Whimsical

As I said in my last post, I'm always trying to come up with some fun, new treats for the holidays, so last night and a good part of today I spent experimenting and making what I'm calling Elvis Cupcakes. Yes, I'm an Elvis fan, check out an earlier post on Elvis Bread and you'll either like my puns or think I'm nuts. Since I  recently dove head first into the mini cupcake and mini cookie genre, I decided to try something in that realm, and between the banana, peanut butter and candied bacon in this recipe, I must say it's a little out there, and perfect for anyone who likes their taste buds to explode in delight. Is there anyone who doesn't like that feeling?

Elvis Mini Cupcakes
makes 36

Ingredients for Cupcakes:
2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 T unsalted butter at room temp
2 T canola oil
3/4 cups Splenda no calorie sweetener
2 large eggs at room temp
1 large egg white at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, the browner the better
1/2 cup lite sour cream

Peanut Butter Filling:
Approximately 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Frosting:
8 oz low fat cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups confectioners sugar

Bacon Topping:
4 slices bacon
1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

This is an easy cupcake recipe to put together. Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with paper liners and lightly spray them with PAM or your choice of cooking spray.

To make the batter: In medium size bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Mix with a spoon or fork to combine and set aside.

In small bowl mash bananas and add sour cream. Mix well and set aside. I think the sour cream is what gives this batter the tender texture when it bakes.

Using an electric hand mixer beat butter, oil and Splenda until incorporated. I like to do this boring task for 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, egg white and vanilla. Mix until combined. Add half the dry ingredients and mix until almost incorporated. Now add the dreamy sour cream and banana mixture and gently fold into batter. Add the rest of your dry ingredients, mix well and  spoon into lined cupcake  pans.

As you can see I'm not the most consistant when adding the right amount of batter to the tins. It doesn't seem to matter in this recipe, but I try not to overfill the cups. Bake about 18 to 20 minutes and let cool.

After about a half hour/45 minutes of cooling and the cupcakes are no longer hot to the touch, you're going to do a little surgery. With a small paring knife, cut a circle in the middle of the top of the cupcakes to make a well. I used my mom's old grapefruit knife and it worked great. Here's are some pictures of what you're trying to acheive.

Just pull out the little plug and set it aside. You won't be using these so feel free to munch on them while you're finishing the rest of the cupcakes.

Fill each hole with peanut butter and try and be careful to stay in the hole. I know you'll be neater than I was.

Set these little darlings aside and get ready to make the toppings. That would be the frosting and the candied bacon. Let's start with the bacon first. I have many good friends who are far more experienced bakers than me, and thanks to Wendy and Jan, the final topping of the Elvis Cupcakes came out without a snag. I'd never candied bacon before, but it's simple and a good thing to know how to do. In medium size bowl, dredge both sides of bacon slices in Splenda Brown Sugar.

Place on foil lined baking sheet in 350 degree oven and bake 10 minutes. Turn and bake another 6-8 minutes more. Since this was my first time doing this, I checked my oven every two minutes. Your oven may cook it faster. Place on plate to cool. Do not put on paper towels as I'm used to doing with bacon, it will stick! Here's what my candied bacon looked like after it cooked and cooled.

I started chopping the bacon in chunks and then decided I might go with crumbles. So I did both. Set the bacon aside and let's make the easy frosting

In large bowl combine cream cheese, butter, peanut butter and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Add the confectioner's sugar, mix again and get ready to assemble the cupcakes.

Take a dollop of your frosting and place atop your banana peanut butter filled cupcake. You can fancy this up by using a piping bag, but I haven't mastered that yet, so I go with the dollop method. It works well for me. Now sprinkle on some candied bacon bits.

Or insert a larger slice of candied bacon to the yummy frosting and let it shine alone.

Either way you decide to serve these I think you, and everyone who tastes them will be pleased. I've got the whole batch (minus 5 which I had to sample along the way) going to work with me on Monday. I'm guessing they'll be gone by noon.