Recipe: White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This past weekend I made a cake for no apparent reason.  I had all of the ingredients kicking around, so I made myself a standard vanilla cake- why not!  I like experimenting with different frosting flavours, because just plain buttercream to me tastes like taking a bite out of a stick of butter, with a sprinkling of sugar on top- ew. (However put some butter and sugar on a saltine, and you got yourself an epic snack, my friend!!)

I discovered I had white bakers chocolate, so here is what I came up with:

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

• 6 squares white bakers chocolate (1oz/28g per square) melted and cooled

• 3 -5 tablespoons half-and-half

To melt the chocolate, simmer 1 to 2 inches of water in a saucepan. Put chocolate in a metal mixing bowl, and place the bowl on top of the saucepan. Stir the chocolate often until it's melted.  This method ensures it won't burn (I've had many a mishap with the microwave option).

In a large bowl or stand-mixer, beat the butter and confectioners sugar at low speed until fluffy.
Add in cooled white chocolate and half and half. Add the half and half slowly, one tablespoon at a time.  Beat on high speed for 3-4 minutes.

 

This buttercream has a perfect consistency, great for piping. It also doesn't taste too buttery. Definitely jazzed up my vanilla cake! 

 

And these days, no blog post would be complete without a pug in it!

Scary-good Nutella cupcakes! Happy Halloween!

Here's some scary cupcakes in the spirit of Halloween. I actually had a terrifying nightmare of spiders after making these.  These nutella cupcakes literally made me wet myself a couple of times over!

Nutella is one of my favourite things in the world.  My JERK boyfriend (just kidding, he's awesome) bought me a jar about two weeks ago.  After polishing it off with a spoon within a day or two, I was INSPIRED, albeit a couple of pounds heavier. 

I followed a nutella cupcake recipe- but after doing this I decided that the delicious nutella flavour that I yearn for was lost once baked. But have no fear- I injected these bad boys with nutella, then made a nutella-based frosting.  They were amazing! (Obvs!) But in retrospect next time I'll probably just follow my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, inject the centres with nutella, and slather on that delicious nutella frosting! The shortening I added makes it healthier.  Or something. 

I dyed some fondant black, and made some spooky shapes.  Took the better half of an afternoon, but I had fun doing it!  Again, these are shot from some ghetto cameras, so the photos don't really do them justice.

Here's the Nutella Frosting recipe- use on toast, to dip fruits and veggies in, stir some in your tea, or just decorate a cupcake:

• 1 cup Nutella
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk (add slowly)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the creamer attachment on your mixer, mix first two ingredients until incorporated. Mix in powdered sugar and milk, one at a time, alternating until you reach your desired consistency. Mix in vanilla- enjoy!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Everybody can rejoice- the hiatus is over!!

Hazaaaaa, after everyone has suffered a long, cupcake-less summer, Janna Banana Takes the Cake! is back!

A little about my haitus: I was busy leading a jet-setting life, and the rare days I was at home in Toronto, I spent my days napping, drinking wine, and napping some more.

Now that fall has hit, I have A LOT of time on my hands.  So you best believe you'll have something to look forward to once in a while. Also, as if this news wasn't exciting enough to accelerate your heart rate as you jumped up and down, squealing with delight; maybe this will be: I got a puppy and he is the cutest puppy in the world.

My bite-sized puglet, Bryan!

K, so now about cupcakes. I made some fall-inspired cupcakes last week, and obviously they were delicious.  Not being much of a pumpkin dessert fan (yes that includes everyone's beloved pumpkin-pie - gag) I decided to use this fall ingredient but in a way that I would enjoy- in chocolate cupcakes of course.

I mixed a few tablespoons of pumpkin purée, as well as a few dashes of cinnamon into a fairly standard chocolate cupcake recipe.  Another recommendation is substituting half of the granulated sugar with brown sugar.  The result: a delicious, SUPER MOIST chocolatey/pumpkin-ish circle of delight.

And here is a recipe for the AMAZING pumpkin buttercream I slathered on top:

• 3/4lb vegetable shortening
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2-3 tablespoons pumpkin purée
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 5 cups of powdered sugar

Throw all those ingredients into a stand-mixer (like this sexy one my boyfriend bought me for my birthday, NBD), put on the cream-er attachment, and let that thing work its magic for like 3 minutes.  My suggestions is to add the powdered sugar slowly, maybe cup at a time just to make sure you get it the way you want it.

