Mini Chocolate Cakes With Caramelized Bananas Recipes

CHOCOLATE SALTED-CARAMEL MINI CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Line mini muffin pans with paper liners.
• Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and water. Using an electric mixer on low speed, mix until smooth.
• Fill muffin pans about 2/3 full. Bake about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks about 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes to wire racks to let cool completely.
• Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen in an airtight container for up to a month.
• Heat sugar, water, and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over high heat. Stir occasionally until syrup is clear. Attach a candy thermometer to side of pan. Stop stirring, and cook until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush as needed.
• Boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is caramelized and temperature just reaches 360°.
• Remove from heat. Slowly pour in cream and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in sea salt. Use immediately. If caramel begins to harden, reheat gently until pourable.
• Use a paring knife, cut a cone-shaped piece, about 1/2-inch deep, from the center of each cupcake. Spoon 1-2 teaspoons of warm filling into each cupcake. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over filling.
• Combine cocoa and boiling water. Stir until cocoa has dissolved.
• Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add melted and cooled chocolate. Beat until combined. Beat in cocoa mixture.
• Frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days or frozen up to 1 month. Bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth before using.
• Fit a pastry bag with a medium open-star tip (Wilton #18). Fill pastry bag with frosting. Pipe onto cupcakes, swirling tip and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. Garnish with a pinch of sea salt.
• Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are filled and frosted. Store at room temperature in an air-tight container until ready to serve.

MINI CHOCOLATE CAKES WITH CARAMELIZED BANANAS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°. In a microwave, melt chocolate and butter; stir until smooth. Cool. Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Sift in flour; mix just until combined. Fold in chocolate mixture., Spoon batter into 8 buttered 4-oz. ramekins dusted with cocoa. Place ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 12-15 minutes. Run a small knife around sides of ramekins. Invert onto cooling rack; let stand 5 minutes. Remove ramekins; place cakes on individual plates., For bananas, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Toss banana slices with sugar until well coated; arrange in a single layer in skillet. Do not stir bananas until bottoms are golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Turn; cook until second side is golden brown, 4-5 minutes longer. Remove from heat. Place bananas on plates with cakes., For sauce, heat wine and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Whisk in chocolate. Pour over cakes.

MINI CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 16 mini muffin cups with paper liners.
• Mix flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Break up clumps lightly with a whisk.
• Mix milk, egg, oil, and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl until well incorporated. Whisk into the flour mixture until well incorporated and there are no clumps. Do not overmix the batter. Fold in pudding with a spatula while scraping the bottom of the bowl. Stir in chocolate chips; batter will be runny and not very thick.
• Pour batter into the prepared cupcake cups with a Wilton® cookie scoop or measuring cup with a spout, filling each 2/3 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 10 minutes.

BANANA CARAMEL CHOCOLATE CHUNK CAKE

Steps:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F. Grease and flour a 12 cup tube or bundt pan, shaking out all the excess flour.
• Sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda. Set aside. Beat together the eggs, caster sugar and oil with your electric beaters on medium speed until the sugar is totally emulsified, about 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla essence. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients, scraping down the bowl to make sure it all gets mixed in well. Fold in the pecan nuts, chocolate and banana chunks very carefully with a rubber spatula taking care not to mush the bananas up. Scrape into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 50 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer to see if it is done. It should come out clean if it is. If not, bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.
• In the meantime combine all the topping ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat and cook until the butter and sugar are melted and it begins to boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes while you are waiting for the cake to finish.
• Remove the cake from the oven and poke holes all over the hot cake (without removing from pan) and spoon the caramel glaze over the top, stopping every now and then to let the cake absorb it. If it starts to pool, poke some more holes in the cake. Let cook completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing and unfolding it onto a plate. I then put another plate on top and flip it over until the flat side is on the top again. Delicious!