I don’t understand people who say they aren’t into sweets. How could that possibly be?! I have a massive sweet tooth and I always want dessert. Like, I’ll have a chocolate croissant for breakfast, then come lunch time I’ll totally want a cookie, and then after dinner wouldn’t some ice cream be nice?! I don’t (often) let myself do that, but I’m always on the hunt for sweets.
So, in my never ending quest for amazing and delicious sweets I made this cupcake recipe. This cupcake recipe is a delicious mouthful with a crazy mouthful of a name: banana caramel cupcakes with chocolate and peanut butter frosting. You might be thinking, “Mariel, that’s a lot going on in one cake.” You’re right. It is. But it’s also a glorious fusion of two classic combinations.
First, let’s start with banana and caramel. That’s a combination I adore. The sweet texture and flavor of banana paired with rich gooey homemade caramel – which can have just the slightest burnt bitter notes – it’s amazingly decadent. This combination is a play on a classic British pairing called “banoffee.” Banoffee is a portmanteau (fancy word for when two words are blended together to make a new one) for banana and toffee. In making this, I thought to myself are toffee and caramel the same thing? Answer: according to the internet, no they are not the same. The difference is in the amount of butter, use of cream, and cooking temperatures. If you’re curious you can read more on Chowhound.
But whatever you call it, the banana-caramel sauce you make for this recipe will bring unadulterated joy to your life. As written you’ll have plenty of leftover sauce that you can use to drizzle over the cupcakes at the end. I also made waffles and spread this sauce into every cranny. I used it to make homemade blended ice coffee drinks too. And yeah, ok, I admit – I ate the sauce directly from the bowl using a spoon.
The other classic combination, which hardly needs an introduction is chocolate and peanut butter. Those two ingredients go together perfectly. And individually they also go well with banana-caramel. It might seem like there’s a lot going on but it totally works. Also, when it comes to the dessert, I’m a believer in the more is more school of though. Why would I want less goodness in my dessert? I wouldn’t. In my passionate pursuit of dessert, this is nearly a perfect cake.
The chocolate-peanut butter frosting is also great if you’re good with a piping bag. Spoiler: I’m awful with a piping bag. This recipe is adapted from one on Sally’s Baking Addiction, and you should check her out to see her beautiful skills. Since you’ll make two colors of frosting when you put them on either side of your piping bag and then use a fluted tip, you can get a gorgeous spiral. I don’t have a fluted tip, I have just a plain one – plus I used one with a really small opening. When I piped the icing I did get a swirl of color but the overall effect looked bad. Like nearly unappetizingly bad! This recipe is too good to suffer from a frosting related tragedy. So, from then on I just used a knife and scooped a bit of frosting from each bowl and swirled it together on top of my cupcake. It looks fine doesn’t it? Better yet, tastes great.
Adapted from a combination of Sally’s Baking Addition, Rachael Ray, and Martha Stewart.
Messy level: Unfortunately it’s hugely and wildly messy. I mean just look at the name, you’re making and compiling a lot of ingredients. And that means you’ll have a ton of dishes and a lot of clean up. Did I mention these cupcakes are delicious? It will make it worth it, I really promise.
- 1 cup/ 200 grams sugar
- 4 tablespoons water
- 1 cup/ 240 ml heavy cream
- 4 tablespoons /60 grams butter
- 2 ripe bananas, thinly sliced
- 8 tablespoons/ 1 stick/ 115 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 1¼ cups/ 250 grams granulated sugar, divided
- 1 cup/ 340 grams of banana caramel sauce, divided (you might not use it all)
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1¾ cups/ 210 grams flour, divided
- 6 tablespoons whole milk
- 3 egg whites
- 1 and ¾ cups/ 210 grams confectioners' sugar
- ¼ cup/ 21 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
- 8 tablespoons/ 1 stick/ 115g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup/ 185 grams creamy peanut butter
- 4 tablespoons/ 60 grams unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup/ 90 grams confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- In a large saucepan mix together the sugar with water. Stir so that all the sugar is moistened. Turn on the heat to low/medium-low. Boil until golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Do not stir during this process! Just let it go. If the sugar starts to crystallize that's ok it will smooth out later.
- Once the sugar is golden brown, pour in the heavy cream and butter. The mixture may rise up, sputter, and clump a bit. Now you can stir! Stir and continue to keep on the heat until the sauce is smooth.
- When the sauce is smooth add the slices of bananas. Stir to make sure the bananas are covered in sauce. Turn your heat to low if you're not there already and let the bananas cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Remove the sauce from the heat. Smash up the bananas as best as you can using a fork or immersion blender. This does not need to be perfectly smooth, but giant chunks aren't great either. Set your sauce to the side for now. You will have made way more than you need so if you want to eat some spoonfuls as you work on everything else, that's ok too.
- Now for the cupcakes. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Line 18 cups of 2 standard 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners.
- Using a stand mixer or a large bowl and hand mixer, cream together the butter and 1 cup (200 grams) sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add ¾ cup (250 grams) of the banana-caramel sauce, the baking powder, and salt to the butter-sugar mixture. Beat until smooth.
- Stir in 1 cup flour (120 grams).
- Next, pour in 6 tablespoons milk and beat until combined. Then add the remaining ¾ cup flour (90 grams). Mix together gently until smooth.
- Using a stand mixer or large bowl and electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Once that happens, turn your mixer to high and gradually mix in the remaining ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar. Beat until the egg whites are glossy and hold stiff peaks.
- Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Make sure there aren't any streaks of egg.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each liner half full.
- Use a teaspoon and pour some of the banana caramel sauce over the top of the batter.
- Cover the banana caramel sauce with more batter so the cases are about ¾ full.
- Bake until the cupcakes for 25 minutes, or until they tops are springy when touched gently.
- Set aside to cool while you prepare the icing.
- Starting with the chocolate frosting, stir together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa powder to assure there are no lumps. You can sift if you want, I just hate doing that and I've found equal results with sifting versus vigorous stirring and smashing clumps with my finger. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer, or a large bowl and handheld mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Gradually pour in the sifted sugar and cocoa powder, alternative with the heavy cream and vanilla. After each addition, beat on low speed until creamy and just combined. Set aside.
- Now for the peanut butter frosting; and the method is pretty much the same. Using a stand mixer or a large bowl and a handheld mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the peanut butter and butter until light and creamy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Mix until smooth and combined.
- Add the cream and mix until fully incorporated.
- It's now time to frost the cupcakes. Use a knife and take a dollop of each type of frosting and artfully swirl it and spread it over the top of the cupcake. Or, be fancy and use a piping bag with a fluted tip. Stand the piping bag in a tall class. Fill one side (vertically) with the chocolate frosting. Fill the other side (vertically) with the peanut butter frosting. When you pipe you should get a beautiful swirl.
- Serve and eat. You deserve a treat after all that work!
