Chocolate Banana

Family was in town this weekend for my dad's retirement party so of course I took it upon myself to do some baking... actually the real reason I got to cooking in the kitchen was that a beloved coworker of mine had her last day on Friday. I bring cupcakes into work so much that it only seemed right to bring a batch in to her one last time. She wasn't specific about flavors so I made strawberry vanilla. The cupcakes were vanilla flavor with a strawberry on the inside and strawberry icing. I was such a spaz about getting the treats into work that I completely forgot to take a picture. Whoops.
Anyway so with my family in town my cousin and I got to talking. He's getting married October 2012 (congrats Jack!) and he mentioned me maybe making some cupcakes for his wedding. We talked a little bit about flavors, nothing too in depth, and he mentioned a friend of his had some chocolate banana cupcakes that were to die for. Why didn't I think of that!?! Inspired with a new cupcake idea I hit the kitchen. It took me a minute to figure out how to flavor the cupcakes, mashed banana and banana pudding. After that it was only a matter of dipping them in my chocolate ganache frosting. Rave reviews. Disappointed I didn't get to share the joy of this new flavor with work, I'll have to bring them in something this week. I promised Kyle I'd give a shot at mint cookies and cream. We shall see.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

If I ever make another batch of C-Cake Cupcakes it will be too soon. While these are very delicious, even for you non-carrot cake lovers, homemade carrot cake is the biggest pain in the ass, ever! I have to grate 3 cups of carrots per recipe. In case you didn't catch that, 3 cups! That is so time consuming, especially since I use baby carrots. Regular carrots are fine but because they come to a point they're as equally time consuming as baby carrots. I did get lots of compliments when I tried them out on my guinea pigs at work. I suppose that should make the hard work worth it but I some how ended up making 3 batches of this stuff in like 2 weeks. I should buy stock in baby carrots.
The cream cheese frosting might be one of my new favorite frosting recipes. It wasn't overwhelmingly cream cheesy but it was sweet and had a nice texture. Definitely a recipe I'll be using again. Maybe for Red Velvet? I haven't made that before but you use cream cheese frosting for Red Velvet right? Maybe a lemon cupcake! I'm not a fan of tart deserts but I have a feeling lemon cream cheese cupcakes will be delish! Definitely something tart with the cream cheese, raspberry might be good. I have family coming in this weekend I think I'm going to have to experiment and try these recipes out on them.