We wanted to come up with a flavour that kids would love, but wow, this turned out to be a real crowd pleaser. I think it may be my new favourite! The nutella frosting is just out of this world and reminds me of delicious hazelnut praline filled chocolates. The mousseline also takes the nutella nicely, instead of thinning out the icing it makes it more spreadable and lovely, so you can add quite a bit if you feel like it. The banana flavour is subtle and the fruit makes the cake nice and moist. I am so pleased with this cake, this one is a real winner!
I couldn't wait to share our new flavour with you all. We realize many of you out there on the internet would love to eat one of our cupcakes, but can't make it across the globe to Halifax, so I hope you get the chance to have fun making this recipe at home. It's pretty easy and really yummy. The frosting may be a slightly challenging, but with a little patience it will turn out fantastic.
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| Our new flavour at the market. |
Banana Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes:
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted Butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsps vanilla
2 bananas (mashed)
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
dry:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
200g chocolate chunks (mix of dark and milk)
Before starting, ensure that all of your ingredients are room temperature, adding cold eggs to butter, or cold buttermilk to the batter will cause it to curdle. You can warm up eggs quickly by placing them in a bowl of hot water.
Begin by creaming the butter and the sugar until it is fluffy and very light in colour. Add the vanilla and beat for ten seconds. Then add the mashed banana one at a time followed by the eggs and egg yolk. Whip for a few seconds after each addition, just until the mixture is combined. Set aside.
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl or onto a sheet of waxed paper. If you don't have a sifter combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to aerate the mixture.
Fold half of the buttermilk into the flour mixture, once there is no stray liquid add half of the flour mixture and fold until it is combined (if the liquid and the flour meet up you'll get annoying lumps in your batter, so be patient and fold just until it is combined, over mixing will also cause problems.) Then fold in the rest of the buttermilk, then the last amount of flour combined with the chocolate chunks. Divide into cups with a big spoon (don't use a little spoon, it could cause you to overmix by accident, this sometimes causes tunneling in cupcakes.)
Bake at 350f until the tops of the cakes spring back and a toothpick comes out clean.
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| Banana Choc' Chunk Cupcakes and "Orange Yums" |
Nutella Mousseline:
whip: 5 egg whites
1/2 + 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup of sugar
syrup: 1/4 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
add when completely cool: 1 pound/block (454g) of unsalted butter, softened, but just slightly cool. (Must be unsalted.)
Nutella (Chocolate Hazelnut Spread) to taste, I used about half a 750g jar. =P
Whip the egg whites on high, once they start to become soft and frothy add the cream of tartar and slowly sprinkle in the the 1/4 cup of the sugar as it whips. Beat on high as you make the syrup, you can add the syrup when it forms stiff peaks.
In a heavy bottom saucepan mix together the 1 cup of sugar with the 1/4 cup of water. Stir until dissolves and bring the mixture to a boil, once it starts to boil stop stirring entirely. Let it bubble until it reaches the soft ball stage, that is once you drop a drop of the sugar syrup into a cup of ice water and it forms a soft round ball at the bottom. It will be very hot (around 243f!), so be very careful with the hot sugar liquid.
Once it reaches this point it can be added to the egg whites. Turn the mixer to high and add the hot syrup in a thin, steady stream. Make sure it doesn't strike the beaters or it may splash. If you don't have a stand mixer have a friend or family member help you with this part. Use a heat proof spoon to get all of the syrup out of the pan (I use a silicon scraper). Beat until cool. Beat in cool butter, one heaping tablespoon at a time until your mixture is smooth. Then add your nutella one heaping tablespoon at a time until it is exactly how you like it (like I said I used about half a 750 g jar).
This recipe makes a lot of frosting, you could probably halve it (although I have not tried this personally, so this would be a little risky I admit). You can freeze the buttercream for your next batch of cakes (its best not to leave it long though, fresh ingredients really are key to successful baking. You may also need to rewhip it once it warms to room temperature).
If you are entertaining you could also make a small batch of chocolate cupcakes to use up the extra frosting. This chocolate hazelnut frosting is really delicious on rich chocolate cake as well. Mmmmm....
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| Rich Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Mousseline. |
