Simple Banana Chocolate Cupcake

Seems like cupcake is the latest craze. You see cupcakes nicely decorated everywhere. With all those flavors that we can choose from, let's try Banana Chocolate Cupcake today.

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I found a Banana Chocolate Cupcake recipe at Joy of Baking - Banana Chocolate Cupcake. This seems like a simple recipe to attempt. I reduced the sugar amount as I find the original recipe a bit too sweet to my liking. I have also reduced the oil by half. The cupcake remains soft.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Pre-Steps
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celcius

Ingredients
(A)
1/2 cup of granulated white sugar
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's cocoa powder)
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt

(B)
1 large egg (at room temperature)
1/2 cup of mashed ripe banana (I used 2 medium size banana)
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of milk (I used Farmhouse low fat milk)
1/8 cup of sunflower oil
3/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Steps
1. In a large bowl, mix all the (A) ingredients together using a whisk.

2. In another bowl, mix all the (B) ingredients together using a whisk.

3. Pour ingredient (B) into (A) and mix them together with a whisk. This will form into a thin batter.

4. Divide the batter equally into 12 lined cupcakes cup.

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

6. If you wish to frost the cupcakes with your favorite frosting, leave the cupcake to completely cool before frosting it.

Puppy Cookie

I was hunting for some easy but creative recipe one day, and chance upon an interesting cookies recipe at Horlicks Doggie Cookies that will appeal to the kids. I just had to try it and see how it turned out !

The kids loved them! And I noticed that they especially like to start with the ears and then followed by the nose before finishing off the rest of the cookie.

This is the second batch of cookies. In the first batch, I used 4 packets of Horlicks 3-in-1 instead of the Horlicks powder from the bottle. The cookie did not have a strong horlicks taste, slightly tasteless.

In the second batch, I used Horlicks powder and it has a better and stronger Horlicks taste. Definitely recommend to go with the Horlicks powder.

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

180 gm of salted butter (left at room temperature)

80 gm of Horlicks powder

200 gm of cake flour

20 gm of corn flour 

25 gm of milk powder ( I used Fernleaf)

some chocolate chips for the puppy "brain" and nose (I used mixed semi-sweet and milk chocolate)

some koko krunch for the puppy ear

some chocolate rice for the puppy eye

Pre-Steps
1. Preheat the oven at 140 °C.

Steps
1. Beat the butter for 1-2 minute on low speed. Slowly add in the Horlicks powder and mixed.
2. Sift in the cake flour, corn flour and milk powder mixture into the batter. Beat until it became a dough. It will take another minute or so.
3. Remove from mixer and knead the dough together.
4. To shape the cookie, take a small portion about of the dough and roll it into a ball about 1.5 - 2 cm in diameter. 
5. Put in 2-3 chocolate chips into the middle of the ball and ensure that it is completed covered. Roll into a ball to form the puppy head.
6. Decorate the puppy head with koko krunch for the ears,  chocolate rice for the eyes and chocolate chip for the nose.
7. Arrange the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 25 minutes.
8. Remove from oven to cool before consuming.

Chocolate Butter Cake Recipe

I wanted to try a chocolate butter cake and to experiment a bit...by mixing the recipe I found for a marble cake at Joy of Baking - Marble Cake and see if I could make a chocolate butter cake out of it.

I reduced the amount of ingredients that is required as I wanted to make a smaller cake.

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes

Cooking Time: 50-60 minutes

Ingredients used

210 gm of semi sweet chocolate (I only had semi sweet chocolate chips from Hersheys at that time, so I used that)

128 gm of salted butter (left at room temperature)

188 gm of granulated sugar

3 normal sized eggs

1 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla essence

222 gm of plain flour

1 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

120 ml of fresh milk (I used Farmhouse)

Pre-Steps

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Steps

1. Melt the chocolate until smooth in a bowl using the double boiler method. Set aside to cool to room temperature

2. Beat the butter for 1 minute on low speed. Gradually add the sugar and beat at low speed.

3. Once the sugar has been mixed, increase the mixer speed to medium for about 5 minutes until the colour is lighten. You can still feel the sugar bits.

4. Add in 3 eggs, beating one at a time at low speed.

5. Add in the vanilla essence and mix at low speed.

6. Sift in the plain flour, baking powder and baking soda into the batter in 3 portions. Add in the milk and mix until it is all incorporated. Do not over mix.

7. Fold in the cool melted chocolate using a spatula.

8. Pour into a greased baking pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes (I am using a loaf pan. Adjust your baking time accordingly based on the type of pan you use. Do not open the oven during baking to prevent sunken cake).

Note: 

- Do not open the oven door during baking.

- Use a cake tester / toothpick to check if the cake is cooked. I used a small knife as the cake is too tall for a toothpick.

- At 35 minutes - the middle is still not cooked.

- The cake has a rich chocolate taste to it