heat oven to 400°F and line a 12 cup cupcake tin with liners

cut the bananas (still in their skins) in half lengthwise and place on baking sheet, skin side down

sprinkle the tops of the bananas with sugar, salt, and cinnamon and top with thin pats of butter

bake bananas 15 minutes or until the skins turn black then set aside until cool enough to handle. once cooled, scoop the bananas out of their peels into a small bowl and mash them with the back of a fork along with a splash of the buttermilk until they’re very smooth. set aside.

reduce oven temperature to 350°F

While the bananas bake, make your batter. First, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs until they’re pale and frothy, and then whisk the sugars into the egg mixture until there are no clumps and they’re completely combined. Next, whisk in the canola oil and vanilla until they’re completely combined. finally stir the banana puree into the egg mixture until evenly combined.

with a rubber spatula fold in half the flour mixture until mostly combined then stir in half of the buttermilk, repeating with the remaining flour and buttermilk until just combined (be careful not to over mix as this will result in a tough cake! when you see no dry bits or puddles of buttermilk, you’re good to go)

divide the batter evenly between the 12 lined cups, and bake the cupcakes for 7 minutes. remove them from the oven and, working quickly, add one truffle directly into the center of each cupcake, pressing down very lightly until mostly submerged in the batter but not completely.

place the cupcakes back in the oven and continue cooking for and additional 10-12 minutes or until they’re golden, puffed, and a cake tester or toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While the cakes are baking, make your frosting. In a small sauce pan combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water and heat over medium high until the sugar is dissolved and it registers 240°F on a candy thermometer. Stir occasionally in the beginning to promote the dissolving of the sugar and prevent burning.

While the syrup comes to temp, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until frothy and forming soft peaks.

With the mixer on low pour the hot sugar syrup down the side of the bowl (very carefully…you don’t want to get spattered with this stuff!) into your whipped egg whites, and then increase the speed to high. Beat for about 7 minutes (hence “7 minute frosting”!) or until the bowl of the mixer is cool to the touch. I add the vanilla about midway through at the 3 1/2 minute mark.

Frost your cupcakes once cool (if you try to put it on hot, the frosting might get a little melty, but we had no problem with slightly warm cupcakes). You can either use an icing bag, dollop it on with a spoon, or do what we did and cut the tip off of a ziplock bag and messily pipe it on since my icing bags are in storage somewhere!

Store covered at room temperature.