Ugh! I hate bananas! But for cupcake hero… anything!

Ok, lets just say “I had a bad experience” . Traumatic childhood memory involving a stubborn 2 yr old (me), a banana, and a mom who needed to make a point. I found out the hard way never to demand that you do like something when you actually don’t (ok give me a break, I was only 2) coz your mom will probably make you sit there until you’ve eaten the whole thing! And so a mild dislike turns into a 20 yr long hatred…*sigh*

Anyway, now that thats out of the way… I loved these cupcakes! *gasp* shock horror! I’ve come to realise its most likely the slimy squishy texture of bananas that I don’t like, coz in this cakey form they were divine! I’m sure the sugar, butterscotch and chocolate buttercream helped too! Mmmm, yummy…

It’s my first time doing cupcake hero and still new to blogging, so I’ll admit this was a little daunting for me! But spending a sun morning relaxing in the kitchen (even if it did involve mashing bananas) and creating something awesome really makes it worth it.

Banana Butterscotch Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream… (makes 24)

Cupcakes:

3 eggs

2 cups (400g) sugar

1 1/3 cups (330ml) vegetable oil

3 ripe bananas (mashed)

1/3 cup (80ml) buttermilk or sour cream

1 Tbsp (15ml) vanilla essence

3 cups (420g) flour

1 Tsp (5ml) baking powder

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C for a fan-forced oven) and line two muffin tins with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, bananas, buttermilk or sour cream, and vanilla essence. Set aside.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the wet mixture.

Divide the batter among the cupcake liners and bake for about 20 min (until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean). As soon as they come out of the oven, pierce them all over with a skewer and pour the bubbling butterscotch over the tops to let it soak into the cupcakes. Pipe a swirl of chocolate buttercream onto the top of each cupcake.

Butterscotch:

1/2 cup (100g) soft brown sugar

70g unsalted butter

4 Tbsp (60ml) cream

Place all ingredients into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is bubbling.

Chocolate Buttercream:

125g butter (softened)

2/3 cup (80g) cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups (350g) icing sugar (sifted)

1/3 cup (80ml) milk

1 Tsp (5ml) vanilla essence

Into the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter, then stir in the cocoa powder. Adding a little of each at a time, add the icing sugar and milk, beating on medium speed until it reaches spreading consistancy. Stir in a little more milk if required. Finally, add the vanilla essence.