Recipe: Cinnamon Banana Maple Cupcakes.

“I even picked all of the chocolate chips off of the paper after I finished the cupcake. There may have been a bit of paper stuck to some of them. Oh well!” 

That’s the sign of a good cupcake – if you’re willing to risk eating the paper. And these cupcakes apparently were paper-eating-worthy.

worth the risk.

I made them because a friend suggested it – she wanted a banana maple cake, and thought I could make a pretty good one. I was flattered, and of course, accepted the challenge with open arms (and oven).

“The cupcake was piquant, thanks.”  

No, thank YOU for eating. There was other feedback  along these lines, but most with some unsuitable for posting expletives used to stress the deliciousness experienced….

pretty and piquant.

I modified an existing coffee cake recipe of mine, including the addition of maple syrup and a packet of banana flavored oatmeal. I substituted the eggs with white vinegar (my new favorite baking trick) and topped it with a maple buttercream, based on my Signature Buttercream, but, like the cake, with the addition of maple syrup.

“The icing is amazzzzzzzzzing.”

I guess it worked. 🙂

fabulously frosted.

Anyway, because they were such a hit with the masses, I’m going to share the recipe with you now, so you, too, can win friends and influence people with delectable desserts and captivating cupcakes.

“These are really friggin’ good.”

Heck yeah, they are. Now go wash my car and fold my laundry, and maybe you can have another… 😉

two for the road.

Of course I’m kidding. But I’m not kidding about how good they are – see for yourself!

Cinnamon Banana Maple Cupcakes.

What you’ll need:

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tblsp white vinegar

3 tsp canola oil

1 cup flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 packet banana oatmeal

1/2 cup half and half

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup cinnamon chips

What You’ll Do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, white vinegar, and canola oil. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and oatmeal, and add to the sugar/vinegar/oil. Mix until just combined, and add the milk and maple syrup. Mix well. Fold in the cinnamon chips. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners, and fill each about halfway. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes about a dozen cupcakes.

 Maple Buttercream Frosting. (*this recipe is measured all in weight,except for the maple syrup)

What you’ll need:

8 oz butter (softened)

4 oz shortening

1 lb 4 oz confectioners sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

What you’ll do:

Cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar. Add maple syrup. If you’d like a thinner frosting, add water, a very little bit at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Celebrate with Eggless Coffee Cake.

So, around my office, I’m kinda known as the dessert queen – and I’m ok with that. I’m always testing out new creations on my very-willing-to-be-taste-testing coworkers, and they always give me honest feedback, so it’s a win-win. I’m also always making the goodies when someone’s birthday rolls around. Well last week, someone in my office conveniently “forgot” to tell anyone that it was his birthday, until we found out accidentally later that afternoon (when the HR rep delivered his birthday card in front of all of us – ha ha). But no one gets off that easy. I decided that I would whip up a quick better-late-than-never birthday cake that night, and surprise him the next morning.

I flipped through my recipe binder, and decided a small coffee cake would be perfect. I had all the ingredients (so I thought) and I even had some leftover cinnamon chips that would be an excellent addition to the batter. I started going to work. Three ingredients in and I suddenly realized – I was all out of eggs. Yikes. I really didn’t feel like running out and getting them – I already started the whole cake making process!

running on empty.

But then, I had an idea. I’ve made vegan cakes in the past, and they sometimes use white vinegar in place of eggs. I did have white vinegar, so I figured, what the heck, I’ll give it a tray. I guesstimated that two tablespoons of vinegar per egg would be sufficient. I definitely didn’t want to go too heavy on the vinegar and wind up with an overpoweringly gross vinegar cake.

my hero.

Well, once again, those two years of pastry school paid off – the cake was delicious – I dare say even better with the vinegar!

eggless and proud of it.

I guess it’s true what they say – never settle for the same old cake.  (Ok so no one really ever said that. But it does seem to be true.) Change really can be a good thing, my friends. Even good ol’ eggs can be replaced by something better, if you look around a bit. 🙂

Recipe Monday Night: Coffee Cake Cupcakes.

Whoops, I did it again.

