teacher by day - chef by night
Most everyone enjoys Chocolate (and those that don’t need their heads checked, but that’s just my unsolicited opinion). Also, almost everyone can also find a Red Wine that they like (even if they don’t agree with those around them on what makes it good). These …
My Chocolate Cake Cheesecake was featured on a very tasty “Year-End Wrap-Up” over at Cupcake Apothecary where there are (as always) tons of goodies to tempt your eyes and tastebuds!
One of my Best Friends (Miss J.W.) loves Nutella. For the past three (I think) years I have given her Nutella for her birthday (and possibly even some as Christmas gifts in there too). I think she has come to expect it (when she opened her present this year she said “yes, I almost bought some at the store the other day”).
For her birthday recently I knew I wanted to make Nutella something! I was running out of time as it got closer and couldn’t go all-out like I really wanted to. BUT, I knew that I still wanted to make her something special (in addition to the brunch I was making to celebrate the awesome person that she is, her requests of a veggie frittata & bagels with lox – a friend with the same taste in food as you, is the best kind of friend) to celebrate her day. (P.S after brunch we headed to an awesome tasting & tour of Franklin Hills Vineyards – check it out)
So I asked myself – what goes best with Nutella (besides more Nutella)? I decided that Double Nutella might be too much, but that BANANAS are the perfect match for Nutella!! AND since I was short on time, I even cheated and used a doctored up box mix to make her cake and cupcakes.
The cake wasn’t too fancy looking and the cupcakes were just classic simple decorated cupcakes, perfect for a simple birthday celebration… Happy Birthday Jess & we can celebrate any day!
Make cake mix according to package directions. Once your liquid is mixed in, add your mashed bananas and continue to mix until smooth(2 minutes) Mix in your chocolate chips (if using). I made one 9×9 cake and 10 cupcakes – but feel free to make whatever you want. With the cupcakes – feel free to add a Hershey Kiss into the batter before frosting and then just follow baking instructions on your box. Let cool & then frost
In the bowl of a large mixer, whip butter and nutella until creamy. Gradually add in icing sugar until desired consistency is reached. Add cream if needed. Frost cake/cupcakes & ENJOY (I needed to make slightly more in order to frost everything, so feel free to double the recipe)
And I leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… What is your favorite flavor to go with Nutella (or are you one of those Nutella haters)!?
These cupcakes go out to all the Harry Potter Fans out there! More than a decade is coming to a close. In June of 1997 the first Harry Potter book [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone]Â was released and a Nation (world) was hooked.. we read …
In order to celebrate Blue’s Clues I made BLUE VELVET CUPCAKES! Warning: these take a lot of food coloring and unlike Red Velvet: these are made with vanilla cake. I did cheat a little on these and used a box of Betty Crocker Mix (but I did make my own frosting since I’m not a fan of can frosting at all – that is why I thought I hated frosting growing up actually).
“Please sir, may I have s’more”
Welcome to the summer season! There is nothing that screams summer more than some warm roasted marshmallows (ok – maybe grilling screams summer pretty loudly too, but I grew up in a house where dad grilled in a winter coat). There are so many awesome S’mores inspired recipes out there (none of them for that winter-grilling father of mine who hates them) and I finally had to pick one and make them.
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We went to a BBQ with some friends and I decided these would be perfect to bring (especially after my amazing baker co-worker made some a few weeks ago for us). These cupcakes were voted “best dessert at the bbq” (which I think is a pretty big compliment since almost everyone there is very into mountain/road biking and very health-conscious, so these can even convert your ‘healthy friends’ to the ‘dark side’)
adapted from 6 Bittersweet’s as she adapted it from lots of other places
as adapted from Creative Loafing
Now that these cupcakes are done, I came across Domestic Fits Smore’s Cheesecakes which I look forward to brining to my next (indoor) summer event – not sure how well cheesecakes would do outside. I wonder if maybe even my cheesecake loving but s’mores hating father would like these!?
I leave you with a question to ponder… One of the joys of S’mores is their simplicity, whereas these cupcakes take them to a different level of preparation and difficulty – which do you prefer!?