Recipe : Banana almond cupcakes

I bought a cupcake recipe book from MPH the other day. Initially what caught my eyes was a book by Betty Crocker which is twice the price. Lucky that I asked the shop assistant to open up the plastic covering to show me the contents. Betty Crocker recipe book recipes use only Betty Crocker pre-mixed flour! What a rip off! The recipe was like, 1 box of Betty Crocker Devil’s cake flour, 2 eggs, milk and that’s it! So, I bought a cheaper book costing RM25.90 which is filled with lots of easy recipes and simple decorations.

(book available on Amazon)
 

Last night, my sons and I had so much fun baking banana and almond cupcakes. We have totally modified the recipe from the Cupcakes recipe book because I do not have pecans and sour cream.

The above is the cover of the book with a cupcake I made. Almost similar except I don’t have maraschino cherries.

Here is my modified recipe for Banana and Almond cupcakes

225 grams soft flour
One and a quarter tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Sieve all the above

3 pisang emas or 2 large bananas – mashed
60 grams almond powder (can be bought from baking supply stores or even in supermarkets) **almond is optional but I like to coarse texture of the cupcakes

115 grams butter
115 grams caster sugar

Cream butter and sugar till fluffy

2 eggs lightly beaten
About 4 tablespoons milk (quantity to use depends on consistency of batter)

**optional : A few drops of vanilla essence and we even add banana essence
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PREHEAT OVEN to 190 deg celcius. I use 15 cupcakes casings.

1. Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy, add eggs and sieved flour mixture. Mix till batter is smooth.

2. Add bananas and almond.

3. Put enough milk to make the batter runny but not too watery. Some bananas tend to be more watery than usual so you need to use your judgement on how much to use.

4. Bake cupcakes for about 15 – 20 minutes.

I failed in making a nice butter icing. The recipe in the book called for :

115 grams butter
115 grams icing sugar

Method is to beat butter till fluffy and add icing sugar to make the icing. Probably due to our hot weather, the icing was too messy. Instead, we use the Lactofil/Bakermix (can be bought from cake supply shops) to make the icing.

The cupcake recipe is good because the cupcake is not greasy as the quantity of the butter is only half of the flour. Adding bicarbonate of soda helps to make the cupcake rise nicely. However, you may want to note that bicarbonate of soda will make cakes rather dry.

The ‘naked cupcakes’ lining up in a row, waiting to be dressed. My children had so much fun piping their own icing and decorating their own cupcakes with chocolate rice, silver balls (blek, hard like sands), coloured rice or whatever they fancy. My little boy just decorated two for his cousin (who is older than me) aka my housekeeper. He followed her around and kept urging her to, “Faster eat….. I make nice nice cupcakes for you.” He will not leave her alone until she stop everything she is doing and eat the cupcakes. LOL.

Cupcakes are awfully fun to bake with kids. Just keep them away from the oven and the rest of the activities are fun.