Sweet & Savory

IMBB 13 - Banana Cupcake Surprise

In less than six hours, J and I will be soaring over the great American Midwest bound for New York City for our (early) anniversary trip. We will be spending the next week and a half putting our best effort into eating through the Big Apple, as only a pair of insane foodies can do on their first trip in such a place. As such, we were compelled to post an early entry for IMBB13, hosted by Maki of i was just really very hungry. When we read that the theme was cupcakes, we knew exactly what we were making.

One of my favorite flavors of pie is that of Boston Cream Pie, which is not even really a pie. It's actually a cake, typically formed by layers of yellow cake, sandwiching a silky vanilla cream filling, and glazed with chocolate. My addiction to this classic combination of flavors had inspired me to brainstorm on a cupcake version. I'd been thinking about baking them for a while, and IMBB13 was the perfect occasion to finally do it.

My basic idea was to:

• use a butter cake batter for the cupcakes
• hide a dark chocolate truffle inside each cupcake
• cover the cupcakes with vanilla pastry cream

As you can plainly see, the end result was very different from the beginning idea. The cupcakes evolved in our heads. What started out as Boston Cream Cupcakes merged with Banana Cream Cupcakes and eventually became Banana Cupcake Surprise! I kept the first two steps of my original idea, but ended up topping the cupcakes with simply a slice of caramelized banana.

I made this last-minute change mainly because I ran out of time before our NYC trip. I will probably try it again with the vanilla pastry cream when I have another chance. And I promise to get recipes up here when we get back from our trip, but for now, I need to finish packing! :)