Pretty Strawberry-Vanilla Cupcakes.

Catherine, the amazingly fantastical BUGS poster maker, requested 18 strawberry-vanilla cupcakes for her friends birthday and of course I did!

Take a gander. I used chocolate and vanilla icing while decorating the outside and it went surprisingly well.
Of course that's my laptop on facebook in the background...

Now, how about that strawberry filling...

- CUPCAKE DIVE! -
Shall we invert the colours??

The Biggest, Chewiest, and Most Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever!

These cookies are just fantastic. I'm a huge chocolate chip cookie connoisseur and besides PC decadent cookies, these are now my new favourite. They're just so big and yummy.

COOKIE-HANCE

I didn't make these for anyone but me. I had a real itching to have some cookies around the house. Unfortunately they only lasted 3 days... I only made 14 and I shared... kinda.



Visual Noms!

Cupcakes and Muffins

How do you take a regular muffin and jazz it up? You add a splash of colour and a dash of flavour. How do you take a regular vanilla cupcake and send it back to the 70's? You tie dye it!

I made my whole wheat fruit fiesta muffins and let me tell you, not only were they fantastically delicious, but they were pretty looking too. See?


As for the cupcakes... unfortunately I never remembered to snap a photo but no doubt I'll make them again. I'd love to taste them and see how they worked out. It's true though, tie dyed cupcakes. 4 colours, one cake... pretty awesome. Add some neon blue icing and bam, you're set to have a rainbow party in your mouth. It helps that it tastes good too!

These two were for my friend Alex, who was shamelessly promoting me to his collegues at work.

Dinners for one that could feed four - part two!

Day 2 Day 2 woohoo.

On the docket today - 2 utterly fantatsical chicken dishes. Both of which have an under lying lemon feel but they're not lemon chicken.

Dinner 3: Taragon Chicken Casserole.

Can you guess whats in it? If you guessed Taragon and Chicken... you're bang on. I'm so full of whit, I know. There is also green beans, leeks and lemon in the dish. It smells fantastic, tastes amazing and made my belly grumble. It doesn't yield as much as I thought it would be it will definitely be more than enough for one person for one meal.

My food just loves the camera!


Dinner 4: Chermoula Chicken with Tomato Pilaf

What's chermoula chicken? People don't give their dishes fancy names for nothin'. The Chermoula is a rub like paste from South Africa so as you can assume, I didn't make this one up. The rub consists of a load of cleansing ingredients such as lemon, garlic, cumin, paprika and a few other things. The tomato pilaf has helped me get over my fear of eggplant. It's just so strange looking and it has a faint but funny smell. It could be that the eggplant in this case is roasted and when mixed in with the pilaf it takes on a very sweet lemony eggplanty tomato-y taste. I really don't know but I do enjoy it now.

Feast your eyes on this beauty (oh yeah, that's right I said it.) !


So that is that for now. Monday I'm taking off Tuesday I will be making some muffins and cupcakes for an order, Wednesday I finally have an interview in the morning and then that night will consist of cupcake frosting and making dinners for Thursday - Saturday.

I guess I should clean up and start that meal plan hmm...

Ah the life of me.

Dinners for one that could feed four - part one

Saturday Saturday...

What a day to spend in the kitchen. It was absolutely beautiful outside today. Nice and bright, blue skies, warm and uber fantastic. Did I go outside? Naww, it's over rated. Farthest I ventured from the kitchen today was to go on the balcony and let the wind blow through my hair for a bit.

Only 2 dinners today. 2 more tomorrow morning. A meal plan have I still to plan. Ah well. So check it out... I'm quite impressed with myself.

Dinner 1: Vegetable Beef Stew

Really nothing fancy. You've got some beef, potatoes, corn, carrots, onions, garlic, basil, pepper, bay leaves, and a few other things. Throw it all in a slow cooker and let it cook for 6 hours and man you are set~!

Dinner 2: Chickpea and Tomato Bulgur Pilau

Slightly more fancy but instead of using bulgur wheat I used quinoa. It's better for you and locks in a load more of the flavours that are in the pot. I stole a spoonful of this and oh my god, it was so good. I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms in fact I hate them passionately. I think they're gross. However, this dish may have very well changed my mind. The texture of the mushrooms changed a good bit and made them more similar to that of a tomato rather than just gross. As a result I really liked them. The chickpeas add that perfect sort of squish crunch that you would expect from this type of meal. Also, this was very satisfying for a vegetarian meal.

Photos are essential for the vicarious eater.

Lemon Lemon Lemon.... mmmm Lemon.

In approximately 3 minutes from now my Lemon loaf will be completed. Oh my gosh, it smells so good. I'm just making up my glaze right now and I seriously cannot wait so I can throw the excess mini muffin loaves I've made into the oven so I can eat them!

I'm far more impressed with this attempt at loaf making. No explosions, no spills, no heart attacks. Works far better in my opinion.


Oh it looks so nice! I really hope she likes it! It's for a friend of mine who used to be my roooomie. Oh it's taking so much effort not to just cut into it and start eating it. It just looks so yummy. I'll have a mini version of it and let you guys know for sure how amazing it is.


I've squeezed lemons before but I never really realized how much juice you can get out of one. Its definitely a good thing, I had much more glaze than I thought so now I'll have some for my muffins too. I hope it worked properly and got deep inside the loaf instead of just hanging out on top.

Between writing this out and waiting for photos to upload, I had a mini muffin loaf. Deadly. Like pure heaven in your mouth. The loaf itself isn't as lemony as the ones from the specialty shops or grocery stores but then again, it probably has half the amount of sugar too. The glaze definitely added the extra lemon kick it needed. Perhaps next time I'll add more lemon. Still super good though.

See See?

Banana Maddness - Day 2

Last night I made Katie's whole wheat banana muffins with crumble topping. They were fun to make mainly because I've never made the crumble top before. It was certainly an adventure among other things. No exploding but pictures I do have!


I was a little surprised about how much they settled after I took them out of the oven. By settled I mean they kind of shrunk back up almost like a balloon deflating. Could very well have been my imagination. Ah well, they seemed to be a big hit with the BUGS crew so I am happy. Hopefully that means a few more orders.

The crumble actually worked much better than I thought it would. Stayed on relatively well and surprisingly enough didn't get all over my stove. Oh yeah, here are some photos!




Speaking of orders. 1 more came in for 12 vanilla/vanilla cupcakes and 12 fruit fiesta muffins. Not until next week though. Should be fun. They're for work at a friend of mines so hopefully the word circulates around there and the inbox gets a few more messages.

Up next LEMON LOOOAF!

The Big Banana Bang - Robbo's Loaf

It's Banana Madness today!

A loaf and 12 muffins don't really seem like they should warrant the term madness but when your loaf starts exploding mayhem generally occurs.

Started off this morning working on Robbo's fancy whole wheat oatmeal banana graham crumble pie loaf as it's been so named by the two of us. Was working out quite nicely. I was slightly concerned about how I would combat the extra dry ingredients but luckily a secret ingredient was added to help that out. Anyhow, all goes well, batter is fluffy and ready to go.

Over the next half an hour I had a heart attack, was worried about my apartment building having to be evacuated and the chance of people seeing me in my apron and baking comfy clothes.

I filled up the tin, stuck the oven on 350, popped it in and sat down to have some raisin bran. 30 minutes in I smell burning. Immediately freaking out thinking Robbie's loaf is being burnt to a crisp I look through the oven window to see the most horrifying sight.

Robbie's Banana Loaf had exploded in my oven...

I'm not talking about a little spill... my oven needed a serious shower. I'm glad the loaf survived and I mean as a result I had a nice little pile of it growing on my cookie sheet at the bottom of my oven so I got to try some (it's delicious!). Unfortunately for you guys, I was raised to clean up a mess ASAP so no pictures.

I do have a pretty photo of the loaf though.
Ta da! All is well. Hopefully he likes it.

Now onto Kbad's muffins!

Ahh so busy so busy!

Order Paradise!

Current order list is up to 5. Oh the number 5. Generally a happy number though uneven. Costs about $5 for my favourite drink at Starbucks. $5 is the amount I wanted to spend on a glass container for my icing sugar but decided not to. $5 is the amount I have in my wallet and the amount I'll be spending on my Zoo ticket for our trip on the 20th.

Anywho, bakery jazz.

So I'm going to be painfully busy the next few days. Between now and Saturday I have a girls night out, a departmental meeting, a BUGS meeting, a grocery shopping adventure and 4 orders to fill.

The orders:
1. 12 1/2 Banana, 1/2 Banana Nut Whole Wheat muffins
2. 1 Whole wheat banana graham cracker crumble loaf
3. 1 lemon loaf
4. A meal plan and at least 3 of the 7 dinners I'm making for a pal.

The baking extravaganza is happening tomorrow night after my grocery shopping adventure. I really need to clean up the fridge so I can fit everything in there. So little space in our tiny apartment.

Here's a list of things I need to buy:
- Bags for the loaves
- Blank white stickers (if anyone knows where I can get these pleaseeeee tell me)
- A lemon

Remember, should you wish to order:
banana.bean.bakery@gmail.com

The menu is a few posts down. Also, join our facebook group! Banana Bean Bakery.

Thanks so much guys, you're all being extremely helpful and supportive.

RoRo's Chocolate Cupcakes

My first order... ahhhhh sounds so nice.

