Boss breezed into the break room last Friday to grab a cup of freshly brewed coffee. But before he could take a gulp, he interrupted himself to complain about the sweet stench wafting around the coffee maker.
“Those bananas have got to go,” he said before striding back to his office. Confused, a coworker and I peer around until we located the fruit on top of the fridge. (We’re short, the fridge is tall, what can I say?) Brown with occasional small yellow spots, I could barely touch those bananas without squeezing their gooey insides out.
No one claimed the fruit by the time I left, so I stole the four bananas and wrapped them in two grocery bags to prevent any explosions in my purse. After a relaxing evening of baking, I snuck back into work the next morning to replace the rotting fruit with a delicious batch of moist banana cupcakes.
Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
makes 12 cupcakes
These are quite dense, so the chocolate frosting on top reminds me of chocolate-covered bananas. But they taste just as good without the frosting—and then you can call them muffins and not feel guilty eating a few for breakfast!
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1⅓ c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 12 muffin cups with cupcake liners, and set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Mix in the vanilla until well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.
- Add 1/3 of mashed bananas to butter mixture, and stir well to combine. Mix in 1/3 of flour mixture, and continue alternating with bananas and flour. Stir last flour addition until just incorporated.
- Evenly distribute batter between the prepared muffin cups, and bake for 25-28 minutes, or until the cupcakes begin to turn golden on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Top with chocolate frosting just before serving.
Cynthia says...
I would like to attest to the fact that these are some of the most delicious and moist cupcakes known to mankind. I am surprised that more people don’t make banana cupcakes…given that 75% of the population probably has bananas rotting as I write this…
Thanks for the recipe. Have you tried other fruits?
foods for the soul says...
Thank you!! I think people tend to get stuck in the banana bread rut when they have rotting bananas. But there are so many more ways to bake with them other than the typical quick bread!
I haven’t tried any other fruits yet for cupcakes, but I have a few ideas I’d like to try out soon…
raizy says...
hi! do you know how many calories each cupcake is? they look soooooooooo good! thanks so much!
Amy says...
Thanks Raizy! I haven’t calculated the nutrition info for these cupcakes, but this is the calculator I use. It’s really easy and straightforward. If you try them, I really hope you enjoy them!
Jen says...
Hi Amy, I love this cupcake recipe (as does my whole family!). Can this be made into a cake? If so do you know approximately how long it would need to bake for ie if using a 9″ round pan?
Thank you!
Amy says...
I’m so glad you and your family are enjoying the recipe Jen! That means a lot to me. 🙂 Yes, you should be able to turn it into a cake! I haven’t done that myself so I can’t guarantee how long it’ll take to bake, but I’d recommend to start checking on it around 20 minutes and using the same toothpick test to determine when it’s done. I’d love to hear how that turns out for you!
Anastasia says...
Hello, Amy!
Could you tell me the size of the cupcake liners you used?
Also, if I don’t have any muffin cups, can I just use the liners to bake the cupcakes in?
Thanks a lot!
Amy says...
I used a standard-sized muffin tin and paper cupcake liners! I don’t recommend using just the liners to bake these cupcakes in because the batter will spread outward as it bakes, rather than straight up. The liners aren’t sturdy enough to hold the batter in place like a muffin tin is! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these Anastasia!