ocean fun

sorry, no new recipe but here are some pictures of the cupcakes and mini cakes I baked for my friend's twin boys for their first  birthday party! The cupcake flavors are coconut, red velvet and chocolate. I made the sea creatures out of royal icing. I also used royal icing to paint the bikinis and surf shorts on the teddy graham cookies. Hope you get some fun ideas.

Chocolate Toffee Macadamia Nut Banana Bread

lame iphone pic- sorry

 So a while back my dear friend Kami told me she makes her banana bread with chocolate covered macadamia nuts sprinkled on top, what a genius idea!!! So I thought, what about delightful chocolate toffee macadamia nuts because of their crunchy and buttery goodness, and yum! I also added macadamia nuts to the batter itself, not the toffee chocolate ones though. Here is the recipe, I dare you to try it!

Recipe:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (3-4 medium sized) very ripe bananas, mashed (I used apple bananas)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 to 3/4 cups chopped chocolate toffee covered macadamia nuts chopped (I think the brand I used was island princess, but I'm sure a few companies make them)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350. spray 2 (8x4 inch) loaf pans with pam or grease bottoms.
2. In your mixer beat sugars and butter. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla, beat with mixer until smooth. Add remaining ingredients except for chocolate toffee mac nuts and mix just until well incorporated. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans and top with chopped chocolate toffee mac nuts.
3. Bake at 350 f for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for about an hour before slicing(or eat hot because you can't wait).

jungle fun

i went to a jungle themed pot luck baby shower yesterday and brought these fun treats =)