"Mukimpo" banana cupcakes

L’Arc Bakery is back! And me, I’ve been kidnapped by exams, work, sickness, work, sickness again, work, a dragon. Wait, no. I wasn’t kidnapped by a dragon. I kidnapped a dragon. And named him Kitamura. Yeah, I remember it now. I got second degree burns, but it was worth it :D

Ok, stupidities aside, my inspiration for this recipe came with the mail. I got these babies from my lovely Nika (Mukimpo chips, L’Arc Pinkies AND a couple of L’Arc singles, including Dive to blue, which was the song that drag me into the insane hyde-obsession)

She bought all this in the World Tour concerts in Osaka, carried them to Germany, then to Spain, then ship them to my house. These motherfuckers have traveled around the world. Me, on the other hand, I was sitting in my sofa. SO NOT FAIR, I WANT TO BE IN A JAPANESE LIVE TOO. Maybe for the next World Tour?

(By the way, the counter of the votation for the World Tour got back to zero again? Did I heard “Troll~en~Ciel”? :D)

But there’s more news in the L’Arc World, isn’t it?

VAMPS WORLD TOUR.

Information in German. This is a sign!!!! I’m so going to Germany this year, it was already planned for the Summer but Mr. Hyde made his appearance and said “Hey, World Tour, this year, anyone?” And here I am, waiting desperately for the dates to come out. Hyde, make your plans so we can make ours, for **** sake! TT_TT Long story short, I will be in one of the Vamps european lives, I don’t know which one, but I will be bringing cookies! YEAAAAH! Look for the short nerdy girl with the box full of nerdy cookies :D

But now forget the cookies, because we are making cupcakes!

“MUKIMPO” BANANA CUPCAKES

For the cupcakes (10-12 cupcakes):

- 100 gr. (1/2 cups) white sugar

- 60 gr. (1/4 cups) butter

- 2 eggs

- 125 gr. (1 cup) flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 60 ml. (1/4 cup) milk

- 1 banana

For the syrup:
- 50 gr. (1/4 cups) white sugar 

- 50 ml. water

For the buttercream:

- 250 gr. (1 + ¼ cups) room temperature butter

- 400 gr. (3 + 1/8 cups) powdered sugar

- 3 tablespoons Nesquik, Banana flavored

- 60 ml. (1/4 cups) milk

- Yellow food coloring (I use gel food coloring)

For the decorations:

- 100 gr. dark chocolate fondant (you can use regular brown or black fondant, but this one tastes much better! I use “Satin Ice” Chocolate Fondant)

- 100 gr. white fondant

- Red and yellow food coloring

- Mukimpo chips! (or any dried banana chips you can find)

STEP 1: Banana cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (356ºF). Line a 12 tin cupcake tin with 12 cupcake cases.

Peel the banana and put it in a blender until it becomes puree, then set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour (sifted) and the baking powder.

In another bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add half the flour and mix on low speed until incorporated, the add the milk and vanilla extract. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat or you will get bubbles in your batter.

Add the rest of the flour and mix, then add the banana puree.

Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake cases, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 22-25 minutes (with the rack on the center of the oven) or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Get the cupcakes out of the oven and let them cool in a rack.

STEP 2: The syrup

It’s better if you make the syrup while the cupcakes are still in the oven, because you will need to use it while the cupcakes are still warm.

In a saucepan, heat the sugar and the water together, stirring until the sugar dissolves. When it boils, remove it from the heat and let it cool for a bit. Yep, that easy J

When the cupcakes are out of the oven and cooling on the rack, brush them with the syrup using a pastry brush. The syrup keeps the cupcakes moist. Once the cupcakes are completely cool you can start to decorate them with the buttercream.

STEP 3: Banana buttercream

In a large bowl, cream the butter. It’s important to use room temperature butter, if it’s too cold it would be difficult to cream it. I use a spoon to soften the butter easily.

Add the milk and the vanilla, and slowly add half the powdered sugar, SIFTED. Very important! Powdered sugar usually has lumps and it gives the buttercream an odd texture if it’s not properly sifted.

Put the electric mixer, or stand mixer, in low speed. Cover the bowl to prevent the powdered sugar to fly all over the room. My little trick is to put the whole bowl in a plastic bag (like in the pictures). It makes the task less messy ;)

Mix on slow speed for about one minute and then add the other half of the powdered sugar and the Banana Nesquik. Increase the speed to medium-high and mix for another three-four minutes. The buttercream will have the right consistency when it’s creamy but firm, like ice cream.

I guess the color of the buttercream is light yellow by now, right? but in order to get Mukimpo’s bright shade yellow, we need to add a few drops of yellow gel food coloring to the buttercream ;) Yeah, super yellow!

Put the buttercream in a piping bag with any piping tip you want and decorate the cupcakes. If you want yours to look like mine, I used Wilton piping tip 2D to pipe on the swirl. I draw a spiral, from outside to inside, it creates the peak effect and makes it look like an ice cream ;)

STEP 4: MUKIMPO!

As usual, we are going to use fondant to create the lovely face of our Mukimpo >__<<3 (nasty, nasty face)

First things first, divide the white fondant in three parts. You will need to dye two of the parts to get red and orange. Use yellow and red food coloring combined to create orange fondant.

Dip half the length of a toothpick into the food coloring. Wipe the color onto the fondant ball and work it until the color is well blended. Keep adding more food coloring if the saturation doesn’t please you. It’s hard to get a vibrant red, so it might take some time… a lots of food coloring. 

Model the pieces like in the picture, as many as cupcakes you want to decorate. The pieces you need to model for each cupcake are: Two white eyes, a red piece for the inside of the mouth, a thin orange piece for the outline of the mouth, two eyebrows and two little lines for the cheek.

Once you have all these pieces modelled and assembled, you need to outline the eyes and the mouth with chocolate fondant. Tiring but worth it! Remember you can glue the pieces together with a little bit of water.

Put every piece on top of your cupcake and then model the outline of Mukimpo’s head. I wasn’t planning to outline everything but it really gives the face more accuracy.

Final decoration for the top of the head: Real Mukimpo chips! Woo hooooooo!!! Any fried or dried banana chips will do, but it won’t be the same. It will NEVER be the same, mwahahahahaha *insert evil evil laugh here*

And it’s done! Reaaaally cute! Do you want to eat this cupcake’s banana? I hope to see you all for Vamps World Tour! ;)