Vegan Banoffee Pie Cupcakes!

Ingredients base:
1 packet budget malt biscuits
1 cup melted dark choc chips
1 cup melted vegan margarine (possibly more just add a little as you go)

So first you need to crush the malt biscuits really well so they resemble a fine powder at the end, you can do this using a rolling pin and a large bowl or pot. If you have a good food processor use that. Once the biscuits are fully and finely crushed melt the dark choc chips and marg together, then pour into the biscuit mixture. Mix it all up and if it’s still too crumbly add a little more margarine/choc mix until the biscuits are sticking together and they can be pressed into cup cake tins. Once you’ve got the mixture sticking then press into cupcake papers inside tins, or if you just want to make a pie then press into a large pie dish.

Ingredients vegan caramel:
1 ½ cups soft brown sugar
1 Tbsp water (or enough to dissolve the brown sugar
1 cup coconut cream
1 Tbsp arrowroot powder
1 Tbsp cornflour

First you need to pour the sugar into a pot and add 1 Tbsp of water, it will start to dissolve immediately put it onto a very low heat (the lowest) and let the sugar dissolve fully, adding 1 tsp of water at a time if you need to. Once the sugar and water mixture is full dissolved add the coconut cream and heat till it it dissolves into the sugar mixture turning a lovely light brown colour. The mixture will be quite runny, so this is where you add arrowroot and cornflour – turn the heat up to boil the mixture and it should start to thicken, you need to stir it constantly using a whisk to get rid of any lumps and once it starts to thicken turn the heat down. After 5 mins or so if the caramel isn’t thickening add more arrowroot and cornflour a tsp at a time and make sure the heat is high. Once you are happy with the thickness of the caramel (you can use this mixture for a caramel sauce on any desert so you may want it thinner or thicker – you can achieve this with more or less arrowroot/cornflour) then remove it from the heat and let it cool completely, perhaps overnight in the fridge.

Ingredients Choc Ganache:
1/3 block whittakers 72% dark chocolate
2 tsp margarine
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

To make the ganach all you need to do is melt the marg and whittakers dark choc in a double boiler on a low heat, add the water, stir in the icing sugar slowly while mixing until it reaches a smooth, buttery consistency. You can either use a plastic bag and cut a hole, or an old school icing decorating tube with the rosette nozzle on the end and decorate!
Assembling:

So your biscuit base should be in the cup cake papers, so now you need to use a spoon to spoon the caramel mixture into the biscuit cases – don’t overfill as you will also need to spoon mashed banana on top of the caramel. Once you’ve filled all the biscuit bases with caramel take 3 bananas, mash them up or you can slice them if you want too and then add this to each of the bases on top of the caramel. Then use a piping bag or spoon depending how fancy you want the ganache topping to look and decorate with chocolate! I used an icing decorating tube as I’m a bit unco and it’s easier for me than the bag. So decorate with chocolate topping and allow it to set then serve or refrigerate and serve later!

FYI I did make this recipe up myself, so sorry if it seems a little vague in some parts, it’s better to be cautious and add a little of one ingredient first than too much because as they saying goes, you can always add more but it’s harder to take it away! Also if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I hope you can all replicate this!