Banana Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate On Top

Xander is really getting into making things in the kitchen, so when he begged me to make some cakes with him this afternoon, I couldn’t say no, and we headed through to experiment and make up a new recipe. Here’s what we came up with…

Banana Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate On Top
Makes 6 cupcakes

Banana peanut butter cupcakes topped with chocolate. Delicious!

Ingredients:

• 90g banana
• 30g reduced fat peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 40mls skimmed milk
• 100g self raising flour
• 30g sugar
• 18g chocolate buttons (3 buttons per cupcake)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 200C.
• Mash the banana and mix well with the peanut butter, vanilla essence, egg and milk.
• Add the flour and sugar and mix well so that the cake batter is light and fluffy.
• Spoon into six cupcake cases and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cooked through and golden.
• Remove from the oven and immediately place three chocolate buttons on top of each cupcake so that the chocolate melts, then spread it over the top of the cupcakes.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional info:

• Calories: 154
• Carbs: 25g
• Fat: 4g
• Sat Fat: 4g
• Protein: 4g
• Sodium: 1g

A nice B-I-G bite!

These values are based on the products I used (Asda reduced fat peanut butter; Asda Smart Price eggs and flour; Asda chocolate buttons), so if you use different brands, the values may differ slightly, but as a rough guideline, this will give you an idea.

The Results:
These only have a very slightly peanut buttery taste, but the banana wasn’t so overpowering as to completely cover it – it was a very tasty combination. There was just enough chocolate on top to make it feel indulgent but without it being too much. Xander certainly enjoyed his! We had a lovely time making them together too!

Summer Raspberry Cupcakes

I love the summer – not because of the sunny weather, but because of all the summer berries that come into season! (I’m not a warm weather person – I think I was supposed to be born in the Arctic Circle, but the stork missed his mark and dropped me in the UK instead!).

Xander (my three-year-old son) is having a phase of “I don’t like that” with most fruit and veg, so I have to come up with ways of getting him to eat them without realising it. I based this recipe on the Celebration Cornet Cakes on the CBeebies website, but wanted to cut a few calories here and there to make it a treat I could also enjoy now and then. Here’s what I did:

Summer Raspberry Cupcakes
Makes 4

Ingredients:

• 1 egg white
• 30 mls oil
• 30 mls skimmed milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 20g caster sugar
• 60g self raising flour
• 60g fresh raspberries
• a few drops of pink food colouring (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 200C.
• Lightly whisk the egg white, and add the oil, milk and vanilla.
• Add the raspberries to the mixture and break them up to make the mixture go pink (you can add a few drops of pink food colouring if you wish).
• Add the flour and sugar and mix well. The mixture will be very sloppy.
• Divide into four cupcake cases and bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack, then enjoy with a glass of milk or a cup of iced tea!

Info for your food diary (per serving):

• Calories: 146
• Carbs: 17g
• Fat: 7g
• Sat Fat: 1g
• Protein: 3g
• Sodium: 18g

Values are based on the products I used – they may vary slightly from brand to brand. As you can see, it’s a very simple recipe, and you could easily swap out the raspberries for other soft fruit – blueberries or blackberries, or even cherries might be nice, but remember to change your nutritional values to correct them.

The Results:
I have to say, I’m very pleased with how these turned out. They weren’t particularly pink, but then I didn’t use any food colouring in mine – if you want your cupcakes more rosy, you can add a little extra colour if you wish.  These are very light little cupcakes and have a pleasantly fruity flavour which is complemented by the vanilla, but neither overpowers the other. The verdict from my 3-year-old son is that they are yummy, so I’m happy with that!

If you try this recipe, or a variation on it, please do let me know what you think of it!