Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge

This is a contest that I discovered a few month back and have been wanting to enter ever since. It is run by The sweetest Kitchen Blog, kept by Jamieanne.

Sweetest Kitchen Blog:
http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/

Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge:
http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/mysterybox/

The theme for this months contest was Ginger.

The Challenge: to try to go beyond the obvious pumpkin and gingerbread to create something new.

The first thing that came to my mind was sushi! Mmmmm sushi...
But then I decided that perhaps that was a bit too challenging given I only had one weekend to do this in.

What I ended up going with after a few test runs and suggestions from my boyfriend and taste tester , was chocolate orange cupcakes with ginger cream cheese frosting.

Which I decided to call Chocolate Orange Ginger Cupcakes. Original I know. But everything else sounded too long. So I opted for the obvious.

After the baking came the photo shoot.

These are my two favorite photos:



My food photography’s a bit rusty but I think they came out ok. I wish I had more time to play around with showing the cake part but I will try that next time.

If you like how my cupcake sounds and looks please vote for it on the sweetest Kitchen blog!


The winner of November’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; Tahitian ground vanilla & 3 Mexican vanilla beans
• Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
• Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children's books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins or Bread

Chocolate chip banana muffins are my absolute favorite type of muffins to make, and this is basically the recipe that sparked my interest in baking. Therefore, it only seems fitting that I start my blog with this recipe.

History

My mother was the one that introduced me to this wonderful recipe. Any time we had left over bananas she would make chocolate chip banana muffins or bread. I first started making it myself in college, and since then the recipe I use has changed a lot mostly because I would keep losing the recipe and would have to find a new one. Eventually, I came up with my own variations that depend on my mood and what ingredients I have on hand at the time. I tend to make it in muffin form more often than bread form.

The reason behind my decision to bake these muffins this time was the discovery of these cute baking cups with bananas and monkeys on them from the makers of Reynolds wrap.


Bellow is my current favorite recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup mashed bananas
2 eggs or the egg white equivalent
¼ cup skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp banana extract
1 tbs cinnamon
1 cup of chocolate chips (or more depending on your mood. I always use more J)
*sometimes I put peanut butter chips in it too
Directions:

Combine margarine, sugar, bananas, milk, eggs, vanilla and banana extract in a large bowl. Beat 1 min at medium speed. (don’t worry if it looks chunky, that’s normal) In a separate bowl combine all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, chocolate chips, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Combined the two bowls and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into muffin pans with or without cute baking cups (if not using baking cups make sure to spray the pan with cooking spray) or a 9x5 greased loaf pan if you are in a bread mood. Bake at 350 degrees. 50-60 mins for bread. 15-20 for muffins.


Enjoy!