Ah, Tahini...

It has been a few days sine my last post. Cupcakes, while always on my brain, were farther in the back the last little bit. Part of this lifestyle I live means pretty consistently saying good bye to friends. When you have been with certain ones for several years, it is that much harder. Good luck, J & K, in your new very green, very wet home!

Now on to cupcakes. My inspiration for this weeks experiment was a Whole Foods blog. This blog discussed different ways to enjoy Tahini, a spread made of sesame seeds. The concept is fairly similar to peanut butter, but with sooooo many ways to enjoy. Now I must admit, I have never had Tahini. I did, however, happen to have a jar of Tahini I had purchased for a recipe I was never actually going to make. ;)

The blog mentioned a banana covered in Tahini and drizzled with dark chocolate. I am a pretty simple girl, and quite frankly, you had me at bananas and chocolate... It didn't take long to sit down and scribble out a recipe, with a banana cupcake, some Tahini frosting and some chocolate drizzles. After some intense discussion with A, who has actually had Tahini, we decided it would be most delicious if we added some chocolate swirls into the cake itself also.

Swirling cakes has proved to be an interesting challenge. I am pretty sure I ended up with a banana cake with a chocolate layer on top, but that's ok. If the recipe proves tasteworthy, I will have plenty of time to practice my technique. The cake also domes up a bit more than is typical for my recipes, but there is nothing wrong with a nicely rounded cupcake. The cake also has a sheen on it, which is another first for me. I do believe the bananas I used made for a denser cake, but again the jury is still out.

Wanna-be swirls

I decided to make the Tahini frosting the same way I make Peanut Butter frosting. Cream together some butter (or in this case, Earth balance) Tahini and Powdered sugar, with a bit of soy milk for consistency, and tada! Tahini Frosting. I have to admit to sampling this one, which I rarely do. The whole concept of Tahini kind of scared me, but it worked out surprisingly well.

Keeping this one vegan ;)

To finish these off, and make them pretty, I drizzled some melted semi sweet chocolate over the top.

You can almost see the chocolate layers here

Pretty BCT Cupcake!

Recipe

Banana Chocolate Cupcake
makes 24
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
4 bananas, smashed (the riper the better)
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup soy milk + 1 tsp vinegar (let sit about 5 minutes before combining with others)
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp cornstarch
dash nutmeg

Directions:
Mix wet ingredients together (first 6). Whisk dry ingredients in seperate bowl. Add in 2 batches to wet mixture, reserving 1 1/2 cups batter. Mix well until no large lumps remain. To reserved batter, add 2 heaping tbsp cocoa powder, mix well.

Spoon white batter into liners until about 1/2 full. Add chocolate mixture to each liner evenly. Swirl with knife to create pattern. (I have trouble with this. Mine became banana layer topped with chocolate layer. Still delicious.) Bake 15-18 minutes.

Tahini Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter or margarine (Yay for Earth Balance!)
3/4 cup tahini
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tsp (ish) soy milk

Directions:
Cream butter and tahini together. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, followed by dash of soy milk. Mix until desired consistency is reached. (Make sure to test this before frosting your cupcakes, as different tahinis will take different amounts of sugar!!)

Pipe onto cupcake and drizzle with melted chocolate.

Channeling My Inner Elvis

Okay, okay, I know it is a cliche. There is only one thing Elvis is famous for that translates into a cupcake: peanut butter banana sandwiches. Personally, I love this combination. It is positively delicious, so why not make a cupcake out of it? I know it's been done, but has it been done my way? I think not. This is the first cupcake recipe I created, from start to finish. Lucky for me, it turned out very well, and I developed some newly found confidence. Yay!! One of my taste cadets actually said one bite immediately transported her into memories of PB & B sandwiches, so that is the name I settled on, the PB & B.

I am going to post my recipes here. Let me know what you think!

Roasted Banana Cupcake (The B, of PB & B)

Makes 20-22
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line muffin tin with papers

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups Flour
1 ½ cups Sugar
2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Mix above ingredients into mixing bowl; leave a well in the middle for wet ingredients.

Add:
½ cup well blended silken tofu (The silken part is very important!!)
3-4 roasted bananas, peeled and cooled
2 tsps. Vanilla
¾ cup canola oil
½ cup soy milk

Into well, mix until wet and dry are combined. (Don’t over mix). Fill muffin tins 2/3 full, bake 20-25 minutes.

*To roast bananas, place in pan, put in 375 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. They will turn dark brown.

Peanut Butter Frosting (The PB, of the PB & B)

Ingredients

4 oz cream cheese
4 oz butter
9 oz peanut butter
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
Milk

Blend cream cheese and butter together. Add Peanut butter, mix until well combined. Add powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time. Add splash of milk between powdered sugar additions, until desired consistency reached.

*Substitute vegan options, such as earth balance spread and vegan cream cheese, and this is a perfect vegan combo. That was my original recipe, and works perfectly either way.