Biscoff Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Today was supposed to be a day of cleaning and organizing. This all changed on my way to take the trash out when I saw two very ripe bananas sitting on the counter. Banana bread would be made and that was that. I couldn't decide whether I wanted regular plain old banana bread or chocolate peanut butter banana bread but then an idea struck to add Biscoff Spread to the batter and of course some delicious chocolate chips! It was quite a fabulous idea, and am quite pleased with the results!! 

Ingredients: 


2 Ripe Bananas 

2 Eggs

2 Cups Flour 

1 Cup Sugar 

1 TSP Salt 

1 TSP Baking Soda 

1/2 Cup Biscoff Spread

3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips

Directions: 
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer mash bananas, then add two eggs and mix together. 

2.In a separate bowl combine flour, sugar, salt & baking soda. 

3. Alternate mixing dry ingredients and Biscoff to the banana/egg mixtures. 

4. Add chocolate chips. 
5.Pour into buttered & floured pan. Sprinkle some brown sugar on top of batter and bake for 1 hr-1hr 15 minutes. Enjoy :) 

Cabo San Lucas for one of my best friends weddings!

Last week I was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico celebrating one of my best friends, Courtney's wedding! We stayed at the Marbella Suites and it was wonderful, the staff were so nice. The beach was gorgeous. I had a fabulous time and can't wait to go back! 

Courtney has an amazing blog,Star Systemz, it is all about being healthy and working out tips and tricks! Basically she is the blog you should visit to recover from visiting my blog ;) 

This is the view from our room

 Girls Lunch 

Had to take some pictures on the beach! 

We took a boat ride to Lover's Beach & this beautiful cove, Lover's Cove, right before Lands End

Before the wedding pictures with the beautiful bride :)

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Taxes are a tedious task! I was trying to file my own taxes but in the end it was too confusing (as a waitress it's a bit trickier)! So on the Sunday before taxes were due I stopped by an accountant I knew and she offered to file them for me and in return asked for some baked goodies with lemon. 

I came across this recipe and it was DIVINE! These cookies are perfect not overly sweet or tart. Beware you may find yourself eating them by the handful, lord knows me and my sister did! Luckily, they make a good size batch so we had plenty for my amazing accountant!! :)

Ingredients: 

1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick) 

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Egg

1 TSP Lemon Zest

1 TBSP Fresh Lemon Juice

1/4 TSP Salt 

1/8 TSP Baking Soda

1/4 TSP Baking Powder

1 1/2 Cups AP Flour

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet with Silpat liner. 

2. In bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla extract, egg, lemon zest & juice. Make sure to incorporate it all together. Add flour, baking soda & powder, salt and mix until combined. 

3. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a large teaspoon size of dough into a ball and then roll in powdered sugar. Repeat for all cookies. 

4. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges of cookies begin to barely brown, cookies will no longer be shiny. Let cool and enjoy! :) 

Recipe source Tasty Kitchen

Chocolate Mousse Stuffed Chocoalte Cupcakes Topped with Snickers

I find myself constantly arguing with myself whether I really like cupcakes or not. Obviously I LOVE a good cupcake. But the whole every other corner having a cupcake store thing kinda bugged me. And then ordering a cupcake from one of those stores and it being dry and crumbly or the frosting tasting fake and yucky or just so not worth eating has made me think negatively upon these usually sweet, moist, delicious little cakes! 

Anyways, I made these and... I and quite a few other people LOVED them! So delish. Moist, chocolatey, full of flavor, rich... I could go on and on describing them. I topped them with snickers but honestly you could do anything really or no topping at all! If you are over the whole cupcake fad these will definitely make you appreciate why they became a fad in the first place. 

Ingredients: 

Cake: 

1 box Devils Food Cake Mix
1 small box Jello Chocolate Fudge instant pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream

Chocolate Mousse Filling:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 cups milk chocolate chips

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1 stick softened butter

3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla

6 regular size Snickers

Directions: 

Cupcakes: 

1. Preheat oven 350F and line tray with cupcake liners. 

2. In bowl of an electric mixer place cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, milk and sour cream. Mix until well combined. Distribute batter into cupcake liners evenly. Bake for 20-23 minutes. You will know when the cupcake is done if you stick a toothpick in the center of the center cupcake and it comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack. 

Chocolate Mousse Filling:

1. Melt the milk chocolate either in the microwave or over a double broiler. Be careful when you are melting chocolate chips because they go from melted to burnt in seconds. I like to let them melt until the chips are really shiny and starting to look mushy and then take them off of the double broiler or out of the microwave and stir until creamy. Once melted set aside. 

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer whip the heavy whipping cream until stiff.
3. Once the chocolate has cooled for 5-10 minutes gently fold it in to the whipped cream. 


Chocolate Frosting: 
1. In bowl of an electric mixer whip the butter for 2 minutes. 
2. Slowly add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla. 
3. Mix until the perfect frosting consistency! :) 


Assembly: 


Once the cupcakes were baked and completely cooled I filled a large piping bag with a large round tip and stuck the tip into the middle of each cupcake and filled a little. I also piped on the frosting but you could just as well use a knife. I then placed cut up pieces of the Snickers. Enjoy 


Recipe source: Kevin & Amanda