I made up this recipe (sort of)

For Bruce and Molly:  these are healthy so you don't have to feel bad about loving them.

Blueberry Orange Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup or more OJ
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 mashed bananas
• zest of one orange

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup ap flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt

• 1 pint blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 430.  Paper a 12-cup muffin tin.  Mix all wet ingredients in one bowl, all dry in another.  Pour dry into wet and mix, then mix in blueberries.  Divide batter into muffin tray and bake at 430 for 7 minutes, then reduce temp to 400 and bake another 12 minutes until muffins are cooked through.  

Molly's birthday cake

I made a banana cake with cream cheese icing for Molly's surprise birthday party!  We had a great time last night celebrating Mole's birthday at Gravers Lane Gallery, where Molly works.

The first time I made this cake I brought some to Molly at work.  She told me it was her new favorite cake and she wanted it for her birthday.  That was months ago, but I didn't forget.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Adapted from White On Rice Couple

Cake Ingredients:

• 3 c Flour 1 T Baking Powder
• 1/2 t Salt 
• 1/2 t Nutmeg 
• 1 c (2 sticks) unsalted Butter, room temp 
• 1 1/2 c Brown Sugar 
• 8 Egg Yolks 
• 1/2 c Canola Oil 
• 1 T Molasses 
• 8 ripe Bananas

Icing Ingredients:

• 8 oz. package of Cream Cheese
• 2 sticks Butter
• 3 c Powdered Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour two 9" cake pans and one tall 4" wedding cake top if you want the double layer look like I did for Molly's cake.
Mash bananas and set aside.
Mix flour, b powder, salt, and nutmeg and set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer beat the butter on high until fluffy.
Add sugar and cream with the butter.
Add egg yolks and mix just til combined.
Add canola and molasses and mix til combined.
Add dry ingredients to mixer and mix just til combined.
Add bananas and mix just til combined.
Pour batter into cake tins.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, the cakes are done when they are firm to the touch and a knife comes out clean from the center.  My little 4" took a bit longer than the 9" cakes because it was so thick.
While the cake is cooling make your icing.
Beat the butter and cream cheese in a mixer until fluffy, then add powdered sugar one cup at a time beating well and then add vanilla.
Once the cake is cool cut the 4" cake top into 2 separate layers.

Ice your cake and then decorate with some icing chocolate (melted semisweet chocolate chips and a little butter) in your piping bag.  My mom threw on a little mexican heather and some lantana for color.

Molly, why did you show me this picture?

Ok so I never do this, I NEVER DO THIS, but it has to be done. I'm doing it... I'm reposting a picture from the internet that has been circulating recently and was one of the top hits when I did a google image search for "cute pig". My friend Molly AKA Mole whipped this picture out of nowhere one day and I was speechless. I am rarely speechless. This picture embodies cute like banana and chocolate embodies delicious, like the Mona Lisa embodies art, and like wearing sweatpants with high heels (Noo Noo Burger reference) embodies New Jersey housewives.

I am not sure who to credit this photo to. I don't know who took it and I'm not sure I could ever find out because it has been reposted over and over again on a million different sites. However, to the photographer I say thank you for the cuteness and also damn you for etching it into my brain for all eternity.

Your welcome people.

Cinnamon Rolls

Mole and I made no-yeaste cinnamon roles today and talked about life. I love it when my friends hang out with me and help me bake. It's kind of my favorite thing- hanging out in the kitchen with someone fun, listening to music, singing, gabbing, baking.

I found this recipe on Recipe Girl and loved it right away. It's really not that complicated, you just need a little patience and a rolling pin. My dough stuck to the wax paper that I was rolling it out on (even though I spread flour on it first) so I had to tease it off the paper to roll it up in a log for cutting. Next time I'm just going to make sure I have a lot of flour down before I start rolling.

