 Dreary, rainy Monday mornings call for comfort food. And if you grew up in the South, that comfort food might just be banana pudding.  Banana pudding cupcakes are the perfect little pick me up on a Monday - or any day really. The moist banana cake filled with vanilla pasty cream on a vanilla wafer crust and topped with a swirl of cream cheese frosting is a perfect way to enjoy the flavors of this traditional dessert in a whole new way. The homemade pastry cream really takes these cupcakes from ordinary to extraordinary. Don't cheat and open a box of pudding mix - I promise you that it's worth the extra effort to make your own pastry cream.  Banana Pudding Cupcakes For the Banana Cupcakes: 2¾ cups all-purpose flour 1¼ teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt ½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature ¼ cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature 1¾ cups granulated sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 eggs 1½ cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 4 bananas) ½ cup buttermilk For the Vanilla Pastry Cream: 3 cups half-and-half 6 large egg yolks ½ cup granulated sugar 3 tablespoons cornstarch ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract  Reserve 12 vanilla wafers and crush remaining wafers in food processor. Add melted butter and stir to combine.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  Press 1 Tablespoon wafer mixture into 12 paper lined jumbo muffin cups. Bake 5 minutes at 350. Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Add bananas and vanilla.   Scoop batter over wafer crust in jumbo muffin tins. Add dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk.  Bake 24 minutes at 350. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
 To make the pastry cream, bring half and half to a simmer in a small saucepan.  In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt together until the mixture is pale, about 1 minute.  Whisk half of the warm half-and-half into the egg yolk mixture. Pour mixture into the remaining half-and-half in the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla.  Strain the pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Put in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, or until chilled.
Cut a hole in the center of each cupcake.  Fill each hole with chilled pastry cream.   Fill pastry bag with cream cheese frosting.  Pipe frosting on top of each cupcake.  Garnish with reserved wafer crumbs and vanilla wafers.    Now that's the way that this Italian girl from Ohio does banana puddin' y'all. (hahaha) Ciao!
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