Chocolate Banana Cupcake- Celebrating 200th Post

My friends often tell me they love reading my anecdotes along with the recipes. For months I have been waiting to write something for the 200th post. I also wanted to bake something exciting and exotic after all it's an important milestone for this blog to have traveled this long. I did quite some research and made a list of all the fancy stuff I wanted to bake but soon realized I would not be able to accomplish any of them because I cannot whip, chop, fold, or for that matter even bathe,eat or sleep properly any more- post my Carpal tunnel diagnosis. People ask me why I bother straining my hands when I am not supposed to? Well all I tell them is imagine having two hands but being restricted all day from using it. This means I don't flip pages of a book I read, I don't type, I don't re-arrange my wardrobe and I DONT GET TO COOK. I know it's a phase but I cannot let myself watch the idiot box the whole day can I? So when I feel low, I decide to cook, I know it's suicidal, it intensifies my pain but look at that pic above- I get a lot of relief staring at these beauties, though I know my hands are aching like hell after all my stint at baking them. I could not even decorate these cupcakes with the sprinkles - a three year old would beat me at this, but I am overjoyed, that I can still bake . And for the first time I realize how it feels to be addicted to something, to transcend pain to still embrace joy.

This post is dedicated to Dr. Rajshri Jobanputrs- she was supposed to visit me yesterday and wanted to have a cake. I totally forgot she was not a fan of chocolate and baked these. But she could not make it and so these cupcakes were devoured by the kids in my neighborhood. Personally I think they are the best cup cakes I baked ever, they were soft, spongy and gooey ( and made lousily with weak hands). I should thank my friend Simi who assisted me all throughout, I cannot do a thing in the kitchen without help and she patiently helped me from whipping to cleaning.

It would be a grave injustice if I do not mention few names when I share this success. Thanks mom, for not stopping me when I started cooking at 10. My sis for being my assistant and competitor in kitchen :) , my hubby for going through all the adventurous journeys to shop the right accessories and ingredients ( alla round the world ;) ). He seems to have inherited an unquenchable thirst for these adventures with me ( he even christened this blog). Bhai, for believing I can do this better each time ( though you still need to complete all those pending assignments for the blog).

A big thanks to all the followers, some of your comments have really motivated me, I made a lot of friends here ( though most of my regular friends think this is a useless pursuit).

Now that's all for now, if I type anymore, I might end up chopping my arms so "Happy 200th post Bloggie"- you really helped me survive.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. In another bowl mix together all the wet ingredients- mashed banana, egg, oil, warm water, milk and vanilla extract and mix them well. Now add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Line your muffin/cupcake tray with liners and pour the batter into the muffin cups. Pour till 3/4th of the muffin cups and not more. Bake for 20 minutes till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer the cup cakes onto a cooling rack as soon as they are out of the oven.

For the fudge frosting, heat chocolate over a  double boiler- place chocolate on a glass bowl and heat his bowl over a sauce pan with boiling water. See to it that your butter is at room temperature. Now using an electric beater cream your butter for two minutes and then add the sugar, beat in till light and fluffy, now add the vanilla essence and melted chocolate and beat well till you get a smooth frosting. Frost the cup cakes and decorate it with sprinkles or even slices of banana ( which I could not do coz my bananas were over ripe).

Note: The cake wasn't very sweet so the fudge topping complimented the cake really well. For people not planning the frosting but gotta sweet tooth, add more sugar to your cupcakes.