Chocolate and Chunky Banana Cupcakes with Banana Icing

These Chocolate and Chunky Banana Cupcakes are a real treat.  The cupcake is a moist dark chocolate cake, with chocolate chips and chunks of banana mixed through.  The icing has the most delicious banana flavour (from real bananas!) and perfectly compliments the dark chocolate of the cake.  This is a great recipe to use up any bananas you have lying around.

Makes 12 – 18.

Ingredients:Cupcakes:
2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
¾ cup milk chocolate chips (I used Nestle Choc Drops)
½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 cup plain yoghurt
½ cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 medium sized ripe bananas, roughly mashed (you want chunks)
Icing:
130g butter
¼ cup mashed bananas
½ teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
3 ¼ cups icing sugar
Banana candies for decoration (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Grease or line a muffin tray with cupcakes liners.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and baking soda. 
In a medium sized bowl, whisk the egg, yoghurt, milk and vegetable oil together until smooth.  Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until combined.  Mix through the banana.
Fill the prepared muffin cups so they are ¾ full.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out cleanly.  Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing and to decorate:
Cream together the butter, banana, lemon juice and vanilla essence.  Slowly beat in icing sugar, adding more if needed to make a nice fluffy, spreadable icing.  If the mix is too thick, beat in a few drops of warm water at a time until the desired consistency is reached.  Pipe the icing onto the cupcakes and top with the banana candies.

Fudgey Chocolate Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

These were a request from a lovely new friend I’ve made since going back to work. I thought they were pretty yummy and they seemed to be well received by my colleagues who enjoyed snacking on them during a meeting. I wanted something really chocolatey for the cupcake base so used our Chocolate Mud Cake recipe, it isn’t as rich or dense in cupcake form but tastes delicious and is a little fudge like.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons good quality drinking cocoa
1 cup hot water
¼ cup fruit juice
200 grams dark cooking chocolate chopped
1½cups sugar
250 grams butter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Buttercream:
150g butter softened
3-4 cups icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon cinnamon (more or less to taste)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 140˚C.  Grease and line x2 muffin/cupcake tins with 24 cases.
Put the dinking cocoa, hot water and juice into a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Remove from the heat.
Add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted.
Add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved.  Allow to cool.
In a large bowl sift the flour and baking soda together then make a well in the centre.
Beat the eggs together with the vanilla essence and stir into the cooled chocolate mixture.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently to mix (I found I was getting clumps of flour so I beat it very gently with the electric beaters for under a minute as not to overwork the ingredients).
Fill cupcake cases to two thirds and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, they will bounce back once cooked and skewer can be removed cleanly.
To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. At this stage you can add in the cinnamon to taste.
Decorate as desired, I used a 1M tip to pipe mine and scattered gorgeous sugar pearls from The Pretty Baker to brighten them up so they weren’t boring beige, I also put a sprinkle of cinnamon on some of them.

Easter Nest Cupcakes

Aren’t these cute?! They are so easy to make and would make a lovely little gift for Easter (the cost of Easter eggs is crazy!) or an easy bit of themed baking to take into work or have on hand for unexpected visitors over the long weekend.

To make them I just used my Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake recipe and divided it between 20 cupcake papers. You could easily use Mel’s recipe for the Easter Chicken Cupcakes and just decorate your cupcakes differently so you have a bit of variety. To decorate I used a basic buttercream and added 2 tablespoons cocoa (you can add more or less and make it to your own tastes). I spread the frosting thinly over the top of each cupcake with a knife, piped a circle with a Wilton 2D tip so it looked like a nest, inside the nest I placed 3-4 mini eggs and a chick.

Buttercream and decoration:
125g butter softened
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Mini eggs (I used M&M’s speckled eggs) – you will need 3-4 eggs per cupcake.
Mini chicks

Cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar/cocoa alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with.

Are they good?! Max thought so, barely got through snapping photos before the baking thief struck.

