Quick and Easy Banana Walnut Muffins - The perfect healthy breakfast

Hello my lovelies, 

Did you guys have an action packed awesome summer? Or a relaxing and slow paced one? Which ever it was I hope it was everything you wanted it to be :)

I had a fairly busy summer myself, I worked a full time 9-5 'grown up' job, I volunteered, and I took a summer course, and tried to squeeze in some time for friends to catch up on movies (pretty sure I saw every movie that was out in theatres this summer) and summer memories. :) Oh! And I also got a brand spankin' new macbook pro :D *fan girl squeal* 

I also made a facebook fan page which I would love for you guys to head over and 'like' ! ;)

I also had some not so great moments. In July I got rear-ended in a car accident that gave me some really bad whiplash :( This resulted in far too many visits to the chiropractor's office - but on the bright side I am slowly but surely going back to my 100% self :)

All of this to say I have had a very very busy summer. Thats why when my parents informed me of their plans for a last minute road trip I was excited (albeit a bit weary of the long drive) to get out of Ottawa for a bit. We drove all the way down to Waterloo to the welcoming home of some old family friends. While there, the Mrs. of the house taught me how to make these delicious banana nut muffins. Whats super great about them is you can use up any bananas that may be going a bit too brown. 

What makes it even better? Its super easy to toss together (a few minutes) and uses only one bowl and comes together fast with a whisk. Same amount of time that it would take to make pancake batter you can have this yummy treat :) I personally loved the taste especially when you consider the simplicity of it. And with back to School/Work season back upon us this make it the perfect healthy treat. Make in the morning (or afternoon) and have a quick, easy, nutritious breakfast on the go. 

Quick and Easy Breakfast Banana Muffins

Ingredients: 

* 3 Bananas

* 2 eggs

* 2 cups of flour

* 1 cup of sugar

* 1/3 cup of oil

* 1/2 cup of milk

* 1 tsp of baking soda

* 1 tsp of baking powder

Toppings/Fillings:

- throw in a handful of chocolate chips or walnuts or anything else you want and mix in to the batter. We opted to crush up some walnuts and toss them on as toppings. 

Instructions:

1) Mash up the bananas in your bowl with a spoon or fork (or whatever else you like)

2) Throw in the rest of the ingredients and mix (yup! that easy!) Scoop into paper lined muffin/cupcake tins and bake at 350* until a toothpick comes out clean. (Usually 10 to 15 min depending on your oven temperatures) 

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Canada Day Cupcakes

We have been having some really odd weather lately. It’s almost July, but you wouldn’t know it…it was 15C (59F) this morning! Its kind of weird because for a few days we will have overly hot and humid weather(35C, 95F), that makes you want to do nothing but just lie around and …well….do nothing. And then for a few days we will have freezing cold weather were you need a jacket!

Global warming ya’ll. No joke.

So speaking of July, July 1^st is Canada Day for us here canucks. For those of you who are not Canadian, and don’t know what Canada day is, its sort of the equivalent of Independence day in the US. We celebrate the anniversary of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the Constitution Act, 1867, which united two British colonies and a province of the British Empire into a single country called Canada. (see mom? I listen in school :P)

That makes Canada a bit of a ‘baby’ country since its only turning 143!

Anywho, on to these lovely cupcakes. I used the same recipe that I did for the FIFA world cup cupcakes, and followed the exact same directions. The only difference is I sliced up some strawberries and put them in the middle. Make sure to cover the top of the strawberry with the batter, and not over do it with the strawberries, since this is a cupcake surprise.

 

TIP: For a more American Version, trying popping in a few blueberries with the cupcakes and when you bite in, there will be blue, red, and white colors! (blue and red for the berries, white for the cake)

For decoration I alternated between pouring red sugar over some in the shape of the flag, and using red maple leaf sprinkles, and topping some with just one single sprinkle.

I had a bit too much fun decorating these!

Happy Birthday Canada! :D 

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FIFA inspired Cupcakes!

My family is obsessed with soccer. 

I think its part of my Iranian Heritage. In Iran, soccer is like a religion to some  people. Soccer players are heroes, and a soccer game is a family event that everyone attends from grandpa to grandchild, all gathered around the tv.  I personally am not what you call obsessed, and I barley know the correct ‘soccer terms’ ( or football as they call it). In my family, my dad and my brother are crazyyyy about it, followed by my sister, and me and my mom last, who enjoy the brief update on who is playing who, but that’s about that.

I personally dont have the patience for watching an entire game. I mean, sit there and watch a 2 hour game where there is only one goal? If any? No thanks. I prefer the sweet 5 min recap with all the goals. :D

However, as this is FIFA season, and my brother and dad have been oh so spoiled with having access to a 50” TV, they are more than celebrating and enjoying the event. But how can I fully enjoy it? Well I’ll just bring my foodie passion in ;)

So…I made these cute little soccer ball topped cupcakes! They turned out very cute! (Though I’m sure soccer fans would cringe at such a description)

I used Magnolia’s cupcake and frosting recipe and as always, they were yummy! I’m posting just the recipe tonight, and will hopefully post the tutorial on how to make the soccer balls tomorrow!

