Banoffee Cupcakes

My work colleagues do pretty well when I get the baking urge, as I very often end up taking the end result into work to share out.  My friend Val's kids go particularly mad for banana muffins (they often end up getting their own side order) but I came up with these as a variation.  They are INCREDIBLY SWEET because of the fudge-style topping - I had to have a strong coffee with mine to provide a contrast - don't say I didn't warn you!  Because of this and because of the addition of mashed banana to the basic cake mixture, I've cut down on the amount of butter and sugar used in the cakes.  It's a good one for using up over-ripe bananas (the blacker the better) - I freeze them until I need them because I'm a bit eccentric like that.

The frosting comes from Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas' "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery" and is half the quantity in the original recipe (you'd probably better book a dentist's appointment at the same time as buying one their cakes then).  It sets very quickly (the wonky rice paper toppers in the photo are like that because the frosting had already set and I had to stick them down with a small blob of royal icing).  This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

Banana cakes:
75g unsalted butter, at room temperature
75g caster sugar
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 medium eggs
125g self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Caramel frosting:
30g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons milk
110g light soft brown sugar
120g icing sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/Gas Mark 4.  Line a muffin tray with 12 cupcake cases.
2. Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale, light and fluffy.  Beat in the mashed banana.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour with each egg.  Fold in the remaining flour and baking powder with a large metal spoon, until there is no flour left visible.  The mixture will look slightly curdled at this point, don't worry.
4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake case and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cakes are golden and spring back when you gently press them with a finger.  Leave them to cool on a wire rack.
5. Once the cakes are cooled, get on with making the frosting.  Place the butter, brown sugar and milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring continually.  Let it boil for about 1 minute, still stirring.
6. Remove this sauce from  the heat and whisk in half the icing sugar.  Leave it stand for around 1 minute, then whisk in the vanilla extract and remaining icing sugar.
7. Spread the frosting over the cakes whilst still warm as it will cool and set very quickly.  Add any toppings (eg: banana chips, crushed Dime bars) whilst the frosting is still soft.

Coffee Kisses

I was going to visit Penelope, a friend of mine who recently had a rather grisly operation (steel pins and all) on one of her feet and I wanted to take something along that’s a bit more exciting than grapes when you’re under doctor’s orders to rest up.  As a person of very good taste, I knew that Penelope would appreciate these biscuits called Coffee Kisses.  Under no circumstances should they ever be described as “cookies” as their heritage is very British and goes back to 1930!  The recipe is from the eighteenth edition of “Be-Ro Home Recipes”, which you could (and still can, I believe) obtain by writing to the manufacturers of Be-Ro flour.  I couldn’t resist showing you photos of my browned, splattered and rather musty-smelling copy, which belonged to my grandma, was then my mother’s and is now mine.  The book is quite a funny (or depressing, I can’t quite make my mind up) artefact in itself because the 1930s language is incredibly sexist.  An advert for Be-Ro flour on page 15 has a cartoon of “little Margery” with her shopping basket (you can tell Margery’s a 1930s child because she’s got a giant bow in her hair) telling us how “Baking days would be blank days in little Margery’s life without Be-Ro.  She looks forward to the pleasant hours spent with Mother making dainty Be-Ro cookies”.  Life on the edge, eh, Margery?

 

This recipe is the best use I can think of for Camp coffee essence (it sure as hell isn’t as a drink).  Incidentally, have you noticed how the label on Camp has changed recently, to make it not racist?  I always remember it as the guy in the kilt being served coffee by the Sikh guy, implying a master-servant relationship (still, he got his own back – he was giving him a foul chicory-based coffee substitute, after all).  Now they’re both sitting in front of the tent having a nice cuppa together.  Aww.

 

Anyway, I used to beg my mum to make Coffee Kisses (she loved them too) and I urge you to try this recipe because they are utterly delicious and nothing at all like anything you can buy in any shop.

Coffee Kisses (makes at least 20 sandwiched biscuits)

150g plain flour, sifted (use Be-Ro if you want to give a nod to the provenance of the recipe, not that it will make the slightest difference)

75g cold unsalted butter

75g caster sugar

One egg, beaten with 2 dessertspoonfuls of Camp coffee essence

 

Filling:

50g icing sugar, sifted

25g softened unsalted butter

A few drops of Camp coffee essence

 

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180 degrees C and grease two baking trays.
2. Rub the cold butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the caster sugar.
3. Mix in the egg/coffee mixture until a stiff dough is formed.
4. Use a teaspoon to place small dollops of the mixture (the Be-Ro book describes them as “the size of marbles”), spaced well apart on the baking trays.  This should give you around 40 blobs (ie: 20 sandwiched finished biscuits).  As you can see in the photo, I ended up with 26 (ie: 13 sandwiched finished biscuits) because I can never exercise portion control and mine were pickled onion-sized.



Too big!



 



5. Bake for around 10 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.  Watch them like a hawk because they do cook very quickly.  Carefully prise them off with a spatula or similar and leave them to cool on a wire rack.  They will harden slightly on cooling but not too much: their texture has more in common with soft American cookies (oops, I did say I wouldn’t use the other “c” word) than ginger nuts.

6. Beat the softened butter until pale and fluffy and then beat in the icing sugar and Camp until you have a smooth, spreadable buttercream.  Use the buttercream to sandwich together the biscuits halves.  Devour greedily with a nice cup of tea.