 minutes and didn’t use the water bath at the end to cool the brownies. I like my brownies a little undercooked so they are fudgier, and I can’t not eat a warm brownie straight from the oven. The really excellent thing about these brownies are the edges are really chewy, not crispy or hard. Also, they are chocolate and peanut butter so they have to be great!

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

Banana cake with peanut butter chips and peanut butter glaze. I love the combination of peanut butter and bananas, and this cake was no exception - it turned out great! I replaced the butter in a standard glaze with peanut butter and it worked wonderfully. I used about half a bag of peanut butter chips for this recipe, although next time I might think about using the whole bag since they are a little sparse in the cake.

Banana Bread

I made this yummy banana bread with mom’s spectacular recipe earlier this week. This is one of my favorite things to bake, mostly because it uses up an ingredient that I would otherwise throw away: the overripe banana.

I love a banana, but for some reason I tend to buy them too ripe, so that by the time I get most of the way through a bunch they have gotten past the point that I find them appealing. So, I just let them sit for a few more days and then they are perfect for banana bread.

Most recipes call for mashed bananas, but if yours are ripe enough you can actually mush them up inside their peels, and then just cut off the end and push the mush out (kind of like toothpaste). One less bowl to clean!