Friday Food: Banoffee Cup Cakes

Today I am cooking Banoffee Cup Cakes from the March 2012 Better Homes and Gardens magazine. They have the flavours of banana and caramel or toffee. My first dilemma was finding Columbine caramels. They were nowhere to be found so I substituted Jerseys instead and they worked perfectly well.

I eschewed the lolly banana on top, and the uncrushability of frozen Jersey caramels meant that I sliced them thinly and used those as decorations instead. Feel free to hammer the frozen caramels to a fine crush: if you can!!

Top'n'Fill is a condensed milk caramel in a tin. You can make your own caramel but this is easier.

The amount given for the full basic cup cake mixture is 24, but I halved the recipe and using my trusty ice-cream scoop to fill the papers I made 16. So it could make quite a big batch of 32.

 

Banoffee Cup Cakes   makes 24-32

For the cup cakes:

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 tspn vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 3/4 cups self raising flour, sifted
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 3/4 cup Caramel Top'n'Fill

For the icing:

• 150g caramels
• 1/4 cup thickened cream
• 3/4 (or the rest of the tin) of Top'n'Fill
• 100g unsalted butter
• 2 cups sifted icing sugar mixture
• PLUS another 50g caramels frozen to be crushed (If you can)

 

Preheat the oven to 180*C and line muffin tins with papers.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and light and then add the vanilla and eggs and beat well to combine.

Fold in the mashed banana. Then gently mix in 1/3 of the sifted flour, 1/2 the sour cream, a further 1/3 of the flour, the rest of the cream and finally fold in the last of the flour.

At this point in the recipe it talks about half filling all the paper cases, beating the Top'n'Fill till smooth, adding a spoonful to the centre of each cake and then filling the paper cases to the top. Ha! I laugh in the face of their instructions: I just added the Top'n'Fill and then gently folded it through.

I use an ice-cream scoop to fill my cup cake papers. It makes them uniform in size and they cook evenly. I measured, and my scoop is 1/4 of a cup. I dip my ice-cream scoop in some hot water between each scoop as I fill the cup cake papers. Bake for 15-18 minutes, swapping and turning the trays half way through. Mine took 20 minutes to cook. Cool on a cake rack.

Meanwhile, make the icing. Start by putting 150g of the caramel lollies, 1/4 cup of cream and the remaining Top'n'Fill into a saucepan over a medium heat. You could chop the caramel lollies to speed up the melting process. Stir until smooth, bring to the boil and then remove from the heat.

Pour into the mixer bowl and beat till it reaches room temperature. Add the butter and beat till well combined. With the mixer speed on a very low speed gradually add the icing sugar mixture and then beat on high for 3 minutes. It will be pale and smooth.

Finely crush the frozen caramel lollies, or thinly slice some straight from the packet. You can clearly see where I failed to crush mine, all my efforts just tore the ziplock bag. Ice the cupcakes and top with the caramels.

If you like banana lollies then use one of those as well. And then you are done. These should be kept in the refrigerator. I think un-iced cakes could be frozen and the icing could  be kept separately in a container in the fridge.

Comments

[RoseRed]

How did you know jersey caramels are my favourite of all lollies?! They are much harder to find now too, I don't know why. These look delicious, you baking temptress you!

[drk]

oh that noise was just me drooling on my keyboard. sorry.

[sue]

Oh yummo, they look delicious. Dont they make those caramels anymore. It is the perfect weather for baking here today, rainy and cool!

[Ann]

Wow - that looks so yummy. I did not know that caramel is available in a tin. I will have to look for it at the supermarket as I know my girls will love dripping that caramel over their ice cream.

[dette]

MMMM, I love caramel, unfortunately many have colouring in them that I am alergic to- actually it is probably fortunate so that I don't eat them!!! as I could eat an entire packet!
Glad it's getting cooler for you. It is still pretty yicky here with minimum temperatures close to your maximums!

[mrspao]

They look gorgeous!

[Lois]

Oh yum. I love banana cakes & i love caramel....what a combination. I think i may have to make these one day :)

[Mrs HouseOf's First Born]

They were fun to make as mum ordered me to (and I did happily)
here is a photo of them for you
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzbv8f4Bkc1qj4jmao1_1280.png?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1329216367&Signature=SWh%2FESQk9AWtEp2t%2F3y76s4JIcM%3D

[linda]

OMG these look sooooo delicious I can't begin to imagine how sweet and yummy they would be, you are a marvel with your baking

[bon008]

Ooooh, that looks so tasty!!