Bananas Foster Cupcakes, fit for a Royal Joust

Jenn, The Leftover Queen. The Foodie Blogroll. The Royal Foodie Joust. This cupcake recipe.


These four things are all connected. Jenn is not only The Leftover Queen, she's also the Queen of the Foodie Blogroll. And every month on the blogroll forums, we have the Royal Foodie Joust. For each joust, three ingredients are chosen, and members that want to participate come up with dishes using them. This month's joust has a Caribbean theme, and the prize up for grabs is a Caribbean cookbook! If you haven't joined the Foodie Blogroll, yet, what are you waiting for?


The three ingredients for this month are rice, coconut, and bananas. I had quite a few ideas knocking around my head, but this is the one that came to be. Banana cupcakes are great, but what about Bananas Foster Cupcakes? With mashed up Bananas Foster instead of plain old bananas? And oooh, buttercream frosting topped with toasted coconut? Yeah... And the rice shows up in the form of brown rice flour.




Yep! I made Bananas Foster--first time ever. It was extremely easy, and so delicious. And yes, we took a couple of bites, then I mashed it all up for the cupcakes! Well, I did save the sauce. I wasn't sure what for, until I was making the buttercream. It was meant to be. Caramelized brown sugar, rum and spices--poured into the icing, along with a nice dose of salt. Perfect!


I'll get to the recipes, because there are three--but they're all very simple! The cupcake recipe is adapted from a recipe passed along to me by one of my best friends, Shaye. Here it is, with my changes:



Bananas Foster Cupcakes
makes about 17 cupcakes

To print this recipe, click here!


1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 recipe for Bananas Foster, bananas mashed, sauce set aside
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in bananas, then eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt and add alternately with buttermilk to mixture.
6. Beat just until blended.
7. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
8. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
9. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.




Bananas Foster
recipe adapted from Alton Brown

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tbsp water
4 under ripe bananas, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup light rum

Isn't that cool? This was done under the supervision of Fire Marshall Bill, aka my husband.


Melt butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over low heat.
Add brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg and stir
until sugar dissolves.
Add water and bring sauce to simmer.
Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side, carefully spooning sauce over bananas as they are cooking.
Remove bananas from pan to a serving dish.
Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum.
If the sauce is very hot, the alcohol will flame on its own.
If not, using stick flame, carefully ignite and continue cooking until flame dies out, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
If sauce is too thin, cook for 1 to 2 minutes until it is syrupy in consistency.
Immediately spoon the sauce over bananas and serve. Or smash up to make cupcakes!





Bananas Foster Buttercream
adapted from Gale Gand

The added salt in this really adds a nice touch and cuts the sweetness.

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
sauce from Bananas Foster


In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter.
Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.
Add vanilla and sauce and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more.



Make your Bananas Foster, bake your cupcakes, make the frosting, toast some coconut, and you're all set! These are really delicious. If you don't want to use the rice flour, go ahead and use whatever you prefer. The cupcakes themselves aren't sweet at all, so the big old heaping pile of icing is very nice, not to mention the toasted coconut!



And that's my entry for this month's Royal Foodie Joust. Check out my past winning recipe--it was my first joust ever, too!