Fruit Flower Cupcakes

The fruit ganaches can be made ahead of time and left in the fridge or freezer until needed. Just let them come to room temp before piping. Here’s the recipes for my banana, green apple and strawberry ganaches.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare a cupcake pan with liners and a light spray of oil.
Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder until thoroughly combined and set aside.
Crack eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat the eggs on medium speed for 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly stream the sugar in.
When the sugar is completely in, turn the speed to high and beat for about 7 minutes. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan and gently heat until completely melted. Do not let it overheat or simmer. Set aside but do not let it cool off too much (do not do this ahead of time).
Add the flour mixture in three parts to the egg mixture just mixing until almost combined. If you still see flour, finish mixing by hand by folding the batter with a rubber spatula.
Add vanilla and oil to the milk-butter mixture and whisk to combine.
Remove two large spoonfuls of batter and add it to the milk-butter mixture and whisk to completely combine. This tempers your milk mixture so that it does not cook your egg mixture.
Pour the milk mixture into the rest of the egg mixture with the beaters running on low. Continue beating just 10-15 seconds more until combined.
Bake for 12-14 minutes.

Beat room temperature butter on high with a paddle attachment (or hand beaters) for 3-4 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
Add the mascarpone, heavy cream, vanilla and salt. Beat until thoroughly combined.
Sift in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating between additions.
Transfer to a piping bag with a large round tip.

Punch out the centers of the cooled cupcakes with the back of a large piping tip or a small round cutter, reserving the punched out cake pieces.
Pipe ganache into centers and return the punched out cake piece. If you want flat tops like mine, pipe a large dollop of buttercream, then invert the iced cupcake onto a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper.
Repeat until you have a full pan of upside down cupcakes. Place the tray in the freezer for 5 minutes. Remove from the freezer and peel away the cupcakes from the parchment paper. You should be left with a flat iced cupcake.
Pipe flowers with remaining ganache and buttercream, if desired.