Ingredients:

Filling:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Dough:
2 cups bread or all-purpose flour, + more for rolling
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
pinch of salt

Pastry Glaze:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk (or more depending on how drippy you want your icing)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray and put a pea-sized piece of butter and a sprinkle of brown sugar in the bottom of each cup.

2. Prepare the filling: In a small bowl, combine the filling ingredients with a fork until a crumbly mixture is formed.

3. Prepare the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and salt. Use clean hands (or a pastry blender) to work the butter into the dry ingredients. Add the milk and the egg and stir to combine.

4. Roll the dough out on a floured surface into roughly shaped large rectangle (about 1/4-inch thick). Sprinkle the filling evenly over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all the way around. Carefully roll up the rectangle starting with long end (the dough will be soft). Use a sharp knife to cut 12 rolls. If you want smaller rolls, cut them a little smaller and you'll get 18. Carefully place the rolls in the prepared muffin tin.

5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. While the cinnamon rolls are baking, prepare the glaze: Combine the sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk with a spatula. If you want your glaze thinner add a splash more milk. Drizzle the glaze on top of warm rolls and the icing will harden quickly. Try one when it's warm!!

It smells like Ikea in here.

Molly's Banana-Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love taking requests. Yesterday I was working with Molly, who we call Mole, and she was totally bummed that I didn't have any sweets for her- I always bring baked goods to work. So I asked her what she wanted me to make for her and she said something with banana. She likes anything that's moist, so banana is the ideal ingredient for that. I was thinking about a banana bread, I have an Early Grey Banana Bread recipe I've been wanting to try, and also a Buttermilk Banana Bread that has been on the back burner for a few weeks. But I wanted to try something a little different than a bread so *BRAINSTORM* what about a chocolate chip cookie with bananas baked in the center? So this is what I wanted my cookie to look like:

That recipe can be found here, the creator actually uses baby cereal in her cookie recipe- weird and no thanks. But her cookie came out beautiful and exactly how I pictured the banana layer in my mind.

I wanted to focus more on having the most awesome chocolate chip cookie and then adding in the banana layer thus perfecting one of the best flavor combos in the history of time: chocolate and banana. So I chose to use the America's Test Kitchen recipe, which is pretty freaking awesome. I bookmarked the recipe on Natalie's Killer Cuisine since she had really great pics.

The only thing I did differently, because I was feeling lazy is I didn't brown the butter. The cookie has a more nutty, rich flavor if you do, but it's still a perfectly rockin cookie if you just use soft butter (microwaved to softness in my case) and cream it with the sugar like in a normal cookie. I also didn't do that thing where they whisk in one egg at a time and blah blah blah I have a life and can't spend an hour on that stuff. So here goes:

Ingredients:

1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) AP flour
½ teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar
¾ cup (5¼ ounces) dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

Method: (Preheat oven to 375)

1. Mix flour and baking soda in one bowl, set aside
2. With an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until light brown
3. Add salt, vanilla, eggs and mix until blended
4. Add flour in 2 parts and mix until blended
5. Add chocolate chips and optional nuts and mix until just combined
6. Drop heaping tablespoons onto baking sheet and please don't crowd them like I did and like I always do or they will melt together and look so rediculous like mine did.
7. Press into each cookie a few pieces of sliced banana (thinly sliced) and pop them in the oven for 12 minutes to start, check cookies and add 2 more mins or so if they are still raw. Cookies are done when they are nice and brown around the edges and still soft in the very middle
8. Let them cool on the tray for a bit before removing them- these guys are still a little chewy in the center, esp. because of the banana.

So mine basically melted into one huge cookie because I crowded then on the tray and because I made my cookies too big. Next time I will give them more room, and keep the cookies to 2 Tbsp sized balls. I am also looking into using a cookie that just doesn't spread as much as these, with more flour or something so they look more like the prototype cookie in the Clumbsy Cookie blog.

Anyway, I just dropped off the cookies to Molly at her job and she liked them, they do taste awesome, but this recipe needs some tweaking to get in the all-time fave list.

Photo Credit: Clumbsy Cookie