‘Brown sugar, how come you taste so good?” Mick Jagger posed this enticing question in the Rolling Stones’ controversial 1971 hit single, but 20 years earlier, Brennan’s executive chef and Dutch immigrant Paul Blange invented an airtight excuse for any praise the darkly sweet confection would ever warrant. To paraphrase the Stones, Brennan’s Bananas Foster would soon be sold in markets down in New Orleans and beyond, its flame-finished, rum-soaked delights considered a uniquely Louisiana dessert delicacy the world over.
Now Cupcake Couture, a locally owned bakery in The Boulevard at the Mall of Louisiana, has taken our decadent ice cream, bananas and rum conflation and turned it into a classically flavored and simply presented on-the-go treat, the Bananas Foster Cupcake ($3). Moist, cinnamon-flecked banana bread makes a refreshing foundation and recalls breakfast, while stacked dollops of buttercream frosting and golden bands of brown sugar drizzle hammer this dessert home. As if there was any doubt about the big flavor in this portable package, a banana chip is wedged like a guitar pick into the side of the icing. Rock ’n’ roll.
