Gotta Love Coconut Oil: Strawberry Banana Muffins w/ Streusel Topping

I've been on a mission lately to dust off some of my kitchen gadgets and pans I've bought months ago and finally let them complete their mission in life. 

I've have this jumbo muffin pan, which has been sitting in the back of the cabinet underneath the multiple loaf pans, regularly used cupcake tins, and donut pans.  Just sitting there sad and lonely, and I started to feel sorry for it.  I know I know it sounds silly, why should I feel sorry for a inanimate object.  But I do, becuase why bother buying something if you aint going to use it, then your just wasting money and taking up space in your tiny kitchen that can barley hold all the kitchen crap you've already accumulated over the years....am I right?  

So today was the day the jumbo muffin tin was going to have its day in the oven. I adapted my nanas banana bread recipe and came up with one hell of an oishii muffin.  I love using coconut oil in place of butter or vegetable oil, not only is it better and healthier for you but it gives the baked goods an extra special flavor that you wouldn't get with butter or vegetable oil.  These Jumbo muffins are great for breakfast along with a cup of coffee or as a snack. They are loaded with fruit and incredible moist, thanks to the rippend bananas, greek yogurt and coconut oil. You got to give these a try, if you're not a strawberry fan then you can easily switch out the strawberries for blueberries, raspberries or just use bananas. 

Now go save a lonely unused kitchen gadget or pan today and you'll be happy you did.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake

I've had a nice short vacation this week, just what I needed to recharge for the next couple of months of courts, school and volunteer work. We spent the first 3 days in Sapporo Japan experiencing the extreme cold and the snow/ice festival. 

I gotta say you know the one thing that's a little unnerving about living in Japan? the amount of earthquakes and tsunami warnings we get.  Try being on a ferry off the coast of Japan for 8 hours with a tsunami warning flashing on the t.v constantly.  In Japan the minute there's an earthquake there will usually be a tsunami warning that follows, so they will put a small map of japan on the lower corner of every t.v. channel flashing either yellow or red with what areas are in potential danger for a tsunami.  Totally didn't calm me nerves while I was on the ferry for 8 hours, so i decided to turn off the tv and sleep until we reached our destination.   Thank goodness the boat ride was smooth and uneventful. The last few days this week have been spent at home unwinding and making some delicious recipes. I also wanted to share some pictures from Saporro Ice Festival, this is the biggest ice and snow festival in Japan.

Those are real fish and crabs in the ice

The snowboarding ramp was built right in the middle of the city in Odori Park

My Favorite snow sculpture and you can even see the guy on top still working on it

Back to the food, this is a nice healthy banana cake with coconut oil replacing the butter, some rolled oats added to the batter for fiber and of course gotta have some mini chocolate chips for a little indulgence. 

I had some extremely rippen bananas that needed to be put to good use, I also wanted an excuse to use a cake pan and test my new cloth baking strips to see if they actually work, they are supposed to go around the outside of your cake pan and they help the cake bake even with a flat surface instead of a dome shape.  I was pleasantly surprised that the cake came out pretty even, the strip prevented the sides from becoming to overly cooked and hard and for the most part the cake came out flat, with just a very slight dome.  If I didn't use the strips I know the cake would have came out with a larger dome. 

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake
Oishii Treat Original

Ingredients 

1 1/4 flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 ripe bananas mashed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons skim milk
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line a 8 inch cake pan with parchment or wax paper and spray with baking or cooking oil on the sides of the pan. (to prevent the cake to sticking to the sides)
- In a small bowl combined your dry ingredients flour, baking soda, spices and oats and whisk until mixed together.
- In a electric mixer cream together the coconut oil and brown sugar, add in your egg, vanilla extract and mashed bananas. Mix until combined.
- Add half the dry ingredients + 1 tablespoon milk to your wet mixture and mix till combined. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients with the other tablespoon of milk and mix until the batter is fully combined.
- Hand stir in your chocolate chips and pour the batter into the cake pan and level in out with a spatula.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes and remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, remove cake from pan and let cool to room temp. or serve warm with some whipped cream and a tall glass of milk.

I link up to these fun parties 

Orange Infused Cupcake w/ a Orange Mascarpone Cream Filling and Dark Chocolate Buttercream

Hello cupcake where have you've been all my life! I missed out last week on making a weekend dessert due to the sickness.  But I made it all up this weekend with this amazing cupcake.  I wasn't expecting it to really wow me, the flavor combination sounding pleasing. But after taking my first bite  I knew I would be making this again.
Some of the cupcakes I've made before were a little on the sugary sweet side for me so this time I made sure to reduce the sugar in the cupcake recipe and substitute the butter with coconut oil and I was so happy I did. Now the cupcake part was pretty delish but the ingredient that puts this cupcake over the top is the Orange mascarpone cream filling, that with the dark chocolate buttercream was just heaven. I'm contemplating not sharing them with my co-workers there're just that good lol.

Orange Infused Cupcake w/ a Orange Mascarpone Cream Filling and Dark Chocolate Buttercream
Flavor combo by Oishii Treats


Orange Cupcake
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication 2012
Bake Time 16 Minutes

Ingredients
3/4 Cup Coconut Oil
3 Eggs
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Cups Sugar (original calls for 1 3/4 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons Orange extract
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/4 Cups Almond Milk

Directions
-Preheat your oven for 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with your paper cups
-Combine your flour, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl and set aside
-In a large bowl whisk together your coconut oil and sugar once combined add your eggs in one at a time until completely mixed.
-Add your orange extract and orange zest to the mixture and whisk
-Alternately add your flour mixture and almond milk to the batter, whisking after each addition.  just until combine (the less you mix the batter the more moist and fluffy the cupcakes will turn out)
-Fill your paper liners till 3/4 full and bake for 16 minutes, immediately remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Orange Mascarpone Cream Filling
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

Ingredients
1/4 Cup Mascarpone cheese (room temp)
2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed Orange juice (i used simply oj juice)
1/2 Cup whipping cream
3 Tablespoons Powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Orange zest

Directions 
-In a electric mixer beat together the mascarpone cheese and oj until smooth
-Add your whipping cream, powdered sugar and orange zest and mix until soft peaks form about 1-2 minutes. Keep in the fridge until your ready to use.
- Make a hole in the middle of your cupcakes. I used a pointed frosting tip to make a hole in the top of the cupcake and used a small 1/2 teaspoon to scoop out some of the cake from the middle.
- Fill a piping bag with your cream filling and pipe into the hole.

Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from Martha Stewart 

Ingredients
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp)
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 oz Cream Cheese (room temp)
3.5 oz dark cocoa bar (melted)
1 Tablespoon Almond milk

Directions
-In a electric mixer beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth
- Add your vanilla extract and powdered sugar mix until combined.
- Add your melted (cooled) dark chocolate and mix, use a spatula to help scrap the sides of the bowl.
- If the frosting is very thick use 1 tablespoon almond milk to help thin out the frosting.
- Fill a pipping bag and pipe buttercream onto your cupcakes.