Easter Chicken Cupcakes

While shopping the other day I spotted a pack of little yellow chickens made out of pipe cleaners at the supermarket – pretty tacky, but I bought them anyway.  They inspired me to make these ‘Easter Chicken’ cupcakes, which were really simple to whip up.  I love how the long sprinkles look like messy feathers.  If you are a bit of a fondant fan, you could whip up some little wings and feet for these guys too!
My friend Jarrah gave me the recipe for the chocolate cupcake that I used (I just added in some mini Easter eggs as a special treat); it’s a great recipe which doesn’t involve fussing around with melting butter or whisking eggs.  Thanks for sharing Jarrah!

Makes 12.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 – 5 teaspoons cocoa
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup oil (sunflower or canola)
1 cup water
3 tablespoons vinegar (white or malt)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
12 mini caramel-filled Easter eggs

Buttercream and Decoration:
125g butter softened
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Yellow food colouring
Yellow sprinkles (I used nearly two 70g packs)
24 chocolate drops
4-6 orange jube lollies

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190°C.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with baking cups. 
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a fork.  Add the oil to the dry ingredients, but don’t stir.
In a small bowl, mix together the water, vinegar and vanilla essence.  Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together thoroughly with a fork.
Fill the baking cups ¾ of the way full with the mixture.  Place a mini Easter egg into each muffin cup so that it is just covered by the cupcake mixture.   Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. Add a few drops of the yellow food colouring and mix through.
Spread about a tablespoon of the butter cream on the tops of each cupcake.  Pour your sprinkles into a bowl and dip each cupcake in to cover the buttercream.
Dot the backs of the chocolate drops with buttercream and place two on each cupcake to be your chicken’s eyes.  Cut the orange jube lollies into triangles (you need 12 triangles), smear some butter cream on the back of each triangle, then place on the cupcakes to be the Chicken’s nose.

Halloween Spider Cupcakes

These are the last Halloween inspired treat for 2012, aren’t they cute?! In a creepy crawly kinda way… I think they would look great on a party table next to our Witches Hats, Meringue Bones and Sausage Mummies. You could always whip up one batch of cupcakes and decorate half as these spiders and the other half like Mel’s amazing Brain Cupcakes!

To make these creepy treats you will need:
Cupcakes
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoons cocoa
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup flour
1 egg
¼ cup milk
75g butter (melted)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
¼ cup boiling water

Basic chocolate icing
1 cup Chelsea rich chocolate icing sugar (you could use icing sugar and cocoa)
1 teaspoon softened butter
2 tablespoons boiling water

To decorate
chocolate hail for the body
24 m&m’s for eyes
licorice for the legs (straps work best but you can cut any licorice from the assortment box to work)

Method:
Pre- heat your oven to 180°C and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.
Place all the cupcake ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the water. Add water last - do not mix until it is added.
Beat well with a hand held mixer for about 2 minutes and once combined and smooth spoon evenly into your cupcake cases.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until you can remove a skewer cleanly from the centre of your cupcakes or they spring back when lightly touched.
Make your chocolate icing and using a knife apply liberally to each cupcake using a pallet knife (a butter knife if you don’t have a pallet knife will suffice).
Sprinkle chocolate hail over the ‘body’ of your spider and put matching m&m’s on the front for eyes.
Use a skewer to make three small holes in the sides (I know spiders have 8 legs but it looked a little crowded so I went for 6) of each cupcake to put your licorice straps in as legs.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

These are super yummy and use the salted caramel sauce that I posted last week. They are super easy to make, just use your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe (I used my easy peasy chocolate cake recipe halved to make a dozen cupcakes).

