Banana peanut cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting

These cupcakes came about as I found a dairy free chocolate frosting, that did not contain margarine that I wanted to try and while I could eat it from the bowl with a soon this is perhaps not the most elegant solution.

A root round the cupboards yielded a rather ripe banana and a jar of peanut butter. Banana and peanut work well together and chocolate happily marries well with both, thus this cupcake was born.

A moist flavourful cupcake topped with an insanely dark chocolate frosting, what's not to love?

Banana peanut cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting

makes 12

60g butter or dairy free alternative
60g banana40g peanut butter (no added sugar preferably)
125g golden caster sugar
tsp vanilla paste/extract
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
tbsp milk

160ml of coconut cream
75g dark choolate, I used green and black

Begin with the frosting, heat the cream until just below boiling, pour over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool then put in the fridge to firm up.

Line a cupcake/muffin tin with liners and preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN.

Cream the butter,banana, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla paste together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl in-between and beat for a further couple of minutes.

Add the flour and beat on slow until just combined. Finally add the milk and beat for a further minute. Divide the batter between the liners and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden and springy.

Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

Whip the frosting, it will be smooth and shiny and then put back in the fridge for another hour or so. Whip again, the frosting will lose its shine and become fluffier, looking very much like a standard chocolate  frosting.

Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and enjoy.

These cupcakes will keep for a few days in an airtight tin. If it is very hot this frosting could melt, so keep in the fridge and allow to come to room temperature before tucking it. 

Baked banana and peanut butter oats

For me breakfast is definitely not a hurried bowl of cereal, as I am hungry by 10am. It needs to be something substantial and just as importantly tasty. Oats feature heavily in many of my breakfasts, porridge and overnight oats being the main two to date.

Here I present to you baked oats.The prep takes 2 minutes and while they are in the oven for 30 minutes it is perfectly easy to shower, dress and get ready for the day ahead, then voila a warm soothing comforting breakfast.

I urge you to give them a try, the top is baked golden, like some sort of flapjack/cookie and the underneath is warm and soft, like a hug in a bowl.

Baked banana and peanut butter oats

serves 1

1/2 small banana (eat the rest while you wait!)
30g oats
55ml almond milk 
teaspoon smooth peanut butter
spash vanilla extract 
pinch cinnamon  (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Mash the banana and then mix in all the other ingredients, just till combined. Spoon into a ramekin, or individual casserole dish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until golden, then dig in whilst warm!

A few notes. I used almond milk as I cannot have dairy and besides which it is yummy, feel free to use other milk. I do not like my breakfast too sweet. I find the banana and vanilla make it sweet enough. If you like things a little sweeter, try a teapsoon of maple syrup, agave nectar or brown sugar added to the mixture before baking.

The ramekin will look crusty and scary when you have finished eating, but adding boiling water to the pot and leaving for an hour will allow you to simply wipe it away.

Salted caramel banoffee pie

Hello, I hope everyone had a lovely Easter  I myself had a fantastic, much needed break in Ireland but as such was away from the internet for a week so have a lot of catch up posts to do.

First up is a salted caramel banoffee pie, one of the two (yes two) desserts I made for Easter Sunday.

Its very easy and I made it the day before so to ease the Sunday work load.

If you like leave the salt out and make a more traditional banoffee pie, I do find the salted caramel adds a sophisticated edge and cuts through the richness ever so slightly.

Salted caramel banoffee pie

100g butter
250g chocolate digestives

100g butter
100g brown sugar (light or dark)
tin of condensed milk
sea salt

2 large bananas
standard pot of double cream

First of all grease a springform tin with butter, line the base with baking paper and grease the paper too.

Bash the biscuits in a bag or bowl, with a rolling pin, until they are fine crumbs. Alternatively use a food processor. Gently melt 100g butter and pour over the biscuit crumbs and stir to combine. Tip the mix into the prepared tin and level the top. Pop in the fridge to set for ~ 30 minutes.

To make the caramel melt the butter gently in a pan over a low heat. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the condensed milk and gently increase the heat, stirring all the time. Bring the mix to the boil and allow to boil for at least a minute. This is important to make sure the caramel sets nice and thick and squidgy! Add sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon at a time, until salted to your liking.

Allow the caramel to cool slightly for 5 minutes then pour over the biscuit base. Pop the pie back in the fridge for another 30 minutes or so.

