Banana Split Cupcakes

I made these beauties awhile ago to take to a friend's New Year's Day party. Which also happened to be one of the craziest parties I've been to in awhile. People wasted at 3 in the afternoon, a girl walking around with a bottle of whiskey in her overalls calling it her "whiskey baby", an old man with a light-saber inside a traffic cone as a hat, and Elvis double dipping in the black-eyed peas. You can't make this stuff up people.

Oh yeah, and these cupcakes added to the debauchery. They've got a little of everything in them. It's a vegan banana cupcake with pineapple and chocolate swirled inside, topped with a vegan vanilla buttercream, chocolate ganache drizzle, homemade vegan caramel sauce, chopped walnuts, rainbow sprinkles, and of course a cherry on top. YOWZA. I didn't even get to try one of these they went so quickly, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. I could tell because on 3 separate occasions someone said, "Oh, YOU made the cupcakes!", then hugged me. And I don't think that was just the whiskey babies talking.

Did I ever tell you I grew up across the street from an ice cream shop? Nothing fancy, just a little shack next to a gas station that was only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. My favorite treats from there were mint chocolate chip ice cream in a cup, soft-serve vanilla chocolate twist in a cone with rainbow sprinkles, blue-raspberry slushies, strawberry milkshakes, CMP (chocolate, marshmallow, peanut) sundaes, and of course (on special occasions only) their banana splits. Which were always served in a little plastic boat. 3 mounds of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and swirl), with a half a banana on either side of the boat. The vanilla was covered in pineapple preserves, the chocolate was covered in strawberries, and the whole thing was smothered in hot fudge and topped with walnuts, sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry on top. And I always had to share it with my mom. I think I did a pretty awesome job recreating those banana splits in cupcake form. And you don't have to share these with anyone else.

These cupcakes are, of course, from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Honestly, if you like to bake and don't have this book yet, I don't know what's wrong with you. GET ON IT, PEOPLE.

And now I'm also thinking about a banana split layer cake. And what kind of layers it should have. And since everyone seems to have their own opinion on what a banana split should have in it, I'm asking you: What would be in your banana split?