D e l i s i o u c i t y

I’ve got a confession to make. The past month and two weeks (in which I have done little or no baking) have led me to occasionally think about dreamy desserts that I’d long like to try. The one fixation that I have had for the longest time is for a taste of the fluffiest and moistest banana cake ever. Sure, there have been plenty of good ones found at bakeries… but most of the time they were dry, or too dense, or overcooked, and even at one time, didn’t taste too much of bananas. It was a weird cakey thing that probably had banana essence instead of real bananas (yish!)

Oh yes, before I forget to tell you, I absolutely love bananas! Yes, I am bananas about bananas (shamelessly cheesy pun begging to be said, i know i know). So at times when my husby was sleeping/went out, I’d sneak about websites to browse around for tried and tested banana cake/cupcake recipes to try. [By the way, sneaking? = not exaggeration. I was banned from blogging because I had "more important stuff to finish". Practically was nannied whenever I had my laptop on (which I am not complaining about! He does provide me the much-needed oversight sometimes )]

Anyhow, I found at least two recipes that promised the type of texture and taste that I wanted. It doesn’t take much searching anyway till you find a good recipe, and I am sure there are more sources out there with slightly different ingredients or proportions. However, I did add a few touches of my own to the recipe I used here: I added 1 tspn pure vanilla, and a handful of chocolate chips for some dimension. Also, I incorporated methods learned from last year from my baking class in Singapore. Probably not something completely unfamiliar to you (like creaming and gradually adding the sugar; temperatures and oven settings – I switched to fan-force; etcetc). I guess any amateur or professional baker will tell you that the techniques employed in preparation of the final product is just as important, if not slightly more, as the recipe itself

The results were a stunning and yes, dreamy taste and texture! Now how’s that for a simple cupcake? But like last time, as mentioned in my previous gastroventure post, I wonder what buttermilk will do to the overall texture and taste. I will have to try that next time As for the cupcake topping, I used a simple dark chocolate frosting and piped it much to the effect of a Monte Blanc dessert; and topped the cupcakes with fondant hearts, calla lillies, and yes, bananas.

Oh yes! I found these chic square cupcake liners at a pvc-container specialist store. And whilst they are uber-cool and quite non-conformist (I think, at least,) the cake proportion that can go into each case is a mere tablespoon’s worth. Not too bad depending on where you stand – it’s either a nice amount for dietiers, or you may think that it’s a tad too little. Either way, I assure you that eating just one of these will surely not suffice!