LA Adventure

Vegas dosen't have too many cake decorating supply stores, so I made sure to hit one up this weekend.  I Yelped for cake decorating stores, found a few, and ended up going to Gloria's Cake and Candy Supply Store in Culver City, LA. They have every kind of cupcake liner colors you can image, tons of sprinkles and toppings, and every size of cake and cupcake boxes you would ever need.  I like to buy what the professionals are buying, and they sold a variety of non-commercial brands.  Items were fairly priced, I spent a lot there but it was because I'm stocking up on supplies I can't find in Vegas! :P 

My girlfriend Julie and I made these mini cupcakes for her USC instructor.  I got the silver sheen sanding sugar (sprinkles) at Gloria's, I love how the metallic color just pops out!  I wrote 'thank you' with a black CK candy writer that I got at Gloria's as well.  CK makes candy writer's in every possible color you can image, the candy is made out of chocolate and dries hard!  I also made mixed berry low fat muffins.  The recipe is similar to the blueberry muffins I posted earlier, but I used splenda for baking instead of sugar.   

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Made these banana-licious muffins today.  I baked quite a few batches, made some modifications, tweaked it out, and mastered the recipe.  I'm all banana'd out for now!  I want to share this wonderful recipe to you.  

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup of sugar (I like my muffins overly sweet, if you don't, then take out 1/4 cup of sugar)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of nutmeg and a bigger pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 and 1/4 cup mashed brown bananas (around 4-5 bananas, the more brown the better)
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or walnuts or your favorite nut)
*I don't like the overly strong banana taste, if you do, then add an extra banana or two and put in less choc chips*
Crumb Topping Recipe (Optional):
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon
*Soften butter, do not melt it as it will lose it's consistency.  I soften the butter by putting it on top of the hot oven for a minute or two.  Use your fingers and mix softened butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon together.  Mixture should be lumpy and grainy*
Directions: 
Yields 12 muffins.  Preheat oven at 350 degrees. 
Bowl #1: Sift flours, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a bowl, mix ingredients with a fork a few times.  Do not over mix.  You don't have to sift, but I always do for optimum results.  
Bowl #2: Combine egg, butter, yogurt, and vanilla, mix ingredients with a fork a times.  Do not over mix.
Pour bowl #2 into bowl #1, use a spoon to gently mix ingredients.  Do not over mix.  Gently fold bananas and chocolate chips into batter.  Do not over fold.  Grease the muffin pan, I like to use Pam for baking, or use cupcake liners.  These muffins come out moist, so I'd use the foil cupcake liners.  Fill 2/3 full and sprinkle the crumb topping, or chocolate chips on top of the batter.  Pat down the toppings so they stay in place.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 24 minutes.  It's basically ready if the toothpick comes out clean. I've baked a lot of quick breads and have noticed that over mixing causes dryness.  That is why I emphasis-do not over mix.  Happy baking!!!

Blueberry Muffins

Low-Fat Blueberry Bran Muffins

I got this recipe online from All Recipes and it came out great. I was a little skeptical as this was my first time using an online recipe. It's a really tasty morning muffin, not too sweet and extremely moist from the applesauce!Someone calculated the calories and it's only a whopping 100 calories. I brushed the top with melted butter and sprinkled with turbinado sugar. This is a recipe I will keep and bake again, freeze, and eat in the morning with fruit. Short shelve life, so make sure you store in refrigerator. It was very moist, so next time I'll take out 2 tablespoons of milk and add a few more tablespoons of sugar, because I LOVE everything sweet!

Simple Blueberry Muffins

I also made regular blueberry muffins. They came out more like biscuits. I'm going to make some more and tweak out the recipe, once I do, I'll post the recipe.