life and the fluffnananutter cupcake

Its been a while since i posted on here about anything other than food and i plan on sharing my recipe today but first let me say a few things.
This has been A ROUGH year for me. ever since november when i lost my job and could not find another i have been struggling to get back on my feet, and then WHAMMO, my fiancee got laid off from his job too. I was like oh my god WTF. why is this happening? Thats when i turned to blogging becasuse i needed an outlet to store all my creative thoughts. I loved telling about my new job and cooking and all. I even was offering a giveaway and entered a summer swap. Then WHAMMO..AGAIN....REALLY??? I was let go at the new job i found due to them finding out the building was foreclosing. Wow i could not believe it. I had no internet for a while and that was hard. My electric bill was exhorbitantly..(btw..they do cut you off at 1300.00) we were behind on our rent and things were starting to crumble again. During that time the blogging community was not so nice. I got ANONYMOUS emails saying i was a fake for offering something i never intended to send, and my summer swap partner will receive her summer gift this week, a month before FALL!!! I just had ZERO MONEY to send packages and really thought that people would understand. I was right for the most part..people are empathetic, but some were down right asses about it and so to those few i say this...

it"s easy to sit back and read recipes and look at cute pictures of fluffy dogs and really awesome cupcakes but the reality of it is behind those photos someone is having a real life. filled with bills, car payments, kids, jobs, jail, foreclosure, cancer, death, teenagers, unemployment, domestic violence, divorce, marriage, depression and love. So keep the "ANONYMOUS" comments to yourself and if you just have to say something then at least have the GONADS to say who you are. REAL FRIENDS STAB YOU IN THE FRONT!!!

Now onto my recipe for the day....... BANANA NUTTER CUPCAKES. these were an inspiration from my son alex whom actually wanted chocolate cupcakes with banana cream filling inside so i suggested peanut butter and he jumped on it. So at ten pm, while watching food networks chopped,.. we started on these cupcakes. my son basically measured everything and then i mixed the wett ingredients an he scooped them into the liners. we put them i the oven in small 6 coount batches to keep the heat steady and they came out nice and beautifuly brown. we scooped out the middles with an apple corer and then topped them with the fluff/peanut butter buttercream frosting




They were light and fluffy with just the right peanut butter flavor not overbearing. when you bit into it the cool banan cream is just the nicest hidden surprise and the fluff cream ties it all together. like a fluffer nutter with banana sandwich like my grandma used to make me...memories. So i present to you the FLUFFNANANUTTER cupcake!!!!

Racheal Ray Is Right

So i was making cheese danish when i realized i had made way too much filling so i decided to pay with what was left. Now for those of you that way rachel ray on food network know that she cant bake because like any other good cook she does the THISING and THATING of ingrdients for the most part. OK well that is me also and as an aspiring baker i have to remember that you have to measure or at least write it down what you put into the bowl.


So i added some sour cream, flour and another egg to my cream cheese and lemon mixture that already had an egg and powdered sugar. i mixed it and put it on top of some toffee bits and graham crackers that i had crushed in my mini grinder and added some meltd butter.


i put the mixture on the bottom of two 6 oz ramekins i have and put them in the 350 oven for 30 minutes and then turned it off and left them for 3 hrs. when i took them out the tops were brown and slightly crisp. little cracking had happend but i was not worried. it was after all ,an experiment. I ran a knife around the edge and they poppped right out. Now they were heavy. which worried me. I was like dang it...




but upon opening it i saw how dense it was. so i tried a piece and oh my gosh it was incredible. It was cheese CAKE!!! yes the cheesey taste of cheesecake but it was so moist and dense like carrot cake almost. it was sooooo gooood!


so i frosted the last one with a toffee nut buttercream and took the pic before sending it to my next door neighbor for approval. he is considering divorce to marry me he said!!! dont know bout that but guess that means yum.


Now herecomes the bummer part. Treid to make them again last night and the taste was great, but the texture was that of a gummy bear. New FLavor Idea??? but no it was fail and so now i am struggling to remember where i went wrong!!! stay tuned

happy fourth of july

Happy Fourth everybody I hope everyones holiday is safe and fun. This is my liitle creation to celebrate the day. Mini strawberry margarita cupcakes with lime buttercream. I just added a litle blueberry on top to make it festive and colorful. These are so simple to make either using a homemade white cake recipe using margarita mix with pureed strawberries or a box strawberry mix and instead of using the water use margarita mix... and salt of course to the mix.. for the frosting use 1/2 stick butter with 3 cups pwdered sugar and the zest and juice (with pulp) of 2 fresh limes and beat til smooth adding cream as needed by tbsp. these are great with a real margarita at the end of the bbq with the fireworks flashing in the air and the ones you love surrounding you... god bless america and our families and loved ones serving overseas today!!! come home soon and come homne safe!!

my new job and other great things......

Happy 4TH of july first off and hurray for my new job at CAROLINA CUPCAKERY. For all you brides to be we are featured in the aug/sept issue of MODERN BRIDE. So check it out. ANy ways i had to leave the other job. I was really not happy. It was affecting friendships, family and i really could not stand the owner> she was a shrew. Had money and thought she could talk to me any old way and i am WAY to strong for that. So i found this funky little cupcake shop thats really awesome and i love it. They are innovative and fresh, creative and kooky. I love the owner and she is as real as they come. We have 100 plus and counting flavors and do organic and gluten free plus vegan. This is the one i did on my own today for the 4th. It had a confetti cake base.. so yummy.

cabernet brownies ...the best of both worlds

As we sat down to watch TRUE BLOOD i realized i was in the mood for something chocolatey and decided to make my favorite... brownies. I noticed sitting on the counter was a bottle of cabernet from SONAMA VALLEY and i though hmmm...chocolate+wine=bliss..so i got to baking

2/3 cups all purpose flour
a pinch of baking powder

1/2 cup butter..the real stuff there guys
3-4 ounces of UNSWEETENED bakers chocolate chopped roughly
11/4 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
some wine....really i used only 1/4 cup if that even

mix the dry ingredients then... in a heavy small pot melt the butter and chocolate til smooth and then take off the heat and let cool a few minutes...do not let boil...yuck taste.. add the sugar and the wine, yes its supposed to be grainy, add the eggs just til incorporated and then add it to the flour mix.. feel free to add nuts at this time... put in a 350 oven for 25 minutes... and whala...brownies.. but when you eat them....its best with milk...but i did the wine anyways because i am a rebel and SEMI PSYCHO BAKER...have a great day