The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection

eating cupcakes since the late 60's
    • Tag: banana

      • Xiang Jiao Xocolatl Cake Pop

        Posted at 8:04 pm by MLea
        Jul 25th

        After finally deciding on a flavor, I was pretty excited to start on X.  I was originally going to do a regular cupcake, but then thought of frozen chocolate covered bananas.  (I’d insert a stolen photo here, but they all looked very phallic…)

        I started off by making a banana cake using my standard cake but substituting pureed banana for some liquid.

        • 2 cups flour (I used probably 1/3 all purpose and 2/3 Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat pastry flour)
        • 1 teaspoon baking soda
        • 1/2 teaspoon salt

        Combine the above and set aside.  In another bowl, beat together:

        • 1 and 1/4 cup pureed bannaa
        • 2 eggs
        • 1/2 cup oil
        • 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
        • 3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans that I had toasted in the oven for about 7 minutes)

        After the banana mixture is combined, gradually fold in the flour mixture.  Pour into 2 greased round cake pans or a 13 x 9 inch greased rectangular pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done.  Allow cake to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove.  I used a Springform pan, so removing the cake from the pan was really easy.  One of the advantages to making cake pops is that it doesn’t matter what condition the cake is in when it comes out of the pan!  I dumped the cake into a huge bowl, then chopped it up a bit with a spatula and allowed it to cool completely.

        While the cake was cooling, I made a cream cheese frosting.  The recipe I normally use calls for 1 stick of butter, 2 blocks of cream cheese (16 ounces total) and 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar.  I had a tub of mascarpone cheese left over from Waldorf Salad, so I used this for half of the cream cheese.    To make the icing, I allowed the ingredients to warm to room temperature, then creamed the butter until smooth.  I added the cream cheese and beat it until smooth, then added the sugar a little at a time.

        After the cake was completely cooled, I dumped in about half of the icing and mixed well with my hands.  I added more icing a little at a time until the mixture was moist enough to hold it’s shape in a ball without being overly wet.  I had about 1/4 of the frosting left over, which I popped into the freezer to use later on.

        I molded the mixture into balls about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter and added a stick.  I placed them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and let them sit in the freezer until solid.   After solid, I put them into a zip lock until I had the chance a few days later to coat them in chocolate.  My freezer is pretty small, so I had to do this in a couple of batches.  I let the remaining balls rest in the refrigerator.

        Cake balls waiting for room in the freezer. Looks like they are waiting on spaghetti...

        Since Mayan chocolate was typically made with chili and spices, I wanted to include a little chili in the chocolate coating.   I purchased the chocolate at Target since I was going there anyway and my options were a little limited.  I used Dove dark chocolate squares…

        and a couple of Lindt Chili chocolate bars

        I melted the chocolate together in a metal bowl set over simmering water and used one square of the chili bar to each square of Dove chocolate.  When it was smooth, I spooned it over the frozen pops.  I leaned the sticks into a cooling rack set over parchment paper to let them drain and harden.

        Finished Chocolate Banana Cake Pops

        I thought these turned out really tasty.  The interior was moist enough to stick together without being overly wet.  There was a little crunch from the toasted pecans.  The cake and icing were a nice compliment to the dark chocolate and the chili added just enough heat to make the back of my throat tingle.  My dog walker stated that these are her favorite so far.

        Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged banana, chocolate
      • X is …. a stretch

        Posted at 7:05 pm by MLea
        Jul 25th

        Finding a food that starts with X was very difficult.   There is Xanthan Gum…useful for gluten free cupcakes, but definitely not a main ingredient.   Xavier Steak: which has asparagus and Swiss cheese.  Those two might be an interesting cupcake combination, but adding meat is a bit…gross?   X-treme AirHeads, also gross, but for a different reason.    I gave up on finding anything English starting with X and went global.

        While researching for this post (after baking), I discovered an Indian curry called Xacuti which would have been very interesting.  It contains white poppy seeds, coconut, chilies and various other curry spices.

        There are a multitude of Chinese (Mandarin, I think) foods that start with X: xia (shrimp), xiang chang (a sausage), xiang fun (a mushroom), xian rou (bacon), xiaodianxin (cookies).  Xiang cao jing is vanilla, but that’s kind of boring.   Xigua, I just discovered, is watermelon.   I’ve seen unsuccessful results on Cupcake Wars with watermelon.

        I finally decided on Xiang Jiao (banana).  Banana is a little boring, but I hoped that I could do something to spice it up a bit.

        While in Portland one day, we stopped in a chocolate store and I saw a chocolate bar by Xocolatl de David.   After a little googling, I discovered that Xocolatl is the Aztec word for chocolate.  Chocolate and banana are a great combination.

        Stay posted for the end result

        Xocolatl Xiang Jiao cake pops!

        Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged banana, chocolate
      • Divine Bites revisited

        Posted at 5:11 pm by MLea
        Oct 27th

        Back in May, we made a little side trip to Divine Bites on the way to Portland.  When we went  south again last month for VegFest, we stopped back in.

        I loaded up with a five pack of minis:  Butterfinger, The King’s Favorite, Nestle Crunch, Peanut Butter Dream, and Orange Cream.

        Butterfinger

        The Butterfinger was my favorite: a moist vanilla cake with a tiny bit of chocolate filling topped with vanilla icing coated in crushed up Butterfinger bars.  YUM!

