Taste: ****1/2 | Presentation: ****
There was a day last week where any and everyone seemed to be talking about New Orleans, so I was inspired to create anothercupcake inspired by my time spent in the culinary capital. This week's cupcake works with the idea of Banana's Foster, a dessert created at the Brennan's Restaurant in the French Quarter in 1951(http://www.brennansneworleans.com/r_bananasfoster.html). The recipe essentially entails bananas caramelized with brown sugar, cinnamon and rum, served over vanilla ice cream. My mock up version is a banana cupcake with vanilla frosting, topped with a slice of caramelized banana slice and drizzled with the brown sugar, cinnamon and rum remnants of the production (sadly, there was no ignition of sauces in my version).
There was a day last week where any and everyone seemed to be talking about New Orleans, so I was inspired to create anothercupcake inspired by my time spent in the culinary capital. This week's cupcake works with the idea of Banana's Foster, a dessert created at the Brennan's Restaurant in the French Quarter in 1951(http://www.brennansneworleans.com/r_bananasfoster.html). The recipe essentially entails bananas caramelized with brown sugar, cinnamon and rum, served over vanilla ice cream. My mock up version is a banana cupcake with vanilla frosting, topped with a slice of caramelized banana slice and drizzled with the brown sugar, cinnamon and rum remnants of the production (sadly, there was no ignition of sauces in my version).
The Panel:
Banana cupcake was bang on moth in flavour and moisture content. Rum component was definitely lacking. 'Dollop' of frosting provided a great size serving based on overall sweetness. The overall monotone, brown tinge given by the cake, caramel and caramelized banana slice produced a less than appetizing appearance. While visually off putting to some, the banana topper prepared the consumer for what was to follow, though it gave a couple of the 'texture' eaters the heebie jeebies... The vanilla frosting paired very well with all other flavours, though it was found to be slightly grainy. There were also requests for more drizzle.
Kitchen Kahuna: "I think this was my favorite cupcake I have tasted so far."
JRock: "I liked the 'dolop' of frosting (instead of a full frost) and the how the banana garnish looked kinda like a jaunty hat."
Giovanni: "Always, more rum!"
My comments: I was quite please with the flavours overall, aside from the lack of rum, whose incorporation I intend to perfect over the next couple weeks. I agree that the presentation was mild, this may have been resolved by applying the regular frosting method to break up the amount of brown. I would probably use banana chips to top the cakes in the future, so as to remove the rotting banana look.