Banana Pudding Cupcakes

I made banana pudding cupcakes tonight as an early birthday treat for the hubs.  I am super proud to say they were delicious!  I changed up a recipe I found at http://ryansbakingblog.com, trying to find the closest thing I could to make sure they tasted like Bliss Cupcake's version we have here in town. 

I think they were better than Bliss', but I did take a few easy outs along the way. 

Here's the recipe...Starling approved.

Robyn's Easy Banana Pudding Cupcakes

1 box of yellow cake mix and the ingredients it requires on the box

3 mashed bananas

1 sliced banana

1 box of instant vanilla pudding

2 cups of milk

1 lrg container of cool whip (don't cringe...I know homemade is better, but this mom didn't have the time to make whipped cream this afternoon)

1 box of Nilla Wafers

24 cupcake liners

Preheat the oven to 325. Line muffin pans with cupcake liners and spray with non-stick spray.  Put a Nilla Wafer at the bottom of each liner.

Make the cake mix as directed on the box, then stir in the mashed bananas.  Spoon the mixture into each liner to about 2/3 full.  Then bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely.

Combine the pudding mix and milk and stir until it's well blended.  Put the pudding in a large ziplock bag, then store it in the frig until the cupcakes are cool.

Make a small hole in the middle of each cupcake, then clip an end off of the pudding bag and pipe in pudding in the center of each cupcake.  Top with whipped cream (or cool whip if you're me).  Garnish with a Nilla Wafer and a sliced banana.

Makes 24 cupcakes.  They were a hit with the entire family! 

FYI:  I got permission to use a cake mix from Chef Jaime before I tried it.  I'm sure making it from scratch is wonderful too, but I'll take help where I can.

The Hub's Birthday Week

I have a wonderful man in my life.  This weekend is his birthday.  I ask him what he'd like for his birthday and he says, "Nothing Rob.  I can't think of anything that I need, so don't buy me anything."  What do I get for the man that wants nothing?  I've decided that this year I am going to cook a week's worth of his favorite dishes and desserts. 

Here's what I've got planned:
Banana Pudding Cupcakes!  The husband is a man of few words, especially with food.  One afternoon he came home from work and was going on and on about Bliss Cupakes http://www.blisscupcakecafe.com/ banana pudding cupcakes that someone had brought to his office.  I jumped on that...and for his birthday last year, he received them instead of the traditional birthday cake.  This year, I'm going to attempt to make them myself and here's the recipe I've found that closely sounds like it resembles the one from Bliss.  http://ryansbakingblog.com

http://ryansbakingblog.com/2011/01/banana-pudding-cupcakes/

On to dessert number two!  If the banana pudding cupcakes are a success, I'm going to ATTEMPT to make Granny Ludie's Coconut Cake.  Now...this isn't the normal kind of coconut cake....it's the super special one that he guards when we visit Curtis, cuts big slabs of it to take home with us and then doesn't share any of it with anyone else. Since I don't really bake, this will be a challenge for me in itself.  We are talking about layers and layers of special filling and to die for frosting.  Here's the recipe!  Get excited! 

Granny Ludie's Coconut Cake

For the cake-

1 box of yellow cake mix (Ludie says to use Duncan Hines)

2/3 c water

3 large eggs

1/2 c oleo

For the filling-

Mix together:

2 pkgs of thawed frozen coconut (this is a must, don't go for the kind in the can)

2 c sugar

16 oz sour cream

Put aside one cup of the filling and then add to it....
1 1/2 c whipped cream and put it in the freezer

Bake the cake according to the directions on the cake box.
Layer the filling mixture in between the 3 cake layers. Then put whipped cream mixed with the filling on top and sides and put in the fridge.  Sprinkle with extra coconut.  It's better if it sets for a day or two.



My sister made this for Ryan back in December after writing down Ludie's recipe.  She text'd it to me...the above is my interpretation of what she sent.  I think I got it right....

I'll let you know how it goes.

The final dessert will be Ludie's Lemon Pound Cake.  He loves this so much that it was actually his groom's cake at our wedding.  We made several of them, in different sizes and had them on display, along with a recipe card sharing the "secret" recipe for our wedding guests.  Looking back now, I don't have any pics of it....but it was such a hit that the recipe was printed in my hometown church cookbook the next year. 

Three desserts this week!  I might have to sneak in a special dinner or two. Sugar overload is headed our way.

Life on Canvas

Recent canvases I've painted for friends. 

This is the biggest canvas I've painted.  It's 3x5 and my friend requested an African tree.

Crowns for the princesses!

Her name is Miss Arkansas XO, Jobelle.

Savvy's birthday present.

A crown for Kendall.

Hello Kitty for Madison.

Bev's Wedding

My first cousin and one of my favorite people got married earlier this month.  The couple chose Old Washington Historic Park for the location, the Presbyterian Church and the old gymnasium for the reception.  It was simple and just beautiful!

I helped design her wedding programs. We chose to do a 3-tiered fan, instead of the usual folded program. I found an idea on-line and changed it up a bit to fit what the couple wanted. Here's what I came up with!

The women in the family helped cut them out!

days with my girls

Life is good.  I'm going at it with a positive perspective and it's taken me a long time to "Be Joyful Always."  I still find that I can let myself get down sometimes.  It's especially hard when things don't go my way. 

Stay focused and move forward.  Where else can you go? 

With summer near an end, we've traveled and I've being teaching both sessions, but I feel so weighted down and tired.  I haven't had much of a summer, but that's not to say I don't remember the days as a reporter where I worked through holidays and weekends, so I do appreciate my two hours of "work" each day and the time I'm able to spend with my daughters.  My two girls have come along with me quite a bit to campus. They watch movies and do crafts while I'm in class in my office. 

They turned 9 and 5 this summer.  June and July always mark big birthday celebrations for us. 

They fuss and really argue.  Is it their age difference? I'm beginning to wonder.  I so hope they one day get along and love to spend time with each other.

The best days are spent with all 3 of us singing at the top of our lungs to music in the living room.

             Watching Ginny Grace dress up over and over again like a princess and put on a recital for us.

                     Finding Starling curled up with a book in her room, reading quietly...without me asking her to take some time out to read.

                                Listening to them laugh together.

                                                   Going shopping with them and they each have their own opinion as to what they like.  I'm sure I'll regret saying that later.  We went shopping for TOMS yesterday and Starling picked out the perfect pair of glittered black shoes, while Ginny Grace found her own pair of sequeined Yellow Box flip-flops.  My little fashionistas.

Motherhood is the best thing that's ever happened to me.  How did 4th grade and kindergarten get here so fast?

Here's what I hope to leave each them with today:  I love it when people who could be totally threatened by each other make the choice to truly appreciate the other person’s gifts. It’s a great reminder that beautiful things happen when we’re not afraid to step back and let someone else shine. 

It took me a long time to not be threatened by those who were prettier, smarter or more talented.  I embrace God's gifts he blessed me with.  I only hope my girls will embrace their's too.