Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

297.  This is a lovely recipe using ripe bananas.  Those unpleasant guests that show up on your kitchen counter, seemingly, unannounced.  The delight is in the frosting which has hints of honey and cinnamon spice.  You will be surprised and satisfied!  Compliments of Martha Stewart's recipes.  

Recipe here:  Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Honey-Cinnamon Frosting
• 
  
• STEP 1
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Line cupcake pan with paper liners or silicone cups.
• 
  
• STEP 2
• Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix causing cake to be tough). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.

1. STEP 3

   Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.  

Frosting

1 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat confectioners' sugar, unsalted butter, honey, and ground cinnamon until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes. 

1. Spread tops with
   Honey-Cinnamon Frosting.  Drizzle honey across top of frosting.
2. OPTIONAL:  Just before serving, peel and slice banana into rounds, and place one on each cupcake, if desired.
3. 

"My biggest thing is banana pudding, but it's the devil!  So no one is allowed to bring it into my house.  Because, I can't control myself.  So why put it in my domain?"
~ Jennifer Hudson

Banana Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

202. With a couple of over ripe bananas and a craving for something sweet and yummy, I decided to make Banana Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling.

My recipe is developed from several different recipes but the key is the Chobani Greek Yogurt. It adds such great texture and delicious flavor.

Banana Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

1 stick butter, 1/2 cup

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 over ripe bananas

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

6 oz Chobani Greek Yogurt

1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and brown sugar till pale, about 3 minutes. Add bananas, egg and vanilla. Blend together well. Sift flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl. Blend together yogurt and milk in a separate bowl. Alternate adding flour then liquids twice till all ingredients are incorporated. Do not over mix.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool.

Filling:

1 8oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

5 cups confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla

milk, add as desired to achieve right consistency of filling

Mix all together till smooth. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Assemble cookies by matching cookies that are the same size. Pipe a generous amount of filling onto bottom of one cookie and top with another.

"C is for cookie, it's good enough for me;

oh cookie cookie cookie starts with C."

~ Cookie Monster, Sesame Street

Banana-Split Cream Pie

165. A Banana-Split Sundae with cold, icy sweet creamy vanilla, chocolate almond fudge and Whitehouse cherry ice cream; hot dripping fudge sauce; sliced, perfectly ripe bananas; light, airy, real! whipped cream; crunchy chopped nuts dotting the top and sides; pineapple sauce in a pool around the melting ice cream, and hot dripping, salty peanut butter sauce *lick lips*. Yes that is my version of a wonderful banana-split sundae. Oh, and not to mention, the maraschino cherry on top. I like it when they throw a few cherries on the side too. This is a delight I rarely have, but do enjoy.

With all the ingredients to make a banana-split, I decided to make a "Banana-Split Cream Pie" for dessert this evening. Cream pies and frozen pies are always a hit, not just in the summer, but any time.

This recipe is repurposed from an old "Banana-Split Cake" recipe I've had for two decades. Whether you make the cake or the pie...they are both divine!!!

Banana Split Cream Pie

1 pie crust, baked and set aside to cool, my recipe for Pâte Brisée here

1 cup confectioners sugar

4 oz butter, soft

1 egg

1 banana, ripe yellow, not green

1 can of crushed pineapple, drained very well (discard juice or use for popsicles)

1/4 cup ground walnuts, toasted

1 cup chocolate glaze or hot fudge sauce, warmed, (Country Living's Chocolate Glaze Recipe 4✮)

1 large container of Cool Whip

Maraschino cherries with stems

Prepare pie crust, place in 9 inch pie plate, bake and set aside to cool.

Mix confectioners sugar, butter and eggs in a mixing bowl and mix for 5-10 minutes till fluffy

In bottom of pie crust sprinkle a few nuts. Spread the sugar/butter/egg mixture over the nuts evenly, sealing the bottom of the pie. Slice the banana and layer each slice over the mixture. Do this quickly so the bananas will not turn black and oxidize.

With your hand, evenly distribute the well-drained pineapple over the bananas. This also helps to keep the bananas from turning black.

With a few spoonfuls of Cool Whip, carefully spread a thin layer over the pineapple.

Next, pour 3/4 cup of the warmed (not hot!!) chocolate glaze/fudge sauce over the Cool Whip layer. Top with the rest of the Cool Whip and design peaks on top. Drizzle the remaining chocolate glaze/fudge sauce over and dot with cherries. Finish off with a sprinkle of the remaining walnuts.

Chill for 3 hours or overnight.

In the beginning, the Lord created chocolate, and he saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the dark, and it was better.

~Anonymous

"You make me sick!

You are offered meat and you choose a banana-split-with-nuts!"

~ Martin H. Fischer

Hummingbird Cake

132. What do you do with overripe bananas? Make banana bread? Here is a beautiful alternative, a Hummingbird Cake. My daughter gifted me with a Southern Cakes cookbook by Nancie McDermott. It is an enticing book with luscious photos of cakes. I found a fantastic cake that uses overripe bananas and pineapple...and who can resist cream cheese frosting?

Last summer we had a large amount of ripe pineapples so I canned most of it in heavy syrup. The pineapple sure comes in handy for a variety of uses. Rather than using canned pineapple, I used the preserved pineapple.

Hummingbird Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple (do not drain)
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups mashed ripe banana

• Pecan-Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 1 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour three 8-inch or two 9-inch round cake pans and set aside. Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, and use a fork to mix well. With a large wooden spoon, mix in the beaten eggs, oil, vanilla, pineapple, bananas and pecans. Mix well, stirring gently just enough to blend everything into a good thick, nubby batter. (love this description!)

Divide the batter evenly among the cake pans and bake at 350〫 for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cakes are nicely browned and pulling away from the sides of the pans. Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for about 15 minutes. then gently turn out the cakes onto wire racks or plates. Turn the layers top side up, and let them cool completely.

Pecan-Cream Cheese Frosting:
To make the frosting, in a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter and beat with a mixer at low speed to mix well. Add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until the frosting is fluffy and smooth, stopping once or twice to scrape down the bowl and blend everything thoroughly.

Add the pecans, and stir well. (I did not add the pecans to the frosting but left them whole to decorate with. )

To complete the cake, place one layer, top side down, on a cake stand or a serving plate, and spread frosting on the top.

A trick I have learned is to place a dolope of frosting onto the cake platter. This helps to hold the cake in place so it does not shift. Place the second layer, top side up, on the first.

Frost the sides and then the top

.

Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes or so, to help the icing set.

What a beautiful cake this is. The top layer of cake was baked in a decorative round pan to add whimsy.

Sliced, the cake is tall and you can spot chunks of pineapple and bits of pecans.

Hummingbird cake history

Southern Living magazine generally is credited with the first reference to Hummingbird Cake. It published the recipe in its February 1978 issue, submitted by a Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, N.C. But Mrs. Wiggins did not include an explanation of the cake's unusual name, which remains a mystery however folklore has it that the hummingbird is a symbol of sweetness.