Bananas Foster Bread with Cinnamon Butter Rum Glaze

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Last week we celebrated National Banana Bread Day. And national pancake day... and tortilla day... margarita day... pistachio day and kahlua day. Oh and then we celebrated pancake day again this week (thanks, IHOP). It seems that every food has its own holiday lately. Tomorrow is banana cream pie day. So being late to banana bread day, and early to banana cream pie day, I'll stick to the banana theme and combine two familiar banana desserts - bananas foster and banana bread.

Peanut Butter Glazed Banana Bread

Fall is fast approaching and for me that means the smell of fallen leaves, wood stoves, boots, sweaters and fall foods. One of those fall foods is quick bread... banana, pumpkin, apple, zucchini, no matter the flavor, it's a fall staple.

Since I went a little overboard in buying bananas last week, I had a bunch of brown bananas that needed to be put to good use. I found this recipe for banana bread in a past issue of Cooking Light. I was intrigued by the peanut butter banana combination and the idea of glazing a quick bread. I had to substitute a few of the ingredients due to what I had on hand in the kitchen, so I'm sad to say the bread probably isn't as light as the original.

Double Glazed Funfetti Doughnuts

So this is what my doughnut pan was meant for! Ooey, gooey, sprinkled and glazed (make that double glazed) doughnuts made from my favorite cake mix - funfetti! 

This past Saturday, I visited my friend Amanda in her hometown of Emmaus, PA. Amanda and I were friends in college. We met our freshmen year and were both communications majors. Together, Amanda and I suffered through countless hours of elementary graphic design classes, senior seminar presentations and lectures by professors who assured us that our college degrees (worth $130k) would give us the upper-hand in the dwindling job market upon graduation. Now, three years later, Amanda and I get together every now and then to have a few drinks,  reminisce about our college days, calculate our student loan debt and damn the professors who gave us false hope about our futures.

This time, we not only decided to drown our sorrows in wine but also eat our feelings in funfetti doughnuts courtesy of Cookies and Cups. 

Lemon Blueberry Baked Doughnuts with Vanilla Bean Glaze

If I had to decide between a muffin, a doughnut or a bagel for breakfast, hands down, it would be a doughnut. Krispy Kreme, Dunkin', Maple Glazed, I don't care who makes them, I love them. I finally got my doughnut pan on Friday and couldn't wait to jump into the world of baked doughnuts. I packed up the pan, some fresh picked blueberries and a bag of lemons and headed to New Jersey with a mission: Spend time with great friends, hit some sand and sun at the beach and bake some doughnuts.

My favorite doughnut has always been a blueberry cake doughnut with glaze. I love how they're slightly crisp on the outside from their bath in the fryer and a fresh coat of glaze. Yet they are moist, cakey and overloaded with sweet blueberries inside.

I knew that a baked doughnut would not have the same texture of a traditionally fried doughnut. Realistically, I was expecting them to be a doughnut shaped muffin. I found this to be somewhat true, though the doughnuts were a little more dense than a muffin.