Banana Bars with Brown Butter Frosting

These are AHHHHHHHmazing!  I will never use my over ripe bananas for boring banana bread again.  Not only were the bars moist and delicious, but the frosting sends it over the top.  I never knew how much flavor browning the butter can add to a frosting.  The frosting is insanely good.  You will be licking the bowl and spatula. I made a half batch, because I was testing the recipe.  I will give the measurements for the full recipe.  Just know that you can half the amount and it turns out great!

Banana Bars with Brown Butter Frosting

BANANA  BARS

1 1/2 c

sugar

1 c

sour cream

2

eggs

1/2 c

butter, softened

1 3/4 c

mashed ripe bananas (3-4 bananas)

2 tsp

vanilla extract

2 c

all purpose flour

1 tsp

baking soda

3/4 tsp

salt

1/2 c

chopped walnuts (optional)

BROWN BUTTER FROSTING

1/2 c

butter

4 c

powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp

vanilla extract

3 Tbsp

milk

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

1. Heat oven to 330F. Grease a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan. For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute. Stir in walnuts.

2. Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3. Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.

4. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt and milk. Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting). Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm).

Picture courtesy http://www.manymakings.com/2013/03/18/banana-bread-bars-with-brown-butter-frosting/

Devils Food Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream

My almost 3 year old is having his birthday on Tuesday. I wanted to make him some cupcakes for his friends at church. I normally use a box mix, but I didn't want to have 24 cupcakes laying around. So I found this fudgey devils food recipe that uses no milk or eggs. It turned out SUPER moist and fudgey. This will be my new chocolate cupcake base for years to come. Of course the mint buttercream matches perfectly with the cakes. You could really do any buttercream frosting and it would be awesome.

Devils Food Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream

Cake:
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 c sugar
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 c cocoa
1/2 c oil
1 c water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs vinegar

Mint Buttercream:
4 tbs butter, softened
1 pound of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp mint extract
Dash of salt
milk (enough for a good consistency)
green food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, line muffin tin with liners. Combine dry ingredients into a bowl. Add wet ingredients to the dry ones, mix well, until smooth and combined. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. My batch made 16 cupcakes. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until done. Do not overbake.

For the frosting. Combine all ingredients except milk and food coloring into a bowl. Add milk a little bit at a time until smooth but still stiff enough to spead. Add green food coloring if desired. Taste frosting, adding a sprinkle more of salt if needed. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Passion Fruit Buttercream

Oh my! I made these for New Years Eve this year, and my husband could not get over how good they were. We have a passion fruit tree in our front yard (yes, we live somewhere tropical...Hawaii), and my husband Jared is in heaven! He loves to make juice from them. I'm not really into eating them since they are really sour. However, they have a distinct taste of the tropics, and I thought it would be wonderful to use the juice/pulp of our fresh passion fruits. The result was beautiful! If you don't know, here is what the inside of a passion fruit looks like:

It can either have a yellow skin or purple skin, they taste about the same.

Pretty weird looking, but the juice made a wonderful, tropical buttercream. The vanilla cake was a perfect platform for the frosting, as it was the star of the show. Sometimes scratch cakes are overrated, so I used a box cake mix. If you make sure you don't over cook the cupcakes, you will have the most moist cake. I usually turn the heat down 25 degrees and bake a little longer, that way there is even cooking and the cake does not get brown. If you can't find passion fruit in your grocery store, I have read on some blogs that you can get it in paste form? Anyways, this was fun to make and tasted heavenly!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Passion Fruit Buttercream

1 box vanilla cake mix, prepared using cupcakes
4 tbs softened butter
2 passion fruits, pulp removed and pushed through a mesh strainer (about 4 tbsp juice)
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbs milk
1/4 tsp salt ( more or less according to your palate)

Bake cupcakes as directed on the box, let cool completely. To make frosting, remove pulp from passion fruits and push through a mesh strainer to get all the juice out of the pulp, making sure no seeds are in the juice. Combine softened butter, tsp vanilla, passion fruit juice and about 3 cups of powdered sugar. Mix well, and if you need to add milk to thin out the frosting, add a little bit at a time. Add more powdered sugar or milk to get to the right consistency. Spread frosting on cupcakes.