Chocolate Chip Banana-Nut Muffins with Crumble Topping

Once again I had overripe bananas on hand, and decided to use my favorite banana bread recipe which has been previously posted at http://browniescookiespieohmy.blogspot.com/2009/07/banana-breadcake-with-chocolate-chips.html

This time I changed the recipe up a bit, aside from my basic changes I used in the past.
First of all I made the banana bread into muffins instead.

I also changed the recipe up to make the muffins more low-fat.

I used 1 cup of whole-wheat flour and then remaining 1/2 white flour.

I replaced half the butter with applesauce which suprisingly didn't change the texture of the muffins much
Finally, just for the sake of experimenting with textures, I put half the amount of milk listed (low-fat) and for the remaining 1/8 cup of milk, I added 1/8 cp of greek yogurt mixed with plain yogurt (all non-fat), which didn't make a dramatic change in texture, but was a smich noticable.

I couldn't squeeze in all the batter into all the muffin tins, so with the extra batter I mixed up the extra chocolate chips and nuts I had chopped up to get added into the batter, with brown sugar, flour, and some applesauce and flour and the smallest pinch of baking soda. The thick topping got crumbled onto each of the muffins.

Whole-Wheat Cupcakes/Muffins with Homemade Frosting

My little cousin had to bring treats to her camp for the last day. My aunt called me up and told me she was going to bake something with my cousin and asked me to help.

She uses this basic recipe for all her cakes, cupcakes, and recipes which originally came from an apple cake recipe:

-6 eggs
-2 cup. Sugar
-3/4 cup. Oil
-3 cup. Flour
-3 Tsp. Baking Powder
-1/2 cup. Orange Juice
-Vanilla

Directions:
1. Mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla together.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together
3. Alternate adding the flour and baking powder mixture and the orange juice to the wet ingredients, starting with the flour and ending with the flour
4. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

My aunt changed the recipe up a little by using what she only had on hand
The flour she used was whole-wheat and used light brown sugar
She also didn't add the orange juice, which gave the cupcakes a texture of muffins.

The cupcakes should get filled up about 2/3 full each

Scooping the batter into the cupcake tins with an icecream scooper, is a great technique, because it assures even amounts of batter in all the cupcakes

Even with the texture of a muffin, after they had baked and then cooled, they got frosted with a homemade frosting

Frosting Recipe:
-1 cup butter, softened
-8 cups confectioners' sugar
-6 tablespoons milk
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

You can just beat all the ingredients together in a mixer making sure to add the confectionary sugar a cup or two at a time. It will be pretty thick, so if you want it creamier just add a couple more tablespoons of milk.


And with a little food coloring, the frosting was turned into a light blue, which got swirled onto each cupcake


Of course my cousin made sure that each cupcake got a nice big sprinkle of a princess sprinkles mix