Banana cupcakes with chocolate sour cream ganache

Banana cucpakes with Chocolate Sour Cream Ganache. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 Just a recipe today, a cupcake that I make from time to time to put in my daughter's lunchboxes. The banana cake on its own is very good, moist and fruity. But add the dark chocolate and it becomes a real treat. Bananas and dark chocolate kind of cry out for each other - the sometimes overwhelming sweetness of the fruit needs the tempering effect of dark chocolate. Don't let the word ganache scare you - it's just a fancy French way of saying unbelievably easy and delicious frosting. Once you make this frosting, you'll never be tempted by the canned stuff ever again.

Banana Cupcakes

2 large ripe bananas, mashed, yielding 1 cup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs, at room temperature
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (1 stick + 2 tablespoons)
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt  

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare muffin tins with nonstick spray and/or cupcake liners. In a bowl, stir together bananas, sour cream and vanilla. 

2. In a mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until creamy and light-colored. Add eggs and mix for one minute. Scrape down sides of bowl, then mix for one additional minute.

3. In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add one third of dry ingredients to batter, mixing until combined, then add half of the banana sour cream mixture, mixing and scraping again. Add half the remaining dry ingredients, mix and scrape. Add remaining banana sour cream, mix and scrape, and finish with the last of the dry ingredients. 

4. Divide mixture among muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Begin checking at 25 minutes. Cupcakes are done when the centers bounce back when pressed with the tips of your fingers. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. When cool, frost with sour cream ganache.       

Chocolate Sour Cream Ganache

4 (3 oz) bars semi-sweet chocolate, broken up
1 2/3 cups sour cream, low-fat is fine

1. Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and zap at 50 percent power for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat for 30 second intervals until completely melted. When thoroughly melted, gradually whisk in sour cream. Frost cupcakes and store leftovers in fridge.


Text and images copyright 2012, Lucy Mercer.

The Elvis, #SeriousSandwich

The Elvis: peanut butter, banana & honey on multigrain. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books.

The year was 1961 and, as my mama tells the story, she touched Elvis. Yes, that would be the real Elvis. Not only the real Elvis, but the young, hip-ripping, teen idol Elvis. As she tells the story, she was a young woman in her early 20's, working in a bank in downtown Nashville, when Elvis Presley, fresh from his stint in the Army, was honored by the Tennessee Legislature.

Mama and "the girls" from the bank went down to the Capitol at lunchtime in hopes of catching a glimpse of The King. She was in the crowd as it surged forward around him, and she swears she touched Elvis. Her hand touched his hand. She's sure of it.

And what does this story have to do with sandwiches, you ask? Well, I like to tell my Mom's Elvis story, but I also wanted to deepen the connection between the King of Rock and Roll and the Baron of Bam. That's right, as I'm cooking my way through Emeril Lagasse's new cookbook (on sale now!), "Emeril's Kicked-Up Sandwiches," I found a recipe for Emeril's version of The Elvis. The classic Elvis sandwich is a peanut butter and banana sandwich that's fried in butter. The recipe, in many variations (some variations add crispy bacon) appears in many books. Nigella Lawson writes about it in "Nigella Bites," in the chapter (ironically, I hope) titled "Trashy." I don't think the Elvis is trashy. I think it's the kind of food that mamas, maybe in particular Southern mamas, will make their baby boys. (And I think we can all agree that the King was a classic Mama's Boy.)

Back to sandwiches: Emeril does the Elvis right, swapping out the white bread for some blood-sugar-diffusing multi-grain and adding a drizzle of honey to the pb and banana. If you're a choosy Mom, go with a pb that's noticeably salty for that sweet-salty vibe that's so 2011.

The recipe is officially titled the Peanut Butter-Honey-Banana and it's grilled to ooey-gooey drippiness. My peanut butter-loving daughter and husband inhaled them.

Here's my mom about the time she met Elvis, in her favorite car, and no, her daddy gave it to her, not Elvis.

Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This post is part of #SeriousSandwich, a blogalong sponsored by Morrow Books marking the publication of

Emeril’s Kicked-Up Sandwiches (Morrow, $24.99)

Stay tuned for more #SeriousSandwich stories...

If you love cookbooks like I do, you gotta follow The Secret Ingredient Blog from Morrow Books.

Easy ice cream, vegan and gluten-free

Banana soft-serve ice cream. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Looking for a simple frozen dessert recipe? One that will please vegans, the gluten-free crowd, the lactose intolerant, diabetics and kids big or small? Try this one-ingredient frozen dessert that doesn’t even require an ice cream maker – banana soft serve.


It’s a tasty and frugal dessert that can be whipped up in just a few hours. Purchase over-ripe bananas from a local Atlanta supermarket, peel and slice them, freeze for a couple of hours and blitz in the food processor for a minute or two, until it’s fluffy and smooth. The soft serve dessert may be eaten right away or frozen for a scoopable texture.

Sliced bananas, ready for the freezer. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

In its purest state, this is an easy dessert to please guests with dietary challenges, but it’s also a blank canvas for culinary upgrades. A bit of honey (not vegan, though)  or agave nectar and lemon can perk up the flavors, and mix-ins such as chocolate chips dress up the dessert.

Super-ripe bananas. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Banana Soft Serve “Ice Cream”

Serves 4 to 6

6 medium ripe bananas

Optional: Juice of ½ lemon, 2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

Mix-ins such as chocolate chips, chopped peanuts or almonds, fresh berries.

1. Peel bananas and slice into 1-inch chunks. Place in a zipper lock bag and freeze for at least two hours.

2. Remove bag from freezer and place banana chunks into bowl of food processor. Add lemon and honey or agave nectar, if using.

3. Process for one minute, then check consistency of frozen banana puree. If mixture still has chunks, continue processing in 10 second intervals until it reaches the desired texture.

4. Serve immediately, with mix-ins. The banana soft serve may be stored in airtight container in the freezer.

If you have extra uber-ripe bananas, make my favorite banana bread or create an elegant and easy ice cream topping.




Best banana bread - ever! Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



My favorite banana bread

Banana Bread by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Banana bread is a humble but reliable creation, and because it uses dead-ripe bananas, it's the frugal baker's best friend. There are hundreds of variations of this basic quick bread, probably the first baking project most young cooks will try at home. I'm not the most accomplished baker, but after 30 years in the kitchen, I still make banana bread. Primarily due to the fact that we always buy bananas at the store, and frequently they get too ripe for our tender palates. I have a drawer in the bottom of my freezer where I stash the overripe fruit. Every now and then, especially when I have buttermilk on hand, I will make this easy banana bread and enjoy it warm from the oven, crumbly and tender, with a cup of tea. And maybe a shmear of softened cream cheese.


This recipe is from a cookbook from Pleasant Hill, the Shaker community in Kentucky. Appropriately, it's a simple bread, not gussied up with spices or nuts or chocolate, although it could be a blank canvas for experimentation. I usually double it, to use up more bananas and buttermilk. The instruction for adding the leavening is unusual - first add one cup of flour, then stir baking soda and salt into the remaining flour before adding to the batter.

Best Ever Banana Bread

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 bananas, mashed, to equal 1 cup

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar in bowl with electric mixer. Beat in eggs and bananas. Add one cup of the flour and half of the buttermilk alternately. Add salt and soda to remaining flour. Stir in second flour mixture and end with remaining buttermilk. Turn into well-greased 9 X 5 loaf pan. Bake at 325 for one hour (per cookbook, mine take up to 1 hour and 15 minutes to bake).