Cupcake Roundup: Hunk Of Burning Love (The Elvis Cupcake)

When I was in grammar school, we were poor. Not destitute, but poor. I knew that was the case, but I didn't know just how poor we were until I was much older. Then I learned how hard my mom worked to hold things together, the ways she scrimped, often skipping meals for herself when the food budget was tight. She knew how to sew and made most of my clothes, so I never felt embarrassed about the way I looked.  But, I knew things were different for us when I visited my friend's houses.  They always had fresh milk, while we drank reconstituted powdered milk, which I hated with a red hot passion.  We rarely had dessert, and if we did, it was usually Jello.  Forget about fancy snacks like Oreos.  I ate graham crackers so often, I dislike them now.   But occasionally, mom would surprise me with a cupcake. It was always a yellow cupcake with peanut butter frosting. I still have a snapshot memory of her holding out the cupcake to me when I was about seven years old.  I thought it was the best thing a person could ever eat, and I knew she made it just for me. If you're a parent with a small child, never underestimate the power of a special cookie or cupcake.

Recently Garrett at Vanilla-Garlic  and Cheryl at Cupcake Bakeshop decided to hold a Cupcake Roundup, asking people to come up with a cupcake.  I knew that mine would have peanut butter frosting, something I haven't had since I was a child. Remembering Elvis' favorite treat, I decided to make a banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting.  It would be an Elvis Presley special--a hunk of burnin' love cupcake.  The hunk would come from a piece of chocolate stuck in the middle of each cupcake. The burning love would come from a pinch of cayenne pepper in the frosting. Yes, cayenne pepper. 

If you'd like to see the Roundup of other cupcakes, check with Garrett and Cheryl on January 29th.

Since this recipe was inspired by childhood memories, I felt it only right to use the same bowl my mom always used to mix cake batter when I was a kid.

And I used the ancient muffin pan that seems to have been around forever.  I shoved a hunk of dark chocolate into the center of each cupcake before baking them.

Why put cayenne into perfectly innocent peanut butter frosting? Well, chilis are often paired with chocolate.  So, I used a very small pinch of Penzeys cayenne. And if you use Penzeys, you'd best make it just a pinch, since their chili powders are more potent than those sold in the grocery store.  The pinch of cayenne didn't make the frosting taste hot, but it did make give the frosting a faint smokiness that cut the sweetness a bit.  Of course, you can leave the cayenne out.

After I frosted all the cupcakes, I ate two, which were wonderful.  What a nice experience to have peanut butter frosting again!   And it paired very well with the banana cake.  Then I set two cupcakes aside for Bob and took the rest of the cupcakes to my friend Nancy's house.  She has two active teenagers who would make short work of them.

Banana-Nut Cake                (Meta Givens Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking)

1-3/4 cups cake flour or 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup mashed, well ripened bananas, about 2 medium, mashed into a fine paste
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanillla
1/3 cup fine chopped nutes

Combine flour with soda and salt, set aside.  Add lemon juice to the bananas, and stir in the buttermilk. Set aside.

Cream the butter well and add the sugar gradually and cream well.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.  Add the vanilla.  Add dry ingredients alternately with banana mixture in 3 or 4 portions with the dry ingredients last.   Fold in nuts.  Spoon the batter into cupcake liners set in a muffin pan so that they are a little more than half full.   Bake in a preheated oven set at 375 degrees F.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until they test done.  Cool in the pans on a cake rack for about 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Frosting                        (Adapted from Meta Givens)

(Note:  I doubled this recipe and had a little left over. I froze it. For another day!)

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2-4 Tbsp. milk
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 small pinch cayenne pepper (Optional)  Be careful!

PREPARATION:
In large bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and 2 Tbsp. milk. Mix well, adding more milk as needed to make a fluffy spreadable frosting. Frosts 8" layer cake or sides of 9" layer cake

Comments

[Glenna]

They're absolutely fabulous! I love the look, the idea, and the recipes. Yum!

[Jeff]

Wow does that look great...I would like 3 please ;)

[mandira]

Sher, these look absolutely fabulous. I want one right now with my coffee...

[Tanna]

Sher that is a beautiful story of a wonderfully loving mother and daughter! The cayenne pepper and the chuck of chocolate are both over the top inspired! Wonderful.

[s'kat]

Not fair! I haven't had breakfast yet.

[Lizz]

Banana - healthy. Nut and peanut butter - protein. Again, healthy. Cayenne pepper to give a kick start to the day. I personally don't see why this can't BE breakfast! Thanks for the food tips, and "food for thought" memories. I LOVE that you used your mom's same bowl and an ancient muffin pan. Lovin' from the oven, all right!!! :D

[sandeepa]

The cupcakes look absolutely fabulous and I liked your writing so much...
I have a lil' one at home and I am going to make her one, power of the cup cake

[whaleshaman]

oh, sher,

your story and recipe are perfect, because you created them with a pinch of your heart.

sniff!

[Nidhi]

Your muffins are looking divine and peanut butter frosting, never thought of it. And Cayenne Pepper...thats interesting!

Happy Republic day.

