Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Hi there! I made these cupcakes last week for a get-together with my fiancé's coworkers (I'm still getting used to saying fiancé!). The recipe is from my new Martha Stewart cupcake book, so I was quite excited to try it! Ya gotta love when a new recipe is a success. Read on to the end to see my full impressions! :)

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

-3 ripe bananas (roughly 1.5 cups of mashed banana)

-2 cups cake flour*

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. baking powder

-3/4 tsp. salt

-3/4 tsp. cinnamon (I added this; it wasn't in the original recipe)

-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

-3/4 cup sugar

-3 large eggs, separated

-1/2 cup sour cream (I used banana flavored yogurt instead)

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

*If you do not have cake flour, I recently discovered an awesome substitute for it! You just need all-purpose flour and cornstarch. Check it out here. ;-)

Frosting:

-2 and 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

-1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

-2 Tbsp. honey

-1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon (I probably added closer to 1/2 tsp.)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add the bananas, and beat to combine. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of the sour cream (or yogurt), and beating until just combined after each. Beat in vanilla.

In another mixing bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk egg whites to soft peaks; fold one-third of the whites into batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in two batches.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted comes out clean, about 15 - 20 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

This recipe made 12 cupcakes and 3 mini bundt cakes for me.

For the frosting, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat all ingredients until smooth. Use immediately, or refrigerate up to 5 days in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat until smooth.

So as I said, this recipe was definitely a success. I would make it again! However, I have a couple points to share... 1) The cupcake itself was very yummy but it was rather muffin-like at the same time. The frosting is really what made these cupcakes, if you ask me. ;-) 2) I did not follow the cupcake recipe exactly... As you may have read earlier, I added cinnamon (which was a great choice, I think!) and I used banana yogurt instead of sour cream (also a good choice!).

What I did not do, though, was roast the bananas. You see, this recipe is actually for roasted banana cupcakes. Yep! I think that probably would have enhanced the banana flavor of these even more, which would be great. I did not have enough ripe bananas on hand to roast, however. What I always have on hand though is frozen ripe bananas, and that's what I used in this recipe. Whenever my bananas go ripe and I don't have enough free time to bake with them, I cut them up and freeze them to use later (just let them thaw before using them). So, sadly, I didn't get the full experience of making these cupcakes with roasted bananas. Guess I'll just have to make them again! Or, perhaps you can try making these with roasted bananas and let me know what you think. To roast the bananas, heat the oven to 400 degrees, and roast 3 whole (unpeeled!) bananas on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes. Let them cool before peeling.

Oh, and this honey cinnamon frosting? Amazing. Loved it. It's definitely what makes these cupcakes, in my opinion. The frosting recipe is certainly a keeper to use with other cake flavors! Perhaps with carrot cake instead of a traditional cream cheese frosting? YUM! I can taste it now.

K, friends, that's it! Hope everyone's week is off to a good start so far!

Surprise Cookies

Hi friends! Can you believe it's the LAST full week of May?! It's a bit difficult for me to believe... June is almost upon us!!! As I like to say, wowzers. ;-)

Anyway, enough babbling about how time flies. Onto more important matters like delicious, soft chocolate cookies topped with a toasty marshmallow and to-die-for chocolate frosting...

About a week ago, I baked a batch of these "surprise" cookies with my landlord's daughter (who is in 4th grade and is developing a love for baking! :)). Lilia and I had so much fun making these cookies together. She chose the recipe from my Martha Stewart Cookies book, and my, what a great choice it was!

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

-1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

-3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

-1 cup granulated sugar

-1 large egg

-1/2 cup whole milk

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-about 15 large marshmallows, halved crosswise

For the frosting:

-3 cups confectioners' sugar

-6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

-1/4 cup plus 1 and 1/2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

-1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. whole milk

-3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl (we forgot to sift the dry ingredients, and the cookies turned out just fine!). Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla. Mix in flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until combined. Prepare the marshmallows by cutting them each in half.

Drop cookie dough by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake, until slightly firm, about 8 to 10 minutes. The cookies will look slightly "crackled" when they're done. Immediately after removing them from the oven, press a marshmallow half on top of each cookie (tip - press the sticky half of the marshmallow down onto the cookie! it'll nicely stick on the cookie that way). Bake again until the marshmallows begin to melt, about 2 minutes more. Remove from cookie sheets, and let cool completely on wire racks.

Make the frosting; put confectioners' sugar in a medium bowl. Melt butter with the cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Add butter mixture to the confectioners' sugar. Whisk in the milk and vanilla. Spread about 1 tablespoon of frosting on top of each cookie to cover the marshmallow. Let stand until the frosting's set.

I stored my cookies in the fridge, but the cookbook says you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Here are the cookies right after they were removed from the oven and the marshmallows were slightly toasted. Mmmm.

The marshmallows quickly deflated though as they cooled...

But not to worry, they were then topped with a decadent chocolate frosting.

Lilia and I each enjoyed a cookie as a reward for our hard work. :)

Are you drooling yet?

I gave a couple cookies to Mike too, and he said he enjoyed one of them after warming it up in the microwave a bit to make it all ooey and gooey. Great idea!

I'm always sad when I'm down to my last bite of a tasty treat. :(  

Guess I'll just have to make another batch!