Warm Kitchen, Warm Hearts: Iron Cupcake: Earth

Well, all kinds of excitement this month. I joined the Iron Cupcake:Earth challenge, and of course this month the theme was "music." Normally it's something like "savory" or "cheese" but this month, since it is the beginning of IC:E's 2nd year, they decided to try to get Ellen Degeneres to invite us to her show!

So the challenge was to create a cupcake based on a song title. Way more difficult than it sounds, I promise. So I thought for days, and consulted my brain trust. Luckily, my dad, Mr. Mike, loves strange challenges and sent me a website of songs with food in them. On that list was a song that my sisters and I used to love dancing around the kitchen to, and was just the perfect song for this challenge. Maybe you've heard it?

So, a banana split for my baby. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Well, it wasn't terrible, but it definitely took some creativity on my part. Which, really, is what this challenge is all about, right? So, I made a "neapolitan" cupcake, with a vanilla chocolate strawberry batter, topped with all the typical toppings of a banana split - pineapple, strawberry, chocolate syrup, nuts, and a cherry! And to hold it all together, banana cream frosting! So, here are my banana split cupcakes!

Banana Split Cupcakes

(cupcake recipe adapted from "The New Best Recipe" Cookbook)

Their recipe makes 12 cupcakes, so I doubled it for 24. These are the doubled measurements.

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened (I stuck mine in the microwave for a few seconds)

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

4 egg yolks (in addition to the 2 whole eggs)

These are my additions:

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsps strawberry extract (can be found at Wegman's, Whole Foods, and some Walmarts)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

5-6 drops red food coloring

First, preheat your oven to 350. Place your baking cups into the baking pans and set them aside. I got these super cute ones from Wegman's - how cute??

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the butter, sour cream, eggs, and yolks. Then, separate batter equally into three bowls. Into the first bowl, mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Into the second bowl, mix in the strawberry extract and red food coloring. The extract amount wasn't entirely exact, so just go with your nose - I added strawberry until the batter smelled like strawberries. Then, add red food coloring, a couple drops at a time, until the batter is nice and pink. For the third bowl, melt about a cup of semisweet chocolate chips, and stir them in. I started with about a 1/2 cup of chips, but they didn't really make the batter look chocolatey enough, so I added some more.

Once everyone is mixed up, begin spooning the batter i

nto the cupcake liners. I used a small dinner spoon to measure my batter. I layered the batter:

strawberry

chocolate

vanilla

Once all the batter is in the cupcake pans, place the cuppies in the oven for about 20-24 minutes. Mine took about 25 minutes to cook and brown on the top a bit. When they're done, take them out of the oven, and let them cool.

Banana Cream Frosting

(found on eHow)

I also doubled this recipe for the frosting.

1 cup of butter

2 medium banana

6 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter until smooth. (I softened mine a bit before throwing it in the mixer) Slice the banana and add to butter, beating again until smooth. Add confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time, until blended. Add vanilla extract and mix until blended. (I had to chill mine after this step in order to get it to the right firmness, but I think I might just have worked with the butter for a little too long.)

To assemble:

Put a smear of pineapple topping on the cupcake, followed by a smear of strawberry topping. Follow with a healthy dollop of banana cream frosting. To finish, add chopped walnuts, chocolate syrup, and, of course, a cherry! Bon Apetit!