Birthday Goodness
// April 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Food Geek, Recipes
I am blessed (and cursed) to be born on April Fools day, a VERY fitting birthday for me. Being a baker and what some would call a “cake snob”, I opted to make my own birthday cake cake… again… Nothing against my friends and co-workers, I just enjoy being in my kitchen and coming up with a cake that represents me and my current tastes and obsessions at the moment. As I was driving home from work yesterday, I was a ball of childlike wonderment coming up with what I wanted to make for birthday 2009 (God, I am getting too close to 30 for comfort, ha ha ha ). I knew it was going to be a banana cake base, but beyond that I was open for suggestion. I needed eggs for the banana cupcake, so I went to the grocery store looking for inspiration and decided I would make a traditional banana cupcake (ala’ joel with homemade vanilla bourbon extract and baby ice cream bananas) and pair it with a Nutella Cream Cheese buttermilk frosting. As you can see they turned out to be pretty damn cute, and I guess we will see what they end up tasting like… Here is the recipe if you want to celebrate my birthday with me today 
“Tuesday night” Easy like Sunday Morning Banana Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Method
Preheat oven to 350. Cream Butter and sugar on high speed until fluffy (about 3 minutes) add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla, and banana goo. Mix together dry ingredients, add half of dry to the wet mixture, add 1/4 cup buttermilk, and the second half of dry mix and mix to incorporate. Add up to another 1/4 cup of buttermilk if mix looks too dry (you want it about the consistency of a thick pancake batter). Scoop into lined cupcake pans and bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into cupcake.
Nutella Cream Cheese Buttermilk Frosting
- 2 packages of cream cheese (room temp)
- 1 container (about a 1-1/4 cups) Nutella
- 2 tablespoons vanilla
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons buttermilk
Method
Mix Cream cheese, Nutella, vanilla, and milk on high with the paddle attachment in your mixer. Add sugar slowly and beat again until light and fluffy like a magical bunny.
(cooks note: i just licked some of the frosting off the paddle… all i have to say is HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME, and here is to 27+ more years of baking!)
