Iron Cupcake: Earth - Music Edition!

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!

Don't forget to vote for Iron Cupcake:Earth starting October 30, on No One Puts Cupcake In the Corner!

I am competing for these prizes:

The Demy by Key Ingredient

"Hello, Cupcake" by Maren Tack and Alan Richardson

Bella Cupcake Couture

Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac

"The CAke Mix Doctor Returns!" by Anne Byrne

Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

Whoo Hoo!

twelve layers!!

Fun Fact: 12 is only 1 more than the number of runs the Phils scored last night against the Dodgers. Oh, and 12 more than the Dodgers scored. Just sayin'.

But, even better, 12 is the number of layers in this delicious cake I made! I originally got the idea from Bakerella, but wasn't sure if I wanted to make a Southern 12-layer cake, or a traditional German baumkuchen. In the end, I decided to make the 12 layer cake, mostly because I didn't have a spit to bake my cake on. :/

So here, it is, the delicious, deceptive 12-layer cake!

(Semi-Healthy) Twelve Layer Cake

(adapted from here.)

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups butter

2 1/2 cups Splenda/sugar mix (if you're just using sugar, it's the same measurement)

6 large eggs

3 cups milk

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

icing/glaze

1 1/2 cups Splenda (if using the mix or sugar, use 3 cups.)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup butter, cut up

1 can evaporated milk (what in the world is evaporated milk? I always expected it to be powdered. ya know, evaporated. but it's a liquid. what gives?)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

So, there are a few different ways you can go about baking this awesome cake. Bakerella calls for an individual disposable pan for each layer. This recipe calls for 4 identical cake pans cooked in 3 batches, which is what I used. Luckily, Grandmom Lulu came to the rescue yet again, and I was able to use the 2 9 inch cake pans from her with my mom's 2 round cake pans.

But first things first. If you're like me, your oven takes FOOORRRRRREEEVVVEEERRRRRRRR to heat up. If that's the case, turn it on before you even get your ingredients assembled. That way it'll finally be ready to go by the time you're ready to start baking. For this cake, heat it up to 375.

To start, sift your flour into a bowl with the other dry ingredients (except the sugar) and get them all mixed up and confused. Set them aside. Then beat together the butter and the Splenda/sugar mix. The recipe says to mix them "until light in color and texture." I'm not really sure what that means, so I mixed it until it looked like it was pretty well mixed.

Then add the eggs one at a time. If you're lucky like me, and your mom lets you use her stand mixer (or if you're really lucky and have your own - jealous) then you can just leave the mixer running and just crack them in while it's going. Next up, add in the flour and milk in alternating groups, going flour milk flour milk flour. Lastly, add in the vanilla.

When it's all mixed into a nice little batter, it's time to spoon it into the pans. I just used some Baker's Joy and skipped the whole parchment paper/flour deal and they still worked out. The recipe says to put a "scant" cup into each pan, but I accidentally grabbed the 1/2 cup, so I just heaped that and it worked out just the same. Smear the batter around the pan so it sits in an even thin layer, and throw all 4 in the oven at the same time. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the cake comes loose from the sides. Cool in the pan, then flip them out onto a rack.

Once you put the final batch in the oven, start making the glaze. Put the sugar, cocoa, butter, and evaporated milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook until the sauce thickens. It's supposed to thicken until it's the consistency of chocolate syrup, but mine never did. Add the vanilla, stir it up, and set aside to cool and thicken a little more.

When it's go time, just start stacking. Place a layer on a cake board, and pour just enough glaze to cover it. Throw the second layer on the first and glaze that one. Rinse and repeat until all 12 layers are on board.

Pour the rest of the glaze over the top of the cake and make sure all the sides are covered in chocolate deliciousness.

Now this is where the original recipe ends. However, I stole one more step from little miss Bakerella and used some canned (gasp!) dark chocolate fudge frosting to cover the outside of the cake and hide the layers.

Bon Apetit!

Next Up: My Submission for Iron Cupcake: Earth! Stay Tuned!

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