Chocolate cupcakes with a twist....

I have been pretty busy baking and experimenting in the past week. The first recipe I have tried is a chocolate cupcake made with avocado. Yes, you read right: AVOCADO. I love avocado especially just simply spread on a piece of toast with a bit of salt and pepper but I never thought of combining it with chocolate to make the moistest chocolate cupcake I have tasted so far... Best thing is, Avocado contains good fat so it has to be healthy right?!
So here is the recipe I have found on a French blog: www.uneirresistibleenvie.blogspot.com.

Ingredients:
210 g of flour
3 CS of cacao powder
¼ CC of salt
1 CC of bicarb of soda
150 g of powdered sugar
2 CS of avocado (mashed)
2 CS (or 30 ml) of neutral oil- I used Canola Oil
240 ml of cold water
1 CS of white vinegar
1 CC of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
Prepare your cupcake cups.

In a bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, salt and bicarb of soda.

In another bowl mix the avocado, the oil, cold water and white vinegar and the vanilla extract. Add the sugar and then add the flour mixture. Mix just enough so the mixture is all wet but be careful not to overwork it.

Fill the cups to about 3/4 and place in the oven for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Let them cool a little in the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack.

I iced mine with 2 different icings:
- Peanut butter and chocolate made from the same recipe I used for my son's birthday cake and some dark chocolate ganache.

- Since I made very tiny cupcakes I decided to try and make the high hat chocolate cupcakes I had seen on Bakerella's website- www.bakerella.com

For the high hat cupcakes it is the same meringue I have made for the lemon meringue cupcakes (except executed properly this time) and dipped in chocolate. This part is very daunting but I followed Bakerella's advise and placed my cupcakes in the freezer prior to dipping them and it worked a charm.

Next post very soon. I just need to attend to a teething toddler right now. Happy baking everyone :)