        Nestle Crunch

        The other candy bar themed cupcake, the Nestle Crunch, wasn’t as delightful.  The chocolate cake was a little dry and crumbly.

        The King's Favorite

        The King’s Favorite is a banana cake with peanut butter icing and a tiny chocolate center.   The peanut butter icing was a little sweet, but the cake was moist and flavorful.

        Peanut Butter Dream

        The Peanut Butter dream consisted of a peanut butter cake filled with a bit of chocolate pudding and topped with peanut butter icing.  This one was a little too sweet for me.  It was moist and filled with peanut butter goodness, but also a bit too much sugar.  I’m not exactly sure what the chocolate ball on top was, but it didn’t add anything.

        Orange Cream

        The Orange Cream was not good.  The orange flavor in the cake seemed very strong and artificial.  The icing had flecks of vanilla bean in it and was probably good on its own, but I couldn’t get past the overly orange-ness of it all.  This did inspire me for a potential for “O” however.  If I decide on Orange Creamsicle, I’m hoping I can make it seem a little more light and natural.

        If I lived closer to Vancouver, I’d probably be in Divine Consign frequently, looking for household goods and having a little cupcake treat.    For now, I’ll be happy stopping in every now and then on my way to Portland.

        Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged banana, butterfinger, chocolate, Elvis, Nestle Crunch, orange, peanut butter
      • Elvis has entered the building

        Posted at 9:34 pm by MLea
        Feb 23rd

        So, there appears to be lots of debate on the internet about what constitutes an Elvis Sandwich.  In my mind, it’s a banana, peanut butter and bacon sandwich that’s been fried like a grilled cheese, so that’s what I based this cupcake on.  I know! I know!  Bacon on a cupcake?

        Mise en place: click to enlarge

        I originally got the banana baby food because there were no ripe bananas.  After Mr Shuck tasted the baby food, it was decided that we would use almost ripe bananas.  I didn’t want to just dump the bacon on top, so I made little rings of bacon and put them in the oven to cook while it was preheating.  Some of them turned out to look like little pork roses.

        Bacon curls: click to enlarge

        I used Martha Stewart’s Banana cupake recipe.  Found here. I liked the recipe because it was pretty plain…sometimes banana cake turns into spice cake.   I replaced 1 ounce of the butter with rendered bacon fat and baked the minis for about 16 minutes.

        Banana Cupcakes: click to enlarge

        I imagined that Elvis probably fried his sandwiches, so I browned the tops just a little bit.

        Frying cupcakes: click to enlarge

        I don’t know if it really added anything beyond another step and more photos, but you could see the little ring peeking out from below the frosting.

        Fried Banana Cupcakes: click to enlarge

        I used another Martha Stewart recipe for the peanut butter frosting.  The recipe specified to not use “natural” peanut butter, but that’s all I had on hand.  I imagine this is because it’s not very sweet.  I ended up adding a bit of corn syrup to sweeten the icing up a bit.

        Banana Peanut Butter cupcakes: click to enlarge

        The frosting was piped on and topped with a bacon rosette.

        Elvis Cupcakes: click to enlarge

        It think these cupcakes were a success.  I took around 40 mini cupcakes to work and came home with an empty container.  If I were to make them over again, I’d incorporate more bacon and use Skippy or Jif instead of Whole Foods’ peanut butter.

        Photo credits to Mr Shuck

        Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged bacon, banana, Elvis, peanut butter
      • Strawberry Banana and Sweet Potato from Yellow Leaf

        Posted at 5:03 pm by MLea
        Oct 18th

        We actually stopped by Yellow Leaf YESTERDAY.  I didn’t want to seem like the sort of person that would visit 2 cupcake places in one day, but apparently I am.   We’ve already established that I have a problem….

        Today’s choices:  Sweet Potato with Maple/Brown Sugar icing and Strawberry Banana.

        YL Sweet Potato- click to enlarge.
        YL Strawberry Banana- click to enlarge
        Strawberry Banana interior- click to enlarge

        The reviews:

        Sweet Potato:  I am assuming since this is a beige cake and not an orange cake that Yellow Leaf used white sweet potatoes.  (An assumption that was confirmed with a quick email to Michael at Yellow Leaf.)  I think technically the orange ones are yams.  Overall, it was a nice cupcake.  It didn’t have any sweet potato or yam taste; It was a basic spice cake.  I had to concentrate really hard to taste the “maple” in the icing.  Maybe the brown sugar sprinkled over the top interfered.  Yellow Leaf’s cupcakes are typically pretty, but this is somewhat boring since it’s all beige.  Rating: ♥♥

        Strawberry Banana:  Strawberry cake filled with banana cream and topped with strawberry and banana icings.   The strawberry part of this cupcake was delicious.  The cake was very moist and had a “natural” strawberry flavor.  There were red specks in the cake and the icing, so I assume real strawberries were used.  The banana filling and icing had an artificial banana taste.  (I wouldn’t expect real bananas to be used since they might turn brown.)  Mr Shuck “really liked it” but it “almost had too much going on”.    My rating: ♥♥♥.  Mr Shuck’s rating: ♥♥♥ 1/2.

        Posted in The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company | Tagged banana, strawberry, sweet potato
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