Recipe for Banana and Creamy Caramel Cupcakes

I love presenting my flatmates with a bunch of these babies as the weather starts to cool. Plus, they can be made impulsively when you discover those lost bananas at the bottom of the fruit bowl. Blackened and abandoned, they make a wonderful treat. Makes 12 cupcakes.



1. Place the butter and cream cheese (for the icing) in a bowl so they can come up to room temperature. Line your muffin tin and turn your oven up to 180ºC.

2. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until well mixed. It should go a lovely yellow colour and look smooth and creamy. Add the egg and beat well.


3. Measure the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl.

4. In another bowl, break up the peeled bananas and mash with a fork. Add the milk and soda and continue mashing until it looks sloppy and not at all like something that should go in a cake.

5. Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix in slowly, then half the banana mixture. Repeat this last step and give it a good beating, scraping any mixture that has crept up the sides.

6. Scoop the mixture into your lined muffin tin – about 2/3 full for each paper – and bake for 15-20 minutes. You’ll be able to tell they’re ready when you press lightly on them and they bounce back, or when a skewer inserted comes out clean.



7. Turn them out onto a wire rack and let them cool while you make the icing:


8. Your butter and cream cheese should be up to temperature by now. If they’re not, the heat from your hands will do wonders while you mix them. With a knife, cut through the butter and cream cheese until they're in smaller and smaller cubes. If you prefer, mix together with an electric whisk. As they come together, move into a whipping motion and add the brown sugar, icing sugar and vanilla essence. You might like to add more or less of any of the ingredients to suit your tastes.

9. Make sure you ice these once they've cooled, otherwise you’ll be serving melting hob knobs. Pile the icing high so people can scoop it up with their fingers and praise you highly with mouths full of cake.