banana choc cupcakes

my cousin Suzie wrote a note of thanks to her friend Aida (whom i made acquaintance with way back in 2008) for the  superdelicious chocolate banana cake. "I just cannot have enough of it. YUmmmyyyy!!! Thanks Tip!".  inspired by the sound of the yummylicious-ness, i bought some over ripe bananas and tried the recipe from Joy of Baking as recommmended by Aida or Tip to her close friends. 

 
and... for the first time ever, i suceeded in swirling the icing/frosting or whatever you call it and i was really proud of my achievement hahaha!!

i like this recipe cos it uses CUPs instead of GRAMs. the website is from US, so they still measure in cups or ounces/imperial. it seems funny to me cos i would have thought the americans are more modern hence should measure in metric. 

i'm just too lazy to type the recipe; so just go to this link  http://www.joyofbaking.com/cupcakes/BananaChocolateCupcakes.html#ixzz1S6zLql3U 

i made some adjustments though..
for the choc frosting, i didnt put the chocolate in the bowl over hot water. i cheated a bit - i chopped the choc and put it in the microwave at 30 seconds intervals.
the cocoa powder - i used Tesco cocoa powder, not really bothered whether it is unsweetened or not.

cookies and cream fudge brownies

i made this for the first time today, got the recipe from bbc food website. see  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cookies_and_cream_fudge_48648

i followed everything from the recipe, used Oreo cookies. the only exception was  the butter - i didnt  have any block butter in the fridge so i used Stork butter and microwave the chopped choc & butter at 30 seconds interval.

the brownies taste simply OUT OF THIS WORLD ..trust me!! have it with coffee for better ummmph..