Stinky Old Bananas

Don’t you love ’em?  The pair I used to make these banana cupcakes were so ripe they even smelled a little boozy.  I wish I had taken a before photo, but I think we’ve all seen a black banana or two in our lifetimes.

I did take a photo of the resulting yumminess, though:

I baked up some Banana cupcakes, topped with a light cream cheese frosting. I found this recipe at No Special Effects, a slight variation on a recipe from Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts. I followed the recipe almost exactly, except I substituted light brown sugar for dark brown sugar (daring, I know), and also omitted the pecans.

I’m not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting (I do have an almost lethal addiction to buttercream frosting, though), but this recipe has a rather small amount in proportion to the butter, so I thought it had just the right amount of tanginess.

Because I have a tendency to bake several kinds of cupcakes for one event, I like to put something on top that makes the flavor somewhat distinguishable; thus, the banana chip. And I love to eat banana chips, so bonus all around.

I am planning on giving these to a friend who is recently engaged, so I purchased this cupcake box to stick them in. Super easy, pretty, yet inexpensive, and I don’t have to do any additional wrapping.

I only wish I had more occasions to bake for!