Paula Bakes: Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Rum Buttercream

Meet (Blake Baker) Paula. Growing up in a large family of 5 children, all girls, some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the counter and watching my mom cook or bake. While I was in college, my mom started catering. I would drive home on week-ends and help with events. After graduating with a degree in Elementary Education, I taught for several years but continued helping mom with catering jobs. I soon realized that my true passion was for food and cooking…(continued after the post).

The cupcake bug, has it bitten you yet? It’s gotten me good and I’ve got cupcake fever! I can’t look at a cake recipe anymore without trying to figure out how I could turn it into a cupcake. I’m not sure what makes cupcakes so appealing.

Maybe the appeal is that cupcakes are your own individual cake, or maybe it’s just that cupcakes are cute. Surfing through the food blog sphere I see that I’m not the only one that’s caught the fever. Recently, I even came across mini meatloaves baked in a muffin pan and topped with mashed potato “frosting”. Okay so I’m not quite ready to start experimenting with meat, but cake recipes are fair game.

When I came across this recipe from Bon Appétit for Banana Layer Cake with Caramel Cream, delirious with cupcake fever, I immediately wanted to make it into a cupcake. I liked the cake recipe and didn’t think I’d have a problem making it into cupcakes. I decided to go a different way with the frosting and make a traditional buttercream with a caramel drizzle. The caramel and banana sounded like a match made in heaven to me. All that was missing was chocolate, so I decided to throw some chocolate chips into the cake batter.

This recipe makes a large cake so you’ll get about 24 cupcakes. Reading through the recipe it sounded more complicated than it actually was. If you get all your ingredients prepped ahead, the cake batter comes together pretty quickly.

For those of you who’ve already been bitten by the bug, here’s one more cupcake make. As for everyone else, don’t blame me if you start wanting to make all your cakes into cupcakes!

Banana Cake (Bon Appétit January 2006 [adapted])

Cake Recipe:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (generous) fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups sugar, divided
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 2 small ripe bananas, peeled, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 cup chocolate chips tossed in flour.
• Small amount of rum to brush on tops of cupcakes when cooled

To make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place cupcake papers in cupcake pan. Sift flour, baking powder, and sea salt into medium bowl. Beat butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add 2 eggs; beat until blended. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions. Beat remaining 4 eggs and remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar in medium bowl until mixture is thick and pale in color, about 4 minutes. Fold egg mixture into batter. Fold in bananas.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool 15 minutes. Invert cakes onto racks; cool completely. Using pastry brush dipped in rum brush tops of cupcakes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil; store at room temperature.)

Notes:

1. Use a light touch when folding the egg mixture and the bananas into the batter or your cake will be dense.
2. Tossing the chips in flour will help to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cupcake as it bakes.
3. Be sure to use very ripe bananas in the cake. You’ll taste the banana flavor more in your cake if you start will really ripe bananas.
4. You could throw some chopped pecans into the batter as well.

Caramel Sauce Recipe:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar

To make: Combine the butter, heavy cream and brown sugar in a small heavy saucepan; heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil gently over medium low heat until mixture is thickened, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Basic Buttercream Recipe:

• 3 large egg whites, at room temp
• ¾ cup sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into 16 pieces, at room temp

To make: In a large, heatproof bowl, combine the egg whites and the sugar. Set the bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in a saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch (about 160 F on an instant read thermometer). Remove bowl from saucepan, using an electric mixer on high speed, beat until fluffy, cooled to room temperature, and holds stiff peaks, but not until mixture looks dry.

With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the salt and begin adding the butter a piece or two at a time, beating well after each addition. If the frosting appears to separate or is very liquid after all the butter in added, continue to beat on high speed until smooth and creamy. Stir in ½ cup cooled caramel sauce. Can be refrigerated for up to 5 days in airtight container. Before using, bring buttercream to room temp and beat on med-low speed until smooth.

Place in piping bag fitted with large star tip. Pipe the buttercream onto cupcakes in a decorative swirl. Drizzle the tops of the cupcakes with remaining caramel sauce. Top with grated or ground chocolate if desired.

…Along with my sister, a culinary school grad, I opened a cafe and catering business. I ran the business for 5 years until getting married and moving all over the place from Europe to the mountains in Utah. Now that we’ve settled in one place for a while I’ve gotten back into catering and specialty baking. I love to cook, eat, and entertain, pretty much anything to do with food!

Paula’s blog is Half Baked.