Banana Coconut Loaf

First lat me say I love banana bread.
Next, coconut is quickly becoming one of my favorite things.
So when I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com I knew I had to try it!

It was so good! Now I know that not everyone loves coconut but if you do this is a must try recipe. You can see the original recipe by clicking here. I made subtle changes.

I think you could also make this into muffins or bread without any problems, just change up your pans.

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix together flour, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
2. Break eggs in a mixing bowl, and beat until light and frothy. Add sugar and melted butter. Beat well. Stir in mashed banana and almond extract. Add flour mixture, and stir just to combine. Spoon into greased bunt pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes, and remove from pan. Cool.

Everything but the kitchen sink!

Ok really this cookie has a bit of everything and if I have left something out feel free to add it in!

I used a simple oatmeal cookie recipe as a base. I don’t have a favorite, just found one in my book and added everything I had in the pantry! These cookies had semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter and butterscotch chips in them. This would also make a killer cookie bar!

I love to find a way to use up all those half bags that are taking up valuable space!

Carrot cupcake

What would Easter be without a little carrot cake?

For my secret recipe please click here

Eggs, carrots and bunnies…

… oh my! After much nagging I finally made Easter sugar cookies. These are for you Nora :)

Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

yummy...

sprinkles…

One 5 year old, blue frosting, lots of sprinkles… Priceless

Rainbow Cupcake!

Spring has sprung and my Sydney is 6! Can you believe it? I can’t.

In honor of both of these momentous occasions I bring you the Rainbow Cupcake. I have seen these floating around other cupcake blogs for about a year now and finally decided to take the plunge and try my hand at making them.

First let me say that they were more work than I had anticipated.

But it was well worth it so see the face of Syd as she bit into her birthday cupcake!

Sorry I didn’t get a chance to take any photos of the actual process (I had planned on it!) Basically you make white cake batter, divide it into as many bowls as you want colors. Mix in desired colors. Spoon a teaspoon of each color into cupcake papers. Be careful not to over fill.

Have fun with this, if you allow it, your creative side will have a blast!

Ikea's Pearl Sugar

Now that Ikea is so close to my house I visit it almost weekly! On my last visit I thought I’d take a lap of the grocery section right after you check out to see if there was anything fun. I stumbled across some pearl sugar so the compulsive buyer in me pulled out a five and walked up to the register.

I had high hopes, real high.

I am a little disappointed. My white pearl sugar turned the slightest shade of brown when I topped these cute cupcakes. It wasn’t a total let down, I choose to look at it as a learning experience. Next time I’ll avoid the chocolate.

I can’t believe I am going to say this but I am a little over chocolate for the moment!

Cream Filled take II

What can I say, I love me some cream filled cupcakes and so does everyone else! After my first attempt at these bad boys everyone was super impressed. I mean, I don’t like to toot my own horn but ‘toot-toot’. Well that’s not the truth, I love to :)

So here goes round two. Personally I think these are the best yet. I doubled the chocolate glaze. I also tried to take more photos of the actual process. Let me just say when you are covered in chocolate and everyone is coming in to taste test, photos are not so east to take.

You can get the recipes for the frosting and cupcakes here.

Enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

You’ll get a pinch
If you don’t wear green
So find something quick
And make sure it’s seen!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hope you have a good one :)