Cupcake-A-Day: #6

I meant to be posting something else, like my new geeky knitting project that was meant to be done by now, but I got sick and well, I’ve had no drive to finish it (I AM SORRY NANDO). I also meant to post something about The Windup Girl, but I think I’ll wait a few days for that, since I’m still struggling to get through it (and when you have a headache, complicated ideas kind of start pounding on your head like a giant with a club. On cocaine).

But then I remembered the ripe bananas, and the fact that I ended up making cupcakes out of them.

Well, hi, there, cupcakes. How are you today? Once again, I decided I’d try the recipe found at the Ming Makes Cupcakes blog, which was the Banana Cupcakes with Maple Brown Butter Frosting. Unfortunately, while I did have the necessary ingredients–the bananas, obviously–it turned out that all of the maple syrup had disappeared. Why maple syrup, why? Why did you abandon me so?! Ah well.

The cupcakes: I lessened the sugar content in the original recipe, probably by a half or a quarter (I swear I wrote my changes down, but for some reason I didn’t jot down the amount of sugar I used). I also had only two bananas to work with, so for the cupcakes themselves, I used a banana and a half (the other half was for garnish on top of the frosting later). As for the buttermilk…well, I never keep any of that around the house, so I substituted with whole milk and lemon, which seemed to work just fine. The nuts are completely optional, but eh, I love them, and at the time, the ones eating these cupcakes weren’t allergic. Also, for some reason, I found the baking time a little off. So I went with 350F for 20 minutes and went from there.

The frosted top: The honey cinnamon frosting was my backup choice for a frosted top due to lack of maple syrup. I did add a little bit more of the cinnamon, which gave the frosting a less-than-white coloration, but I liked how it came out! It certainly does keep a more steampunky motif (admittedly, that was not the purpose…but it’s an idea I could play with later!). I didn’t have enough frosting to put on all of the cupcakes, but the frosting recipe was pretty easy to make, granted one has honey and cinnamon and confectioner’s sugar handy (which I usually do since I love to bake). We also had an assortment of nuts at home, so I utilized that by taking the multicolored almonds and using them as garnish, along with some of the banana. Not all of the cupcakes had banana on top, but they certainly had the nuts to make them look pretty!

Also, I love my Wilton frosting tips. I would tell you which one I used to get this kind of swirl, but I’ve forgotten, and all my cake decorating gear is out in the den where the tundra is. Well, you get the picture.

Verdict: Absolutely phenomenal. Initially, I’d thought I burnt the cupcakes, but they kept soft even when they got cool. The frosting paired off with the banana cupcakes really well, and this is saying a lot, coming from someone who doesn’t go gaga for honey. A little note: don’t use overripe bananas for garnish, they spoil too quickly.