Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Its a fairly quiet day here as dad works away (gets home tomorrow). Went over to my Aunt and Uncles place for Brunch, which was nice, but now am back home so thought i would show you what i baked yesterday.

I had the urge to bake banana muffins, so searched the net looking for a recipe. Found this one for Double Choco-Banana Muffins. However,  must say, i was not all that happy with the results.  They didn't rise a lot and were rather dense and a bit tough....i wont use this recipe again - flavour was good though.

Here's me all set to start cooking! I got this apron when i bought a box set of Seasons 1 & 2 of Cake Boss

The recipe itself was pretty straightforward to make. A tip i have leant through baking is that instead of getting your sifter/sieve out for the flour (or buying one if you haven't already got one), just stick the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them together using a whisk. Less effort than a sifter and just as effective!

 

So instead of making big muffins, I made little cupcakes instead, with some pretty liners that were left over from a previous batch of cupcakes. Whacked in the oven, patiently wait for them to cook and then cool.

Now, normally i use a recipe for my frostings as well, which usually end up being either a buttercream or cream cheese frosting. This time i did one a little different. Now i recently discovered this fantastic Australian online store USA Foods, which as the name suggests, stocks USA foods (I know, shocker, right!?) So i had placed an order of various items, including Reese's Peanut Butter chips (like choc chips, only PB), some chocolate bars and Goober Chocolate. I also purchased a tub of Toasted Marshmallow Creme (AKA 'Fluff') for use in Whoopie Pies that i often make. I had some of this marshmallow goo left over, so decided to make my frosting from that, some cream and icing sugar, and it turned out good, pretty sweet and fairly sticky when trying to frost the cakes, but flavour was great!

I was going to take these over to Brunch this morning, so in the spirit of christmas, i made a tree! Tada! They went down a treat :)