Banana Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting Recipe

Bored with Banana Bread? Make some Banana Cupcakes instead!

photos: krista we heart this

So, you’re trying to come up with ways to use up those nasty, blackened bananas in your fruit bowl and I know you – you’re probably thinking “Banana Bread”. Right? WRONG.

You’re thinking “Banana Cupcakes“. Thanks to this slightly adapted recipe, courtesy of The Food Network, you never have to settle for boring banana bread again!

Ingredients (Makes 12 cupcakes)

Cupcakes
• 1 c. flour
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 dashes of cinnamon
• 1 stick of butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup light sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 or 3 overly ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (2 if large, 3 if small)

Whipped Vanilla Frosting
(my go-to frosting for pretty much everything)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; whisk together.

3. In a larger bowl, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in sour cream, vanilla, and eggs on low, until combined.

4. Add the flour mixture and slowly beat (on low) until fully combined (less than a minute – do not over mix). Gently fold in the mashed bananas.

5. Bake for 20 – 23 minutes (until slightly golden). Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Whipped Vanilla Frosting

1. In a small pot, heat cornstarch and milk mixture on medium low heat, stirring constantly, until it forms a gel (several minutes). Remove from heat and let cool completely.

2. In a large bowl, beat granulated sugar and butter together on low to medium speed for about 3-5 minutes.

3. Add cooled cornstarch mixture and blend until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla. Beat on low for several minutes, until mixture has thickened and you cannot discern any graininess from the sugar. The frosting will have a whipped texture.

Tip: You can frost the cupcakes by hand or pipe the frosting using a bag. I use a large frosting tip to pipe my frosting on, but you can get nice results by taking a huge freezer bag, filling it with the frosting, and then cutting one of the tips off the bottom and piping it onto the cupcake that way. The key is to work from the outside into the center of the cupcakes.

You can eat these immediately, but I find that with all baked goods, these are even better if you let them rest for a few hours first. Enjoy!

Readers – What’s your favorite cupcake flavor? And what are your kitchen tricks for old bananas?

Krista resides in the middle of nowhere with her bff/hubby, an obscenely big-eared dog, and a puppy that makes feral capuchins seem mellow. She has an irrational fear of ax murder, owns more than one machete for home defense/the zombie apocalypse, and goes to sleep serenaded by the sounds of the Chupagobbler, a mythical turkey beast that roams the woods around her house. She also has an obsessive love of Tom Selleck’s moustache that is, quite frankly, alarming.

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