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!!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

And I doubt I'll get it. Which is okay with me! Tomorrow I am leaving Toronto's mild temperatures for Madrid's slightly milder temperatures. I am skipping out on my traditional snowy, New Brunswick Christmas- which usually boasts tons of turkey, friends, family and Captain Morgan. I will be heading to Madrid for three weeks to experience the holidays done Spanish style! I am sad, as this will be my first Christmas without my lovely mother, Jeanie! But señor Mario is a treat too!

I made some cupcake treats for a girl's night Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. They are red velvet cupcakes, with a cream-cheese buttercream frosting. I also used fondant and gum paste. The snowflakes are each individually hand-carved, and hand-painted with blue and silver edible powder. And like real snowflakes, no two are alike!







Feliz Navidad a todos!!

Trick-or-treat, I made you something good to eat!

Today marks the day of All-Hallows-Eve. A wonderful day of the year, indeed! In previous years, it was a day where common activities included trick-or-treating, carving jack-o'-lanterns, apple bobbing and watching horror films.

In more recent years, it is synonymous with dressing as offensively/promiscuously as possible, while drinking as much as humanly possible. Resulting in good times with friends!

Here are some vanilla-buttercream lolli-cakes I made to honour one of my favourite days of the year, featuring the likeness of everybodies favourite Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington: