Say it with Sprinkles: A baking blog filled with recipes & photos of sweet treats & savory eats.

Oh, August, please don’t go so soon!

You’re a month to be reckoned with – a whirlwind of summer, and back to school time, and all the fuzzy, anxious times in between.  You took me all the way from Sacramento to Los Angeles,  down to Orange County and San Diego, and now you’re about to bring me home again with your wily ways.  I know it may not be something you set out to do, but you’ve been one of the greatest months so far this year, 2nd only to July.

I hope you forgive my resistance to fulfill all your plans for me at this time, but I think you can understand given my penchant for the ocean, Cafe Gratitude, and the freedoms that don’t often accompany a typical school or work schedule.  Just this once, I wish you’d bend the rules a little and bump any of my immediately upcoming obligations out to September instead.  No?  Fine.

So, school and work, it is, I guess.  I think I can forgive you, August, I know it’s not your fault.  Cake!  Coconut!  Coconut always makes things better!

I know coconut is pretty summery and tropical, but the banana is full-on fall, right?  I’ll work on it.  I’m still getting the hang of this September thing!

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I’m not one of those people who are heavily into the semantics of muffins vs. cupcakes and the like.  I mean, I’ve heard some swear you can’t have a muffin with a cupcake paper, and others that you can’t have a cupcake without.  Sure, cupcakes are well, to state the very overly obvious, CAKE…clearly not to be eaten for breakfast…right?

But then what about the chocolatey, cakey-sweet, sugar crumb topping-smattered “cupcakes” parading around under the guise of the muffin moniker?  I know better.  We ALL know better.  So can we please just call the portable, little cupcake/muffins whatever we dang well want once we pop them out of those cupcake/muffin tins, wrappered, frosted, dessert or breakfast bound?  I’m sure there are other specifics involved, like texture, crackly vs. smooth top, etc., but when it comes down to it, I’ll call it a cupcake if I plan to frost it.  I’ll call it a muffin if I plan to eat it for breakfast, especially if it has “mocha” in its description – that’s definitely breakfast.  Maybe I’d skip the frosting in that case, and then call it a cupcake when I pile on the lightly banana-y buttercream frosting.

Life is so much more versatile when you let a muffin be a cupcake every now and then or bake a cupcake without the paper, right!

Mocha Banana Bread Cupcake Recipe

More chocolatey than coffee flavored, these little gems are more muffin-like in the way the tops puff and crack slightly, but more cupcake-esque in texture.  I highly recommend frosting, but you absolutely don’t HAVE to.  But you should!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup non-dairy margarine

1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium-sized)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp instant coffee granules

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Grease or line wells of a standard size muffin tin.

Cream together the margarine and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.   Add in the vanilla extract and the eggs, beating between additions.  Beat in the bananas until mixed well.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.  Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, mixing between additions.  Add in the coffee granules and mix until incorporated.

Scoop batter into muffin tins until almost full.  Bake about 15-18 minutes depending on your oven, until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool before frosting.  While cooling, make the frosting.

Hint-of-Banana Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

2 sticks non-dairy margarine (1 cup)

1 yellow banana, pureed

5 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixture until smooth and fluffy.

Add in the pureed banana and vanilla and beat again until smooth.  Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you reach desired thickness.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

I’m not trying to steal any mocha banana bread cupcake thunder here, but keep an eye out for what might very well be the most amazing carrot cake recipe ever.  It’s also vegan.  And gluten free.  No biggie.  It’s coming up soon!

Enjoy your weekend!  I have some Santa Monica beach time to look forward to! <3

This weekend has been great, although I have to say, it would be even greater if I were hangin’ at Stagecoach right now with friends (SHOUT OUT!) – and probably most of the Los Angeles population!

I’m not sure about the entire musical line-up, but from what I’ve seen, Keith Urban & Rascal Flatts aren’t there anyway, so I’d really be in it for Brad Paisley and fun times with fun people in this AMAZING weather!  I suppose since I already missed Coachella this year, I might as well call it a wash and make sure I hit up both of them next year!  I can get into that. =)

Moving right along, I guess it’s time to talk about bread!  The perfect lazy, eat out on your patio with a cup of tea, weekend morning bread!  Packed with yummy banana, coconut-y goodness, chia seeds for omegas, and juuuust enough pop from the molasses & honey to keep it sweet.

Gluten free.

Dairy free.

And almosssssst vegan.

SOLD!

Gluten Free Dairy Free Coconut Chia Seed Banana Bread

This bread would be vegan if it weren’t for the honey, which I know some have issues with it in terms of the treatment of bees, etc.  As far as I’m concerned (not strictly free from ALL animal byproducts), this is vegan, but for those of you who want something “truly” vegan, you can simply add in maple syrup or some more molasses in its place – easy peasy!

Ingredients:

* 1 cup gluten free flour blend (I used Bob’s Red mill)
* 1/2 cup coconut flour
* 1/3 cup brown rice flour
* 1/4 cup oat flour
* 1/4 cup tapioca starch
* 3 Tbsp chia seeds
* 2 Tbsp ground flax seed
* 2 tsp xanthan gum
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 3 large bananas, mashed
* 1/2 cup coconut-flavored almond yogurt (any non-dairy yogurt would work)
* 2/3 cup honey
* 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
* 1/4 cup coconut oil, warmed until liquid
* 1/4 cup rice milk (soy, almond, coconut, etc. would work)
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup coconut flakes for topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350* F.  Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, and grease with coconut oil on uncovered ends.

Sift together the flours, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the honey molasses, and coconut oil.  Add the bananas, yogurt, rice milk, and vanilla extract.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly, mixing between additions.

Add in the ground flax and chia seeds.  Once well combined, pour into prepared pan and sprinkle top with coconut flakes.

Bake about 45-50 minutes, checking at the 25 minute mark and covering with aluminum foil if browning too quickly.  Bread is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before lifting out and allowing to finish cooling on a cooling rack.

Chopped walnuts, almonds or pecans would be PERFECT added to the batter before baking, as would dried cherries, blueberries, or even cranberries!  Next time, next time!

Super cute banana bread hearts topped with banana slices, toasted coconut & sprinkled with chia seeds anyone?

Next time I’m dusting these with cinnamon.

Enjoyed with a yummy organic  iced soy chai tea latte <3 Lovvvveeeeeeee

And the company of this little rascal  <3 <3 Looooveee loveeee…

All up in my GRILL! ha!

Keepin’ it short & sweet so I can get back to enjoying my day!

Happy Weekending, y’all!

Come back with a slew of Stagecoach pics….;)

I should know better by now than to buy 6 bananas at a time. I go through banana phases where I can’t get enough, eating several a day, to crinkling my lip and giving an unequivocally lack-luster sigh at the thought of them just a week or two later. I blame marketing.

Have you ever noticed how much better an arrangement of 5 or 6 bananas looks in a bunch than say 2? Or even 4? And don’t even get me started on how pretty that nice, symmetrically large, bright yellow bundle looks sitting happily in the kitchen.

Now that I think about it, it’s an awful lot like having fresh flowers in a vase that look amazing for about a week then start tapering off until they have to be tossed and replaced. And then guilt sets in because they died just for my viewing pleasure. I don’t do many flowers, but I like to decorate with bouquets of bananas, I guess?

No banana casualties on my watch this time (until next week, most likely). Brown bananas, meet melted butter. And then meet some coconut and some peanut butter, and probably chocolate, too? Yes, chocolate.

Even if I can’t bear the thought of choking down a banana plain (depending on where I am in any particular banana phase), banana bread is always appealing. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the fact that it’s like banana wrapped in butter and brown sugary sweetness. Maybe.

Just to kick it up a notch, and cuten up the whole situation, I made mini-loaves! Obviously. Not only that, but I went and made it all kinds of more complicated than it really had to be by dividing up the batter and giving the flavors their own little loaves.

One banana & coconut. The other banana peanut butter Reese’s Cup. Worth it? Totally.

Banana Bread Two Ways : Coconut & Peanut Butter w/Reese’s Cups
(Ideally makes 4 mini loaves)

Ingredients:
* 12 Tbsp (6 oz.) unsalted butter, melted
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 1/4 cups mashed ripe banana
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup coconut yogurt
* 1/4 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)
* 2 eggs
* 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 cup unsweetened or sweetened shredded coconut
* 1/4 cup roughly chopped mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups + 2 whole for the top (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease or line 4 mini loaf pans.
Add melted butter and brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and cream together. Add the banana, vanilla, and 2 eggs, mixing between each.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture until combined.
Divide the batter in half, placing one half in a separate mixing bowl.
To one half, stir in the coconut yogurt and shredded coconut.
To the other half, stir in the peanut butter and chopped Reese’s Cups.
Pour the banana coconut batter into two of the loaf pans, filling 1/2 to 3/4 full, depending on the exact size of your mini pans.
Do the same with the banana peanut butter batter. Push a mini Reese’s Cup into the top center of each pb loaf, if desired.

I ended up with slightly more than 1/2 of the batter being peanut butter, so I got 2 nice loaves out of it, and 1 and a puney loaf out of the coconut batter. It happens =)

Bake for about 50 minutes.
I sprinkled a little bit more shredded coconut on top of the coconut loaves about 10 minutes before they were done, just because. It looks nice. I highly recommend it!

This recipe would be great for muffins, too, I think! Just decrease the baking time a little and keep an eye on them!

I realize the actual bread portion of this picture looks a little blurry while the main focus seems to be on the beer. Uhh…NOT intentional, I promise! Although…
There’s a crazy rumor going around that Amber Ale compliments the banana bread well. Or the other way around. I can neither confirm nor deny!