Brad's Birthday Cake 2011- Carrot Cupcakes

Usually, my fiancé is a chocolate guy but this year he went for something a little different: Carrot cake! I was really excited to make it since we had recently been disappointed by the cake from a very popular bakery, here in Boston. It was almost like eating a doctored up spice cake from a box mix with some carrots added as an afterthought. I grew up with carrot cake that is dense with carrots, pineapple bits, rasins, nuts, etc. To be fair, the cream cheese frosting was on the Boston cake was perfect! Not too sweet and not too heavy. Anyway, I think part of the problem was that we are accustom to the very proud Southern cake baking tradition. As such, my carrot cake has some distinctly Southern flair with pecans as the nut of choice, and the inclusion of shredded coconut. I made cupcakes so they would be easy to share at his office. I hope you'll try them out and let me know how you like them!

Brad's Birthday Cupcakes

3 cups shredded carrots

1/4 cup golden rasins

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1- 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup melted butter

4 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (f). In a large bowl combine the carrots, brown sugar and sugar. Let them stand for 10 minutes so the sugar can soften the carrots and draw the juice out to make a syrup. Next, add the pineapple, apple sauce, butter, and eggs. Combine by mixing by hand. In a separate bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix by hand until it's all fully combined.

Portion out two tablespoons of batter to each lined muffin tin cup. Bake for 25- 30 minutes (I know that's long for a cupcake, but this stuff is DENSE). You'll know they're done when a toothpick comes out clean when you poke the middle of one of the cakes.Remove the cakes from the tins immediately and cool completely (at least 30 minutes) on a cooling rack before topping with your favorite cream cheese frosting. This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. (Or 12 cupcakes and two 6 inch spring form heart cakes that baked for 45 minutes and overflowed all over the oven, but still turned out fine. (o:)

Happy birthday, Brad!

Multi-Grain Banana Buns

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! As you all know, school comes first. So this has been moved to the back burner, so to speak.

Today I found two little bananas begging to be made into banana bread. I just couldn't get past the sugar and fat in my go to quick bread recipe. Especially since Brad's birthday is coming up this weekend,and we're behaving in preparation for the cake. (Carrot cake. And yes, I'll be posting the recipe.) I consulted my copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and I found a banana bread recipe that called for just 1/4 cup of honey as the sweetener for a 2 pound loaf of bread. Perfect! I've made this bread before, and the result is very lightly sweet. The sweetness is so subtle, maybe about as sweet as those Hawaiian dinner rolls at the store. I almost forgot to mention it's egg and dairy free!

All together now: "I can't just leave well enough alone"! So here is my version of Jeff and Zoe's Banana bread baked into buns for convenience.

Multi-Grain Banana Buns

2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 cup bread flour

1/4 cup multi-grain blend*

3/4 tbsp or 1 packet instant dry yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

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1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup neutral flavored oil

3/4 cup lukewarm water

1 cup mashed bananas

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients above the dashed line with a wooden spoon. In a smaller bowl combine all the ingredients below the dashed line. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry and mix with a wooden spoon. You might need to add a little more water, about a teaspoon at a time to fully incorporate all the flour. The dough will be pretty sticky. Cover the bowl and let it rise for 2 hours.

Flour a surface to work on. Also dust the dough and your hands. Take the dough and shape it into a ball by pulling the sides under and rotating the mass in quarter turns as you go. Be gentle and quick. I turn the dough with one hand and use my other hand to smooth the dough over, like you would if you were rinsing shampoo from a baby's hair. ( I realize that's a weird description, but that's exactly the motion I was imitating to get the dough smooth.)The whole process should take less than a minute. Use a pizza cutter to divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Then make each quarter into a ball just like the big ball. Cut these into sections into quarters and smooth into balls again.

Grease up you muffin tins and place the dough balls in each compartment. Let it rise for 20 minutes. 5 minutes before the rise time is up, preheat your oven to 375. Bake the buns for 20 minutes.

Remove from the tins immediately and cool on a cooling rack. Voila!

This song is everything the recipe isn't. Well, except that they're both delicious! I think they balance each other out nicely.

* I used King Arthur Flour Harvest Grains

P.S. If you really can't stand such well behaved food, these sing with a bit of butter slid in the middle, maybe some reduced sugar preserves, or even a swipe of reduced fat cream cheese. If you're really feeling naughty you might go with:

Nutella

Crunchy Peanut Butter

Honey

Maple Syrup

bonus points for whipping those last two with butter