My friend Romi ordered 12 chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing. Generally basic and not concerning in any sort of way.


However, I couldn't very well just keep it basic. That's boring. I jazzed it up slightly - colourful vanilla buttercreme icing, chocolate chips, and star confetti to boot.


I had one since I accidentally made too many... I mean I'm not trying to toot my own horn but lets just say, my life is now complete. These cupcakes are amazingly fantastic

Take a look -

I really hope she likes them as much as I did.

What can I order from Banana Bean?

Banana Bean Bake-a-bles

-Soups, Stews, Chili-

Hearty Vegetable Soup
Chicken Vegetable Soup
Vegetable Beef and Barley
Potato Broccoli and Coriander Soup
Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Carrot and Squash Soup

Vegetable Beef Stew

Hearty Beef Chili
Spicy Beef Chili
Vegetarian Chili

$5 per serving
$8 for 2 servings
$18 for 4 servings

-Cupcakes-

Chocolate-Chocolate/Vanilla
$15 per dozen

Chocolate Strawberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
Chocolate Raspberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
Chocolate Mint-Chocolate/Vanilla
$18 per dozen

Vanilla-Chocolate/Vanilla
$15 per dozen

Vanilla Strawberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
Vanilla Raspberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
$18 per dozen

Jasmine Green Tea-Chocolate/Vanilla
$15 per dozen

Banana-Chocolate/Vanilla
Banana Nut-Chocolate/Vanilla
Banana Chip-Chocolate/Vanilla
Banana Graham Crumble-Chocolate/Vanilla
$18 per dozen

Confetti
$15 per dozen

Apple Strawberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
Peach-Chocolate/Vanilla
$15 per dozen

-Cookies-

Chocolate Chip
Peanut Butter
Oatmeal Raisin
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut
$10 per dozen

-Bars and Squares-

Lemon squares
Brownies
Magic cookie bars
Date squares
$15 per dozen

-Muffins-

Blueberry
Carrot
Bran
Raisin Bran
Chocolate Chip
Fruit Fiesta
$15 per dozen

-Loaf-

Lemon
Banana-Nut/Chip
Carrot
$8 per loaf

-Pies-

Blueberry
Apple
Pumpkin
Lemon
Chocolate
$18 per pie

-Cakes-

Chocolate-Raspberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
Chocolate-Blueberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Chocolate/Vanilla
$20 per 2 layer cake

Vanilla-Raspberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
Vanilla-Blueberry-Chocolate/Vanilla
$20 per 2 layer cake

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake
Caramel Apple Bundt Cake
$18 per cake

Direct orders to:

banana.bean.bakery@gmail.com

Please allow at least 2 business days for your order to be ready. Special requests are always accepted.

How to order from Banana Bean

The best way to place an order from Banana Bean is by doing the following:

1. Check the ordering list available on the blog post above this one and on the facebook group. As well, specialty orders are always welcome.

2. Email me your order. Include number of orders, form of payment, date you would like them by and whether you will be coming to pick them up or if I am responsible for drop off.

3. Enjoy the ultimate amazingness Banana Bean offers.

Contact information

- Orders -
banana.bean.bakery@gmail.com

- General inquiries -
anna_beard@hotmail.com

- Recipes -
Ppsht. Yeah right, how else would I make money?

Welcome to Banana Bean!

Welcome to Banana Bean Bakery.

Banana Bean Bakery comes with a story. More the name has a story than the actual bakery but that may change as time passes.

Where does the Banana come from?

My name is Anna and of course, Anna rhymes with Banana. Anna Banana was generally a nickname used only by my Dad, his side of the family, a few friends at school and my buddy Michelle.

Where does the Bean come from?

When I was a baby, I was super long and skinny, resembling a string bean. Mom just started calling me bean and it's stuck since then. Mainly Mom, My step dad and my sisters but it's spreading like wild fire.

Why a bakery?

I adore cooking. It's like science but with food. Besides being outside, there's nothing I find more relaxing and rewarding. I love sweets. Wait, I should change that. I'm addicted to sweets. It's impossible to keep them in the house because I fly through them so quickly. I enjoy baking for other people more than myself. I find it exciting and the best part is the reaction.

So here we are,

It's June and I'm still without a job. It's no use trying to sugar coat it, life has been pretty hard lately. No job = no money and no money = no fun. I woke up the other day and was really ready to put all my time and energy into this (not like I'm doing much else) and make this little endeavor the best it can be.

What exactly am I doing?

This blog will be used as a place for you guys to follow my progress in setting up, (at least for now), a great way for me to indicate the interest, a way for you guys to see the types of things I'm making, and a way for me to reflect on what I've accomplished so far.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the ride.
Anna