A delicious twist on a classic dessert, banoffee cupcakes might just be my new favourite cupcake flavour! The recipe combines the two signature flavours of a banoffee dessert, banana and caramel.
You’ll start by making beautifully light and moist cupcakes flavoured with mashed bananas. Make sure the bananas are really ripe, the riper the better as this will only improve the flavour and texture.
The middle of the cupcakes is then scooped out (you can eat the middles!) and filled with a smooth and silky caramel sauce. I love cupcakes with a surprise centre, it just takes the bake to a whole other level. When you bite into them and discover the middle… mind-blown!
The cupcakes are decorated with a swirl of caramel buttercream. To keep things simple, as there’s quite a bit going on with this bake already, I opted for shop-bought caramel. I have made my own in the past, but this time I fancied taking a little shortcut. No judgement, please! If you feel up to making your own, I applaud you and this recipe will show you how, just remember to omit the salt.
A sprinkle of grated dark chocolate and a crunchy banana chip are the final touches to complete the banoffee cupcakes.
Ingredients (makes 12 large cupcakes)
For the cupcakes:
150g unsalted butter or Stork
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
150g self-raising flour
2 ripe medium-sized bananas
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon milk
For the caramel filling and buttercream:
1 can (397g) of Carnation Caramel
200g unsalted butter
400g icing sugar
To decorate:
A couple of squares of dark chocolate to grate on top
Dried banana chips
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C and line a muffin tray with 12 cases.
Start by making the cupcakes. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Crack in the eggs, add half of the flour and mix until combined. Add the remaining flour and baking powder and fold everything together until you have a smooth mixture.
In a separate bowl mash the bananas until no lumps remain. Add to the cake mixture, along with the milk and fold together.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool.
Once the cakes are cool, make the caramel buttercream. Beat the butter until really soft and pale in colour. Sift in half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Sift in the remaining icing sugar and four tablespoons of caramel and mix together until smooth and fluffy.
Time to decorate. Make a hole in the middle of each cupcake (you can do this using a cupcake corer, apple corer, piping nozzle or teaspoon). Fill each hole with a teaspoon of caramel sauce. Spread or pipe the caramel buttercream on top. I used an 11mm open star piping nozzle to get that lovely swirl effect. Grate the dark chocolate on top of each cupcake and push a banana chip into the buttercream.
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