Long time, no post.

Sorry about that. I’ve been kinda….busy. But I have been baking, albeit not as frequently as I had been in the somewhat recent past. But that’s beside the point. Here I am now, writing a new post, about one of the things I actually did bake - Lemon Pistachio Mini Cupcakes.

little. yellow. different.

I actually made these for the Cupcake Smash competition I participated in a couple of weeks back. Although I did not win, I had a fabulous time, made some new baking friends, and received much positive feedback on the cupcakes themselves!

a winner in my book.

As far as what went into them, I started off with my Best Vanilla Cake Ever recipe, but instead of using vanilla extract, I used Lemon. I topped them with my New and Improved Lemon Buttercream. But that’s not all – I filled them each with grape jam, and sprinkled them all with crushed pistachios. I titled them “Pistachi-o-baby,” however, as my setup at the event wound up having a Parisian theme, in hindsight I should have called them “Pistachi-ohh-la-la!” That would have been much more fitting. I probably would have won with that.

sur la table.

The good news was that I wound up with a bunch of extras, so I brought them to work, and everybody loved them. So really, we all win in the end.

 

Recipe Sunday: Banana Walnut Butter Cake.

I had a banana on the kitchen table that was starting to over-ripen. I really didn’t want it to go to waste, and I also really wanted to bake something from scratch – I haven’t in over a week! I was thinking about bread, and as I was digging through the cabinet for the yeast, I found an open bag of walnuts. I’m also on the tired side as it was a very busy, yet productive and enjoyable weekend. So, over-ripe banana + open bag of walnuts + extra tired me = Banana Walnut Butter Cake: an easy recipe I created myself, on the fly. It’s quick to prepare and decadently delicious to dine on. It just takes a tad long to actually bake, due to the heaviness of the batter. But on a below freezing winter evening, there’s nothing wrong with a little extended oven action.

looks like bread, tastes like cake.

Banana Walnut Butter Cake.

What you’ll need:

1/2 cup butter (softened)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups Flour

1 small banana (mashed – i mashed it between my hands – it was fun)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

What you’ll do:

Preheat the oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, and beat until well mixed. Add the flour and mix well. Add the mashed banana, mix well. Fold in the walnuts. Grease an 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan, and fill with the batter. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The outside will be golden brown.

I then topped mine with a Brown Sugar Nutmeg spread, but instead of “spreading,” I piped. This was another recipe created on the fly.

Brown Sugar Nutmeg Spread.

What you’ll need:

1/4 cup butter (softened)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp nutmeg

What you’ll do:

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and nutmeg until smooth.

gratuitous cake close up.

 

come on, praline.

In technical terms, a praline is a caramelized nut, most often a hazelnut or almond; in not-so-technical terms, the word “praline” has come to be associated with not only caramelized nuts, but nougat, ground praline paste, and even chocolates made from praline paste or with a praline in/on top of them. So, you can see how one could go a little “nuts” trying to keep all this straight. har har.

"real" pralines

Anyway, these are simple to make – basically you’re just caramelizing sugar with nuts in it. You can coat them with more sugar, or with cocoa powder…I guess with other stuff too, although that would make it non-traditional and possibly non-tasty. But experimentation is the heart of baking, so do what cha like.

Humpty sure would.

Ok so the point is (not Humpty’s nose, either),  that I made traditional pralines, using almonds, and coated them with powdered sugar. As delightful a snack they were on their own, encased in a Belgian truffle, they became down right irresistible. And that’s a fact, ma’am.

simply irresistible.

So come on lets, make your own praline. Toora, loora, toora loorye aye….