Banoffee Cupcakes

I've been following this great blog called How to Eat a Cupcake. Every week, Cassie posts a poll, allowing her readers to vote on her next cupcake. I voted for the banoffee cupcakes (even though I had never heard of banoffee, I knew the combination of bananas and caramel could not be bad) and crossed my fingers that they would win, and much to my shagrin, they did! There are no words to describe how delicious these cupcakes are. And the frosting? Holy crap. I could eat it by the bucket full (I followed her suggestion of using the caramel apple dip to sweeten the whipping cream). The original recipe is from Cupcake Heaven, by Susannah Blake, a book which is now on my Amazon wish list.

Make these cupcakes. Now.

Banoffee Cupcakes

Original Source: Cupcake Heaven, by Susannah Blake

Brought to you by Cassie at How to Eat a Cupcake

Yield: The original recipe says 10, Cassie got 8, and I got 5 large cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 4 chewy caramels, chopped
• Heath bits to sprinkle on top

Ingredients for Frosting:

• 2/3 cup heavy cream, whipped
• 3-4 tablespoons dulce de leche or caramel sauce

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until creamy, then beat in the egg, a little at a time. Fold in the mashed banana, then sift the flour into the mixture and fold in, followed by the caramels (I took Cassie's suggestion and tossed the caramels in the flour first to keep them from sticking together).
• Spoon the mixture into the paper liners. Sprinkle the top of each cupcake with Heath bar pieces, and bake in the preheated oven for about 16 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• To decorate, swirl the cream over each of the cupcakes, then drizzle with a spoonful of dulce de leche or caramel sauce and top with slices of banana. (This was not included in the directions, but I beat the heavy cream in my mixer until it reached the consistency of whipped cream, then followed Cassie's suggestion of beating in the caramel apple dip to sweeten. I also topped mine with banana chips so I didn't have to worry about soggy brown bananas).

This is what they looked like after baking! Mmmmm.

Bananas Foster Cupcakes

Oh. My. God. Seriously. These are SO good. Bananas foster is one of my favorite desserts, and about a month ago I had the idea of turning it into a cupcake. I googled and googled and googled, but couldn't find much, and I wasn't happy with the recipes I did find. Finally, I stumbled across this recipe on recipezaar. I knew it had to be good since it actually involved making bananas foster and mixing it into the batter. These were really moist and the flavor was AMAZING. Enjoy!

Bananas Foster Cupcakes

Source: recipezaar

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Ingredients for Banana Mixture:

• ¾ cup unsalted butter
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 ripe but still firm bananas, quartered (halved crosswise, then lengthwise)
• 2 tablespoons dark rum
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for Batter:

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup butter, softened
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon dark rum
• ¾ cup sour cream

Ingredients for Frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• For the banana mixture: In a saute pan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cook until butter melts and sugar is dissolved (4 to 5 minutes). Add the banana slices and cook until tender, turning once for 1 to 2 minutes per side. Stir together rum and vanilla. Turn off the burner and add the rum mixture to the pan. Using a long match, light the alcohol by placing the flame just in the outer edge of the pan. Stand as far back as possible. FLAMBE! (this is the fun part.) The flame should extingish in a few seconds. Gently shake the pan from side to side to coat the bananas with the sauce. Spoon the bananas into a bowl and set aside.
• For the cupcakes: In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, vanilla, rum and banana mixture. Mix well. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream; blend thoroughly but do not overmix. Pour into prepared cupcake pans.
• Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 1- minutes in pan on rack. Remove and cool completely before frosting.
• For the frosting: Beat together cream cheese, butter, cinnamon and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add about half the powdered sugar and beat until mixed well. Then gradually add the remaining powdered sugar until you reach a spreading consistency (I didn't use all of it, I'd say there was about 1/3 cup leftover).

Apple Crisp Cupcakes

I've been in a fall food kind of mood. When I saw this cupcake recipe, I knew that I had to make them mine, and I was not disappointed. They were really moist, and I loved the streusel in the middle. I actually had a bunch of streusel left over so I sprinkled some on the top also. The caramel topping tasted great, but honestly, these cupcakes are so good that they don't need it. I think it takes away from the taste of the cupcakes. If I make these again, I will just add a crumb topping to them.


Apple Crisp Cupcakes
Source: "125 Best Cupcake Recipes" by Julie Hasson
Yields 12 cupcakes

Ingredients for Batter:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and diced

Ingredients for Streusel:

• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Pinch salt

Ingredients for Frosting:

• 1 cup whipping cream
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• ¼ cup light corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
• Batter: In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and milk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk, beating until smooth. Stir in apple.
• Streusel: In a bowl, whisk together brown sugar and cinnamon. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture holds together in small, moist clumps.
• Scoop about half of the batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle streusel over batter. Scoop remaining batter over streusel.
• Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.
• Frosting: In a heavy saucepan, combine cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted. Reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring often, for 10 to 15 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir until smooth and pour into a bowl. Let cool in bowl, stirring occasionally. Caramel will thicken further as it sits and cools. Stir cooled caramel well and spread or spoon over cooled cupcakes.

Annnnnnd - this is what they looked like when they came out of the oven! Mmmmmm.

And of course, a shot of the inside of the cupcake, showing all of it's streusely goodness!