what's cooking, uh, baking?

I am on an adrenaline high..

Since I'm from the night shift I sleep in the morning until around 7pm.

Today was different, though. I slept at around 11am and was already awake by 2pm. I was supposed to sleep again but I thought of baking the choco-banana cupcake batter that's been sitting in my fridge for 24hrs.

Okay, let me backtrack a bit.

I thought of baking choco-banana cupcakes the other day, after getting my daily dose of Miss Connie's site. Hehe. I have been scouring the internet for baking supply stores lately, and while I have checked out Ingrid's Sweet Haven last Saturday, I wasn't very satisfied with what I've seen. Hehe.

Since I'm just using a convection oven, the usual size of the different kinds of bakeware available in the market don't fit my oven - it's just around 12in in diameter. Anyway, since I'm just starting out, I really don't have all the tools I need, and I can't afford splurging on baking tools just yet.

But I've been itching to bake some cupcakes and I don't want to wait til I get myself a decent muffin pan.. Guess what I did? I bought those aluminum mamon molds and decided to use them as muffin pans instead. It's not entirely different, right?

So yeah, I decided to bake some cupcakes. My first batch didn't turn out perfect, the tops broke and it looked a bit toasted. But it tasted good. Yes, self-preservation is the key. :)

Going back to what happened today... I really intended to leave some cupcake batter, just in case my first try was a fail.

Before baking, I added a little milk to the batter and folded the mixture. I prepped my makeshift muffin pans and lined them with muffin paper which I just bought from The Cocoa Pantry.

Without further ado, here's the recipe. (Dami kasing daldal!)

I adapted Miss Connie's Choco-Banana Cupcake recipe and Joy of Baking's Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. Hehe. I don't care if it's cupcake or muffin, if it tastes good, eat it! :)


1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 eggs (the original recipe called for 2 large eggs, but the eggs I used looked pretty small)
1c milk or cream (I used 1 cup evaporated milk)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2c all-purpose flour
2/3c brown sugar (should be white, but I never got the hang of buying white sugar, so...)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed (it should've been more, but again, I didn't have enough)
1c semisweet chocolate chips


I mostly followed the Joy of Baking's procedure...


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Position rack in center of oven. Butter, or line with paper liners, 12 - 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 inch muffin cups.


In a large measuring cup or bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. 


In another large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips and mashed bananas. With a rubber spatula fold the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are combined. Do not over mix the batter or tough muffins will result. 


Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. In a small bowl combine the topping ingredients and then sprinkle a little topping on each muffin. Place in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18 - 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan. 

The second batch of cupcakes-slash-muffins turned out good. Yummy. :)

almost perfect choco-banana cupcakes.

Now that I think about it, if I'll do this recipe again, I think I'd use half cup of milk and half cup of cream and cream the butter with the sugar instead of melting it. I'd probably mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together and alternately mix the flour mixture with the eggs . And I'd add the chocolate chips and bananas last. Just like how Miss Connie did it.

That's a note to myself and I better remember it next time. We'll see. :)

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Up next: Chocolate Chip Cookies!