Dressing Up Banana Cupcakes

Oh my goodness, I'm beginning to sound like 500 Cupcakes & Muffins spokeperson!!! Here's another quickie post of yet another cupcakes created with recipe from this book. From one simple recipe, you can actually dressed them up with a simple cream cheese icing or a crumble. This banana cupcakes recipe is certainly for keeps as it produces a moist and soft cake base.

Banana Cupcakes

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
4 eggs
1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
225g mashed ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 175C and place 18 casings in muffin trays.

Combine butter, sugar, flour, eggs and nutmeg powder in a mixing bowl and beat with electric whisk until smooth, about 2-3 mins. (You'll noticed that majority of the recipes have the same ingredients and steps up till here. So you can actually make a few types of cupcakes by using the basic ingredients.)

Stir in mashed bananas until well combined. Spoon batter into cases and bake for about 20 mins. Remove tins from oven and cool for 5 mins before removing the cupcakes and cool on rack.

Ref: 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing)

For icing, slowly beat 200g cream cheese with electric whisk until soft and smooth. Add 175 g sieved icing sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp vanilla essence. Beat briskly until combined. Swirl icing onto cooled cupcakes and topped with thinly sliced banana that have been brushed with lemon juice to prevent browning.

For a cinnamon and oats crumble topping, combine 3 tbsp granulated sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon powder, 2 tbsp softened unsalted butter, 4 tbsp porridge oats and 1 tbsp flour in a bowl. Sprinkle crumble on top before baking. (Personally I feel 3 tbsp sugar is wee too sweet and next time I'm gonna use brown or demerara sugar for a better flavour.)

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