BANANA! I love this fruit; I love eating it with milk, in a delicious pie, on top of hot cakes along with some dulce de leche, uhh well, I love everything that has banana.
Everytime I make a banana cake or bread I am fascinated by the fact that it is not necessary to add any other type of artificial flavoring, since banana already has a lot of flavor. But the trick here to get all that flavor is to use over ripe bananas (I´m talking about almost-black over ripe bananas.
The banana-caramel combination is classic, mostly in countries where it is not easy to find dulce de leche or cajeta (because where I come from the typical thing is to pair banana with dulce de leche). But I guess we should always be up to try new things right?, so we tried it and the outcome was delicious; as soon as we finished making the caramel sauce I tasted it and said -no way! this is almost like dulce de leche!-. For real, you have to make this sauce and use it for lots of recipes.
And of course, you also have to make these cupcakes.
Ingredients
For the caramel sauce:
- 3/4 C brown sugar
- 2.4 fl oz (70 ml) water
- 1.8 oz (50 gr) unsalted butter
- 1 pinch salt
- 3.4 fl oz (100 ml) heavy cream
For the cupcakes:
- 4.4 oz (125 gr) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 C white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 bananas overripe
- 1 tsp vanilla extract optional
- 1 1/2 C all purpouse flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ground
- 1/2 C buttermilk
- Caramel sauce
For the frosting:
- 4.9 oz (140 gr) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3.2 oz (90 gr) cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 C confectioners sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1/4 C caramel sauce
For the grilled bananas:
- 2 bananas sliced
- Unsalted butter
- Caramel sauce
Instructions
For the caramel sauce:
- Heat brown sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.
- Add butter and salt and mix.
- Very slowly, drizzle the heavy cream while stirring. Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils.
- Pour the sauce in abowl, put a lid on and put it aside.
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
- Place the liners in the cupcake pan.
- Blend or process the bananas to make them a puree. Set aside.
- In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and set aside.
- In a different bowl, cream the butter along with the sugar until it becomes fluffy. Add in the eggs, one by one, beating after each addtion.
- Incorporate the banana puree and the vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients, previously sifted in three additions, alterning with the buttermilk.
- Pour the mixture in each liner filling about 3/4 of each one.
- Add 1 tbsp of caramel sauce to each cupcake, and mix a little using a wooden stick.
- Bake for about 20 min. or until golden brown.
- Let them cool completely. Is hard i know!
For the frosting:
- In a big bowl, beat the butter and the cream cheese together until soft.
- Add in the confectionaers sugar previously sifted and a pinch of salt and keep beating.
- Add the milk and the caramel sauce and beat until you get a fluffy frosting. Little tip here: if it ever seems to have an odd texture just put it in the microwave for 10 seconds and beat again.
For the fried banana topping:
- In a hot pan, mel some butter, being careful not to burn it, and carefully add slices of banana.
- Let each side cook for about 3 min.
- Add in a little caramel sauce and let them absorb it until they turn beautifully golden.
To assemble:
- Put the frosting in a pipping bag with a big round tip and frost each cupcake.
- Put a fried slice of banana on each cupcake and the drizzle them with caramel sauce, as much sauce as you like.
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