banana pancakes

i know that this isn't "baking" but they're cakes...sort of? anyway, a couple of weeks ago i made banana pancakes for me, my parents, and my oldest nephew, nels. they were delicious! this warmish humid weather is causing our bananas to ripen like crazy so, once again, i found myself with 3 large over-ripe bananas. time for more pancakes! this time i made some caramelized bananas to go on top of the pancakes. i also made a honey-cinnamon-vanilla whipped cream cheese. holy deliciousness, y'all!

recipes, because i know you're dying for them. the pancake recipe can be found here. i substituted buttermilk for the milk because, duh, buttermilk is incredible in pancakes! here's the recipe for the easy caramelized bananas. and the honey-cinnamon-vanilla whipped cream cheese goes as follows:

8 oz of whipped cream cheese (you can whip a block of cream cheese or just buy the tub of it already whipped)

2-5 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir. some recipes i found said to use 2 tablespoons of honey but i found that that wasn't nearly enough to actually have the honey flavor come across. basically, all of these are "to taste" because you might want more cinnamon or vanilla or whatever.

cupcake carriers

i posted about this on my other blog sunday but whatever, this is where it belongs!

i currently have that cupcake carrier. i've used it many times and it has never failed me. and yet i find my eyes wandering to a replacement even though i don't need one. 

isn't it adorable? knowing me, i'm sure i'll end up getting it soonish because once i put the idea in my head i will drive myself crazy until it's mine. it comes in pink, red, and brown. decisions, decisions! 

cupcake sandwich

last year jorge garcia (hurley) blogged about a new way to eat a cupcake and it has truly changed everything for me. my sister is the one who tipped me off to jorge's tip that he learned from someone who learned it from someone and so forth. thank god my sister is a giant geek who reads hurley's blog! here's the text from his blog with some helpful pictures too.

And a week ago at Java Holloway's first birthday I learned a new and more awesome way to eat a cupcake. I learned it from Don our prop guy, who learned it from Joyce our 2nd AD.

So here it is:

You start with the cup cake.

First you peel away the paper. (Trust me it gets better.)

Then tear off the bottom portion of the cupcake.

Place the torn-off portion on top where the frosting is.

Give it a little squeeze.

And there you have it. Eat it like a cream-filled cake sandwich.

Well now that you all have this knowledge, I hope you'll be able to find a kid's birthday party to go to.

i have a problem and that problem is cupcake liners

sooo in the last couple of months i have managed to procure quite the collection of cupcake liners. i just can't resist when i see some on sale or i see some reallllly cute patterns that i want. other than the easter ones, i don't really have a specific time in mind to use any of these but i guess i just want to have variety at my fingertips. 

this is my caddy where i store all of my liners, sprinkles, jimmies, icing tips/bags, food coloring and other random things that i have found along the way. 

and now here is my collection of liners. like i said, it has become a bit of a problem.

giant cupcake liners that my friend alicia gave me for my birthday

houndstooth from the all in one bake shop

gingham from michaels

pretty design from michaels

pretty floral from michaels

polka dots from michaels

more dots from heb

stripes from the all in one bake shop

gold minis from the all in one bake shop

white minis from the all in one bake shop

jewel tone minis from the all in one bake shop

stripes from heb

primary colors from...? i don't know.

gingham minis from the all in one bake shop

cupcake liners (haha) from heb

leftover from last easter

more easter leftovers

star silicone molds that alicia also gave me for my birthday

sanding sugar, crystals, and sprikles

christmas sprinkles, brown jimmies, and easter sprinkles

do you think i have too much stuff?! haha oh well!

introducing tessie bakes

welcome to my new blog! i just moved my cupcake posts from my other blog over here so now i guess we're ready to go! go where? nowhere, really, but you can expect to read about all of my baking adventures and experiments right here. i have been getting better about taking pictures to document everything as well sooooo here goes! hopefully i'll start to use my dlsr to document what i'm up to in the kitchen and i'll have some higher quality photos, but don't shoot me if i don't!