Week 6: Banana Cupcakes with Maple Brown Butter Frosting



Chelsey's cupcakes were so good,
they were bananas.

I chose these because I like banana bread, and I was intrigued by the frosting. As you can see  from my Cast of Characters photo, this used nice, simple ingredients that are usually in my pantry and fridge. I didn't have a lemon on hand and didn't want to go back to the store to buy one, so I omitted it. I figured that it was primarily invited to the party to prevent banana browning. The batter is super easy to make and comes together nicely.  



I've never baked anything at 275 degrees for an hour - I think of "low and slow" as a BBQ technique, not something for baked goods. But the cupcakes came out great and were nice and moist. I initially thought the step of freezing them for 30 minutes seemed unnecessarily fussy, but the cupcakes did seem to shrink a little after being in the freezer, and they were still moist even after being frozen. I think it probably was a necessary step.





Frosting in the making.



The frosting was good in theory. I like all of the component parts. But on the whole, I found it too buttery and too sweet.  The maple flavor isn't very distinct, so you get the sweet from the maple sugar but not enough maple flavor. The frosting made as directed is extremely runny, so I added powdered sugar. It would have been helpful to know that the frosting thickened up as it cooled, because by the time mine cooled it was like cement.

So, my take-away from this is that I would make the cupcakes again, although if I'm craving banana in super-carb form I'll just make banana bread. But I would use a cream cheese or even a chocolate frosting instead of the maple brown butter.



Cast of characters.

Baking the cupcakes "low and slow."