BANANA WALNUT CUPCAKES AND CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

"There's nothing a cupcake and coffee can't solve." Marie Williams Johnstone

After last Sunday's baking disaster(s) I'm so pleased with what came out of this my baking trials this weekend! Thank you to the usual band of hungry brothers for wiping out almost 26 cupcakes! For the chocolate I've just used my easy chocolate cake recipe which you will find in the dessert section. For the banana walnut I tried a new recipe which I adapted for less sugar and fat. These are best eaten on the same day, I feel refrigeration does terrible things to most baked goods so try it for the next occassion that comes up!

What you’ll need:

For the cupcakes -

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed

½ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs, at room temperature

½ cup sour cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1 orange (this will make the cupcakes wonderful! But I didn’t have any so mine are just plain)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

For the frosting –

120 gms cream cheese

¾ cup icing sugar

4 tbsp butter (unsalted)

Walnut halves, for decorating (optional)

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Grease your muffin tray with butter or vegetable oil.  Chop your walnuts roughly.

Note: Phrase I love to read in recipes – chop roughly. As opposed to julienne which makes my insides clench up in fear. I don’t know if I’d be able to julienne anything even with a gun to my head. Chopping roughly though is a joy – I twirl my knife like a baton and pretend I’m on Masterchef (this is not a recommendation).

2. Mash the bananas (it’s best if they’re overripe – they’re sweetest this way). Pour sugar and oil and whisk.

Note: Mashing – another favourite kitchen activity.

3. Add one egg at a time while you whisk baby whisk! Add sour cream, vanilla, orange zest. (You guessed it! Keep whisking!)

4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking soda. Stir into the banana mix in batches. Finally stir in the chopped walnuts

Note: The recipe I used as a base used more sugar and said the walnuts were optional. I don’t like my cakes or cupcakes to be too sugary so taste the batter and see if you’ll want more sugar. Also really do try to get the walnuts into the batter they’re a small addition but make a world of difference.

5. Pour batter till each space in the muffin tray is about 2/3 filled. Bake for about 30 minutes or till you pass the toothpick test.

6. Cool cupcakes for about 15 minutes before you pop out of tray. Let cool completely.

Note: If the top hasn’t come out all even, don’t stress about it and just slice off any knobbly bits sticking out. Once you slather on the icing nobody will be able to tell.

7. Icing: Mix cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and butter together till smooth.

Note: Try to get your hands on icing sugar. This isn’t finessing unreasonably, because caster sugar will leave your icing granular.

8. Slather on icing thickly and top with walnut halves or if sprinkle some chopped walnut if you didn’t use it all in the batter.

 

CHEESE BREAD

Cheese is milk's leap towards immortality.  - Clifton Fadiman

I've been trying to bake my own bread for a while but I'm intimidated of starting the learning process with a new set of ingredients. And the thought of yeast gives me the heebie jeebies. So this is me dipping a toe in the world of bread making (bread baking?).

This is a delicious side to when you're having soup for dinner or even pasta because it's very Italian in flavour. Possibly the easiest bread recipe ever which fits perfectly with my lazy cooking ethic...

What you’ll need:

2 ¼ cups flour

2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
120 gm freshly grated cheese (any kind is fine and you can mix different kinds depending on what you like and what you find in your fridge – I used a combination of parmesan and cheddar)
½ cup chopped olives
3 eggs + 1 egg for an egg wash
Chopped up sundried tomatoes (about ½ cup)
1 tsp dried thyme
3 tsp parsley/oregano or any other seasoning you have on hand (all mixed up)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 ¼ cup buttermilk (this is just a cup of water mixed in with a quarter cup of yoghurt) 

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and brush down your baking dish with olive oil.

Note: You could use butter and this will add an extra layer of buttery happiness to the flavor but I’m trying to cut calories these days so I stuck with olive oil. Yes. You read that right. Cut calories when baking cheese bread.

2. Sift together, flour, baking powder, baking soda, some pepper in a bowl. Add the cheese, olives, tomatoes, (spring onion if you have some), parsley, thyme and whisk. This isn’t going to end up blending too well so don’t stress. You’ll just have a lumpy, flour-y, mixture. 

3. In a separate bowl, add eggs one at a time and whisk, add oil, whisk some more, add buttermilk, keep whisking. Put your back into it and tire yourself out whisking so when you eat your third slice of cheese bread you know you’ve worked off all these calories whisking earlier.

4. Add the flour mixture and stir hard to make a thick sticky batter. Pour into baking dish.

5. Make an egg wash with the extra egg’s yolk and a couple of teaspoons of water. Brush over the top of your sticky batter. Sprinkle some fresh thyme, basil or spring onions bits on top if you have some.

Note: If you have any green leaf, you can add this on top but don’t bother if you have dried spices because these will just burn in the oven and give you a strange charred top. As a rule keep in mind that you shouldn’t ever try to bake dried spices because they’ll just go up in flames.

6. Bake for about 40 minutes or till you clear the toothpick test (insert toothpick in the centre and see if it comes out clean). Leave to cool.

Foodnotes:

If you have loaf tins, it would be amazing to bake these in two (or more batches) so it’s more like a loaf of bread than a cake. If not, you can still chop it up into thick bread chunks.

This makes for quite a large loaf and it should keep in your fridge (wrap in foil before storing) for 2 -3 days with no trouble.