Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

No, I didn't stop at the raspberry white chocolate muffins. My crazy, lonely brain decided I needed to do more... And I had some bananas lying around. So, oops.

Can anyone ever really resist a good banana muffin? I mean, it's like banana bread. If you don't like it, you're a Communist (not that being a Communist is bad, and if you are... Hooray for you! I should stop rambling now and get on to the recipe!)

What you'll need:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/3 mashed overripe bananas
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

To make:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with 12 liners.

- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

-In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.

-Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Fold in chocolate chips.

-Pour batter into liners and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack.

Enjoy all your muffin glory.

Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins

I HAVE BEEN ABANDONED. Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic. In reality I'm home alone this weekend because my mom is in Las Vegas for five days to celebrate my aunt and uncle's 10th wedding anniversary. I was left home alone with a stocked kitchen. Unfortunately, the raspberries in the fridge were starting to get soft. I was bored. So this happened.

I have no other excuse except boredom. But I mean, come on. My mom left me alone. She should have expected this, right?

All the messy glory.

What you'll need for the muffins:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

What you'll need for the crumble topping:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

To make:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line one 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners.

-Prepare the crumble by whisking together the flour and sugar, then drizzling the melted butter and mixing until coarse crumbs are formed. Set aside.

-In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together vegetable oil, egg and milk until well combined.

-Pour wet mixture over dry ingredients and stir with a large wooden spoon. Fold in raspberries and chocolate chips evenly, then pour into the liners.

-Bake for about 18-20 minutes then let cool on a wire rack.

Cooper gave these muffins his stamp of approval!

Enjoy!

Cupcake Chaos

I don't exactly have a recipe to share, but I just wanted to post some pictures from my baking adventure today with my little sisters. Emily is 7 and Alaina is 3- they freakin' rock my world. Being a big sister is the best thing in the entire world and I don't know what I'd do without them.

These girls have always wanted to bake with me, and since the weather is mild and I currently have no life today was the perfect day to make it happen! I decided I'd let them have fun and make these cupcakes as crazy as they wanted. I bought a ton of food coloring, a box of cake mix, sprinkles, and stuff to make frosting. The girls were ready to make their very own tie dye cupcakes. If you don't know how to make tie dye cupcakes, they're pretty simple; all you need to do is separate white cake batter into various bowls, squirt and mix some food coloring in them, then layer the batter and bake!

First you might want to test the cake batter out, you know... Just to make sure it's edible. Alaina did a pretty awesome job of this. 

I don't know if you can tell, but Em was really excited to dye our cake batter!

I'll gladly take that "coolest sister on the entire planet" award any day now... Alaina says I deserve it.

Emily was my happy and focused helper. 

I was super impressed with their work. Look at all those colors!!

Those girls are just lucky that they're cute and didn't have to deal with the aftermath of our baking. I think my hands are going to have dye on them for the next three years.

Our assortment of sprinkles and our buttercream frosting! (always made with 1 cup butter, 4 cups powdered sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla!)

Our cupcakes were so pretty! Definitely ready to be frosted!!!

They were super focused on their sprinkles.

 Alaina's prized cupcake.

Emily's prized cupcake.

 Alaina's way of helping me clean up included licking the beater and eating all the sprinkles she could off of the counter. I think she has the right idea.

They might be nothing but chaos, but they look kinda cool on the inside. That's all I have for today!

Chocolate Wasted Cake

So, I'm going to be completely honest with my readers (even if there are only a few of you guys. You still matter)... Right now I'm going through and awful breakup and all I have any desire to do is sob, eat chocolate, and get wasted. Unfortunately, I haven't reached the legal drinking age and my appetite is screwed up so chocolate isn't an option, but that wouldn't stop me from abandoning my crying for a little while to create this monstrosity.

Meet the chocolate wasted cake. It is everything that you've dreamed of but have also feared because it has seriously potential to put you in a diabetic coma by just sniffing it. I'm not even kidding. 

I made this cake a couple of weeks ago with my friend, Dylan (pictured above, staring at my camera like a creep). He's been supportive and understood my desperate need to bake and not talk about all the crazy crap that I've been dealing with. I'm really happy he came over, and we had a lot of fun making this. It might have been a bad idea to let him choose this recipe and then send him home with half a cake (he later even made his own version!).

So let's get chocolate wasted, everyone.

What you'll need (for the cake):

• 3 cups flour
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 4 teaspoons corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips

What you'll need (for the frosting):

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cream, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Melted chocolate to drizzle on cake (I had issues with this, because I got distracted...)

• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• chocolate chips for side of cake and chocolate candies, chopped,  to top the cake with

To prepare the cake:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

- Grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans and set aside.

- Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, then set aside.

-In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla.

-Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

-Pour even amounts of batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place on a cooling rack and allow the cake to cool completely before decorating. 

To make the frosting:

- In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla into the mixture until smooth.

- Place chocolate chips in a small bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Heat and stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth. 

-Remove chocolate from heat and slowly mix chocolate into frosting mixture. 

Dylan was hard at work to place chocolate chips all around this freaking cake.

To assemble the cake:

-Frost the bottom layer of the cake, place the next layer on top and continue to frost.

-Place chocolate chips on sides of cake, then chocolate candies on top. Drizzle cake with melted chocolate.

-Dig in and try to not lose a foot to diabetes.