Oh Dear Internet, how wonderful National Cupcake Week was! How much glee it brought me! How are did you celebrate National Cupcake Week? Me? By stuffing my face with frosted deliciousness, of course! Alas, I was unable to post at all this week due to time constraints and the dreaded 'Busy', but here I am, as promised, with a delicious recipe and bake to share!
Now, this post begins a theme; a series of recipe trials celebrating one of my favourite fruits; the humble banana. I’m currently looking for the perfect banoffee cupcake recipe to make it quadrilogy of deliciousness, but for now I have three fantabulous recipes that I will be sharing with you over the coming months.
To start us off, we have the Chocolate Banana Cupcake, with dark chocolate ganache frosting. The original recipe, pre my tweaks, is here.
Chocolate Banana Cupcakes
Makes about 24 good sized cupcakes
400g golden caster sugar
250g self-raising flour
75g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
2 large free range eggs
3 small ripe bananas (or about 2 medium, or 1 very large)
240ml warm water
120ml milk
120g butter, melted
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180/160. Melt the butter in the microwave.
In one bowl, combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder)
In another bowl, mash the bananas. Then whisk in the wet ingredients (butter, water, milk, vanilla and eggs) fairly vigorously to incorporate air.
Now, this post begins a theme; a series of recipe trials celebrating one of my favourite fruits; the humble banana. I’m currently looking for the perfect banoffee cupcake recipe to make it quadrilogy of deliciousness, but for now I have three fantabulous recipes that I will be sharing with you over the coming months.
To start us off, we have the Chocolate Banana Cupcake, with dark chocolate ganache frosting. The original recipe, pre my tweaks, is here.
Chocolate Banana Cupcakes
Makes about 24 good sized cupcakes
400g golden caster sugar
250g self-raising flour
75g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
2 large free range eggs
3 small ripe bananas (or about 2 medium, or 1 very large)
240ml warm water
120ml milk
120g butter, melted
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180/160. Melt the butter in the microwave.
In one bowl, combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder)
In another bowl, mash the bananas. Then whisk in the wet ingredients (butter, water, milk, vanilla and eggs) fairly vigorously to incorporate air.
For reference: the size of bananas I used beside a teaspoon
Combine the two mixtures together, adding wet to dry until evenly mixed. You will have a very liquid, aerated batter. This is normal. Do not panic.
Ladle or pour the batter into either a pre-lined muffin pan or, like me, into your silicone moulds. A regular cupcake mould should be full up to about ½-1 cm below the rim.
Bake for 15-20 mins. In my oven on 160-170, they took 18.To ice and decorate:
230g very good quality dark chocolate
180ml double cream
14g unsalted butter
Break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl.
Heat the cream and butter in a pan over a gentle heat, stirring until the butter has melted.
Bring the cream just the boil, then remove from the heat immediately and pour over the chocolate.
Leave for 3-5 minutes, then come back and stir to combine.
Stir/Beat vigorously for 2-5 minutes, then allow to cool and thicken until thick enough to pipe or spread.
Pipe/spread onto your cakes as you please. Decorate with sprinkles, foam bananas etc.
230g very good quality dark chocolate
180ml double cream
14g unsalted butter
Break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl.
Heat the cream and butter in a pan over a gentle heat, stirring until the butter has melted.
Bring the cream just the boil, then remove from the heat immediately and pour over the chocolate.
Leave for 3-5 minutes, then come back and stir to combine.
Stir/Beat vigorously for 2-5 minutes, then allow to cool and thicken until thick enough to pipe or spread.
Pipe/spread onto your cakes as you please. Decorate with sprinkles, foam bananas etc.
These cupcakes did not impress me one bit to begin with. There was something about the flavour combo that just didn’t work for me. It was only after the cake was aged for a day or two that I really began to appreciate the smoky chocolate and indulgent fruitiness of these cakes. I’m still not 100% convinced by the ganache/cake combo, since the ganache packs a real hefty wallop against the most subtle flavour of the cake. The ganache is incredible on its own if you use the right chocolate, and makes very good truffles in its own right. However, flavours aside, the cake is very light, fluffy and moist, and flavours more subtle. I think if I make these again I’ll just chocolate/royal ice them, and stick a foam banana on top! How wonderfully gaudy! Squee!
I gave a plate of these to Looby because she wasn't feeling well. They certainly perked her up!
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