Banana Cream Pie Baked Inside a Banana Cupcake

By Texaschef11

Ingredients

• For the banana pies you’ll need:
• 1 box of Cook and Serve banana pudding mix
• 3 c. whole milk
• your favorite pie crust recipe
• For the cupcakes you’ll need:
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 2 t. vanilla extract
• 1/4 t. salt
• 2 1/2 c. flour
• 1 1/3 c. whole milk
• For the buttercream you’ll need:
• 1 c. of cooled banana pudding
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 c. powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 c. Nilla Wafer crumbs
• banana chips (optional)
• 1/2 c. butterscotch chips, melted with 2 T. heavy cream (optional)

Preparation

Step 1

First, make your pudding. Prepare is according to the box’s directions and then allow to cool in the fridge while you prepare the pie shells.

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees (F).

Roll out your pie dough and cut 20-24 circles with a small juice glass or cookie cutter. The circles need to be large enough to fit into a mini cupcake tin, lining the bottom and sides of the tin all the way to the top. Press each circle into the mini cupcake tin, poke some holes into the bottom of the crust (it’ll puff up a little, but you want to keep that at a minimum so it can hold a bunch of pudding later), then bake for about 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Allow to cool while you make the cupcakes (these could even be made a day or two ahead of time, if you’d like).

To make the cupcakes, start by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees (F).

Mix the butter and sugar together at medium speed for about two minutes, until well-combined and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until creamy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything is getting all mixed up. Add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla, and mix until the batter is smooth. Finally, alternate between the flour and milk, beating on med-high speed until the batter is light and creamy (and lumpless!).

Put a spoonful of banana pudding into the cooled pie crusts. Then put a heaping tablespoon of cake batter into paper-lined cupcake tins. Put one little pudding pie in each cupcake tin, pressing it gently into the batter, then top it off with another heaping tablespoon of batter so the cups are about 3/4 of the way full (or a little more, that’s okay too). The pies should be completely covered.

Bake for about 24 minutes, until the cake has set and turned golden brown (it’ll spring back up if you gently press your finger into the top of the cupcakes).

Allow to cool completely before frosting.

TO make the buttercream, begin by whipping the butter until smooth. Then add in the pudding, whipping for about a minute at med-high speed until well-combined and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until the frosting is thick and can form peaks (if it’s too runny, add a little more sugar; if it’s too thick, pour in a couple tablespoons of milk).

Frost the cupcakes, and then sprinkle with a generous heap of Nilla wafer crumbs (you could even just press the cupcakes into the bowl of crumbs, that’s what I did. It makes for a nice dome effect). Drizzle with some melted butterscotch chips, and top with a banana chip.