Banoffee Cupcakes

Everyone loves banoffee pie, right? Why not try this cupcake version - they're more picnic friendly and are quick and easy!!

Ingredients:
For the sponge:
250g unsalted butter
250g sugar
3 eggs
250g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 small (or 1 large) over-ripe bananas
100g chopped pecans (optional)

For the topping:
1 small can caramel
150g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
Banana chips and more chopped pecans to decorate

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases.

Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until light and fluffy, and thoroughly combined.
Mash the over-ripe bananas with a fork in a separate bowl before adding those to the cake mix along with the chopped pecans and mix with a spoon.
Divide between the cases and bake in the centre of your oven for 20 minutes, or until they are springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of a cake comes out clean. The bananas make these cakes very moist so make sure you leave them to cool properly before the next step to make it a bit easier!
 
Once the cakes have cooled, use a small knife to cut a well into the top of each cake, taking care to leave a border around the edge. You won't need to use the small pieces of sponge that you've removed so feel free to eat this as you go along! Now, fill each of the wells with a teaspoon of the caramel.
 
Cream the butter and icing sugar together with two tablespoons of the remaining caramel to make the buttercream. Using a piping bag, spiral the buttercream onto the cakes, making sure to fully cover the wells of caramel. Add a banana chip to each one, and sprinkle on a few chopped pecans. Ta da!