Madhouse recipe : Cadbury Buttons and Banana Cupcakes

At the start of the month, Fairtrade Fortnight celebrated its 10th edition and to mark the occasion, Cadbury Dairy Milk (who have been Fairtrade certified since 2009) teamed up with Great British Bake Off contestant and mum of two, Holly Bell, to create a delicious recipe using Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons and Fairtrade Bananas.

I was impressed to learn that :

· Cadbury Dairy Milk was the first mainstream chocolate brand to become Fairtrade certified

· Cadbury Dairy Milk is the biggest purchaser of Fairtrade Cocoa, buying around 16,000 tonnes of Fairtrade certified cocoa a year from Ghana

· Cadbury Dairy Milk has brought in over £6 million in Fairtrade premiums for farmers

· Thanks to Cadbury Dairy Milk and Fairtrade, 21 schools, 2 healthcare clinics and 23,000 people in communities across Ghana now benefit from solar panels and lanterns

Now, that sounds like the perfect excuse for eating more chocolate, if you ask me ! I had every intention of making these last week but - ahem - the kids found the chocolate buttons and scoffed the lot before I got the chance to make them ! If you want to have a go, my advice is hide the buttons in a high cupboard !!

Chocolate Banana Flower Cupcakes 

By Holly Bell

Makes 12

Ingredients:

For the cake:

· 100g butter, softened at room temperature

· 140g Fairtrade soft light brown sugar

· 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten

· 30mls whole/semi skimmed milk

· 2 ripe Fairtrade bananas, well mashed

· 190g self-raising flour

· 25g Fairtrade cocoa

For the icing:

· 140g butter, softened at room temperature

· 280g Fairtrade icing sugar

· 1 tbsp Fairtrade vanilla extract

· 1 tbsp milk

To decorate:

· 12 banana chips

· 4 x 32g packs of Fairtrade chocolate buttons

Line a 12 hole cake tin with cupcake cases and preheat the oven to gas 4/180C/fan 160C. Cream together the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon or with a mixer for about 4 – 6 minutes until really light and creamy looking. Add the eggs to the creamed mixture a dribble at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the milk, beat again.

Fold the mashed bananas into the mixture using a large metal spoon. Then sieve the flour and cocoa over the top and fold in again with a metal spoon. When no traces of the flour or cocoa are visible, spoon into the cases equally and bake for 20 – 25 minutes in the centre of the oven until they’re well risen, a little cracked at the surface and a toothpick comes out of the centre of each cupcake clean. Cool on a wire rack, removed from the tin.

To make the icing beat the butter with a wooden spoon or electric mixer for about 5 minutes until light and creamy, then add the icing sugar 1 tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and milk, beat well for another 5 minutes to ensure the icing is really fluffy, then spoon onto the cupcakes once cooled. Use a knife to spread an even layer over the top of each cake.

Press a banana chip into the centre of each cupcake then push 12 chocolate buttons into the buttercream in a circle pattern, to look like petals. These cupcakes keep in an airtight tin, at room temperature for 4 days.

For more information on our Fairtrade Fortnight recipe creations visit www.facebook.com/cadburydairymilkuk

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Globe-cooking recipe : Carapulcra (Peru)

Madhouse recipe : St David's Day Quiche

Madhouse recipe : Chocolate & Apple Crumble