Tuesday, June 8, 2010

and for Dessert...

I was going to make banana bread, but my husband ate one of the bananas!  So, I decided to come up with a banana cake and make a favorite dessert...Cupcakes.

One of my favorite songs from 1964 was "The Name Game" by Shirley Ellis.  I remember going around singing the rhyming song using names of my family and friends.  If you don't remember it, it goes something like this...

Marsha, Marsha, bo-barsha
Banana-fana fo-farsha
Fee-fi-mo-arsha
Marsha!

I introduced my girls to this song by singing their names and, well, Kelly's stuck to the point I would refer to her as Kelly-Kelly, bo-belly as a term of endearment.  However, once when I telephoned her one morning when she was in grad school in Colorado, her roommate, Christina answered the phone and because I couldn't tell these two California girls apart by their voice, I said, "Good morning Kelly Belly!"  Kelly was mortified that I had let out the name I called her at home!  She eventually came around and it was made us laugh!

I'm sharing this story because I'm calling these cupcakes Banana-Fana Cupcakes...because it still makes me smile.

Banana-Fana Cupcakes
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
1 very ripe banana, mashed
3 large eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
3 Cups All-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350F-degrees.  Prepare muffin tins with paper liners.
In a KitchenAid (or a bowl using a hand mixer)  and the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth.  Mix in sugar and beat until fluffy.  Add the banana and flavorings and mix again.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix the sour cream in the milk.  Add the flour and milk mixture alternately, ending with a flour addition.  Mix well.  Use a one-third size scoop to place batter in the paper liners.  Bake 22-27 minutes or until golden brown and when you touch the tops, they spring back.


Frosting
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 
4-5 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. Banana Flavoring
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2-3 T heavy cream
2-3 drops of yellow food coloring
Dried Banana Chips

In the KitchenAid, using the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth.  Add the 4 cups of confectioners' sugar and beat.  Add the flavoring and extract and 2 tablespoons of heavy cream.  Beat until fluffy.  Add additional cream as needed.
Fill a pastry bag with a large round tip.  Pipe frosting on top.  

Add a banana chip on top... to let the recipient know what kind of cupcakes these are.  Enjoy!


 

7 comments:

  1. Well I loved hearing this story about Kelly and you have me laughing too : ) The name for these cupcakes is just perfect Susan! My mom introduced this fun song to my brother and I when we where little while bouncing a ball : ) And now, well you have me singing it! These look great, lots of love xoxo

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  2. Well, I'm feeling old! Only kidding:) Isn't the song fun and I bet your children will love singing it too! xoxo

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  3. Hello Susan

    A lovely memory shared... The soccer world cup is the height of activity here at the moment. We went to the airport today and all the teams were arriving. It was crazy seeing so many people and hearing all the music and teams. Our South African Soccer team is called .. 'Bafana-Bafana'. Our team uniform is Yellow .~ I was just wondering what to make for the kids for the opening ceremony on Friday afternoon~ Well, these Banana Fana cup cakes might just hit the spot while we scream for Bafana-Bafana!

    Love to you Susan
    love
    Suzanne

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  4. Sue,
    Tay was looking over my shoulder while I opened up your blog. As soon as we saw the cupcakes, his first question was "can you make those this weekend"? I think I'll have to, they look soooo Yummy. I'm sure they made Kel smile.

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  5. Wow those look so good - thank goodness Chuck ate one of the bananas.

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  6. Susan,
    you must have passed your cupcake love on to Kelly. For our wedding we were going low tech so we decided not to have a cake (I'm not sure what we were thinking). I think this bothered Kelly so she made 80 gourmet cupcakes of several varieties (we had about 100 guests plus some wedding crashers but she was about to lose her mind after 80 and asked if she could stop - I told a lot of people don't like cake so of course she could/should stop at 80). We had rented out a B & B where some of Joe's family, my Dad and little sisters, and Kelly (with my friend Tam) stayed. It was great she and my two little sisters spent the better part of a day making the cupcakes (my sisters were Kelly's little helpers). Since then Kelly has always been known to Joe's family as the friend that made all the cupcakes.
    And I should mention - I was wrong - people love cake (or in this case cupcakes) they all got eaten up. I don't think Joe and I even got one:)

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