Who Dat! Bananas Fosters Mini Cupcakes

In honor of the New Orleans Saints making it to their first Super Bowl and also because I was rooting for them, I made bananas foster mini cupcakes. Bananas foster was invented in New Orleans and seemed like an appropriate choice for the Saints. I didn’t think that bananas foster in and of itself would be appropriate for a Super Bowl party, so I decided to make them as cupcakes and mini cupcakes at that. Small, snack size food is so perfect for parties.

I found this recipe after a cursory search and I really liked her ideas about adding in whole wheat flour and cutting a bit of the butter. We both did half size recipes and had similar results with our flambé attempts. There’s a video on the original recipes page you should check out to see how mine went. I had the perfect amount of batter for the number of silicone mini cupcake liners I have, but that’s partially because I was eating some of the batter. Hey, it was good!

Bananas Foster Mini Cupcakes from Erin’s Food Files:

Makes 24 mini cupcakes

For the Bananas Foster-
½ stick unsalted butter
¼ c. packed brown sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 ripe, but still firm banana quartered (halved crosswise, then lengthwise)
1 Tb. dark rum (I used Mount Gay)
¼ tsp. vanilla extract

For the cupcakes-
1 ¼ c. flour (I did 1/3 c. whole wheat and the rest all-purpose)
½ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
¾ stick butter, softened
¾ c. granulated sugar
2 eggs (Use 1 egg if you have extra large)
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp dark rum
Banana mixture already prepared
¾ c. sour cream

For the frosting –
4 oz. cream cheese (½ block), softened
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1½ c. powdered sugar
¼ c. butter, softened
Slightly less than ½ tsp. vanilla
¼ tsp. dark rum

½ ripe banana for decorating cupcakes





In a sauté pan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cook until butter melts and sugar is dissolved, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the banana slices and cook until tender, turning once for 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remember that the second side will cook faster than the first. Also, don’t get any of the butter sugar mixture on you. It’s very hot and it will hurt.

Stir together rum and vanilla. Turn off the burner and add the rum mixture to the pan.

(teeny tiny flame!)

Using a long match, light the alcohol by placing the flame just in the outer edge of the pan. Stand as far back as possible. The flame should extinguish in a few seconds. Or not get started and then be kind of piddly, so I added just a little more rum to make it happen. If I’m going to flambé, there’s going to be fire. I did spend a bit of time swearing at the pan and bananas for not catching fire. If anyone had been around, I’m sure it would’ve been quite amusing.

Gently shake the pan from side to side to coat the bananas with the sauce. Spoon the bananas into a bowl and set aside.

To make the cupcakes, heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, vanilla, rum and banana mixture. Mix well.

Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream; blend thoroughly but do not over mix. Pour into prepared cupcake pans. Bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool in pan on rack. Remove after a few minutes and cool completely before frosting. The excellent thing about silicone liners is that they just pop right off and they are easier to frost and there’s nothing to remove before you eat. It’s fantastic!

To make the frosting, beat together cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, rum, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy. I misread the recipe and added not enough cinnamon and then adjusted by adding too much. I think I might have made it better, but I couldn’t tell you how much extra I accidentally put in.

Add about half the powdered sugar and beat until mixed well. Then gradually add the remaining powdered sugar until you reach a spreading consistency.



Frost the cupcakes. Cut up the other banana into half slices and decorate the cupcakes as you see fit. Serve to football fans and enjoy.

I thought these were fairly fantastic, but not that much different from the banana cupcakes I made previously. Certainly not different enough to justify flambéing and swearing. I’d love to try bananas foster again and flambéed foods in general, but probably not for these cupcakes. I might adjust it and have it so there are chunks of bananas in the mixture. That might make it worth the extra time. The base cupcake recipe with the rum, though, is a winner and I will have to fiddle around with that. All in all though, these were a big hit and I’m glad I did it.

At least I didn’t set my hair on fire.

And the Saints won!