Friday, September 18, 2009

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

So the other day I was sitting alone in my apartment (which I have yet to post pictures of... sorry about that. I need to clean the place first and then you can all see my not-so-shabby digs) when I saw that my new frosting tips came in from Bake it Pretty! I was so exciting and it didn't hurt that the packaging was sort of adorable! They came in a brown paper bag with gift tags which I saved and can't wait to use. The tags sort of reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, you know "eat me" "drink me", way too cute.

The tips I bought were the star and the closed star and they are WAY bigger than I expected but oh so perfect, so of course I had to use them right away!

So I was trying to decide what to make when it dawned on me. A good friend of mine introduced me to a fabulous snack over the summer, bananas and Nutella, so i thought, why not put this fantastic flavor combo into a cupcake? Let me tell you, delicious!

Banana Cupcakes
1 cup (salted) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large bananas, and it's easier when they are really ripe)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together butter, sugar, egg, banana and vanilla.



Mix baking soda with flour and mix dry ingredients in one cup at a time until incorporated (I'm sure you can do it all at once if you have a stand mixer but it gets overwhelming if all you have is a hand mixer).
Fill cupcake pan with papers and fill a one gallon freezer bag (with zipper) with the cupcake mixture. Cut a hole at the corner of the bag and get filling. I've found that this is the most efficient way to go about filling the cups, it's easier to make them even and you don;t have to worry about the dripping as much.
(Tip: Don't forget to squeeze the air out of the bag first to avoid air bubbles)



Sprinkle a little granulated sugar over the top of each cupcake and bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. These will come out a little more like muffins than cupcakes but that doesn't make them any less scrumptious!



Now for the important part.

Nutella Frosting
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/2 cup Nutella
5-6 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon half and half

Combine cream cheese, Nutella, and half and half in a bowl until smooth.
Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until your desired consistency is reached. I used 5 cups and looking back I wish I'd just added an extra half cup.
Pipe on your frosting and enjoy!



For these I used the closed star tip and they turned out beautifully.
If anyone wants a tutorial on how to pipe frosting, let me know, I'll see if I can figure out the whole video thing.


Cheers!

Bailey

(PS- I know this sounds pathetic, and maybe it is but please please please leave a comment! I need to feel the love people! Other than that, Have a great weekend!)

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