My daughter played her violin in a concert at a lovely church this afternoon and we were asked to take along a contribution for the tea afterwards. I had a lot of over-ripe bananas in the freezer and was going to make a banana loaf, but cupcakes always go down well with the children (and parents actually) at these things so I decided to make banana cupcakes. The addition of the crème fraiche and the dates makes the cakes very moist and sweet (mmmm) so a perfect foil for this is a slightly tart cream cheese frosting. The frosting recipe I used turned out rather runny, but as luck would have it the very lovely and talented Ketta Shimmin of Flossi Pops Cakery was also at the concert and she told me the secret to perfect cream cheese frosting (see below). Chopped salted peanuts added a final salty kick and (shop-bought) chocolate stars made them look very pretty.  They were all devoured in minutes (and when asked, Mr AC said they were “very nice”).

Ingredients (makes approx. 16):

• 250g self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 100g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 heaped tablespoons of greek yoghurt or crème fraiche (I used reduced fat)
• 4 or 5 over-ripe bananas, mashed up
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon
• 70g chopped pecans
• 4 or 5 dates (I used Mejdool) chopped up to the size of raisins, or smaller
• 50g good quality dark chocolate chopped up quite small (or use chocolate chips)

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c (160c fan). Line two cupcake tins with paper cases.

1) Using a hand-held electric whisk or free-standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on a medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

2) Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition

3) Add the crème fraiche/yoghurt, mashed bananas and vanilla and mix in well.

4) In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

5) Mix the wet ingredients into the dry using a spoon or spatula.

6) Fold in the the pecans, chocolate and chopped up dates.

7) Divide the mixture evenly into paper cupcake cases – a mechanical ice cream scoop comes in handy for this if you have one.

8) Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the cakes are springy and a cake tester or skewer inserted into the middle of a cake comes out clean.

9) Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

For the frosting:

• 200g butter
• 200g cream cheese (fridge cold)
• 450 icing sugar, sifted

Cream together the butter and sifted icing sugar (I have a freestanding mixer which makes this dead easy but a hand held electric whisk does the job just as well). Stir in the cream cheese straight from the fridge using a spatula or spoon; DON’T USE THE MIXER OR WHISK – that is what makes the icing go runny…Stir it well to ensure there are no lumps, then put the frosting into a piping bag with a large serrated nozzle and pipe onto the cooled cupcakes with a swirly flourish. (NB a stint in the fridge will also make a too runny frosting harden up a bit, if necessary).

Decorate as you wish – I used shop bought chocolate stars which the children loved and some chopped up salted peanuts for an extra flavour dimension. Yum!