Banana Sour Cream Cupcakes

I was searching for recipes the other day to use up some sour cream I had in the fridge. S-bo and I did a good job with a late night, after-pub meal of nachos but there was still quite a lot left. Because I usually shop and cook according to what recipes I want to try, rather than according to what’s in the fridge, I have to be very careful I don’t waste things. I had plans for the sour cream. There was the nachos, and later this week I hope to have chicken burgers with salsa and sour cream (a favourite from uni days at Burgerlicious on King St, Newtown). But still I had too much sour cream.

I thought surely I could find a cake recipe calling for sour cream. But it had to be quite straightforward, ‘cause I didn’t want to buy a whole stack of ingredients…it seemed to defeat the purpose of using up an ingredient. I looked high and low but it wasn’t’ till I came to my Women’s Weekly Cupcake book that I found a recipe. It’s funny how you always see things but then when you’re looking for something specific is eludes you. Like shopping really.

Anyway, that’s how I arrived at Flower Cakes. I thought I would be ambitious and make the suggested butterfly and flour decorations too. I’ve never used modelling fondant before and let’s just say these cakes aren’t what the book intended. I was meant to make pretty 3 dimensional butterflies but they were never going to work. First I couldn’t find an appropriate butterfly cutter, then I couldn’t really get the “damp wire” to stick to my hand-cut shapes. Plus I wasn’t quite sure where the wire was meant to go anyway. So I made some shapes anyway and set them to dry, but the next morning the wire snapped off as soon as I tried to manipulate it. Nevermind, I made the cakes according to the recipe below and then stuck some shapes, 2 dimensional, onto the cream cheese icing. A workmate of mine, known as The Other Dan, although her name isn’t Dan at all, has just bought and moved into an apartment and I had planned the cakes to be a congratulatory gift. So when the butterflies didn’t work I thought why not make a little house. Which is precisely what I did.

I don’t like this recipe as much as a normal banana cake but it’s really not too far different and did turn out to be a great way to use my sour cream. Next time (because I always have too much sour cream) I might try the raspberry and coconut cakes. No modelling fondant required.

Banana sour cream cake
90 g butter, softened
½ cup (110 g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp mixed spice
2/3 cup mashed, overripe banana
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to moderate (180 degrees) and line 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper cases.
Beat butter, sugar and eggs in a small bowl until light and fluffy.
Stir in sifted dry ingredients then banana, cream and milk. Divide mixture among cases, smooth surface and bake for about 25 min.
Turn cakes onto a wire rack to cool then ice with cream cheese frosting.
Please email me if you would like the cream cheese frosting and modelling fondant recipes They are both pretty standard.

Banana Cake

I have a low fat recipe for banana cake...this is not it! Until recently I haven't been a big eater of banana cake. I started to make the low fat recipe because it was on hand, not because it was low fat. The cake is actually quite good. It uses wholemeal flavour and as a result has a great texture and is a little nutty. I'm not sure why I decided to bake, but I did and thought this time I might have a crack at the real deal. That gamble definitely payed off.

In my quest to bake all of my recipes I don't often step outside my standard collection of chefs and cooks. This is no exception, with the cake coming from Stephanie Alexander's Cooks Companion. I'm no expert on banana cake recipes but I think this one is pretty damn good. It's quite easy and straightforward to make, creating very little washing up along the way. The recipe suggested a brown sugar and walnut topping, to be added before baking. But I was keen to have a nice thick icing. The low fat cake has a very poor excuse for icing, it's main drawback actually. It's a watery mix of icing sugar, lemon juice and water. Where's the butter you may ask? Well that wouldn't be low fat would it. To make up for previous deprivation I aimed for a thick, rich cream cheese frosting from Women's Weekly Cupcakes. I'm always on the search for a great cream cheese icing. This one was pretty good. Nice and thick on the cake. I think next time I will increase the cream cheese just a tad.

So am I wholeheartedly converted to banana cake? Absolutely. I will revert back to the low fat cake on occasion. I enjoy providing kilojoule-conscious friends with clear conscience cake. I might swap the pathetic slop of icing for the creamy, cheesy delight however.

The full fat ensemble goes something like this:

Simple Banana Cake (Ali-K's version)
125 g softened unsalted butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed (this is the perfect banana balance for me and can depend on the size of the bananas. If you prefer a more consistent result aim for 1 cup mashed banana)
A few drops (or small slosh) of vanilla essence

250 g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup milk mixed with with 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

In true Ali-K style I realise as I type this that I left some ingredients out. You could add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/8 ground allspice however the cake probably wont miss it, considering I didn't realise until now. Flatmate laughs and thinks I should make a guessing game of the things I leave out of recipes. At least it wasnt the bicarb this time!

Butter and flour a 22 cm square cake tine, then line base with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, banana and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients and add to the mixture, alternating with buttermilk.
Spoon into tin and bake for 1 hour or until a fine skewer inserted come out clean.
Cool cake in its tine on a wire rack for a few minutes before turning out. Cool completey before cutting or storing.

Cream Cheese Frosting
30 g butter
80 g cream cheese
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar.