http://pinterest.com/pin/296182112963752106/
This is so far the furthest from that post. In fact basically almost nothing is left from that post....
Anywho....
So here's what you need. You need a box spice cake mix, some ripe banana's (I used six normal sized ones... I think they were normal sized...), some walnuts chopped up into tiny bits, and a mini bunt pan. That's everything shown here...
Now there were some more that I didn't take a picture of. That's more walnuts not as finely chopped, powdered sugar, a splash of milk, and maple syrup. I'll explain as we go on....
So mash up your bananas! They will be easier to mash if they are good and ripe. Mine appeared to be but in fact were not quite as ripe as I had hoped....
See? I bit chunky... Oh well.... Now it ended up making about just under two cups of mashed bananas, and that's what you want. So add that to the dry mix, along with the finely chopped walnuts. (Not the bigger ones.) Now mix it up real good and you'll get a thick batter, but not quite as thick as the pumpkin batter.
So here's a very important part! This batter is sticky so you have to prep you pan or the cakes wont come out. Spay it down with cooking spray and dust some powdered sugar in. Or however you prep your cake pans, this is just how I prep mine.
Now those other walnuts? Take them and add some to the bottom of each little bunt before you pour the batter in. Then add the batter and fill it on up!
Notice how full my cake things are? Yeah, I got kinda worried while they were baking because this cake batter rises the best out of all the ones I've done this week... However it turned out perfect! Nothing over flowed and nothing rose too much.
Bake on 350 for about half an hour. Mine took thirty minutes but they can take a bit longer. These were definitely not as quick as either of the muffins. As a matter of fact I baked them up Friday afternoon and served them for breakfast Saturday morning. They take a lot more prep and a lot more time to cook. They reheat perfectly though and don't even have to be warm if you don't want to bother with it.
Now pull them on out. You'll need to flip them out of the pan and onto a rack that's sitting on a sheet pan. This is so they will cool faster, and so you can get the icing on them without it getting everywhere.
So while they're cooling let's make the icing! I made a maple icing and it was the perfect touch! Very simple. I mixed abut two table spoons of maple syrup with a splash of milk and about a cup and a half of powdered sugar. You want to add the sugar bit by bit. In the end you want it to be thick enough that it doesn't just completely run off the cakes and seem watery. You can add sugar to thicken it, and a tiny bit of milk to thin it if necessary. Try not to have to thin it because then you'll end up with a ton extra and it won't taste as much like maple. Two hints to keep you're icing from completely running off the cake. Let your cakes completely cool, and pop the icing in the fridge for about five minutes. A hint if your icing is too thick, ice the cakes while they're still a tad warm, mostly cool though. Anyway here's what they should look like iced and baked.
Don't they look so yummy?!
Mmmmmmmm.......
Now these by far got the best reviews. They were the most cake-like out of all the baking I did this week. They were rich, and yummy, and just sooooo good....
The boys loved them, though the youngest said he could do without the nuts. (He kinda hates nuts... Oops...) The oldest tried really hard to steal mine and the one we were saving for someone else. It should be noted that he ate at least ten of the twenty four Harvest Muffins. Two of my test subjects took theirs to work. One came home saying people tried to steal it, and that I need to stay up here and bake forever. The other test subject, my grandmother, shared her's with a co-worker and they both loved it. So this is definitely the winner.
However let's recap shall we? Wednesday I made twenty Pumpkin Muffins, by Thursday there were only five left. Friday I made twenty four Harvest Muffins, and six Banana Nut Breakfast Cakes. There is currently to my knowledge four Harvest Muffins, and one Banana Nut Cake left... That's forty muffins, and five mini bunt cakes in four days people.... I mean by the time I get there tomorrow I bet it's all gone!
I'd say this baking adventure was a success. Wouldn't you?
By the way the grand total for all three recipes came out to less that twenty dollars for all the ingredients. That's with the more expensive ones for the Harvest Muffins. So recap. That's six breakfast cakes and forty four muffins, for less than twenty bucks. It pays to bake things yourself!
Total prep time for everything was maybe two and a half hours out of my week. The muffins were thirty to forty five minutes, and the cakes about an hour to an hour and a half. Also while they were baking I totally had time to do the clean up.
All in all this is definitely something I will do again. The Harvest Muffins were my favorite, so I see making them on a regular. Though I'm sure my arm could be twisted into doing the cakes again too. As a matter of fact I'm eating mine now since I opted out of sweets for breakfast yesterday.
Until my next Adventure!
<3 Jamie