Ingredients:
Cupcakes
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoons cocoa
½  teaspoon baking powder
½  teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup flour
1 egg
¼ cup milk
75g butter (melted)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
¼ cup boiling water

Salted Caramel Buttercream
100 grams butter, softened
100 grams cream cheese, softened
¼ cup salted caramel sauce
½ teaspoon vanilla paste
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted

Method:
Pre- heat your oven to 180°C and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.
Place all ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the water. Add water last - do not mix until it is added.
Beat well with a hand held mixer for about 2 minutes and once combined and smooth spoon evenly into your cupcake cases.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until you can remove a skewer cleanly from the centre of your cupcakes or they spring back when lightly touched.
To make the buttercream, beat butter and cream cheese in a mixer until pale and fluffy. On a low speed add 1½ cups icing sugar and mix to combine with butter and cream cheeses. Add the salted caramel and vanilla essence mixing again. Add the rest of your icing sugar and mix again. If you find your frosting is a little bit thick add some room temperature milk 1 tablespoon at a time. 
Use a large star shaped piping tip (like a Wilton 1M or 2D) to frost cupcakes. Drizzle cupcakes with a little salted caramel sauce to finish.

Cupcake toppers c/o – Wink.  Thank you to Pop Roc Parties for the picture at the top of the post, sharing their attempt at the cupcakes using this recipe.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Berry Buttercream

This recipe also came from the latest issue of Foodtown magazine (Oct/Nov 2011) – I would recommend getting your hands on a copy, it is packed full of awesome cake recipes (which I plan on working my way through) as well as lots of other meal recipes and ideas.

Ingredients:
100 grams butter (softened)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs (beaten)
1 cup plain flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup cocoa
½ cup sour cream

Berry Buttercream
150 grams butter (softened)
2 cups Chelsea pink berry icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons hot water
Berry lollies to decorate

Method:
Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan bake). Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
In a large electric mixing bowl , beat together the butter, brown sugar and eggs for 2-3 minutes until creamy.
Sift the flour, baking soda and cocoa into the wet mix, folding the two together lightly before adding the sour cream. Beat the mix for 2-3 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the cupcakes are puffed up and spongy to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
To make the buttercream, beat butter until smooth and pale. Gradually add the berry icing sugar half a cup at a time with enough hot water to keep the mixture creamy, beating the mix well between each addition.
** I found the the berry icing wasn’t as “pink” as I expected it would be, because of the pale yellow colour of the butter it was more peach than pink so I added a small drop of pink food colouring – I tested the icing sugar by adding water to it and rest assured it was a lovely pink colour.

 
When the cupcakes have cooled completely pipe or spoon on butter cream and top with a berry lolly.

I think mine resembled what was in the magazine pretty well, but you can judge for yourself by taking a look at the photo below. The cupcakes themselves were very nice. Give them a go and enjoy!

Jaffa Cupcakes

Last Friday was ‘Red Nose Day’ so I did my bit by buying my red nose and packet of Jaffas and was inspired to make Jaffa flavoured cupcakes. I think I will have to be better organised next year and do some baking to donate for sale like my lovely friend Julie from ‘A Slice In The Life Of Julie’. Being a time starved Mum I needed it to be quick and easy so I adapted my ‘Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake’ recipe yet again!

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups flour
1 egg
½ cup milk
150g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2½ teaspoons natural orange essence 
Pinch of salt
½ cup boiling water
60g shaved dark chocolate

Place all ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the water and chocolate.
Add water to all the other ingredients and mix.  Once you have a nicely combined batter add the chocolate and stir through.
Place batter into 18 cupcake papers and bake in a 180°C oven (fan bake).

I topped mine with a chocolate orange buttercream icing, some bitter sweet orange sugar crystals and a jaffa. 

To make buttercream icing you will need:
125g butter (room temperature)
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon natural orange essence
3-4 cups icing sugar (sifted)

Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy and add in the first 2 cups of icing sugar as well as one tablespoon of milk and the orange essence and mix well.  Continue to add the rest of your icing sugar gradually as well as the second tablespoon of milk until it reaches a consistency you are happy with (my icing was very light and fluffy).  Pipe or spoon onto your cupcakes and decorate as desired.

* Due to the fact we have received several questions about the buttercream frosting I am thinking that I will attempt to produce a video tutorial for you all when I get a chance – so keep and eye out for it!

 
If you missed red nose day but would like to donate to Cure Kids just click on the link and it will explain how, they are doing awesome work helping fund research into life threatening childhood illnesses in New Zealand.