Blender Banana Bread

Ever since I can remember, my mom has been making this banana bread. And I've always loved it. It's a perfect loaf of just bananas, no nuts or anything, and it's just plain good!

ICE: Music Ebony and Ivory Cupcakes

Iron Cupcake is back!

I was very excited to see that Iron Cupcake was back after its few months hiatus. And this month's theme was music. We were to create a cupcake centered around or inspired by music.

I decided to go with a song and take my inspiration from that. I played around with a lot of ideas...

TWD: Sweet Potato (Pumpkin) Biscuits

It seems like I'm making lots of substitutions lately.  I had actually fully intended to use sweet potatoes in this recipe; I was even excited about it because all I've seen here are purple sweet potatoes. How cool would it have been to have some purple biscuits! But alas, it was not meant to be. I went to the store twice to get some sweet potatoes. The first time the produce section was not open. The second time there were no sweet potatoes. So I grabbed what I hoped to be a pumpkin (it was green, kinda like a watermelon) and decided to switch it up. I was pleasantly surprised not only when I found out it was indeed a pumpkin (or at least a squash with orange flesh) but also when I looked at the Tuesdays with Dorie site and found suggestions on making a pumpkin version.

Whoopie ! Pies!

Sometimes I just get an idea in my head and I cannot get it out for the life of me. This one was making whoopie pies. I have no idea what exactly made me want to make these, but I really, really wanted to. I could not get the idea of making them out of my head. I've never made whoopie pies before, so I have no idea where this urge came from. But it was there, and I had to satiate it.

I was so glad that I did. What I great idea I had! :)

And these were great! They were like Ho-Hos but in a different form.They stayed incredibly moist for a long as we had them (which, incidentally, wasn't very long, but I think it would last pretty long as long as it was well wrapped).

TWD: Allspice (Cinnamon) Crumb Muffins

I could not find allspice. I looked, but I could not find it. It probably doesn't help that I can't read hardly any of the labels. So I resorted to cinnamon. But can it really be called a resort? I think I have to say that cinnamon is my favorite spice. It's so versatile and just plain yummy. And I don't just love it because my initials, before I got married, practically spelled cinnamon: CMN. Okay, not quite, but you get the picture. All that to say, I used cinnamon today.

So for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, the recipe chosen, by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.

Experimenting with Royal Icing and Sugar Cookies

I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies. To tell the truth, they are pretty bland. The only thing that redeems them in my book is the fact that they are a blank canvas. There is some amazing sugar cookie art out there, and I wanted to try my hand at it.

I've tried decorating sugar cookies before but never after I learned about the technique of flooding. That was the look I was going for but never could achieve. Until now.

New York Style Cheesecake

While at my parents' house, it was requested by my siblings that I make a cheesecake. They wanted a plain one, and Trisha asked for a peach topping. I personally thought a peach topping would be a little weird, so I bought some raspberries, just in case.

I actually learned how to make cheesecakes from my husband. He made one for me for the first birthday I had after I met. He actually did this whole elaborate thing for me that birthday, because I had said one time that I like surprises. Let me tell you the story, and mind you, this was before we were dating.

TWD: Split Level Pudding

I'm on time! Hooray!

Today's TWD was picked by Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla. Be sure to check out that site for the recipe.

Beet Chocolate Cupcakes

I found these cupcake liners at a store in Tripoli and knew I had to buy them to make some pretty little cupcakes. And the price was so right. It was only 0.750 LYD for a package of 100, which is like $0.60 US dollars. I thought it was a steal! I am definitely going back for some more. The only draw back is that they are a little shorter than normal muffin pans, but luckily for me, in the effort to save space with moving to Libya, I had only packed one 6-hole silicone muffin pan that had holes a little smaller than normal. It was meant to be.

TWD: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

I know this is super late, but I still wanted to post about it anyway. This week's Tuesday with Dorie was chosen by Carla of Chocolate Moosey.

I was supposed to make a chocolate-crunched caramel tart, but I didn't have any nuts, so no crunch, and I was really tired, so I decided to skip the caramel (plus I haven't had good luck with it yet), and I was lazy even further and decided to use my leftover puff pastry for a crust instead of making tart dough, so it wasn't even really a tart.