Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel

I had a couple of very ripe banana's so was looking for a great bar/slice recipe, and came across this delight on http://www.lovintheoven.com/ ! This girl is amazing! And so are these bars!! The only thing I altered was I only used 2 banana's instead of the 4 in the recipe. I only had 2, but I also find things can get a bit mushy with so much banana...stil had a nice banana taste though!!

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• about 4 mashed bananas
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Butter and flour 8x8x2-inch baking pan. Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside.
3. Mix the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Set aside.
4. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, room temperature butter, and egg in a separate bowl until fluffy. Beat in mashed bananas and buttermilk.
5. Add dry ingredients and blend well.
6. Spread half of batter in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel.
7. Bake coffee cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool coffee cake in pan on rack.

Cookies and Cream Brownies, Oh My!

I found this recipe on bakingbites.com and just had to try it out! They turned out amazing and super delicious!! I heart brownies and would highly recommend this recipe!! Just go to a baking conversion site for measurements!! I also found they got better with age...like the next day! PS: I used mini oreo's as that is all the shop down the road had!

Cookies n’ Cream Brownies
1 cup butter
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups oreo-type cookies, coarsely chopped (approx 20-24)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, and grease lightly.
In a medium-large saucepan over low heat, melt together butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally. Whisk in sugar, salt and vanilla, then turn off heat. Whisk in eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated before adding the next.
Stir in flour and cocoa powder until mixture is uniform. Fold in chopped oreo cookies and pour batter into prepared pan and spread into an even layer. Crush 3-4 additional cookies finely and sprinkle on top of batter, if desired.
Bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, but not coated with batter.
Cool brownies in pan for about 20 minutes, then carefully lift brownies out of the pan using the aluminum foil as a handle and place on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Goodbye Gemma Cupcakes :'(

So one of my besties decided to join the 1000s of other kiwi's flocking to Australia! We are really gutted she has moved away...but luckily Melbourne is only a 4 hour flight away! Gemma had a bit of a farewell shindig and I made some farewell cupcakes! They're meant to be little suitcases (made outta chocolate fondant), got the idea from a chick on Flickr!!

Hmmmmm baked goods....

I made a couple things from recipes I found on the net lately. The first are delicious Chocolate melting moments with coffee butter cream (recipe from foodlovers.co.nz)...went down quite well at work, and the other was creamy lemon crumb squares from thepioneerwoman.com - holy moly this slice was amazing and received rave reviews!!! Ree from thepioneerwoman.com has some amazing recipes that I'm looking forward to trying!!

Chocolate Melting Moments with Coffee Butter Cream:

Ingredients

• 180 g butter
• 3 rounded tablespoons icing sugar
• 160 g flour
• 20 g cocoa
• 4 level tablespoons cornflour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Ingredients for Coffee Butter Cream:
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved in a scant tablespoon of boiling water
• 60 g butter, softened
• 4 tablespoons icing sugar, approx

Method

Beat butter and sugar together well. Add sifted dry ingredients. Roll small teaspoon mixture into balls and place on greased oven sheet and flatten with a floured fork. Cook at 150° about 15-25 minutes until melting moments are cooked through. Sandwich together with butter cream and serve dusted with cocoa.
To make Icing:
Combine dissolved coffee, softened butter and icing sugar together and beat well.
Makes approx. 20 – depending on the size.
                                     
                                                    Creamy Lemon Crumb Sqaures:

Ingredients

• 1-1/3 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 stick (1/2 Cup) Butter, Slightly Softened
• 1 cup Brown Sugar (lightly Packed)
• 1 cup Oats
• 1 can (14 Ounce) Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1/2 cup Lemon Juice
• Zest Of 1 Lemon

Preparation Instructions

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 DEGREES.
Mix butter and brown sugar until well combined.
Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add oats and flour to butter/sugar mixture and mix to combine.
Press half of crumb mixture into the bottom of an 8 x 11 inch pan.
Mix together condensed milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Spread onto the bottom layer of the crumb mixture. Top with the other half of the crumb mixture, but don't press.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Allow pan to sit on counter for 30 minutes after baking. Cut into squares and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until cool.
Serve cool.