Banana Split Cupcake

Banana Split Cupcake

Ingredients:
1 ½ c. granulated sugar
½ c. butter (at room temperature)
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla essence/extract
2 c. flour
1 ½ tsp. Baking powder
¾ tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ c. buttermilk
1 c. mashed ripe bananas

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy (3 minutes).
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. (I usually sift 3 times.)
Add ½ of flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix well.
Add buttermilk. Mix well.
Add other half of flour mixture. Mix well.
Add bananas. Mix well.
Use a dough scoop to get evenly-sized cupcakes. (This one is slightly smaller than 1/4 cup in size.)
If you don't have the scoop you can use a 1/4 cup measure for standard cupcakes.
When your cupcakes have baked (about 20 minutes for the standard-size, about 13 minutes for the minis-- at 350-degrees), let them cool on a cooling grid for at least 30 minutes before decorating. That should be enough time to get your icing made!

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

4 Egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 Tbsp. Vanilla

Special equipment, etc.:

Saucepan with about 1/2 inch water
Lemon juice or vinegar & paper towels

Directions:

Before you begin, you want to wet a paper towel with some lemon juice or vinegar, and wipe out your mixer bowl, wipe off your mixer blades, and wipe off your spatula(s). This takes the grease off, and helps the meringue whip up better and higher.
Separate four egg whites, and place into a heatproof bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer.
(If you don't separate a lot of eggs, I recommend separating each individually in a small bowl, rather than all into the large bowl. If you get any yolk into the whites, the recipe won't work as well.)
Add 1 cup granulated sugar to the egg whites. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water (about 1/2 inch of water set to medium heat). Whisk the sugar into the egg whites,
Whisk constantly for about 7-15 minutes.

TIP:

Place the candy thermometer into the mixture.
Whisk constantly for about 7-15 minutes until the candy thermometer reads 160-degrees Fahrenheit. If you do not constantly stir, the egg whites will set, and you will have to start over!
How long it takes to reach temperature will depend on a lot of things: how warm were your eggs to begin with? How hot is your stove? etc. So watch the temperature, not the clock.
*Note: 160-degrees is the recommended temperature for killing any possible bacteria. I've read some recipes that call for you to heat it just until the sugar dissolves,
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Move your mixer bowl to the mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form.
Add 1 Tbsp. vanilla and whip to combine.
Switch to the paddle attachment.
Have your 3 sticks of butter cut into about 4 pieces each - (about 2 Tbsp. chunks). Add those a few at a time with the mixer on medium speed with the paddle attachment.
Your beautiful, stiff meringue will turn into a soupy, chunky mess.
Continue to mix the icing on medium-high until it becomes stiff. You won't get the same "peak" effect that you got on the meringue itself, but you can see the smaller peaks all around. That's when you know it's right. Again, mine took about 4 more minutes in the mixer to get to the right consistency.
Take a piping/icing bag, filled with frosting, spread or swirled on each cup cake.
drizzle with chocolate and strawberry syrup, top with cherry and place banana in a cup cake.

Enjoy!!!