Linda’s Plantain Cinnamon Fudge Cake & Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

For Linda, her need to be creative during the day is satisfied at her job working as an Art Director for two different magazines. Evenings and weekends are reserved for creating cakes and cupcakes in order to fulfill her desire to create. Her inventive confections have been featured on Cupcakes Take the Cake and have even made it overseas to be featured in the German magazine Magie des Zuckers.  The cake that caught the eye of the folks at the German magazine…Linda’s Rib-Eye Steak Cake she made for her husband’s birthday.  Linda enjoys participating in Toronto’s Iron Cupcake Competition and this past April her Alice cupcake won the People’s Choice Award.  This confectionery artist left no stone un-turned when she created this wonderful display scene for her sweet creation based on Alice In Wonderland.  Clients trust this talented baker to create the perfect cake or cupcakes for their wedding day, corporate event, birthday celebration or something delicious just to satisfy that unending sweet tooth craving.  I’m delighted that Linda is here today, sharing her story and recipe with us.

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I’m so proud to be participating with Frosting for the Cause. I think it is a wonderful thing we are doing, sharing our stories and recipes with each other. I have multiple people in my thoughts and prayers who have been affected by cancer. The closest person to my heart is my Nonna (Italian for grandmother!) who passed away from colon cancer. I was about 4 years old when it happened, leaving my 25-year-old mom with 2 young kids and without a mother. Sometimes I wonder what it actually means not to have a mom, who do you go to for advice? For comfort? Who calls you just to make sure you’re alive and well (sometimes three times a day)? I can’t imagine. I would like to have a stronger role in my mother’s life just to be there when she needs something her mother would provide; but how can anyone really fill that role, let alone her own daughter? You will always need your mother no matter what age you are. I know Nonna is there in spirit and I know she helps my mom. It’s unfortunate that my memories of her are so vague since I was very young, for that I feel like I missed out on some wonderful experiences. I hear of how great she was, how she loved to cook, and was such an amazing loving woman.

I have two relatives who have been battling breast cancer; both named Maria, a mother and daughter. I dedicate my post to them as well. We love them very much and pray often to give them strength to fight this. Lastly, is someone the world has lost recently, again too soon. It was my friend’s aunt, a lovely lady named Virginia. She was diagnosed and within a few months cancer had taken her away. She was like a mother to my friend, someone you can also never replace.

In light of all the sadness, I believe that all of our fundraising efforts are paying off and that one day we don’t have to lose anyone before their time. Until that day never take advantage of anyone you love and remind them how much you love them.

Any time I have the opportunity to, I try to fund raise. I donated money in my Nonna’s honor at my bridal shower instead of favors, I ran a birthday fundraiser to replace gifts for my birthday this year, and I found Frosting for a Cause where I can once again participate to make a difference. My website has a link to a great charity, Rethink Breast Cancer, who I am donating money to for this post.

October is breast cancer awareness month so I decorated my cupcakes with a heart and pink ribbon.

I wanted to bake something different for this post, so I am making plantain cinnamon fudge cake with cream cheese frosting, as both a cupcake and loaf cake. Plantains are one of those items you notice at the grocery store and think ‘is that banana really over ripe’ and ‘why are they still selling these’? THAT’s a plantain. I wanted to make this recipe because plantains are not really popular in North America and I don’t think anyone knows what to really do with them. I wrote a post recently on how to incorporate plantain in a cake, and have now developed a great recipe to share. Many thanks to this site for the inspiration to do this.

Plantain Cinnamon Fudge Cake

1 ½ cup flour

½ cup dutch processed cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup milk

2 eggs, room temperature

1 ¼ cup sugar

3 plantains, mashed *NOTE: the photo above shows fresher plantains, you want to wait until they turned brown-black in colour, when they are ripe*

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Add salt and cinnamon and set aside.
3. In the bowl of your mixer combine vanilla, oil, milk and eggs, mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Add plantains and sugar. Add flour mixture in small batches and mix until well combined.

For cupcakes: fill cupcake liners just over half way. Bake for 20 minutes.

For loaf cake: Prepare the pan by greasing it with butter or shortening and dust with flour. Pour in batter and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes/loaf completely before decorating with frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

250g cream cheese (1 brick)

¼ cup butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

500g icing sugar

1. In the bowl of your mixer combine the cream cheese and butter. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla.
2. Sift the icing sugar and add to the cream cheese mixture in small batches. Mix until well combined.

Grab milk and dig in…