“My attendance at the Blog Brûlée is/was partially funded by Sponsors of the Blog Brûlée, and I received a discounted registration to the event in exchange for writing this post. Opinions expressed are my own. I was not compensated for my time.”
Holy cow someone pinch me because in t-minus four days I will be in the beautiful state of Vermont. This of course is not just any ordinary trip. It’s a trip I have been anticipating for months now. One that I never thought in a billion years I would be taking when I first hit “publish” on The Nutritious Kitchen back in 2013.
The ambitious and adventurous nature inside me is head over heels excited to be attending the second annual Blog Brûlée retreat. Aka the best food blogger weekend getaway sponsored by delicious companies like Siggi’s yogurt and California Almonds to name a few. Many of you are probably wondering what exactly is Blog Brûlée. We basically sit around at a resort and eat cream brûlée all day…right? Just kidding…I mean I would be up for it but luckily this conference is so much more than that and SO much more than a blogger “conference”.
The low down: Blog Brûléeis an invitation only invent founded by some mega-inspirational registered dietitians, Regan Jones, Robin Plotkin, Deanna Segrave-Daly and Gretchen Brown. The retreat is centered around providing us food bloggers with education toward growing our business. We get to learn the fundamentals of development opportunities, food photography, social media, monetization and everything in-between.
Oh and we eat. Like eat a lot of delicious foods all day.
To be honest I am extra excited to finally meet all the bloggers attending the event and be around people who share the same passions and dreams as I do. I have a mind that is eager to learn but also eager to build relationships and gain support from one another. The fact that I was invited to this retreat at Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont really feels like a dream to me.
In honor of this huge food blogger sleepover I decided to make Banana Pancake Muffins with Vermont Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. I basically used Vermont maple syrup as a sweetener instead of ordinary maple syrup because Vermont is so special to me right now. That’s me attempting to be clever.
Either way, these muffins are getting me that much more excited for all the things to come in life.
Blog Brûlée here we come + {Banana Pancake Muffins with Vermont Maple Cream Cheese}
- Yield: Makes 9–10 muffins 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup pancake mix*
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/3 cup Vermont maple syrup
- 1/3 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Handful of chocolate chunks
Frosting
- 1 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup Vermont maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Brown sugar for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line am muffin pan with 9 liners.
- In a large bowl combine mashed banana, maple syrup, milk and vanilla extract. Whisk together with a hand blender until completely smooth. Stir in the pancake mix until fully combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks then pour batter evenly into each muffin tin, filling up almost to the top.
- Bake for 15 minutes then allow the muffins to cool on a cooling rack.
- While the muffins are cooling, make your frosting by whipping together the cream cheese, maple syrup and cinnamon with a hand blender. Once the muffins are cool, frost each muffin then top with brown sugar. You will have extra frosting so you can always make another batch of muffins 🙂
Notes
*I used kodiak cakes pancake mix