MSC Roasted Banana Cupcakes

If you're a banana lover, this recipe is for you! I made these yesterday to bring to Monday Cupcake Madness Day at work (at least that's what it has turned in to). The frosting is this delicious buttercream with honey and cinnamon and it was fabulous... I think I could have gone for frosting only on this recipe since I like banana a little, but not a lot. Those who do like banana, J for example, LOVED this cupcake. He wanted me to make more so he could have them instead of my coworkers. hehe... picture to come, I promise.

Recipe here

Browned Butter, why do you taste so good?

I made Martha Stewart's Brown Sugar Pound Cakes.... the recipe was pretty easy, no shortage of eggs and butter as usual. They baked into perfect little mounds and smelled delicious. When I was making the frosting... that's a whole different story!

It started with browning butter. If you've never browned butter (like me) be forewarned! I put it on the stove, stick in the pan, the recipe said medium flames. I was busy so I opted for a rather low medium. I walk off, expecting it to take the recommended 10 minutes, la la la laundry... then J says um... I think I smell something burning. OMG!!!! I rush to the stove to find smoke billowing up from my little pan. Eek! What to do... I look at it, it's a black liquid and it's on the verge of setting off my loud, annoying smoke detectors! I take it off the stove, kill the burner and it starts "sizzling" which means it's hitting the hot parts of the pan and I get it to the sink, turn on the water, water meets butter, butter jumps ship! It sprays EVERYWHERE. No joke, I was covered, my counter tops, the floor, the sink, you name it! I have little burn marks to prove it. What's the moral of my story? Some people burn water, I burn butter.

After what feels like my millionth frosting disaster, I washed the pan, put another stick of butter in it, cleaned and cleaned while it melted and watched that puppy like a hawk! I am so so so glad that I did. This is the most amazing frosting I have ever tasted. No joke, this is my absolute, all time favorite cupcake now. My mouth is watering just typing about it! ugh! I took it to work for more rave reviews. If you haven't had browned butter, go to your kitchen, go now... and send me one!

Recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

MS S'Mores Cupcakes

These really do taste like S'Mores! The cupcake part is very graham crackerish and then the chocolate topped with Marshmallow that I clearly did not whip long enough was delicious. They were devoured at the office and now people want to know when they can expect my next baking adventure.

MS Strawberry Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream Disaster

When you see the picture of the beautiful strawberry cupcake on this page, you can't help but want to taste it. I have been wanting to make these cupcakes since I bought this cookbook and today was the day. Here is the end of the cupcake process (where I'm still happy and you can see my butter and eggs patiently waiting at room temperature to become yummy frosting):


And here is where I start to doubt if I really have any baking abilities at all.... It all started with a recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream. If you've never tried this frosting and are thinking how the heck do you get meringe and buttercream together in one frosting, welcome to the party. Devoutly following the recipe with the sole substitution of margarine for butter, which is very common in my kitchen, I heat up the sugar and egg whites, whip my egg whites and they look beautiful and glossy and perfect... then the disaster comes. I'm supposed to add 3 sticks of butter (oh yes, I said 3, look out Paula Deen) in tablespoon sized chunks, slowly. No problem! Until of course I turn my delicious meringue into curdled milk. So I'm totally lost, thinking this is horrible and I ruined the frosting. I promptly toss it out and attempt it again the next day.

Which proves to be disastrous also. This time, I went for the "real" thing: butter. Same beautiful meringue, same curdled milk. At this point, I'm seeking help. I read another recipe which clearly says... don't worry if you think you made curdled milk, keep whipping and it will smooth out. Wrong... I continued on for forever. Maybe 15 - 20 minutes and got a much more consistent strawberry color, no smooth delicious frosting. What did I do wrong?!?! I tasted the curdled mess (hehe that sounds worse than it was) and it was indeed yummy. I refrigerated it, added it to my cupcakes because boys have no clue if it looks pretty or not and took them to the fire station. I hear they were devoured. I thought they tasted great, looked terrible. I'll be trying this frosting again, third time's a charm.

MS Coconut Cupcakes

This was the January Martha Stewart Cupcake Club recipe. These are very yummy coconut cupcakes with super cute frosting. They were fun to make and although everyone at work was enthusiastic about them, I'm not sure they're going to appreciate me bringing them to work all the time. :)