Choco chip chocolaty cupcakes - Cooking Is Child's Play

OK kids, this one’s for you (all right, all right, Chocoholic adults, I’ll include you’ll too). I have never really cooked with a kid (but have cooked like a kid plenty of times), so I hope you like this.

Entering the competition Cooking Is Child's Play* I was torn between what to make - something that would be easy for a child to make with a little supervision. So what was it to be? Easy peasy cookies? Something with Banana? Cupcakes?  Yes! Cupcakes it is. Rich, chocolaty, choco-chip cupcakes. If you make them without frosting, call them muffins. But that won’t change their scrumptiousness.

See, monsoon season in India, means a lot of staying at home. How much TV can you watch. How many computer games will you play? Forget I asked that, I know you could go on forever, but kids, don't play computer games all the time. It's not good. It'll harm your eyes... OK, enough preaching. Instead why don't I tell you about the cupcakes? You like chocolate, then go make these. You can make them instead of a birthday cake, for someone's birthday at home. Don't buy a ready-made cake. Instead make these J
Or take them to your friend's birthday party - they'll be so surprised and happy!

A note to the adults (and the chocoholics)- This recipe is so simple, that I wonder why I go those extra lengths to find fancier, challenging recipes. There’s no whipping, beating (no no don’t get scared and run away!), no creaming, no melt-the-butter-cream-chocolate (see, I might like all those things. You may not and you don’t have to. I am just particularly fussy sometimes) so making them with a child is...well...child's play. You just need to supervise them, especially in the baking part and the, ummm, the purchasing part. Let them do all the mixing, filling, decorating and you can you'll get to eat some really good cupcakes, made of love and of-course, chocolate.

So how do you make this easy easy recipe?

Chocó chip chocolaty Cupcakes
(for kids 8-14 yrs of age)
Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson

For keepsake - click here for a printable recipe!

You take –
1 cup warm milk
1/3 cup rice bran (or sunflower) oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
1 3/4 cups flour (maida)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar – powdered sugar or superfine sugar
3/4 cup chocolate chips or chopped Cadbury Dairy Milk
1/4 cup chocolate chips for sprinkling

...and don’t forget
Cupcake tray and Cupcake liners
A grown up: 18 yrs and above (Mom/Dad/Brother/Sister)
An Apron

Then you –
1. Ask a grown up to preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Prepare the cupcake tray by placing one cupcake liner in each hole.

Step 1 - Cupcake liners

2. In a large steel or glass bowl, put  the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips and mix it with a spoon so that you get a combined mixture

Step 2 - Dry ingredients

3. In a jug or another bowl, pour all the liquid ingredients and mix them using a fork

Step 3 - Wet ingredients

4. Now, add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and mix the two together slowly until you get a smooth brown chocolate batter. Don’t worry if the batter remains lumpy.

Step 4 - Mix the two

5. Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon into the prepared cupcake cases. This way, you get cupcakes of equal sizes. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips in each cupcake.

Step 5 - Fill the tray

6. Ask a grown up to bake these for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

All right, so once your cupcakes are baked, make sure you cool them. By this I mean, keep them in a plate, cover it with a clean towel, and don't keep it under a fan. Cool them for at least 2 hours.

You can decorate them in absolutely anyway you want. Here's three of my ideas for cupcake decoration -

1. Snow. Dust some icing sugar all over the cupcakes and them sprinkle some (more) choco-chips on top.
2. ICE-CREAM! Scoop some Vanilla or Chocolate Ice-cream on top of the cake and sprinkle some coloured edible vermicelli on top.
3. Ready-to-use frosting. Get a jar of ready-made frosting (chocolate/vanilla/whipped) and just spread it on your cupcake with a butter knife.

*This is an entry to for a competition being hosted on Women's Web - Cooking Is Child's Play. But please let me know how your cupcakes turned out when you make them!