 

A pug emerging from a spiral of buttercream frosting- dreams can come true.

During my summer festivities my fancy camera broke.. so hope you enjoyed these low-def pictures!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I'm not much of an ice-cream fan (gasp!), but if I do choose to indulge, it's always cookie dough ice-cream, or something equally chunky and sinful.  When I was a kid, I could have eaten an entire batch of raw cookie-dough, and enjoyed it more than the baked version.

Two weeks ago it was my boyfriend's and my two good friend's birthdays.  So I hosted one big party and BBQ to celebrate their births.  I wanted the cupcakes to be epic taste-wise, because I knew I was short on decorating time.  Remember those days when I used to spend hours rolling out fondant, or painting with icing?  I need to stop slacking and get back to that!

Anyway, the cookie-dough cupcakes turned out amazing, and ended up being my personal favourite.  I'll have to ask my regular party-goers to find out the consensus as to which is the best tasting.  However, I'm sure many of them won't remember.

 The cookie dough cupcakes were easy to make!  I simply used my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe, as well as my favourite belgian chocolate cupcake recipe.  I took the cookie dough, rolled them into 1 1/2" balls, and froze them for two hours, then plopped them into the centre of my unbaked chocolate cupcake.  I baked the cupcakes for my regular baking time, and because the cookies were baked from being frozen, it means that they were still soft and gooey, and cookie-dough like in the centre of the cupcake. YUM, I'm drooling right now.

When they were done, they had some serious weight to them.  A tray of cupcakes weighed about 5lbs.

The finished product- and decorating-wise they TOTALLY look like something that came out of my Easy-Bake Oven. Taste better though, and the rolled-fondant letters are slightly more sophisticated.

Delicious cookie dough crater in the centre.

The birthday girls and boy.  Sarah, Mario and Hannah.

Heavenly Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I've started a couple of new chapters in my life recently. My boyfriend and I moved into an awesome new place, and I got a new job that requires a month of training in Montreal. Just as soon as I get comfortable in the new casa, I had to get shipped out to la Belle Province.


Obviously to celebrate these milestones, I threw a shin dig. Complete with Party Punch served in an industrial-sized bucket with tap (made with literally every possible kind of alcohol known to mankind), and cupcakes!


These cupcakes were Cookies and Cream made with Oreos. I basically just made a super-moist, creamy vanilla cupcakes, added broken Oreo bits, and had a whole Oreo sitting on the bottom. For the icing, I made my favourite- Vanilla Cream-cheese, with more Oreos on top.


Oreo cookie base


My friend Christine's mom, Terri bought me a whole ton of these adorable, colourful liners. Really punches up my black and white cupcakes!


It looks like the cupcakes and punch were a hit.


All this Oreo talk got me missing this little nugget!

It's a Leap Day Miracle!

This post needed a title- it was between this lame one, and "Salty (caramel) Chocolate Balls". I figured the winner was a little bit more family-friendly.


They say that Leap Day is an extra day you get to do things you don't normally have the chance to do. An extra, free day to live out your wildest dreams. It's not a real day, afterall.


That's why I am spending my special Leap Day nursing a wine hangover, while writing this very blog post!

Last night I had a small dinner party. I made homemade gnocchi, which was frigging delicious- but the pièce de resistance was obviously dessert.


I made these super moist Belgian chocolate cupcakes- once cooled, I injected them with a homemade caramel sauce, that oozes out on your second bite, making you deliciously sticky. I topped these babies with a caramel meringue butter cream frosting, then crowned with a piece of homemade salted caramel. That's right I made two different kinds of caramel for this delicious concoction.


Since this isn't a real day, if I eat them all today, it doesn't count calorie-wise, right???

JB Takes the Pancake!

You're not a cupcake.


Has all the same qualities as a JB cupcake, only it's much flatter. My mumsies, Jeanie, was visiting me in Toronto for the weekend from New Brunswick. It also happens to be the weekend before her birthday. So in her honour, I held a brunch in my condo with a few friends. I made these delicious red velvet pancakes with a cream cheese drizzle, sprinkled with blueberries, and of course topped with a Tinkerbell. My mother has a strange fascination with this itty-bitty character. And no, it was not my mom's twelfth birthday.

Of course, these pancakes are best served with mimosas!


Happy birthday, mumsies!!