Giddy Tigers

If there are any two food items that go together so well like an old married couple, it would have to be chocolate AND banana.  Incidentally, most kids I know name these two items as tops on their favorites list.

So since my son had an end-of-year party with his classmates in school, and he made a special request that I bake something for him to bring, I figured why not…well, actually he asked for chocolate banana muffins, but I managed to persuade him to change his request to chocolate banana cupcakes instead.

It was because I was tempted to try the chocolate banana cupcake recipe from Love and Olive Oil.  They look good, don’t they? 🙂

I decided to make mini cupcakes because the kids would have other kinds of food to sample as well.  Mini cupcakes would be rather mess-free too, as you can just pop them into the mouth.

This recipe yields 60 mini cupcakes, but I only had 2 of them, if I remember correctly.  My son took 24 to school (the tray came back wiped clean, to my joy!) and I think between my son, my daughter (who preferred the frosting), my Mom and MIL, the rest of the cupcakes were gone by the next day. 🙂

The frosting is actually a chocolate AND banana frosting too (yes, it contains mashed bananas in it), and I decided to place the sliced bananas only on the morning itself, before my son brought them to school.  Good thing I did that too, because some of those slices began to droop!

“Maybe next time you should just lay them flat on the frosting, Mommy,” my son said.

Anyway, here’s the recipe in case you’re interested.  It’s egg-free, so the batter is totally “lickable” 🙂 … perfect for little ones too!

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes or 60 mini cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup coconut milk

½ cup ripe banana (about 1 banana)

1/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

For Frosting:

½ cup butter or margarine, room temperature

¼ cup ripe banana (about 1/2 banana)

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 ½-3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC (about 350ºF). Line muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Whisk in the coconut milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract until incorporated. Mixture will still be a little lumpy because of the nature of the banana, but whisk out as many large lumps as you can.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
4. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in banana mixture. Stir until just smooth (do not overmix).
5. Pour into liners, filling each with 3 tablespoons of batter (cups should be no more than 2/3 full).
6. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add banana and mix on high speed until few lumps remain. Add cocoa powder and 1 cup powdered sugar and beat until combined. Continue adding sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition (depending on the temperature of your butter, you may need more or less sugar/cream to achieve the proper consistency). Mix in vanilla. Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes, adding more sugar if necessary. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Garnish with leftover banana slices if desired.