Baking Project #10: Banana-Walnut Muffins

My mother loves carrot cakes, and my aunt too. During our get together, I am always assigned to bring a carrot cake which resulted to a pack of leftover walnuts in our cupboard. Each day, I see the walnuts and I tell myself not to worry as one day I may have to make a carrot cake again.

And that time had come, but not in a form of a carrot cake but muffins. One weekend I was ready to bake. I checked our refrigerator and found out that we had no milk but we had 5 pieces of bananas. So I said, OK, I'll just make muffins. And so I made twelve, twelve very delicious banana muffins with nuts. 

I was supposed to bring 4 pieces of these to work and give them to John Lee, but I kept on forgetting. In the end, I just ate them after three days for breakfast. And you know what, they're still moist and soft. Try them too, you can be done in less than hour. I promise! And you can have them for breakfast too. Just like I did.

RECIPE                                                                                                                                                    

Banana-Walnut Muffins

Ingredients

5 pcs very ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius.
2. In the bowl of your mixer, combine the melted butter and mashed bananas. Mix in the sugar, vanilla and egg. Add the baking soda and salt and mix until combined. Add the flour and mix just until combined. Fold in the walnuts. The less you stir the batter at this point, the fluffier the muffins would be once baked.
3. Prepare 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners. Pour the batter into each of the tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the tins and allow to cool in a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from: A Sweet Pea Chef

Baking Project #6: Sprinkles Cupcakes

I have 2 packs of sprinkles at home that have been sitting in the cupboard for months but which I am not inclined to throw away. Even if I have to make a couple of cakes and a number of cupcakes to decorate them with I would do it. 

Who am I kidding? Those sprinkles were the reason why I was inspired over the weekend. Suddenly, I had a reason to bake. I was honestly itching to whisk flour and beat butter but baking two weeks in a row didn't sound well for my pocket. I just bought 2 sets of pajamas for Julian, new shirts for me and was even tempted to buy a cake stand if only the color went well with me. 

I have fabricated another alibi. I am set to make 80-100 cupcakes for Calvin's birthday this Sunday and I need to determine just exactly how much buttercream I have to make. I will do the baking at home, bring the cupcakes to Zambales and frost them there. And Diane will have to buy all the ingredients I needed a couple of days before, so planning ahead is necessary.

These cupcakes were soft, even after I stored them in the refrigerator for a day. I would love to do it again. By the way, the first time I made these, I used evaporated milk and the taste was overwhelming and had a burn-out factor. I suggest that you either use whole or fresh milk to balance everything.

RECIPE                                                                                                                                                    


Sprinkles Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 large eggwhites (read direction #2 before separating the yolks from the white)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp milk (fresh or whole)
1/4 cup rainbow jimmies sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners (14 cupcakes).
2. Sift flour and baking powder in a medium sized bowl. Add salt and whisk. Set aside
3. In the bowl of your mixer, beat butter until pale and creamy. Add in sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and eggwhites one at a time beating well after each addition. Scrape the bottom of the bowl if necessary. Mix in vanilla. In three additions, alternately beat in the flour mixture and the milk beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (1/3 of dry ingredients + 1/2 of milk + 1/3 of dry ingredients + 1/2 of milk and then finally the rest of the dry ingredients. Fold in the rainbow jimmies sprinkles.
4. Fill muffin tins with about 1/4 cup of batter. Bake for 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (The original recipe calls for 17-19 minutes, but in my oven it took 22 minutes to have them completely bake.) Remove from the oven, allow in the muffin tins for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to completely cool.

For the frosting recipe, click here.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy

Baking Project #4: Red Velvet Cupcakes

To be quite frankly, it occurred to me once that red velvet cake is going to be the end of my baking addiction. There's no in between with this cake, it's either I get it or I don't. And I miss most of the time!

Prior to my first attempt of baking it, I have no idea or heard of it before. Even the restaurants and cafes I frequent don't have it in their menu. One day though, I was browsing all the recipes at Joy of Baking when I saw this photo of a cake. It looked simple but the combination of colors caught my attention. The burst of red made it interesting and intriguing. I studied the recipe and read it over and over again. I haven't even started yet but I was already intimidated. I couldn't quite figure it out but somehow my subconscious knew that I was doomed for a failure. And I did. I made it that day and even after the 40 minutes were up, the cake still looked creamy and nowhere near completely baked. I replaced it in the oven and baked for another 5 minutes... and another 5... and another 5. In the end, I baked it for twice as much as was said on the recipe and the top was burnt and I had to cut that part.

Two years later, I saw a recipe for red velvet cupcakes using a different method. So I tainted my hands with red yesterday and I dare say, they were really good. They were the softest cupcakes I ever made and tasted! It's not as red as I hoped it would be but that can easily be repaired. What's important is, I FINALLY found the perfect recipe! 

RECIPE                                                                                                                                                    

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted

1 cup vegetable oil

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp vinegar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 oz (30 ml) red food color

1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 deg C). Line muffin tins with cupcake liners
2. Measure cake flour in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, vinegar and salt.
4. In the bowl of your mixer, beat sugar and oil until well blended.Alternately add flour and wet mixture in three additions beginning and ending with flour. Mix in cocoa powder and food color.
5. Fill muffin tins to half-full and bake to 15-17 minutes or  until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in tins for a few minutes. Remove from tins and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Note:

       *Makes about 30 3-oz cupcakes

       *I am using a small oven that can only accommodate 9 cupcakes at a time. What I do is bake

         them on the lower rack for 15 minutes and then transfer them to the middle rack and bake for

         another 3-5 minutes.   

Recipe adapted from She Make and Bakes