Lots of Ways Banana Cupcakes

This week's selection for Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities. Lots of Ways Banana Cake is, as the name implies, open to many changes. I know I'll see a lot of variations on the theme of banana cake if I'm able to tear myself away from my spreadsheet du jour and visit my fellow TWD bakers. And to those of you who are still stopping by to see if I'm still alive (yes!), I'm ever so grateful to you for continuing to do so in spite of my seeming neglect of your posts. I read much of what you write while I'm eating my lunch, but I don't comment, thinking I want to wait until "later" to comment when I'll have more time to write something more meaningful than "nice brownie." It's still not "later" so I have yet to write the intended comments. My Google Reader has a life of its own. I could cut it down considerably by marking as read all the Lolcats and The Kitchn posts, but who doesn't need a laugh and a recipe?

My inability to cope with the sheer volume of work and external demands on my time led me to punt with this week's recipe. Dorie suggests we make cake layers and then suggests a few ways to top them. The spectre of taking a cake layer to the office and disappointing three-quarters of my coworkers was added stress I didn't need. And I was confounded by trying to imagine how it would look. So I made cupcakes. I even made sort of healthy cupcakes (no, thank you, I am feeling quite all right). I subbed about 1/3 of the flour with white whole wheat. The recipe yielded 17 regular cupcakes and 24 minis. I followed Dorie's suggestion and made her ganache for the umpteenth time and took it to work with me to frost the cupcakes after they cooled. My coworkers streamed in and out of the break room, oohing and ahhing when they spied cupcakes topped with chocolate for breakfast. And since not everyone likes chocolate, I left some bare. I grabbed one (with ganache, naturally) to enjoy as my afternoon snack. As the day played out, I emailed with my coworker who was ripped out of her position and stuck in another one, not in my department, as a result of the layoffs we had. She's miserable, and I met her while she took her break. The banana cupcake, while not a solution to her problems, did bring a smile to her face. And isn't putting a smile on a crying face so much better than eating a cupcake?

These were lovely, fluffy cupcakes, delicious with their undertone of coconut. I heard that the ganache + banana was a winning combination. They're a definite repeat.

Thanks, Kimberly, for choosing such a versatile and easy recipe. If you'd like the recipe, Kimberly has it for you here.