Hello there. It’s been a little while since I stopped by these parts, and certainly longer than planned, although I do feel somewhat refreshed now. A break was definitely in order after Thanksgiving. I can’t stay long, though, since there are even now so many things on the schedule this weekend: Christmas shopping to do, Christmas returns to make (already!), work parties, gaming day, chocolate to buy, a trip to Tazza D’Oro to replenish my coffee stash, and somewhere in the middle of all that, laundry.
Right now I don’t much feel like doing any of it, although I do feel like remembering how pleased I was with the banana cupcakes made earlier in the week (and wishing I’d squirrelled one away in the freezer for right now). You might remember that I used to be a cupcake-hater, but, ahem, let’s just say that the times, they are a changin’. Now, I do like cupcakes, although the caveat is that they have to be made by me rather than by a bakery, so I can obsessively limit the quantity and sweetness of their frosting. But these little fellas have the kind of frosting that I don’t usually consider when thinking about frosting: cream cheese. I guess I didn’t realize this before, but I can eat much more cream cheese frosting than nearly any other kind. And when this very frosting is twirled atop a bite of moist, banana-cardamom cupcake, I can make the sacrifice to eat a little more than my share, just to make sure everything turned out right.
The cupcake recipe is based on one from, well, I don’t actually remember…maybe Cupcake Project? I’ve made them a few times and they’re just wonderful - they even stay a nice shade of pale rather than getting brown like banana bread. After frosting them, I sprinkled the tops with a fine grating of nutmeg, which really sent them over the top for me, although it’s not completely necessary. The recipe makes slightly more than a dozen (around 16 for me), which is an ideal number for a smallish get-together of people who maybe sometimes like a second helping.