Hello and welcome to With Butter and Love! I’m so excited to be writing my very first post/recipe to share with you today because this blog has been on my mind for at least a year now and I am finally taking the plunge. Allow me to introduce myself…. I’m Dana, a mom of 4 boys, former pastry chef, and blogger behind www.3boysunprocessed.com. I’ve spent the past 2 years learning the ins and outs of blogging while working on 3Boys. Lately my inner pastry chef has been yelling “START A DESSERT BLOG” so here we are!
In 2008 I graduated from Baking and Pastry Arts school and began working in the restaurant/bakery industry. I worked various jobs baking and cooking in restaurants before I became a full time Mommy to my 4 boys. I love being with my babies, however I love connecting with people about food so blogging seemed like a natural route for me. 3boys has been so much fun to work on, and I’m super excited to begin sharing baking and pastry recipes with you here on With Butter and Love. 🙂
Ok, Ok, enough about me… Let’s get to the cupcakes!
This Hummingbird Cupcake recipe is really a family favorite in my house, specifically my husband. Every year around his birthday he starts dropping hints about how great the Hummingbird Cake I made him “that one year” was. I have 4 rambunctious boys to take care of so when he starts dropping these subtle hints I quickly remind him how long it takes to put a layer cake together:
Layer Cake = Lots of time I just don’t have!
Cupcakes = Quick substitute that I know I won’t mess up!
PLUS…. he must not even understand how amazing it feels to open up the oven to get a nice giant whiff of cinnamon, banana, and sugary madness. THEN take a peek in the oven at the beautiful, perfectly puffed up and rounded off cupcakes baking merrily on their way to cupcake heaven. Have you ever felt that way? Ok, it isn’t just me then. 🙂
Let’s talk frosting and decorating for a second because I learned a lot about what to do/not to do in baking and pastry school as well as working in the industry. One of the first things the instructors stressed to us was the word PASTEL when it comes to food coloring. I’m not a huge fan of food colorings to begin with, and I really think stressing pastels is a great way to go when deciding how to decorate/color your product. I would suggest starting with 1 drop of coloring, allowing it to mix completely, then add 1 more if you think you need it. You can certainly always add more coloring if you desire a darker look, however once you put a bunch of coloring in your batch of frosting there is no way to take it out. I’ve seen far too many “opps I put too much in” batches of frosting not to use caution myself when adding coloring.
That brings me to the sweetness of the frosting. I will never forget making Hummingbird Cupcakes for a friends bridal shower and following a big name chef’s Cream Cheese Frosting recipe that called for a whole bag of 10x sugar. A WHOLE BAG. For some reason I decided to give it a go, and at the shower I overheard someone saying the icing was “sickeningly sweet.” To be honest, it probably was because that is one heck of a lot of sugar for one batch of frosting. Since that day, I’ve come to realize more is not better when using 10x sugar in frosting, just like more is not better when coloring frosting. With every batch of frosting I make that calls for 10x sugar I always add the sugar in 1/4-1/2 cup increments so I can test it and it doesn’t end up “sickeningly sweet.” I prefer a bit of tang when using cream cheese because I think that’s what makes it so delicious. I don’t always stick to one recipe, I’ve probably made cream cheese frosting a dozen different ways throughout the years but I like to keep in mind that less is more….less is more.
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter (softened)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 and ½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 over ripe banana
- ½ cup crushed pineapple in juice or pureed pineapple chunks
- 8 ounces cream cheese (softened)- for frosting
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (softened)- for frosting
- 1-2 cups powdered sugar- for frosting
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract- for frosting
- For Cupcakes: Line cupcake tins with 15 liners of your choice. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream softened butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl after the addition of each egg. Beat in banana until smooth.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add ½ flour mixture to butter, sugar, and eggs. Beat until just combined, again scraping down the bowl if needed. Add sour cream and milk, followed by the other ½ flour mixture. Beat until just combined, then fold in pineapple.
- Fill cupcake tins ¾ of the way full, and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- For Frosting: Allow cream cheese and butter to soften on countertop while preparing the cupcakes. Beat cream cheese until very smooth, then add butter. Add powdered sugar ½ of a cup at a time until you reach desired consistency and sweetness. I added 1 drop pink food coloring to my icing and finished the cupcakes with India Tree Sprinkles.