Holy Split! Part I - Cupcakes

Since I have newly renamed myself the CUPCake Chemist, I decided to take that and run. And I'm having so much fun! The cupcake idea is nothing new, but what you can do in a little paper liner is amazing!


This week, I decided to make a banana split! Now, I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of the real thing. Mostly because wherever you go to buy one, they probably sell something I'd like much better. Like a candy-bit mix or brownie sundae. But I like all the flavors and if I were to see something that has the flavor of the split, I'd probably say "Yes please!" And, that's why I wanted to make this. Well, that and it's a pretty impressive cupcake flavor.

So, my first step was to actually list the ingredients. I probably should have gone to DQ and bought one. For research, of course! I'll definitely have to remember that next time. For now, I just used the number one source of information - Google. From my extensive (45 second) research, I decided to include the following flavors: banana, strawberry, pineapple, cherry, chocolate, nuts and whipped cream. That's a lot of flavors in a little package!


The thing about putting chocolate in anything is that it tends to take over. Don't get me wrong, I love that most of the time. But the magic of a banana split is that all the flavors are present in one bowl (or cupcake). So I designed this cupcake with that purpose in mind.

Luckily, last weekend I came accross this book at B&N bargin bin. It is amazing!! (Find it here on Amazon.) Expect LOTS of recipes from here to appear in future blogs. The one I used this week was actually a coconana cupcake without the chocolate chips.

I added in some strawberry jam before baking. It's important to swirl it in at the end for two reasons: first, if you just mix it beforehand, you'll loose the flavor and just have pink tint to your banana cupcake and second, if you just drop it on top and don't swirl, it will sink to the bottom and make a mush center. I know these facts because I've done each and had cupcake failure!





When they were done, I had yummy banana strawberry swirl cupcakes. Which would be great on their own. Because of the banana, the cupcake is very dense and moist. It doesn't rise as much and wasn't as brown as I'm used to when it's done. Although it seems pretty brown in the picture, you'll have to trust me, I had to hold back from over baking these.

Next blog - assembling all the ingredients in one tasty little cupcake!