Welcome to my kitchen..heh heh heh...

[leene_chan]

Mission completed! I made Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting (recipe available at marthastewart.com)late last night. You gotta strike while the bananas are ripe (and not rotten)!

I know they look sloppy, but I have to tell you, these are, hands down, the best cupcakes I've ever had in my life. The cake is moist and not-too-sweet, and the frosting is rich and generous. I actually didn't use the buttercream frosting that came with the recipe; I used the Cook's Country recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting and added honey and cinnamon. It turned out absolutely wonderful.

My only gripe is that because the recipe doesn't call for you to sift the dry ingredients, there were a few gross lumps of baking soda at the top of some of the cupcakes. I pulled them off, but I found that unacceptable. Next time I'll screw the recipe and sift the dry ingredients. This always happens when I make a baked good that doesn't require a lot of liquid. They say "leave it lumpy" but the lumps don't disappear!

We finally tried out our bamboo steamer last night. Kristen made these steamed potatoes with olive oil, shallots and capers.

I'm telling ya, I only want to eat potatoes like this for now on! I never thought you could steam potatoes. Kristen added the capers to please me. I never crave typical food like chocolate, but I swear I could eat an entire jar of capers as a snack.

I have never tried that. I promise.

Comments

[twotone]

The banana cupcakes look gorgeous! and the steamed potatoes look yummy too... I think that's my favorite way to have new red potatoes.

[leene-chan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! ^_^ I was surprised that they turned out so well (in spite of the horrifying white bits that I will hopefully eradicate in the next round). I usually stick to recipes developed by Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Country, anything by Christopher Kimball) because I haven't found a dud yet. I was a little nervous about trying Martha Stewart's recipe, but thankfully it came with a lot of positive reviews!

Bamboo steamers are so cool! (even if they do smell kind of weird when they're cooking) I had wanted one for a while, and ended up using a Macy's gift certificate to buy one this Christmas. It was the only kitchen item that cost under $50...:O