Bananas Foster cupcakes

BANANAS FOSTER CUPCAKES

Yesterday, I was cleaning my kitchen and came across 1 last remaining banana.  Instead of throwing it away, I decided on bananas foster (or at least my interpretation of it) cupcakes. 

I started out by making the syrup for the bananas:

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Melt the butter and then add the other ingredients.  Once combined, add the banana(s). 

Once you have this completed, begin the batter for the cupcakes.  Save the syrup in the pan for the last step of the process.

Recipe modified from www.allrecipes.com

1/2 cup shortening

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup mashed banana (I used the bananas from the syrup in step 1)

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar.  Add the eggs, vanilla, banana and buttermilk.  Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and add to banana mixture.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

These cupcakes are a little more dense than usual cupcakes and the color is a little darker than you might expect.  I suspect the color is due to the brown sugar in the banana mixture.  They remain, however, surprisingly moist.

After the cupcakes cool, add basic buttercream frosting.  Lastly, drizzle with the syrup saved from step 1.  Make sure the syrup is cool enough to not melt your frosting.

Enjoy!!  My husband is usually much of a sweets eater.  I usually keep a few cupcakes to the side unfrosted for him.  He came in from working outside yesterday and tried one of the unfrosted ones.  He could not even finish the cupcake before saying “oh my gosh these are good” (or at least that’s what I think he said)….hard to tell with a mouth full of cupcake.