These cupcakes taste like a delicious little banana bread. We liked them, until I frosted them. I like buttercream on my cupcakes. Not pastry cream. I don’t like that it’s so perishable, and mine didn’t turn out great anyway – not thick enough. I’d be happier making a vanilla buttercream using the pastry cream. Or filling the cupcakes with the vanilla pastry cream, then adding a buttercream frosting.

• Banana Cupcakes with Vanilla Pastry Cream (Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, p. 70)