So tell me foodies, who are YOU rooting for to win? Brazil? Argentina?  Uganda? Let me know!

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes (depending on the size of your cupcake papers and muffin tin

• 
  
  
  CUPCAKES:
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour ( I substituted here)
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ICING:
  
• Vanilla Buttercream (recipe follows) or Chocolate Buttercream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
5. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing. At the bakery we ice the cupcakes with either Vanilla Buttercream or Chocolate Buttercream.

Note: If you would like to make a layer cake instead of cupcakes, divide the batter between two 9-inch round cake pans and bake the layers for 30-40 minutes.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

Makes enough for one 2-layer 9-inch cake or 2 dozen cupcakes*

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

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DIY Rose Cupcake Bouquet and I joined Youtube!

Forget buying your mom flowers for mothers day...(especially if she is a foodie) make her a cupcake bouquet instead! (with step by step pictures and video)

***check out my last post for a free print out and instructions for those cute DIY cupcake toppers!

It’s funny how sometimes we resist change. We go out of our way to resist this change, even though, if we think about it logically, there really is no reason why we should. Case and point. Blogger updated their posting method thingy…you know the place you go to write your blog posts? I just decided that I would prefer to stay with the old one. But today, for whatever reason, I decided to give it a try and boy am I glad I did. See the big pretty pictures? Before it would have taken a long time to format into a bigger size, but now it’s just a matter of clicking a few buttons!

Another form of change we seem to resist, would be better classified as avoiding trying something new, or simply putting it off until ‘later’ – a time that never seems to arrive. Recently I’ve been trying to change this, and this post is 3x the change I need;)

I had seen cupcake bouquets a while back and made a mental note of making them. However, like most seemingly difficult things, I put it off until a ‘later’ time. I finally made myself make these this week and they weren’t as hard as I thought and had very lovely results! So I hope you try these too!

*Please note that this isn’t the only way to do this, but it’s the way I did it. 

I frosted all my cupcakes with a rose, and lined them up so that I could pick the top 7....and uh...do some quality control. Just making sure the cupcakes...uh...taste good enough. yup =D

It would be best to have a foam sphere and stick it in, but I didn't have any on hand. I had this brick though!

Now mold it to shape.

and add tissue paper. (It would have been best to stick it on before putting the Styrofoam thingy in, but when i molded it - it wouldn't come out!)

Then take 2 tooth picks. What you want to do is poke them into the Styrofoam to position where you want the flower to go.

Then take the toothpicks out and pop them into the cupcake

and place back into the wholes in the Styrofoam

Continue for the rest! I did 6 on the outside and one in the middle

And here is a pic of a real rose I took...for good reference! ;)

Also! I have started a new youtube channel over at http://www.youtube.com/user/ediblemoments So please subscribe! I want to video more of my desserts and hopefully have some tutorials up as well! This is just a video of the final product. Oh my...my voice sounds so girly! LOL

So my question to you foodies....what have YOU been putting off? (And should really get to! ;) )

Happy Mothers Day!

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Mothers Day Cupcakes and Free DIY Cupcake Toppers!

I’ve been feeling a bit down on my luck these past few days. Everything that I’ve had planned hasn’t been going, well, as planned. I’m starting to realize that life can’t always go as you want it to. I mean, that’s quite obvious, but I feel most of us – me especially- never take those words to heart. Life happens. You can’t change things. You just have to make the best of it. 

Thankfully I have wonderful parents who support me and try to push me to be my best, yet remind me that life can’t always go as planned; and since its Mothers Day on Sunday, I thought I would go into detail as to why my mom is so special to me! 

She is always supportive of me and my goals, and pushes me to be my very best and not accept ‘ok’ as a standard. She has sacrificed everything for the well-being of her children, and gave up her opportunity to a wonderful career in order to stay home and raise her children. For this I will always be grateful, and hope to one day be at least half the great mother to my own kids. Happy Mothers Day Mom!!!

To celebrate mothers day I made moist carrot cupcakes with soft cream cheese frosting, topped with cute little mothers day themed cupcake toppers! I’ve got lots of great ideas for this blog, and one of them is to create graphics to go with my recipes! (ex. Food themed calendars, labels for ingredients, and cut out cupcake toppers, to name a few) So, I’ve decided to make these available to everyone for free!

Just click here to get a pdf with 12 of them. Then cut and paste with little toothpicks on the back. I recommend using thicker good quality paper. If you do these, I would love to see pictures! :) Also, I was considering making a cupcake topper store on etsy…would anyone perhaps be interested? Please let me know in the comments.

So tell me foodies, what makes your mom so special?

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