Gluten Free Banoffee Cupcakes

I don’t usually like to post two very similar items so close together, but I have an amazing mum-in-law who is celebrating her birthday and   I think we can all agree unequivocally that ‘Birthdays = Cake.’  This is a little tricky for my mum-in-law as she can’t eat gluten.  So I’ve tweaked one of my favourite recipes for banana loaf into these (hopefully) scrummy gluten free banoffee cupcakes.  Happy birthday, mum.

To make 12 cupcakes take:

For the cupcakes:

• 2 ripe bananas (the riper the better)
• 125gm softened butter
• 120gm caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla (paste, essence or extract)
• 15ogm self-raising gluten free flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 a 379gm tin of  caramel (or use dulce de leche)

For the banana crisps: (use to decorate the cupcake, but great in homemade muesli or granola)

• one banana
• the juice of one lime or lemon
• 1 Tbs icing sugar

For the frosting:

• 125gm softened butter
• 300 gm icing sugar
• 1 Tbs milk
• 1/4 cup of caramel
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• and fudge chunks to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180°C and then place 125gm of softened butter into a large mixing bowl and add the caster sugar.  Cream together for about 2-3 minutes until the mixture is a very pale yellow.  Add one of the eggs and beat well, then add the other other and again beat well until everything is well mixed.

Mash the bananas together until smooth and then add with the vanilla to the butter mix.

Mix the flour and cinnamon together and sieve on top of the butter mix.

Fold the flour into the mix with a spatula.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake cases and fill each to about 2/3 full.

Bake for about 15-18 min until  they are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool and get started on your banana crisps.

To make the crisps first squeeze the lemon or lime, whichever you’re using, and mix in 1 Tbs of icing sugar. Then thinly slice the bananas and brush both sides with the lemon-sugar mix.  Allow the oven to cool to 100°C and pop in the baking tray for an hour.  You’re not cooking the bananas so much as dehydrating them.

After an hour turn the banana pieces over and put back in the oven for another hour.  After two hours take them out of the oven and leave to cool and crisp up and then store in an airtight container until you’re ready to decorate the cupcakes.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, using an apple corer make a hole in the centre of each cupcake by pushing the apple corer two thirds of the way into the cup cake and twisting.

Place the caramel into a ziplock bag or piping bag and fill each hole with caramel.

To make the frosting place the softened butter and 1/4 cup of caramel in a large mixing bowl and beat until light and creamy.

Add the salt to the butter caramel mix and beat.  Then add the icing sugar and beat until all the icing sugar is combined.  (You might need to add a little more icing sugar to get the right texture.)  Then add the milk and beat until light and fluffy.

Once the icing is ready, place in a piping bag with a large star-tipped nozzle and pipe onto the cupcakes.  Then decorate with fudge chunks (these do contain wheat glucose syrup, but wheat glucose syrup does not contain gluten and is safe for celiacs) and banana crisps.  Enjoy!