Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Ok no clever title for this blog entry. I’m just not feeling very witty at the moment. It happens believe it or not! lol

Anyway, I finally reached that moment in my life that when I had leftover, overly ripe bananas, I actually made something with them instead of throwing them out like I usually do. And man, have I been missing out all these years! I pledge from this day forward to always use up my old bananas and make them into something yummy.

I’m not sure who this Aunt Mary is, but whoever she is, she sure knows how to make a banana bread!

Aunt Mary’s Banana-Chocolate Chip Bread
Source:Allrecipes

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 bananas, mashed (I used 3 since thats how many I had and it seemed silly to use 2 and throw out the other one)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice*

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream sugar and shortening (butter). Beat in eggs, vanilla, pumpkin spice and bananas until thoroughly blended.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and stir just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon into a greased 9-in.x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until the bread tests done with a wooden pick.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

*I added this to the recipe as I thought I would use it up and thought it would go great with this bread. Pumpkin pie spice consists of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. If you don’t have it, a combination of whichever of these spices you have on hand will be fine.

So somehow I ran across this band online called Paramore. For all I know they’re super famous and on MTV like a million times a day but I don’t have a tv and don’t listen to the radio so I have no clue. But I found that I couldn’t get their music out of my head…

I’m not usually into pop-punk stuff. I like my 70′s, 80′s and even early 90′s punk. None of this ridiculously clean, overly compressed, overly processed recordings you get nowadays. But man, this song is so darn catchy that I had to buy their album off of iTunes just so I could stop watching the video on youtube lol

They’re front woman Hayley has an amazing voice (and amazing hair!) and apparently her live singing sounds just like it does on the recording.

Check out Misery Business, the song I can’t seem to get out of my head…

Another Sweet Combination…Cupcakes and Sia

My mother-in-law asked me to make some cupcakes for our various Christmas family get-togethers we had this year. So I really wanted something Holiday related so I consulted with the ladies on the Whats Cooking Board on the Nest to help me come up with an idea.

I decided on combining Double Coconut Cupcake recipe off of the Good Things Catered blog with a recipe for Snowflake Cake that a fellow nestie, MrsSchoon04, suggested to me. Basically, I made the coconut cupcakes, topped it the a buttercream frosting recipe I found on Allrecipes and added the snowflakes made out of white chocolate from the Snowflake Cake recipe. And voila! This is what came from it:

I know my snowflakes aren’t perfect but I’m pretty pleased with how they came out. I couldn’t find the silver dragees at my supermarket so I had to leave those out but they would have looked really nice! I have to say this coconut cupcake is one of my favorites. The cake is always so moist. You could eat it without the frosting its that good!

Double Coconut Cupcakes
Source: Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c. sifted cake flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
buttercream frosting (recipe below)
1/2 bag of shredded coconut
white chocolate snowflakes(recipe below)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Coat cupcake pan with cooking spray with flour for baking. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. 
Place sugar and butter in mixer and mix until well blended (for about 5 minutes). 
Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. 
Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. 
Stir in vanilla.


Pour batter into prepared pans. 
Sharply tap the pans once on countertop to remove air bubbles. 
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.



When cupcakes are completely cool, frost with buttercream frosting (recipe below) and roll tops in shredded coconut. Top with snowflake (recipe below).

Chill the cake for an hour to set the frosting and snowflakes. If you
are 
serving the cake on the day it is made, keep it at a cool room
temperature 
after chilling.

Luscious Buttercream Frosting
Source: Allrecipes

Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
Food color, if desired

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Beat at low speed until well mixed. Increase speed to medium; scraping bowl often, until light and fluffy . Tint frosting with food color, if desired.

White Chocolate Snowflakes
Source: MrsSchoon04 (not sure where the original source is from, if anyone knows, please let me know so I can put in the correct source. Thanks!)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 (3-ounce) white-chocolate candy bars

Silver dragees for decorating (optional)

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with foil. Put the
 chocolate into a resealable plastic bag and immerse the bag in hot water until
 the chocolate melts. Dry the bag, then snip off a small piece from one
 corner. 
Pipe as many 2-inch snowflakes onto the foil as possible, and decorate
 the 
points with silver dragées, if desired.

Place the sheet of snowflakes
 in the freezer until the cake is ready to decorate (I put mine in the fridge).

And now for the music…

Sia, oh Sia, I have such a girl crush on you!

I thought I would team Sia up with cupcakes as she is very child-like and silly yet sweet. You only have to check out her dancing in silly costumes on her web site to see what I mean (I especially like the darth vader costume!).

Sia is one of the singers from Zero 7 but has been doing a lot of solo projects and they are brilliant! I finally got around to buying Colour the Small One which has the infamous “Breathe Me” track on it (the song at the end of the last episode on Six Feet Under) and the Day Too Soon EP which has this track called “Buttons” which I haven’t been able to stop listening to. The video for it is equally as entertaining in a bizarre way. It has the tendency to make you wince, just warning you. Check it out: