BANANA BREAD FUDGE CUPCAKES WITH FREAKY FROSTING
So this is what I managed to quickly knock up for my Halloween offering this year. Say hello to my Hello-weenies! What started off as, “yikes I’ve got some ripe bananas, I’ll make banana bread” turned into, “well, why don’t I make muffins?” and then when they came out of the oven I thought, “since it’s Halloween, surely they’ve got to be spooky?!”
I strained some yoghurt for a few hours to make a really thick curd, perfect for frosting. I experimented with making a small amount of it orange with some turmeric and paprika, but it looked like egg yolk (tasty though — very “Golden Milky”)! So I stuck with white frosting to make it ghostly and then with the help of some dates and cranberries and a few sesame seeds, I made some eyes. Some natty cacao nibs became characterful mouths. What I had left of the orange honey frosting I mixed with matcha to make it green and squiggled it on. Apart from the placing of the black sesame eyes — you might want tweezers! — everything was higgledy piggledy easy and super effective. Say hello... to my Weenies! Whatever they are...
So the cakes are vegan and if you’re looking to make the frosting vegan too, check out my tips below and replace the honey with maple syrup. You can also try the “Herby Goes Bananas” muffins as a base or If bananas ain’t your thing, then turn this lemon almond drizzle cake into cupcakes instead.
INGREDIENTS
For the banana bread fudgecakes
5 large ripe bananas (approx. 520g peeled)
¼ cup avocado oil (or olive oil, coconut oil, butter or ghee)
2 cups (195g) chickpea/gram flour
⅓ packed cup (50g) jaggery or coconut sugar
3 tbsp cocoa/cacao
Pinch of salt
1½ tsp baking powder
For the orange honey frosting
1kg homemade or live organic yoghurt, drained overnight or for several hours (see below for vegan coconut milk version*)
1 tsp orange extract or orange blossom extract, to taste
3-4 tbsp raw runny honey/maple syrup use a few drops of vanilla stevia to taste
Black sesame seeds and/or cacao nibs
Dates, raisins and/or cranberries
Optional: Spirulina/chlorella/matcha/supergreens powder
METHOD
The night before or several hours before, line a fine mesh sieve with two pieces of clean kitchen roll or muslin cloth and suspend over a tall/large bowl (to catch the whey that will separate from the yoghurt — make sure the bowl is tall enough that the bottom of the sieve won't sit in the whey and prevent drainage). Pour the yoghurt into the lined sieve and cover with a plate to protect and add pressure — you should see the whey already starting to come out. Place into the fridge — check after 20 minutes if you’re concerned that your bowl isn’t big enough. Pour out any whey that has collected into a jar and save for other recipes.**
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180°C fan (gas mark 4) and line a cupcake try with liners — I use silicone.
In a large bowl, mash the banana with the oil — I like to use a whisk and smash it down.
In another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients, then empty into the bananas and mix until well combined.
Divide the batter equally between the cupcake liners — batter should reach just the top. For easy distribution I like to use an ice cream scoop gadget!
Bake for 15-16 minutes until well risen and completely golden on top, remove from the oven and allow to cool in their tray (this gives them a little extra cooking time) for a couple of hours until room temp.
To make the frosting, place the strained yoghurt into a mixing bowl — it should be really thick. Add 3 tablespoons of honey and half a teaspoon of the orange extract, mix and taste. Adjust the taste with a little more honey and orange if needed and place back in the fridge until you are ready to frost.
To assemble, place the yoghurt frosting into a piping bag and swirl on top of the cooled cupcakes. If you don’t have a piping bag, simply dollop on the frosting and smooth with the back or a teaspoon. To keep it simple, sprinkle with spirulina/matcha and black sesame seeds, for example. To make eyes, slice the dates to make rough circles, or halve and slightly scoop some raisins, or take cranberry halves and place two on each fudgecake. Pipe on or use a knife or chopstick end to add a little more frosting and then place a sesame seed or small cacao nib into the centre of each to make eyes.
East by West tips:
The cakes are fine at ambient temperature (as long as the yoghurt is well strained and really thick) for 45 minutes. Beware of placing them anywhere overly warm or you’ll have a spooky landslide!
*To make this a vegan frosting, you can use a thick ready made coconut yoghurt, but these tend to be expensive and the consistencies of different brands will really vary so go for this option if you already know a thick brand available to you. Otherwise try this recipe for homemade whipped coconut cream — I recommend testing this for yourself first before volunteering your cakes for an event, just in case it doesn’t work well for you, as different brands of coconut milk can vary in resultant texture….
INGREDIENTS
1 tin of good quality full fat coconut milk
Stevia or a touch of powdered sweetener (liquid sweeteners are too heavy)
Optional: ½ tsp vanilla extract
METHOD
Chill the tin of coconut milk in the fridge (not freezer!) overnight to separate the cream from the liquid
The next day, chill a large mixing bowl 10 minutes before whipping.
Carefully remove the coconut milk from the fridge so as not to disturb the contents. Open the tin and scrape out the thickened cream on top, leaving behind the liquid part (save for use in smoothies and soups).
Place hardened coconut cream into your chilled mixing bowl and beat for 30 seconds with a mixer until creamy. Add the vanilla (if using or the orange extract) and powdered sweetener and mix until creamy and smooth — about 1 minute. Taste and adjust sweetness as needed.
Use immediately or pop back into the fridge where it will harden the longer you leave it, so you might want to whip it again. Keep for up to a week.
If the resultant whipped cream isn’t stiff enough to pipe/stay put, try adding 1 tablespoon or more of tapioca flour during the whipping process.
**What to do with the whey: whey is high in protein and if you used live/probiotic yoghurt it will have lots of probiotics too. You can use this whey to culture your own yoghurts — dairy or non-dairy. You can add a dash to smoothies and soups (remember, it has probiotics, so don’t use too much in one go if you’re not used to it!). Or check out the tasty tangy wahay soup with dumplings in East by West page 202 as a way to enjoy the protein while the heat of cooking takes out much of the probiotics, meaning you don’t have to worry about overdoing it!
