Dedicated to Ms Banoffee

Tomorrow is my friend Lisa's last day at work. I've mentioned her before, she's the one we through a baby shower for a week or so ago. Kinda obvious why she's leaving us... This post is dedicated to her.

I started at my current job at QPAC almost 4 years ago. I had wanted to work at QPAC for a long time and was so excited to finally get my foot in the door. Behind my excitement was that awkward feeling you always get when starting a new job and the over-hanging question "was changing jobs the right decision?". On my first day I met everyone in the team and they were all nice. Then I met Lisa and her warmth and instant friendship made me feel right at home. I was suppose to sit with her for about half an hour so she could explain what she does and show me a few things I'd be doing. Suddenly about 2 hours had flown by and we had barely touched on either of our roles. This kind of behaviour continued over the years. She sat separately from our team so I was to act as the bridge between her role and our team. We took this as permission to get a hot chocolate a few times a week and just chat - don't worry, we always took some spreadsheets in case we needed to talk about work. We'd get lost in conversation and completely loose track of time - this pretty much sums up our friendship. She is someone who is instantly accepting and backs me up 100%. I am really sad to see her leaving our team, but over the past 4 years I've developed a really strong friendship with Lisa and am excited that we've manage to be friends at and outside of work (and will continue to be). She's supported me through some really tough periods in my life and is always there when I need that little bit of extra help. I am now looking forward to supporting her and her hubby around the birth of their first baby (if they want me there or not haha). 

So, to send Lisa off properly I have created my own style of her favourite dessert - Banoffee Pie. My version is in a portable and easy to eat form of a cupcake. Enjoy!

The team eating some cake: Kate, Leisa, Dave and Lisa

Lisa's Banoffee CupcakesCupcake
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teas vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teas baking powder
1/4 teas salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners and set aside.
 
 

In a bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until combined and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well. Add the vanilla and mix again until batter is smooth. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add half the flour, lightly mix, then add the buttermilk and lightly mix again and finally add the remaining flour and mix until just combined. Scoop batter into cupcake cases and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until a skewer can be inserted and comes out clean. Leave to cool completely.

Banana Custard
250mL milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
15g plain flour
1 ripe banana, mashed
 
In a medium saucepan over a medium heat, stir the milk and vanilla. Allow it to almost come to the bowl then remove it form the heat. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg yolks while slowly adding the sugar. Whisk until the yolks are thick and creamy. Add the flour and whisk until combined. While whisking, pour the milk over the egg mix and continue to beat until all combined. You need to do this quickly to ensure you don't scramble the egg yolks. Pour the mix back into the saucepan and return it to the heat. Add the banana and continuously stir until thick. Remove custard from the saucepan and put it in a bowl, cover it with cling wrap so the wrap is touching the surface of the custard, then refrigerate until ready to use.

Icing and Assembly
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
100g dark chocolate
250mL thickened cream
1 or 2 tablespoons icing sugar

In a small saucepan over a medium to low heat, add the sugar and water. Allow the sugar to melt and bowl until it reaches a light amber colour then remove from the heat and allow to cool. If sugar crystals start to form on the side of the saucepan, wet a pastry brush and brush the sugar off the pan.

Melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or over a bain-marie. Set aside.

In a bowl, whip the cream and icing sugar until thick.

Cut a small whole out of the top, middle of the cupcakes. Fill each whole with banana custard. Scoop the cream into a piping bad and pipe over top of cupcakes. Dip a small spoon in the melted chocolate and drizzle over the top of the cream. Do the same with the caramel. If the caramel is still hot, put the cupcakes immediately in the fridge to firm up again, or eat :-).