[gattina]

Sher, I'm totally in love with your special ingredients that represent the hunk and the burning love! And your write-up is absolutely beautiful! Somehow it brought me back a bit of memory of my childhood :D
Btw, just because I saw Elvis, almost thought your cupcakes being deep-fried ;p But I see yours really delicious, can't take my eyes off from that frosting swirls!

[Callipygia]

Hunk O'Burnin love indeed. These are worthy of the King himself. Sher these are awesome!

[e]

Oh Sher! I'm leaving to go the store after posting this because I NEED to have one of these tonight. Thank you for sharing, I can't wait to taste them.

[Bunty]

Sherry:
That was a lovely story about your memories of your Mother and baking something you enjoyed. The cup
cakes look delicious, too bad we are so far apart.
Love, Bunty

[Rosa]

I loved your story and those cupcakes look wonderful!
You mother maybe didn't have much money to spend, but she had a lot of love to give...

[Jennifer]

What a beautiful story...we've been there as well, and there are always the little things our parents do for us that we will never forget. (((HUGS))) to you all!!! (Make me teary, why don't ya?? hehehe)

This looks delish! :)

[Ari (Baking and Books)]

Not only do these look awesome but what a fantastic name! Hunk of Burning Love cupcakes!

Gotta love that.

[Alisha]

Wow, those cupcakes look great! I think these will have to be made next time I have some overripe bananas.

[Anh]

This sounds really good!!! I can make more things with banana now since the price in Aus has dropped. :D

[angie]

Sher, a lovely memory of your childhood, thanks for sharing with us. Don't mind sharing the cupcakes too? :p

[deb]

Sher the cupcakes are wonderful, and I thought of Aunt Laura as my mouth wrapped around the first bite.................thanks for bringing her back.......

[sher]

Glenna,

Thank you! Coming from you--a professional cake artist, that's high praise.

Jeff,

Thank you! OK, I'll make another batch and set 3 aside for you!

Mandira,

Thank you! They do go very nicely with coffee. :)

Tanna,

Thank you! I think my mom would have liked this. And hopefully--Elvis would too!

s'kat,

Thank you! Oh dear, I hope you had something really good for breakfast? :)

Lizz,

Thank you! Yes, it was lovin' from the oven. OK, Cupcakes For Breakfast, that's our motto!

Sandeepa,

Thank you! Happy Republic Day! I hope you and your family had a great day. I'm sure you did.

Whaleshaman,

Thank you! I like that part about a pinch of my heart. :):) That's worth remembering.

Nidhi,

Thank you! Happy Republic Day to you too! And congratulations on doing so well with your beautiful bell pepper rings--I want to make those.

Gattina,

Thank you! I'm laughing because you are so right about the deep frying. I think Elvis would have asked for them to be dipped in batter and fried!

Callipygia,

Thank you! When you use Elvis for inspiration, you can let your imagination run wild!

e,

Thank you indeed. I hope you made them and enjoyed eating them. You are really talented at baking!

Bunty,

Thank you! Well, when you come I will make you whatever you like!

Rosa,

Thank you! Yes, I really appreciate now what she did for us. When I was a kid, I didn't really see it clearly......

Jennifer,

Thank you! I got a little teary writing it! And what would people say seeing a grown woman eating a cupcake and starting to tear up thinking about peanut butter frosting? :)

Ari,

Thank you! I'm glad you liked the name of it. Once that popped into my mind--there was no turning back! :):)

Alisha,

Thank you! Yes, one of the great things about bananas is how they get better as they age. Can't say that about a lot of things!

Anh,

Thank you! Oh good, glad the bananas are more reasonable. We have certain times of the year when some fruits are more pricey. They just lowered the price on blueberries here.

Angie,

Thank you! I sure wish I could send a cupcake to everyone. They need to work on that technology--so that I could do it by computer. :):)

[ButtaBuns]

This is the perfect example of food as love. And the cupcakes ain't bad neither.

[Kristen]

I noticed these on the roundup and knew I needed to find the recipe. They look incredible!

[passionfordecor]

I'm inspired by your use of cayenne pepper with chocolate and banana is my favourite fruit! Just one question, does the hunk of chocolate sink to the bottom of the cupcake when baked?

[Rachael]

Oh MY. I love Elvis. I love peanut butter and I love cupcakes. I am one excited girl. Thanks for the awesome inspiration!

[Swarovski beads]

Great recipe not too sure about the cayenne pepper though. Suspect that its not just the love that will be burning after a few of these cakes!! Having said that I'm definitely going to give it a try. They look too good not to. Thanks for sharing.

[sherman jones]

oh sher, sher u can.

[Haley]

I made these and though I forgot to try the dark chocolate in the middle and didn't use the pinch of cayenne pepper because we didn't have any around, they were still delicious. An odd combination at first but it all came together. My friends really liked them as well.

[cialis]

Hi! I really liked your site!
Keep this great work up!

[Cath]

I made them and it was a HUGE hit.. thanks for sharing this awesome recipe with us.. I absolutly love them.. in fact I'm making them again this weekend.. this is a winner combo.. Salut!
The first time they didnt last through the night.. there where a few chocolate/PB/banana lovers.. but if possible.. how long could these lil' fellas go?