Banana Chocolate Cupcakes - Vegan Recipe

I made these the other day for my Dad's birthday. They're very rich and moist and very chocolatey! The recipe makes 10 small cupcakes. Or fairy cakes. But not big ol' muffins! 

Ingredients:

1 fairly ripe banana

1 tsp baking powder

A heaped table spoon of dark cocoa powder 

50g muscavado sugar (could be subbed for other sugar but this is very rich!)

50g vegan margarine 

75g self raising flour 

Method:

Mix the first three ingredients together. Mashing the banana until it's as smooth as possible. 

Add the sugar and the margarine and beat together. 

Add the flour a bit at a time until it comes together in a smooth, glossy, fairly thick consistency. 

Restrain yourself from eating it out of the bowl....

Divide into cake cases!

Bake for 15 minutes in a 180 degree C oven until a skewer comes out clean. 

I hope you enjoy them! 

I want to try out more egg substitutes in my baking as cooked banana isn't always my thing!! Dad loved them though:-) 

Jo :-)

December Instagram Round Up

Or. An excuse for some pretty pictures! 

I normally do the top five most liked pics, but this time there's three tied at the bottom. So I'm going to do seven instead. 

Just think of it like a bonus!! 

7) 

Sewing on my wonderful Singer. She is the best. I never want to change her. 

The culottes I was sewing though. Failure. They need some work.... Or maybe a bin. Hmm. 

6) 

Draping a dress to go with some beautiful 30s deco items from my eventual mother in law. The fabric was £2.50 from a charity shop and it's just lovely. 

Can't wait to put this together. 

5) 

Making mince pies with my mum. And feeling like a child again. 

This set off a monumental amount of baking in my house when I got home. I've made mince pies, jam tarts, puff pastry for the first time, sausage rolls, pork and apple chutney pies, marmite swirls, and enough food to last months!!

4) 

My hair doing wonderful things for a change. Right before I went to bed. Ugh. 

Apparently my hair has a sense of humour. Which would explain why when I need to leave in five minutes, it decides its going to look rubbish and be completely unmanageable. 

3) 

The black satin that finally arrived for my Godmother's housecoat. It's lovely. Just need some pink fleece and we'll be in business! 

2) 

The housecoat pattern. Which has led to me lusting after one in blue and white stripes...

It's just so beautiful. I see many things being made from this pattern in the future!

1) The top liked post of December is.....:

A terrible selfie of me in a mirror! 

Really. Fitting myself for an evening dress I'm making using a top I don't wear anymore, a 25p zip from a charity shop, some fabric from India and mile upon mile of silver bias binding!! It's coming along nicely and is part of my aim for January. Can't wait to see it finished. 

Jo :-)

P.S. what were your December best bits? Instagram or otherwise!

November Instagram Round Up

Day late, my reminder didn't go off! Rubbish! :-)

Top five Instagram posts as liked by people. 

According to this month I've been busy trying to teach myself to design dresses whilst baking, selling things on eBay and starting far too much knitting!! 

First off, Cookies!!

Raspberry and white chocolate oat cookies to be precise. 

Made the day we were clearing out the garage. For sustenance! There some chocolate chip lurking at the back there too. Since then I've made these again and done chocolate chip and raisin oat cookies. Yummy. 

Lovely Laura Ashley dress that went for a bargainous  price on my eBay (joanna_esme if you're interested!) because it doesn't fit me well!

Too many knitting projects on the go. Since then I've finished the navy, started and finished a hot pink snood and started a hot pink beret. So the pile's not really gone down at all....

My wonderful dress form. She's a bit old and creaky, plus she's still without a name, but she's been amazingly useful after I got her back in November. From freecycle too! 

Last but not least, trying to teach myself to draw clothes. So that I can show people what I want to make rather than just badly describing it. It's going reasonably well so far for a beginner! I have a fancy pen now and everything!! 

That's all for now folks. 

I've got a post about a lighthouse boat in the works for Monday, there's an outfit post lurking somewhere too! The fiancé is off to work in India for a couple of weeks so after the busy weekend it should be a bit of smooth sailing! 

Jo. 

P.S. what have you been up to in November?