Banana Split Cupcake
Cupcake Hero is BACK! This is one of the first blogging events I ever participated in. After a 9-month or so hiatus, CB has brought it back for all of us cupcake fans out there. This month’s ingredient is banana, which was a shocking selection since CB does NOT like banana. I struggled all month to think of a creative use of banana in a cupcake. Finally, on a restless night, I came up with this idea.
As you know, a classic Banana Split has a split banana, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream, topped with pineapple, strawberry, and chocolate. Then the whole thing is topped with chopped nuts, whipped cream, and of course a cherry.
These cupcakes are so freaking cute! I can’t wait to make them again. They taste just like a banana split with the added bonus of having some cake in it! I opted to leave the nuts and whipped cream out, but you could definitely add those if you wanted to.
First I started with some Martha Stewart yellow buttermilk cupcakes. They are my current go-to white cupcake. Although the recipe makes a TON of cupcakes! Then I used my round cookie cutter to cut out the center of the cupcake.
Next I added a slice of banana.
On top of that I added some mushed up strawberries. You could also use strawberry ice cream topping, but I just took some frozen strawberries, thawed them out, put them in a ziplock bag and mushed them by hand.
Then I topped the strawberry with another banana slice. At this point I realized I wouldn’t need the top of the cupcake that I had cut out. So I ate it. Tasty!
For the frosting, I used the pineapple cream cheese frosting that I’ve made tons of times, except I bumped up the amount of pineapple in it. Then I got it really cold by putting it in the freezer for about an hour so that I could scoop it with my cookie scoop to make it look like ice cream.
Next I drizzled some pourable chocolate ganache over the top of the frosting.
Lastly I topped with a cherry.
I wanted to do a shot of the inside of the cupcake. It’s quite messy in there, but that is definitely the way a banana split looks after you take the first bite.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Seriously how cute are these? They looks awesome!
This is a good idea! I make the same kind of idea but with hershey’s kisses. If you are able to get the square pretzels (snyders makes them… their shape is called butter snaps or something like that) you top them with a hershey kiss. Then you pop them in the oven on 200 degrees for a few minutes. You will know they are done when the chocolate looks shiny. After that, you can either press down the kiss a bit to join it with the pretzel, or top the pretzel with another pretzel to make a pretzel and chocolate sandwich. They are yummy and super easy! 🙂
This is, quite possibly, the worst recipe I’ve ever made. The only redeeming quality about this is the taste.
So, the first issue is that there was WAY too much liquid in the cake batter. This is where everything went to hell. I decided to make these in cupcake form since I didn’t have round cake pans. The cake crumbled as I attempted to remove the cupcake wrappers.
Next, the marshmallow filling. This was literally the worst trying to put sticky filling into a crumbly cake.
For my surviving cakes that didn’t crumble to death, I attempted to cover in ganache. The ganache was too dang thick for this delicate cake.
So, as I sit here on Christmas eve writing this review, I have toppling, crumbly ding songs sitting in my freezer as I make my last attempt to save these monstrosities.
Afterwards, I will promptly burn your recipe and enjoy it.
I am sure you are a very wonderful person and meant no I’ll will, but this recipe must be destroyed.