Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I always think that if I buy bananas my family will eat them. Often they end up getting brown and soft! I created this recipe to use those over ripe bananas:

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Preheat Oven to 350' and spray muffin pan with nonstick spray

In a mixing bowl combine and beat:

3 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

3 large ripe bananas

In a separate bowl combine:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix until just combined.

Add 3/4 cup chocolate chips.

Divide the batter into the muffin pan and bake for 16-19 minutes.

Enjoy!

Flowers and Stripes Cake

I created this cake for a sweet little girl's first birthday! The design was based on her adorable invitations made on Kodak Gallery. The top layer was inspired by an amazing cake I saw in the background on Ace of Cakes! The large cake was Baker's Cakes Signature Chocolate Cake with Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting, topped with fondant. The "Smash Cake" was Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with Buttercream Frosting. She was a beautiful birthday girl:

Logo Cake

Logo Cake, originally uploaded by bakers-cakes.

The Aquatics Director at Chapel Hill Country Club ordered this cake as an end of season "Thank You" for her staff! The cake is Baker's Cakes Signature Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. I finally figured out how to transfer a logo onto fondant! I printed out the logo, placed the paper onto the fondant, and then traced the lines that I wanted to cut with an exacto knife. When I picked up the paper, a slight impression was left in the fondant to show where I needed to cut out the logo. This was particularly helpful with the negative/positive space in this logo design!

Tennis Cake

Tennis Cake, originally uploaded by bakers-cakes.

This cake was WON by the customer at UNC's Lineberger Beach Ball event to raise money for cancer research! Baker's Cakes donated a custom made cake to the silent auction. And the winner of the cake is getting married this weekend! She chose this cake for a Groom's Cake. Her husband-to-be is a tennis pro, and of course we used Carolina Blue for the racquet. The cake itself is a Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with our Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting, topped with fondant. The racquet handle and tennis ball are shaped from crispy rice cereal treats, to help them hold their shape! Best wishes to the Bride and Groom!

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake, originally uploaded by bakers-cakes.

A customer ordered this cake for her daughter's birthday as a surprise because they wouldn't be together! Talk about sweet! This chocolate indulgence is a six inch Baker's Cakes Signature Chocolate Cake with Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting, filled with Whipped Cream, and topped with crushed Chocolate Wafers and Chocolate Fondant!

AMF Cake

AMF Cake, originally uploaded by bakers-cakes.

National Students of AMF, a support network for college students of ailing mothers and fathers, had their annual conference this weekend. This cake was for their closing banquet. The bottom layer of the cake was Baker's Cakes Signature Chocolate, the top layer was Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, it was filled with Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting, and topped with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. I was especially honored to make this cake for such a deserving group.

Pinkalicious Cake

Pinkalicious Cake, originally uploaded by bakers-cakes.

This adorable cake was inspired by the children's book, Pinkalicious, by Elizabeth Kann and Victoria Kann. I had an "ah-ha" moment when I decided to pair Fresh Strawberry Buttermilk Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for the cupcake cake layer! I don't know why I hadn't though of this sooner! Yum! The base layer is Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with Pink Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, topped with fondant and sugar paste flowers. This cake was for a mom of three boys, who is celebrating her birthday in Pinkalicious style!

A note from the birthday girl:

The cake was unbelievabe! The most perfect and beautiful I've ever seen! Thank you!

Garden Cake

Garden Cake, originally uploaded by bakers-cakes.

What kind of cake makes the perfect vegetable garden? Carrot Cake! This cake was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting topped with fondant and sugar paste vegetables! The perfect cake for an avid gardener!

It's a Process...

I'm scrambling to get as much done this week for my orders for next week, so it really is a process! I just wanted to give a sneak peek into the kitchen, that's been hectic this week! I tried to get as much baking and sugar paste work done as possible, before we head west to San Fran for a little family reunion! Hooray!

Upon our return, it's nose to the grindstone and work, work, work!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary!, originally uploaded by bakers-cakes.

Our anniversary is actually August 12th, as we will be flying back from the west coast with our 2 year old and 6 year old along for the 12 hour trip, I made this cake in advance! Happy Anniversary to us! We'll be lucky if we're still sane after that. I'm hoping I can wrap the cake up and freeze it for the week!

When left to my own devices, I was a bit at a loss for how to decorate my own cake! The cake itself is an Applesauce Spice cake with Buttercream Frosting. The one thing conspicuously missing from our anniversary cake? Fondant! (Little known secret, I'm not a huge fan!) Our original cake was a spice cake and it was yummy! At least, I remember it being good, it was nine long years ago! (Kidding, it's flown by!) Also, I don't remember eating as much of it as I would have liked! I'm not sure how I would design my own wedding cake if I had to do it again! Here's our cake:

Our mother's forced us to cut the cake so we threw our hands up to say, "Alright, we did it, let's keep this party going! You got your customary tradition, let's move on." It's been nine great years, I'm lucky to have such a wonderful husband!