Vanilla Walnut Cupcakes With Buttercream Frosting And Bananas Foster

Sometimes the Food Network gets me in trouble. This is one of those times. One show I enjoy watching is Cupcake Wars. Three teams of professional cupcake makers battle to create pretty, tasty cupcakes for some form of large event. The final challenge is to create 1,000 cupcakes in two hours for said event. I enjoy watching it because of odd flavor combinations and the amazing things they can do with decorations.

On this particular day, they commented on how a particular vanilla cake was spoungy, moist and all around tasty. I don't have much experience making cupcakes, but anytime is a good time to start. So I decided to try to come up with my own different, tasty, cupcake. I remembered that I had some over ripe bananas. I then had the thought of carmelizing them in some form of alcohol and after a little research found that this was the start of bananas foster. An idea was born!

I started out with a very tasty sounding vanilla cake recipe.
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
5 tbs butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup milk
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts (or very goarsly ground)

With a preheated oven, I combined the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In the stand mixer I combined the butter and sugar. Once mixed well I added the eggs and the vanilla and then the dry ingredients slowly. Add in the walnuts. Scoop the batter into the muffin trays already lined with cupcake liners. bake for about 20 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Next I found a great recipe for buttercream icing.
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk

In the stand mixer cream the butter. Mix in the sugar and vanilla. Add milk until it reaches the desired consistency. You probably won't need that much milk, but have it ready in case you do. This comes from a recipe that I had to cut in fourths, considering the original recipe called for 8 cups of sugar and I figured that might be a little much for my small amount of cupcakes. Technically the recipe when cut would call for 1/8 cup, but most people don't have 1/8 cup measures.

Now for the finale!!
1/4 butter
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
3 1/2 tbs rum
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 bananas, peeled and cut into coins

In a deep skillet melt the butter. Add in rum, sugar and vanilla. When it starts to bubble add the bananas and cook until they are hot.

When all of the elements are cooled ice the cupcakes and let it set for a few minutes. Next add just a few pieces of banana on top of each cupcake. In my picture I hadn't waited long enough for things to cool so it was a little messy, but it was still mighty tasty!!