Banana Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Icing

There are reasons why I almost never bake cupcakes. In fact baking cupcakes is such a rare affair in my life, I can count the number of times and the different sort of cupcakes I’ve made – twice, Red Velvet cupcakes and the vanilla cupcakes I made last week.

Reason 1: Sugar

I might own a baking blog and one hell of a sweet tooth but the amount of sugar that goes into cupcakes and the icing that swirls beautifully above it KILLS me.

Reason 2: Icing/Frosting

I cannot for the life of me frost a cake or pipe frosting on a cupcake. I mean, I can but you wouldn’t want to eat it after. It is that bad.

Then I fell obsessed in love with this beautiful mini cake I saw. It involved colours and frosting. Not just colours but ombre. There is something so… magnificent about the word ‘ombre’ or maybe it is just me. The frosting is part cream cheese, part butter with lots of icing sugar – perfection.

So that is how I succumbed to baking cupcakes 2 weeks straight. Practice makes perfect.

Last week I made buttercream frosting but this week I made salted caramel cream cheese frosting. I believe it is the only way to go when you have banana cupcakes in your hand.

Do you often find over-ripened banana in your house? You know those that are too ripe to eat just like that? Or does that only happen to me? I’ve come to realized that a lot of weird things happen only in my life. Such is my life. I don’t know if I should feel blessed or cursed. Not about the bananas but the weird occurrence that seems to only happen in my life.

Oh well, at least when given over-ripened bananas, I know how to turn them into cupcakes! Then I use them to practice my piping skills!

The Americolour gel pastes have arrived. It is almost time for Project Ombre. Hopefully the last two weeks of practice will be worth it! Stay tuned while I try my best to make this the prettiest cake I have ever baked.

For now, enjoy these lovely banana cupcakes with salted caramel cream cheese frosting. Hands down the best frosting EVER! Do you share my passion for salted caramel?

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Banana cupcakes with salted caramel icing
Recipe from A Table For Two
(makes 12 cupcakes or 24  minis)

Ingredients:

Salted Caramel
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup thickened cream
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
50g chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Banana cupcakes
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup self raising flour
A pinch of bi-carb baking soda
A pinch of salt
115g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup mashed bananas (about 2 ripen bananas)

Salted caramel icing
250g cream cheese, room temperature
50g butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
4 tablespoons salted caramel

Method:

Salted Caramel (best made the night before)
In a saucepan over medium heat, add sugar and water. Whisk until sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat up to high and stop stirring. Allow the mixture to boil for 5-7 minutes, or until the sugar starts to caramelize and turn into toffee. Keep an eye on it as the sugar changes colour rather quickly. Once it is dark golden, pour cream into the mixture; it will bubble and might splatter. Keep stirring using a wooden spoon and bring the caramel back to boil, add salt and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk the butter into caramel, one cube at a time. Pour the caramel into a heatproof container or jug and set aside to cool. Refrigerate overnight.

Banana cupcakes
Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with cupcake cases. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flours, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar on high speed using a mixer until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Once combined, add the mashed banana. With the mixer running, add 1/3 of the flour and mix well. Repeat until all flour is used.

Divide mixture into cupcake cases – approximately 2/3 full. Transfer to oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a blade inserted comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Salted caramel icing
Cream butter on high speed until softened. Beat in cream cheese until well combined. Add icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time until all used. Add salted caramel and beat until smooth.

Transfer the icing into a piping with a Wilton 1M tip (or any other desired tip). Pipe icing on top of cupcakes. Garnish with extra salted caramel if preferred.