Cordon Rose Banana Mini Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

Today I discovered one lonely ripe banana sitting in my fruitbasket. It was too ripe to eat just like that, at least for me.... So what to do?? I turned to my trusty friend: the Internet. Lots of recipes passed didn't tick my boxes: either I didn't have all the ingredients or they just didn't feel right. Untill I bumped into this one......: Cordon Rose Banana Cake. It's not just a banana cake, it's also covered with a caramel glaze.... This was a winner!!!

Unfortunately this recipe called for 2 bananas, this problem was easily solved: I halved the recipe. I skipped the lemon zest since I have no lemons in the house. The other ingredient I didn't have at hands was sour cream, but I did have some vanilla yoghurt and decided to use that.

But now I had a new problem: what tin would I use??? I remembered I had some cupcake liners that I bought for Christmas: I thought it would be fun to serve lots of mini cupcakes instead of one big cake back then. But Christmas came and went and I totally forgot about the liners. The mini cupcakes take about 15 minutes in the oven and half the recipe makes 24 mini cupcakes, therefore the whole recipe should make 48 cute little tasty bitesize cupcakes.

As for the taste..... O my, I think I've died and gone to Heaven.... Thiese cupcakes are moist, light and exquisitely tender. The taste of the banana is subtle and the caramel glaze complements the cupcakes perfectly. The glaze was a tad sweet, I read back on the recipe and found out that I used unsalted butter and forgot to add some salt. But since I have sweet teeth it didn't bother me that much.

Cordon Rose Banana Cake

Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible

For the cake:

2 cups sifted cake flour (I used regular flour)

¾ cup plus 2 Tbs sugar

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 large ripe bananas (about 225 grams, peeled)

½ cup sour cream (I used vanilla yoghurt)

2 large eggs

1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract

10 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp grated lemon zest (orange zest will also work, but I skipped this one)

For the frosting:

1 stick salted butter (if using unsalted, add 1/2 tsp of salt. I forgot to add the salt...)

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup whole milk

2 cups confectioners sugar (must be sifted!)

1 tsp. vanilla

Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9-inch round springform pan with cooking spray, line the base with a round of parchment paper, and spray the parchment paper. Or when making cupcakes: line your cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a food processor, purée the banana and sour cream until completely smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla, and process briefly to combine. The puréed mixture will be light yellow and quite loose. (Instead of the food processor you can also use a simple fork to mash the bananas and mix the rest of the wet ingredients together, this is the method I used)

Add the softened butter and about ½ of the puréed mixture to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Beat to combine on low speed; then increase the speed and beat for about 90 seconds to aerate the cake structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and add the rest of the purée, beating to combine well. The batter will be light tan in color and should be smooth and creamy.

Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and dry (or 15 minutes when making mini cupcakes). Remove the cake from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes while you make the frosting (below), and then remove the rim of the pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, and carefully remove the base of the pan and the parchment paper. Turn onto a cake platter.

Frosting

Heat the butter and brown sugars over medium heat untill the mixture comes to a boil, let it boil for 2 minutes. Add the milk, stir, and bring the mixture back to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat.

Add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat with a wooden spoon or whisk untill smooth. Use immediately, while it and cake are still warm, and spread quickly before cool.

Allow the cake to sit at room temperature for at least a half hour before serving.