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Monday, October 31, 2011

If You Give a Moose a Muffin...





The other day I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Vanilla Bean Baker.  Paula, who always has great ideas, included a recipe for Banana Bites, mini banana cupcakes.  They were just adorable.


Thinking about banana mini muffins made me think about the bunch of past their prime bananas I had sitting on the kitchen counter.



Those bananas made me think about making banana cupcakes.  Since I didn't have any mini muffins papers (or a mini muffin pan, for that matter, I had to go the full size muffin route.)


And what goes better with bananas than Nutella.

Thinking about the Nutella made me think of the package of cream cheese I had in the refrigerator.  

That cream cheese sent me to my desk and then to Google to find a recipe for cream cheese nutella frosting.

I did.

I whipped up some banana cupcakes.  And then the frosting which made me think...


These would be really cute as mini muffins.

Recipe:  Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting
(Cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.



Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Spread tops with Nutella Frosting. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts, if desired.




Nutella Frosting
(Kitchen Notes)

Ingredients:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup nutella
8 ounces powdered sugar, by weight

Directions:

Cream together the cream cheese and nutella until blended.

Add the powdered sugar gradually until ingredients are combined.

Mix on a high speed until frosting is smooth and creamy.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe frosting over the top of each cupcake.



1 comment:

  1. Wow, thanks so much for the mention and the link-back! I love the mini muffins so the regular sized one would be just that much more of a good thing. Adding the cream cheese to the Nutella frosting sounds and looks delicious.

    ReplyDelete