Banana Butterscotch Cream Pie Cupcakes

These cupcakes are legit. The only thing that would make them better would be some homemade butterscotch pudding or custard filling.

And if making them could be a full-time, high-paying job.

I have a semi-annoyed recurring pattern with bananas. I buy them still green, intending to eat them when they start to yellow, and intending to save a few for a recipe. I end up eating zero of them, forgetting I bought them for over a week, and then magically "discover" (if just seeing them in the fruit bowl on the open counter counts as a discovery) them again and then have to figure out a recipe for them within the next day. This happens every couple of months. I've made a few fun banana things in the past:

Kahlua Caramelized Banana S'More Bread

Banana Butterscotch Cream Pie (here's where the idea came from)

Red Velvet Banana Bread

Banana Caramel Cupcakes

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

Chocolate Chip Banana Blondie Cake

Peanut Butter Truffle Banana Bread Muffins

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Maybe a little more than a few...

Banana things tend to be pretty sweet, so adding the sweet banana to cupcakes makes them doubly sweet in my opinion. These cupcakes get a nice cool freshness when you have the cold butterscotch pudding inside and FRESH whipped cream on top. I added a tiny hint of vanilla to the cream, and it could actually use a little more, but I like that fresh flavor of plain whipped cream.  This was the first time I got to use my whipped cream dispenser I got last Christmas. At first, when I read the instructions for the dispenser, I got a little nervous. Almost every step has a giant caution symbol next to it since you're using an N2O charger and everything is under pressure. They tell you to never stand directly over the dispenser be careful when taking the top, charger, and decorating tip off, etc. Basically, there's a fear that this thing is going to burst and seriously injure you.

I survived it though, and it's not that scary.


Anyways, back to the recipe. The cake is a great thick banana cake that holds up well around the pudding, but isn't so dense that one bite fills you up. The pudding is just a boxed instant pudding mix. One of these days I'll try to make some homemade pudding (I've made chocolate once), or a custard. This is definitely a keeper recipe.

In case you're not sure how good these are, let me tell you a secret: I ate two of them. For anyone who knows me, I don't eat sweet. I take a bite to make sure it's good, and then give the rest to Dan. I almost never eat a whole cupcake. And I had two (two!) of these.

Banana Butterscotch Cream Pie Cupcakes
adapted from Your Cup of Cake

Banana cake:
4 ripe bananas
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 and 2/3 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup buttermilk

1 box instant butterscotch pudding mix
2 cups cold milk

Fresh whipped cream:
1/2 pint heavy cream or whipping cream
1-2 tsp. vanilla extract (to your liking)

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 muffin tins with liners.
2. In a small bowl mash the bananas with the lemon juice.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly in between. Add the vanilla and give another mix.
4. In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add half the mixture to the wet mixture and mix on low.
5. Add the buttermilk and mix on low until combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix until just combined.
6. Add in the banana and mix on low until just combined.
7. Fill liners 3/4 full and bake for 20-24 minutes.
8. Let cool completely.
9. For the pudding, whisk together the pudding mix and cold milk for one minute. Let sit for 5 minutes. You can refrigerate or leave at room temp until cupcakes cool.
10. Cut out the middles of the cooled cakes and fill with the pudding. I put my pudding in a piping bag and piped it in, you can spoon it in as well.
11. For the whipped cream, you can use a dispenser and follow the directions for the dispenser. If you don't have one, in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the cream and vanilla until fluffy peaks form. (You can add some sugar if you want it sweeter as well).

If you don't have a dispenser, make the whipped cream topping right before serving, as it doesn't last or stay fresh as long.

Can't go wrong with $1 liners!