Thursday, March 24, 2011

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Pardon my disappearance.  We went away to Malacca on a short trip and prior to that, DH was on business trip.  During his absence, there were literally no time to think of him, until he sms-ed at night to tell me he won't be online for he has some other matters to attend to.  He was away for a week but we never spoke nor chat online.  Imagine how busy I was, to not remember my very own husband while he was away.

My kids love bananas especially DS2 and DD3.  The strange thing is, they will ask for bananas when they are at my inlaws but when I actually buy a bunch for them, no one eats them.  I always end up with several over-ripen bananas which I either freeze to make ice cream (I'll blog about that another day) or I turn them into cakes.
  
Using my regular banana cake recipe here (a very popular recipe by Yochana), I decided to give it a twist and added some cocoa powder and replaced whipping cream/evaporated milk/fresh milk with buttermilk.

On a side note, I simply cannot understand why some bloggers post recipes copied from somewhere, change the method slightly or reduce the recipe by 1/2 and call it theirs.  No one in particular for I've seen too many such cases.  I think the least they should do is to give credit to the originator and indicate the modifications made. Gorgeous looking pictures, great write-up but I think it is unethical, so nothing else matters.  I don't know how many people I'm going to offend here but I just need to say my piece.

Enough of my rantings, presenting to you a moist and fluffy chocolate banana cake :-)

I'm a no big fan of banana cake but I love how this turned out, moist and fluffy, minus the artificial flavours from store bought.  Sis E doesn't eat banana cakes for they are ladled with strong banana essence which is totally artificial.  I hope to get a chance to bake this for her.



Banana Cake
Ingredients
180g butter
100g fine sugar
2  large eggs - beaten lightly
240g cake flour (I used plain flour, removed 1 tablespoon and replaced with corn flour)
10g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
220g over-riped bananas - mashed
50g buttermilk (I used milk + 1/2 tsp lemon juice and let it stand for 15 mins)
chopped walnuts (optional)

Method
  1. Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
  2. Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.
  3. Add in buttermilk, mashed bananas and banana essence and mix well.
  4. Add in cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.
  5. Pour into cupcake casings/muffin cups, and arrange chopped walnuts on top.
  6. Bake at 170C for 20 - 30 mins or until cooked.



10 comments:

muimui said...

Scary as it could be. I bake the same banana cupcakes today, but without using the walnuts. It was so soft and fluffy.Guess! What i'm also using the same recipes too with some changes make.

Casey said...

The cupcakes looks yummy! I do like the moist and fluffy cake.

haha...what a coincidence, my girl olso loved to eat banana when we are back to my mum's house, but when I bought a bunch when back to our own home, she just ate one or two, that is! So end up I will bake banana muffin, and luckily she loved the muffin as well.

Can I know what is the purpose of replacing 1 tbsp plain flour with corn flour?

j3ss kitch3n said...

my favorite combi! really soft and fluffy!

Zoe said...

These cupcakes has a very moist and soft texture. Banana is always great to create this kind of texture. Nice!

Janetan said...

hi there,
i;m wondering can i just omit the buttermilk or is there any substitute of it??

Blessed Homemaker said...

muimui,
Wahahaha! These cuppies are good right? Can't wait to see your posting on this.

Casey,
Kids are just so strange creatures, don't know what to do with them. Don't know what to do without them too ;-)

The original recipe asked for cake flour but I ran out of it so I use cake flour substitute ie plain flour + corn flour. HTHs.

Blessed Homemaker said...

Jess & Zoe
Thanks for your kind words :)

Blessed Homemaker said...

Janetan,
Original recipe calls for dairy whipping cream but you can replace it with evaporated milk, fresh/UHT milk. For my buttermilk, I just add some lemon juice to milk and let it stand for 10 - 15 mins before using.

Awayofmind Bakery House said...

your cake looks soft and fluffy too! I see there is a special ingredient in it...the buttermilk, will try it out one day!

The Sweetylicious said...

the cupcakes look so moist and fluffy! (: yummy!
i've seen many of such cases too. i dont understand why they are doing that . .