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!