Delicious banana and maple syrup cupcakes topped with a carmalised nut brittle!

SO, if there's one thing to know about me as a person, it's that I LOVE bananas. I mean, I am addicted to them, especially in baking. I love the natural sweetness of banana in cakes and bakes, and find that it allows the cake to have a good all-around sweet flavour, without the (sometimes crazy) amount of sugar.

I actually saw a recipe featured in a baking magazine in January, featuring a banana cupcake, topped with a brittle, making it look insanely yummy. I added this tip into my family's maple and banana bread, and instead baked the batter in cupcake cases! You could also go for a more classic approach, and make a full banana bread loaf, but cupcakes are good for parties and events, or for easy access as a snack around the house! I have also found you a video on Jamie Oliver's youtube channel of a similar recipe, therefore, if you would like to watch someone making a similar recipe, to see the process fully, or to follow along with, do have a look here!

These lovely little cupcakes include (makes 12):

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Cake Ingredients:

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120 g- Plain Flour (You could substitute for self-raising flour and exclude the baking powder)

90 g - Caster sugar 

20 g - Soft brown sugar (Could use dark muscovado sugar but it will be quite bitter)

2 - Large Eggs (In an emergency medium should be fine, just add a dash of milk if necessary)

1/2 tsp - Bicarbonate of Soda 

1 tsp - Baking Powder

110 g - Softened Unsalted butter (or salted, but exclude the pinch of salt)

Pinch - Salt

Handful - Nuts (If desired) - Hazelnuts, pecans etc.

1 and 1/2 - Bananas - Ripe

2 tbsp - Maple syrup

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Cake Procedure:

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1. Pre-heat your oven to gas-mark 4 or equivalent
2. Put softened butter, and both types of sugar into a bowl, and mix with an electric mixer (or wooden spoon etc.) until light and fluffy. 
3. Mush your banana in a separate bowl and add to your butter and sugar. Mix until combined.
4. Crack your eggs into this mixture, along with your maple syrup, and combine.
5. Slowly fold in your left-over dry ingredients.
6. If desired, add some chopped nuts. 
7. Line a cupcake tin with paper cases, and fill about 3/4 of the cases with your cake batter.
8. Bake in your pre-headed oven for about 20 minutes (Check every so often to make sure you don't burn the cupcakes, as every oven has a slightly different cooking time (even at the same temperature)). Poke your cupcakes with a skewer to check if they're cooked, if this comes out clean, remove the cupcake tin from the oven. If not, leave for a couple more minutes and try again. 
   
9. Cool your cupcakes in the tin for 5 minutes and then place them onto a cooling rack until completely cool. If you try to frost the cakes when they're hot, the frosting will melt and you will have some messy cupcakes (don't worry, they'll still be delicious).

The optional brittle includes (method from Jamie Oliver's Youtube):

Finished brittle

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Brittle Ingredients:

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Handful - Choice of nuts (Your preference. I love hazelnuts. Pecans work well with banana bread - very classic mix)

1/2 tbsp - Butter 

100 g - Caster Sugar

60 ml - Water

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Brittle Procedure:

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1. In a small saucepan, add your caster sugar and then water (try to cover as much sugar as possible)
2. Let this come to the boil (it will take some patience)
3. Whilst this is happening, lightly oil some greaseproof paper (so that the hardened brittle cannot stick) and place this on a surface/baking tray/plate etc.
4. Once this mixture is a golden colour (see photos) remove from the heat.
5. Immediately add your butter into the mixture and stir together.
6. The mixture will bubble because of the addition of the oil. Once this settles down a bit, add your nuts, into the mix, ensuring they are properly combined, and fully covered. 
7. Pour your mixture onto the prepared paper and spread evenly, allow to cool and harden.
8. Leave this until your cakes are frosted and then add to the top as some decoration. 

When to turn off the heat

When butter is added and nuts are ready to be added

The amazing maple frosting includes:

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Frosting Ingredients:

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120 g - Butter 

300 g - Icing sugar

2/3 tbsp - Maple Syrup 

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Frosting Procedure:

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1. Beat butter until soft and fluffy (easier to use a hand/stand mixer)
2. Slowly add the icing sugar in parts (unless you want icing sugar everywhere). Combine these together. 
3. Add 2 tbsp of maple syrup and beat with your mixture until a good consistency has formed (not runny, but light and soft enough to spread). If the mixture is too wet add some more icing sugar, and if it's too stiff add another tbsp of maple syrup).
4. Put this aside until your cakes are cool and then frost them with as much or as little as you like (if your kitchen is quite hot you might want to refrigerate this whilst your cupcakes are cooling so it keeps its consistency).

I hope you all love this recipe, as I did very much enjoy the addition of the brittle as a crunchy topper and fancy decoration. However, feel free to stick with the more classic version and just make the cakes alone or together with the frosting. As I said a banana/maple banana bread recipe is one of the most popular in my family in generations! And that's without frosting or carmalised nuts as decoration. Whilst not being the most beautiful looking bake, it tastes AMAZING so this recipe is also pretty good! Try the cake at least, if you like something a little less sweet, or a little less high-maintenance!

Equipment I use: 

Spatula - 
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Pallette knife (Essential for icing smoothly - especially on bigger cakes) -
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Measuring utensils:
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Cake stand -
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Mixer -
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Mixing bowls -
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Cupcake tray -
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Cupcake cases -
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Cake turntable (essential for smooth icing on big cakes) -
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Baking sheet -
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Cake tins -
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Colour paste / gel -
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(This post is not sponsored, all opinions are my own. I have included one affliliate link, however).