Banana caramel cupcakes

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.

 

RECIPE

Ingredients:

-For the caramel sauce:

• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 70 ml water
• 50 gr butter
• A pinch of salt
• 100 ml heavy cream

-For the cupcakes:

• 125 gr butter, at room temperature
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 overripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1  1/2 C all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 C buttermilk
• Caramel sauce

-For the frosting:

• 140 gr butter, at room temperature
• 90 gr cream cheese
• 1 C confectioners sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1/4 C caramel sauce

-For the grilled bananas:

• 2 bananas, sliced
• Butter
• Caramel sauce

Directions:

-For the caramel sauce:

1. Heat brown sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.
2. Add butter and salt and mix.
3. 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.
4. Pour the sauce in abowl, put a lid on and put it aside.

-For the cupcakes: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
2. Place the liners in the cupcake pan.
3. Blend or process the bananas to make them a puree. Set aside. 
4. In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and set aside.
5. 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. 
6. Incorporate the banana puree and the vanilla extract. 
7. Add the dry ingredients, previously sifted in three additions, alterning with the buttermilk. 
8. Pour the mixture in each liner filling about 3/4 of each one. 
9. Add 1 tbsp of caramel sauce to each cupcake, and mix a little using a wooden stick. 
10. Bake for about 20 min. or until golden brown. 
11. Let them cool completely. Is hard i know!

-For the frosting: 

1. In a big bowl, beat the butter and the cream cheese together until soft. 
2. Add in the confectionaers sugar previously sifted and a pinch of salt and keep beating. 
3. 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: 

1. In a hot pan, mel some butter, being careful not to burn it, and carefully add slices of banana.
2. Let each side cook for about 3 min. 
3. Add in a little caramel sauce and let them absorb it until they turn beautifully golden. 

-To assemble: 

1. Put the frosting in a pipping bag with a big round tip and frost each cupcake. 
2. Put a fried slice of banana on each cupcake and the drizzle them with caramel sauce,  as much sauce as you like.