Even those ones who won't celebrate Christmas because of any reasons can feel the magic in the air, and this is because Christmas is a lot of things besides its religious implications. Food is one of those things.

In my case, every time Christmas is coming, I feel like cooking and baking more than usual, and cupcakes have a very special place in my heart when it comes to this, specially date cupcakes with any kind of nuts and chocolate. It's a sweet and magical combination.

I had no work today. So I was doing a lot of things on my computer, including updating my Hive blog. I found a post that made me want to get out the Christmas decorations and start giving the house that Christmas feel--which puts me in a great mood every year even though this time of year also comes with sad memories.

I went to the kitchen and pulled these ingredients out of the fridge and out of the cupboard and said to myself, "We'll make something christmasly delicious with all of these."

Ingredients

• 1 cup sliced ripe banana
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/3 cups cane honey
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cups ground oats
• 1/2 cups orange juice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 handful walnuts, coarsely crushed
• 1 handful dates, chopped
• enough coconut oil to grease the baking mold
• Chocolate, walnuts, and dates for garnish

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I'd usually add cinnamon, but I thought I'd better add it to the Americano that I'd serve with the cupcakes.

Let's Make Some Delicious Plant Based Cupcakes!

I took my big jar of cane honey syrup out of the fridge. I always prepare it by putting a 1 kilo piloncillo in half a liter of water and letting it boil until it gets the consistency I want. Then I strain it and store it in the refrigerator when it has cooled.

With the help of a fork, I slightly mixed the sliced banana, coconut oil, and cane honey syrup in a bowl.

I didn't make a great effort as you can see 😁 No need.

Then I measured the flours. It meant I had to grind the oats in the blender. And so I did.

I added the flours into the mixing bowl and mixed well.

I mixed the baking soda and orange juice and added it too into the mixing bowl. I mixed well.

At this point, I tasted the batter and realized I had to add some salt.

It was time, then, to add the crushed walnuts...

... and the chopped dates.

I usually grease my baking pans with margarine, but I used coconut this time--for a change.

Immediately, I poured the mixture into the greased mold. The batter was a little sticky but easy to handle.

There was enough batter for 6-7 cupcakes. This batter does not puff up much while baking, so I filled the molds to the top.

I topped the cupcakes with chocolate, walnuts and dates.
I used my favorite chocolate brand.

I chopped all the toppings.

...And decorated the cupcakes. I wasn't too worried about symmetry here--I rarely am 🙈

These cupcakes went into the preheated oven at 280 °F x 25 minutes.

They unmolded easily.

Moist and delicious on the inside.

I hope you've found this recipe useful, and you're in the mood for Christmas preparations even if you're not a believer 😁

Bon appetite!

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

Thank you so much for your visit :)

Banner by @andresromero 🖤