Spiced Banana & Date Cupcake

This post was sitting in my drafts for a couple of days now,but hardly had any time to review and publish.Had a  great weekend attending Blogger events by Famished in Arabia,the UAE’s Food Blogger group. More of it later…
Ever had any days where things never turn out as you expected,things go wrong when you haven’t planned it at all,whatsoever.Well,this is one such incident.
I had an abundance of bananas,waiting to rot.Abundance of dates by boxfuls,leftovers of Ramadan.And I had a craving for a baked goodie,so much so that I started perusing the cooking magazines,recipe cutouts voraciously to find something that will put my leftovers and whatever I had in hand to good use.And voila! Spiced banana and date cupcake came to the rescue.

I jotted the recipe down,dashed to the kitchen,turned on the oven and got working on it having the idea of taking the pics and posting on the blog.It was quite easy to whip up,and the baked babies came out beautifully sans the overflowing of the batter since I had filled the cases way too much than required 3/4 th of the muffin tin so that I wouldn’t have to go for a second round of baking.The recipe leaves a little bit extra than making 12 cupcakes,so opt for large muffin tins or go for baking the next batch.
All this in between feeding my two tykes and settling them in front of the laptop with Cars2 movie.I know they will be glued to the movie for a couple of hours leaving me to do the frosting and take the shots.Alas!..How wrong I was when assessing my own kids..!

Then,the recipe called for butter frosting which I don’t normally use but given the fact I was running around the house like a mad woman,it was impossible.Whipped cream frosting with chopped dates and cinnamon in it.Delicious!!!
Trying to pipe the frosting with chopped dates in it, in a piping bag was my first mistake.I created a big mess.How could I have overlooked it…Duhhhh!!!!!!!!!
Setting up the tripod and trying to take food photos for the first time when the kids are around was my major mistake.Having become mini food photographers,they became fully fledged ones by taking pictures of everything around the house moving with the tripod.Though I manage to get some shots,I wasn’t satisfied.I am huge critique of my photos and I had to remind myself that I’m still in the early stages of blogging and photographing.
These little gems refrigerate beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed biting into the cooled moist banana-ish cake with a wave of cream and crunchy sweetness to it with the chopped dates,that could calm a freaking mother’s nerves.
It’s worth the whole mess,clutter and the nerves.

Here’s the recipe..

Spiced Banana & Date Cupcake
(adapted from Friday Magazine)

Ingredients:
90 g unsalted butter
1/2 cup soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger(or 1 tsp grated ginger)
2/3 cup ripe banana mashed(around 2 medium bananas)
1/3 cup plain yogurt(preferably drained)
2 tbsp milk

*Butter Frosting
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
80 g chopped dates
1/2 tsp cinnamon

*Whipped Cream Frosting
250 ml whipping cream
10 dates chopped
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp icing sugar

Method:

• Cream butter and sugar,add in cinnamon and ginger.
• Add eggs slowly and beat.Then mix in sifted flour and baking soda.
• Mix in the banana,yogurt and the milk at last.
• Spoon into muffin cup lined trays.
• Bake in a 180 C pre-heated oven for 18 to 20 minutes.

• Cream butter with chopped dates and cinnamon.
• Add icing sugar and mix till light and fluffy.Spread evenly over cooled cupcakes.