CUPCAKES, ANYONE?

Last Monday, I learned from Wilton Basic Cake Decorating Course how to pipe shaggy mums, pompom flowers, drop flowers, rosettes, leaves as well as how to put filling into cupcakes and decorate them. For that lesson, I baked Black Bottom Cupcakes to practice decorating with while in class. Since I needed plain uniced cupcakes at the time, I didn't add the usual cream cheese filling that goes into Black Bottom Cupcakes. Honestly, I was successful in baking those cupcakes and I really liked it, but I'll hold off on sharing the recipe and pictures here in my blog until the next time I make them with both components present - cake and cream cheese filling.

Anyway, I was invited for a dinner tonight at one of Vince's co-residents' house, and I took that chance to hone my baking and decorating skills (or the lack of it!) by obviously showcasing my latest hobby.  Since I wanted to step up my game and go beyond the common chocolate or vanilla cupcakes, I spent several nights reading up on various recipes.  I didn't want to be too ambitious because I don't have much baking experience myself, plus some ingredients for elaborate and level-up recipes are not easily available at the grocery store, so I went for something that I'm familiar with - COCONUT AND BANANAS!

All dressed up and ready for a spring party!

I got this idea from a Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication - Cupcakes magazine.  The Island Bananas Foster recipe listed in the magazine is a bit complicated for me (I think).  It's a "spiked" cupcake in that rum is one of the ingredients for the batter, and for the frosting, you have to ignite the rum and set your pan on flame - you know, just how you see chefs do it on TV - that stuff, and I'm definitely not on that level yet, so with fingers crossed, I decided to modify the recipe - batter and frosting.  I was wary not to screw up because I was doing modifications to a "live" cupcake.  Should they turn out inedibly bad, I cannot just toss them to the garbage or else I will have nothing to bring for dinner, so this recipe that I had concocted in my mind has got to be right.

Fortunately, the cupcakes turned out alright.  I may have to do some minor tweaking with the batter next time but the current recipe is overall good already.  For the frosting, if I had followed the recipe, I would have added 7 cups of confectioners sugar.  Can you believe that?  Seven fatally sweet cups of fine powdered sugar.  Dang!  I was afraid that if I do that, my cupcakes would put a diabetic into coma, so I knew that there's just no way I'm going to add seven cups of sugar into the frosting.  I stopped at 3 cups, although I think I should have stopped at 2 cups.  The reason behind the confectioners sugar is that you add as much until you reach piping consistency.  At 2 cups of sugar, my frosting was way thin and rather runny, so I added another cup, but when I tasted it, oh boy, I couldn't bring myself to add another dash more.   I have to do something though to make the frosting thick enough for piping, so I thought I'd try adding shortening and see if that would do the trick, and voila, happy me, it did!  ☻

So, for posterity's sake and for those who would be interested in trying Kokonut Banana Kupkeyks a la Karenina, here goes the recipe:

BATTER

1 cup butter
3 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup condensed milk

1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, line 24 muffin cups (2-1/2 inch) with paper bake cups.  In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 deg Fahrenheit.  In a mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds or until smooth and creamy. Add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and coconut milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.  Add in the shredded coconut and condensed milk.

3. Spoon (or use an ice cream scoop) batter into prepared cups, filling each about half to 3/4 full. Use the back of the spoon to smooth out and level batter in cups.

4. Bake about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in muffin cups on wire racks for 5 minutes, and then remove cupcakes from muffin cups and cool completely on wire racks.

FROSTING

1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 to 2 cups confectioners sugar (may add more as desired)
*Shortening as needed for consistency

1. Allow butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.

2. Beat in mashed ripe banana.

3. Gradually add confectioners sugar, one cup at a time, beating until well combined.

4. Beat in milk and vanilla.

5. Beat in shortening, about 1/2 cup at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.

GARNISH, FROSTING, ICING

If you get a big dome on top of your cupcakes after baking, you can use a bread or cake knife to flatten or level them for decorating.

I have a Wilton Ultimate Cake Decorating Kit, so I was able to make flower icing and star swirl frosting as pictured above, but you can also use a regular Ziplock bag to pipe round swirls to your cupcakes, or you may simply use a spatula to spread copious amount of icing on top of your cupcakes.

Lastly, if desired, you can garnish with lightly toasted shredded coconut.


There you go! I hope you try this recipe and if you do, please let me know what you think of it and how your cupcakes turn out. Suggestions and feedback are always welcome. Bake on! ☻

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