Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with St. Patrick's Day Frosting

We love St Patrick's Day in this house. It's always a big family day and an excuse to eat some lovely Irish food, watch the parade in town and maybe (just maybe) have a little tipple (or two).This year we have the added bonus of babysitting my two little nieces also, so we will be baking these cupcakes in the morning for their arrival!

I trial-baked these cupcakes on Sunday with my daughter to share with her cousins on a playdate. We made 12, and they went down so well that I actually didn't have one to myself at all. I had to rely on family taste reviews to let me know that they were good. Very good I'm told. Too good my mother said!! I used Rachel Allen's recipe for chocolate cupcakes from her book Cake; and just added 100g of chocolate chips. I tried to make the frosting as green as I could. I ended up using a full tube of green gel food colouring.

Where ever you are celebrating St Patrick's Day, I hope it's a safe and fun day for everyone. Fingers crossed for good weather. (nothing worse than parade watching in an unbrella jungle)

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 100g soft butter
• 150g of vanilla sugar (sugar in a jar with vanilla pods)
• 2 large eggs
• 125ml milk
• 175g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 25g cocoa powder
• 100g chocolate chips

St Patrick's Day Frosting

• 100g very soft butter
• 225g icing sugar, SIFTED
• 30ml milk
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tube Dr Oetker green food colouring (or any colour). The more colouring you add the deeper the colour of your icing.

To Decorate

• Chocolate stars (or smarties, chocolate shavings, sprinkle, to name a few)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Using a hand whisk (or electric) cream the butter, add the sugar and whisk until light and fluffy.
3. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and then slowly add them to the butter, whisking all the time.
4. Pour in the milk and beat until mixed.  
5. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder.
6. Add the chocolate chips and gently fold stir until the flour mix is incorporated in.
7. Divide the bun batter between the 12 cases and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. Allow to cool on a wire rack in the tray for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely. They need to be completely cooled before icing, otherwise you will have a runny mess.
9. To make the icing, whisk all the icing ingredients together, either using a hand held whisk or an electric mixer.
10. You can decorate using a piping bag, but I prefer a more 'homemade, rustic' finish and used a warm palate knife.

Enjoy and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Banana & Maple Granola Cups

I was inspired to make these cups after seeing a video on Proper Tasty facebook page. They are a great inventive way of getting some slow releasing energy oats into you the morning, as well as looking oh so pretty.In addition to being nutritious and good looking, they are very versatile and keep in the fridge in a sealed airtight container for up to a week.

Even though I was inspired by the video in the above link, I did change a few ingredients and also part of the cooking method. I found from cooking the cups in the muffin trays they had a slightly 'soggy bottom', so for a final five minutes in the oven, I took them out of the muffin tray and turned them upside down on a baking sheet, to crisp up the base of the cups, so no soggy bottoms in sight!

I'm very excited to get my guests reviews on them when I open our bed & breakfast Sika Lodge next week.

Here's how I made them

Makes 12 cups

Ingredients

• 250g rolled oats ( I used jumbo oats)
• 150ml pure maple syrup
• 2 mashed bananas 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt

Example of toppings

• 0% fat strained Greek Yogurt
• Berries
• Mango puree
• Compote
• seed mix
• Stewed fruits

Method

1. Mix the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and bananas thoroughly.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, cinnamon,and salt.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
5. Oil the muffin holes of a 12 muffin tray.
6. Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin holes and using the back of a spoon spread the mixture up the walls of the muffins holes, creating the cup shape.
7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and the muffin tray and invert the granola cups on a baking sheet. 
9. Bake for a further 5 minutes to crisp up the bottom of the cups.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
11. Add a generous dollop of thick Greek yogurt and top with your choice of berries, compote, dried fruit or mixed seeds. It's your call!

Tip: A drizzle of honey certainly wouldn't go astray either on these!!