Banana, Chocolate and Fudge Cupcakes

I absolutely love banana cake. I even buy too many bananas on purpose, secretly hoping one or two will start going black in the fruit bowl, which makes them perfect for cake baking.

However, I think after making banana loaf cake every week for a long time, I started to try variations.
You may have seen my banana and chocolate cake recipe filled with nutella. That worked well, but in my opinion, these are better. Plus cup cakes are great to make with children.

I enjoy making cup cakes or fairy cakes as I prefer to call them. There are endless ways of decorating them, but one particularly delicious way is to drench them in melted chocolate.
Firstly it is very easy, secondly, it fills the house with delicious chocolatey smells.
Did I also mention you can lick the spoon?!!

What more could you want? Banana sponge cup cakes with melted chocolate topped with fudge. Luscious!

This recipe makes approx 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

2 free range eggs
4oz caster sugar
4oz self raising flour
4oz stork baking margarine
1 x over ripe banana

To decorate:

1 x 100g dairy milk chocolate bar (or your preferred brand)
I had a bag of fudge to use up - which I cut into small pieces to decorate.

Variations:
A chopped up bar of Cadburys Fudge works well.
A flake bar crumbled on top
Crunchie bar crushed up
Toffee pieces
Or whatever you fancy?

Method:

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees C fan

Place your cake cases in your 12 muffin/cupcake tin

In a large roomy mixing bowl weigh out all the ingredients and mix together.

Then either chop up the banana and add to the bowl and give a good mix.
Or mash it with a fork and add to the mix. 

Using two spoons, evenly distribute the mix into the cake cases. The cases should be just over half full. 2/3 full is ok. You don't want your cakes to be too shallow, or equally spilling out of the sides.

*If you like - place a piece of chocolate in the middle of the cake case and cover it with mixture. It will melt in the oven to provide a gooey chocolate centre when you eat them!

Place tray in oven for 16-18 mins - until cakes nicely risen, rounded and golden brown on top.

Place on a wire cooling rack.

I start to melt the chocolate whilst the cakes are in the oven. But you can also do it whilst the cakes are cooling. It only takes 5 mins.

To melt the chocolate:

Firstly, find a small glass bowl and a small saucepan. (The bowl needs to sit on top of the saucepan.)
Fill the small saucepan with water. Just the right amount that it stays below the bowl once you place on top.
Turn the hob on and bring the water to the boil.
Break the chocolate pieces into the bowl and let the water simmer. Stir until the chocolate is melted and glossy.
Spoon onto the cakes and then top the cakes with your decorations of choice!

A great thing about this recipe, is you can decorate them whilst the cakes are warm and eat them warm too!