Slice the bananas and arrange over the top of the caramel.

 Finally whip the cream and use it to top the pie. Pop the finished pie back in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

I kept this pie in the fridge and it was just as good on Easter Monday.

Banana and cardamom bread

This banana bread was a little bit if an experiment, I normally follow recipes, sometimes it is just a basic recipe that I use for inspiration, other times it is a hash of a few recipes but still, a recipe is involved somewhere.

This banana bread was a worry the whole time it was in the oven as I have to admit I went totally off piste and made it up as I went along.

The reason for this is that I love banana bread but find it can often be quite heavy, I wanted to lighten the cake, BUT in lightening it I did not want to make it too dry, banana bread is most definitely meant to be moist and lovely. So I used a ratio of roughly 65% butter, 35% 0% fat greek yoghurt.

I also find some banana breads overly sweet, I think the bananas are sweet already, especially if they are nice and black! So not too much sugar, though it is still needed for the cakes structure.

Finally I love cardamom and thought adding some would add a lovely warmth and go well with the banana.

Although I created this I do not claim to be original, if I searched google long enough I am sure other people would have similar ideas to me!

My main concern was that there would not be enough fat, and maybe it would not hold together or be too dry and crumbly. I need not have worried so much. The resulting banana bread is a perfect loaf, it is not dense at all but light and still very moist. I love the cardamom in it but this is of course personal preference and could be omitted or replaced with cinnamon or nutmeg.

Banana and Cardamom bread

3 medium bananas, overripe
70g butter
200g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
2 eggs
40g greek yoghurt
75ml buttermilk 
275g plain flour
tsp bicarbonate of soda
Seeds from 5 cardamom pods crushed in a pestle and mortar

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Grease a 2lb loaf tin, loaf tin sizes confuse me but I mean the bigger one. 

Mash the bananas well and set aside. Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla (if using). Due to the the ratio of sugar to flour it will not cream to a light and fluffy mass like other cakes. However persevere as it will become uniform in colour and texture with no lumps of butter, then it is ready.

Mix together the eggs, greek yoghurt and buttermilk, add to the butter and sugar and mix well. Mix in the mashed banana.

Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and crushed cardamom seeds and fold through the wet ingredients until everything is well incorporated.

Tip the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and level the top. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes, it could take up to an hour so keep an eye on it.

When a skewer comes out clean it is cooked, leave to cool in the tin for ~10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

This cake keeps for about 3 days and is delicious as it is, in my opinion it does not need spreading with more butter. Mind you if that's how you like it who am I to argue?

Banana and peanut cookies

Phew, busy busy week, such a back log of things to post. I will start with these cookies.

Once a banana gets a few freckles, that is it, I cannot eat it. I had two that did not pass my test and so I left them in a corner to become super ripe. When the time came to bake with them I did not want banana bread (a rarity, even I was surprised at myself) so I decided to make a banana cookie.

I was also super tired and so packed the cookie with lots of energy giving ingredients. Bananas. Obviously. Tennis players are always eating them. Peanuts, nuts are packed full of energy. And oats, lots of slow release energy goodness in these. Yes I know I am trying to make the cookies sound good for you. Which they are, they are good for the soul.

Now I know these are banana and peanut cookies but I did not buy peanuts, oops. So I put in reeces peanut butter chips instead. These are nice and I would put them in again, but as the cookie is a soft one I would also add chopped peanuts for a nice texture contrast.

These cookies are quick to make and have a nice strong banana flavour, the peanut really works well with the banana, its a fab combination.

Banana and peanut cookies


makes around 24


150g softened butter
175g light brown sugar
tsp vanilla paste
1 egg
2 very ripe bananas mashed
150g plain flour
250g oats
peanut butter chips and/or chopped peanuts 50g in total


Preheat the oven to 170C/150C FAN, and butter and flour two baking sheets


Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg followed by the banana.

Mashed banana, perhaps not the prettiest...

Add the flour and mix to combine. Finally stir in the oats and peanut chips. 

Drop rounded tablespoons of the mix onto the baking sheet, leaving a gap between them to allow for spreading. Press the rounds down slightly and bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are a different take on the classic banana bread and are fabulous straight from the oven but they will keep in a tin for at least 3 days (I do not know if they last longer, they did not survive past day 3...)