I totally missed Recipe Sunday. In the midst of all the Pixie Cake commotion and promotion, I completely forgot about the importance of sharing. It’s never too late to share, though, so, a full 24 hours later, I give you Recipe Sunday/Monday Night’s feature: Coffee Cake Cupcakes.

These cupcakes are one of my signature creations: a coffee cake base, topped with cream cheese frosting, and sprinkled with streusel. And who doesn’t love streusel?

a little streusel goes a long way.

Coffee Cake Cupcakes.

What you’ll need:

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

3 tsp oil

3 tsp baking powder

1 cup AP flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup milk

What you’ll do:

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Mix sugar, egg, and oil. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add to egg mixture alternately with milk. Line a muffin tin with paper liners, and fill each about 1/2 way. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting.

What you’ll need:

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese (room temp)

1/2 cup butter (softened)

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

What you’ll do:

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla. Stir in confectioners sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well between each.

Streusel Topping:

What you’ll need:

1/2 cup AP flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup butter (softened)

What you’ll do:

In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, and butter, mixing until crumbly. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper, and spread crumbs out across tray. Bake for 5 minutes at 350, then check for crispiness – I don’t like mine too crispy so I don’t let it go much longer than this, however it’s a matter of preference. Let cool, and sprinkle on top of iced cupcakes.

everything’s coming up streusel.

Yum, Everything’s better with streusel. I think it’s been confined to topping only coffee cakes and muffins for too long. What wouldn’t be made better by having a crumb topping of butter, flour, and white sugar? These cinnamon cupcakes I made recently sure were:

streusel my cupcake.

But these are still on the traditional side, as far as streusel goes. You could have streusel on your pudding, streusel on your cereal, even streusel on your chicken (I’d totally eat that). Or how about streusel-covered fruit! Once, I even made stand-alone streusel. I was going to use it for cupcakes, but I had planned on putting it on top of the icing, as opposed to baking it right on top of the cake, like so:

top that.

This particular cupcake was my very own creation – coffee cake cupcake, with cream cheese icing, topped with streusel. And yes, they were the tops. What I discovered while making these guys, was that streusel was super yummy even by itself. I couldn’t stop eating it. It was TOO good. Maybe that’s why you don’t see streusel for sale as a snack food. Although, I’d love to sprinkle some streusel on my ice cream…hmmm…snack-sized streusel..I think I might be on to something. 😉

i bake for no one.

Sometimes, I just HAVE to bake something, with no real plan for the finished product or where it might end up. When the urge hits me, I have to act on it – I’ve tried to ignore it in the past, but it doesn’t do any good. It just grows and itches like a bug bite on the one spot of your back you can’t reach. Like drinking alone, baking for no one is the sign of a true addict.

i'm the Johnny Cash of the baking world.

Interestingly enough, I feel that some of my best work has come out of these baking for no one binges. Yesterday, as you may have read, I baked a Blueberry Buckle for the first time. This cake had no predetermined use – however it found a lovely home in the bellies of many happy co-workers and had completely vanished by day’s end.

chase away those blues.

Another impressive result of event-less baking was Eggnog Pie.  I found a recipe, really wanted to try it, and figured I’d find a good home for the pie, and sure enough, half went to an actual event that popped up, and the other half…work again. My co-workers love me (or is it “hate” me -there’s a fine line between the two).

free to a good home.

Third and foremost, may very well be the best thing I ever baked. That’s a bold statement, I know, but it’s almost a year later, and I’m still constantly getting requests for these handsome delectable little devils.  It was on a whim that I threw these together. I wanted to make a coffee cake with a new recipe I found, and really just didn’t feel like making a giant cake and having it sit around. Plus, I wanted something with icing. So, I turned it into Coffee Cake Cupcakes, and put a layer of cream cheese icing between the cake the streusel topping. If my memory serves me, these too wound up in the mouths of co-workers. What can I say – they make the best guinea pigs for new stuff.

extreme coffee cake makeover.

And now, I must quickly end this post, as I just squashed a bug that was crawling on my shirt, and I can’t sit here any longer because I keep thinking they’re all over me now. Dang bugs.