And the winner of the Earth Day giveaway from BBC Home Entertainment is…

Patricia Crowley April 19, 2012 at 7:47 pm

Wonderful giveaway!! These would be so educational!

Congrats – send me an email with your address! Thanks to everyone for entering and reading and stay tuned, I will be having another giveaway for Mother’s Day next month!

Banana cupcakes (recipe here)
These are what chimps request for their birthday parties, I’m sure.

Curious George cupcakes (recipe here)
The Kid loves his bff monkey and I’m sure he will be by his side forever.

Banana Yogurt Muffins (recipe here)
Gorilla Grodd will NOT share.

This button is near and dear to my baking heart because I made these for the Food Librarian‘s annual 30 bundt cakes in 30 days aka I Like Big Bundts! Whoever participated by making a bundt cake along with her on National Bundt Day was mailed this limited edition button. It was for bakers only…who like Big Bundts!!

It’s awesome to be nominated and the button with the most votes wins! Please go here to vote for #7 “I Like Big Bundts” from now until Feb 23!

I’m excited to announce that I’m a finalist in the Cakespy contest!

Please vote for my SmoresTroopers cupcakes by either commenting on the blog post, ‘like’ing on facebook or commenting on flickr! Thanks for your support!

Today is National Bundt Day, aka the day of rest for The Food Librarian who has been posting a bundt a day for 30 days leading up to this point. I helped her with one of them and inspired, I decided to participate by baking one today! That and you get a special limited edition “I Like Big Bundts” 2011 baker pin! Er, I designed it. But still! Free pin!

So I made a Banana Nutella Bundt. The main ingredient in this cake is irony since I can’t stand bananas (but they’ve been rotting on the counter since the kids didn’t eat them) and turns out, the Kid is now allergic to Hazelnuts. Insert sadtrombone here.

Still this bundt came out good and there is something lovely about a traditional no nonsense bundt pan. Lots of childhood memories of bundt cake. Happy National Bundt Day!

ingredients:
2-1/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, melted
4 mashed bananas
3 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup nutella

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep a bundt pan by greasing it with melted butter.

In a large bowl whisk the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the butter, mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla. Pour into the prepped bundt pan.

Right on top, add the Nutella in the center of the batter.

Using a butter knife pull and swirl the nutella into the bundt.

Bake for 45-50 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool for 30 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

When you cut in you will get a nice swirl, except for this part that I cut into and the swirl was not so swirly. But you get the idea! It was still deelish – nothing like a hint of Nutella to make sweets even sweeter!

Ahh, the king of comfort foods, wrapped up in a sweet cookie.

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3-1/2 cups all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
peanut butter
jelly

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep baking sheets with silpats.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and peanut butter until combined. Add the sugars – then the eggs and vanilla.

In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda – add that to the mixture until fully combined. It will almost start to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Take a Tablespoonful of dough and flatten it out in your hand. Add a small spoonful of jelly.

Ok, ok – I used jam – not the same as jelly but fresh off the local strawberry tour, so I couldn’t resist. Also Peanut Butter + Jam doesn’t have the same ring to it. Pinch the edges together, fully closing up around the jelly.

Place on the prepped pan and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the pan – if you move them when they are warm, they may break. Once they’ve set, let them cool on a wire rack.

A sandwich in a cookie. I suppose you could eat these for lunch. Tho I wouldn’t advise it…

Happy Halloween!

Random Integer selector (and Batman) tells me that the big winner is…

Tara, email me with your mailing address and the prize will be mailed out.
Thanks to everyone for reading!

I know I said there wouldn’t be any more giveaways this year but I thought this was a good one. I absolutely love this Hello Kitty for Japan tote and the money goes to a great cause. Japan still needs a lot of help, so what better way to support than with something TOTALLY adorable. This bag is sold out in a lot of places, so get it here for FREE while you can!

But what will it be filled with?

Hello Kitty Macaroni, Hello Kitty Baking Cups and Hello Kitty Pocky. These items are rare and hard to find in stores. If you don’t like Hello Kitty…well, I think you’ve come to the wrong blog, honestly. But what else do I love just as much as Hello Kitty?

That’s right. Star Wars. These stencils would have been a great addition to my Ultimate Star Wars Party! Minimal work in the kitchen?! Count me in! These stencils just came out and are super fun, imagine the possibilities!

TO WIN: tell me what recipe you’ve made from this blog that you’ve tried or want to try (list of recipes here). You have from now until July 24! Winner to be announced on Tuesday the 26. (Note: All prizes were purchased by ME with my own money.)

And don’t forget to stop by Small Press if you’re down at Comic Con. Good luck and thanks for reading!