The Story:
I love working with cake mixes if you can’t tell. But I figure it’s a great thing because it takes MUCH less time and its more difficult to mess up when you’re experimenting.
Chocolate Banana Cakes:
1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Ganache:
½ cup butter
5 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
6 tablespoon buttermilk (I use 5 ½ tablespoons milk and ½ tablespoon lemon juice)
3 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Buttercream:
1 package 8 oz cream cheese, softened6 tablespoons butter, softened
1-2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and fill muffins tins with cupcakes liners.
2. Whisk together oil, eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, mash bananas thoroughly so that you don’t end up with chunks of banana in your cupcakes.
4. Sift cake mix into oil/egg mixture (or don’t sift if you don’t mind taking more time to stir). Fold in bananas.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Be careful not to over bake, they bake faster than normal cupcakes and they look like they aren’t done from the oven window, but check them or perish!
6. Prepare ganache while cupcakes are in the oven.
7. Ganche: Sift powdered sugar into a bowl. In a separate bowl, melt butter and add buttermilk and chocolate. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Pour over powdered sugar and whisk until smooth, add vanilla.
8. When your cupcakes are out of the oven, place them on a cooling rack. Once you can pick them up without burning yourself, dip the tops into the ganache. (If the ganache is too cool to dip, just microwave for a few seconds.) If your cupcakes or your is too hot, the ganache will run over the edge of the cupcake, so just wait a minute and try again.
9. Buttercream: Beat cream cheese and butter for 5 minutes. Add as much powdered suagar as you like, add vanilla and pipe onto cooled cupcakes.
*You can sprinkle a little cinnamon on top for decoration. If you have extra ganache, keep it in the fridge and reheat it for another day to top browies or even a bowl of ice cream.
I love working with "box cake" as well! What a great idea adding the banana! They turned out so B-E-A-utiful!
They're gorgeous and I love just about anything with a banana baked in – I will have to save this one!
Didn't have a chocolate cake mix, so used a Golden Yellow and added about 3/4 cup cup mini chocolate chips…then sprinkled a few more chips on the cream cheese buttercream as a decoration. YUM!
Hey sorry to point this out but, ganache is cream and chocolate. This is a glaze. Besides that, these cupcakes look amazing, and I look forward to trying the recipe.
first, I love your site! everything looks scrumptious and beautiful!! thanks for posting such wonderful looking goodies and I am looking forward to your book coming out next year 🙂
I am planning on making cupcakes for my son’s first birthday and would love to top them as you’ve done here with the glaze/ganache and your cream cheese buttercream, but would like to do it a few days before the party. will they keep ok in the refrigerator, ganached and frosted, for up to 3 days? also how many cupcakes does this ganache&frost?
It makes about 20-24 cupcakes. You can refrigerate it all, but obviously it won’t be as good fresh. Make sure to put them in tupperware. A lot of people also prefer to freeze them, so pick your poison. Also, I have currently played with this recipe, add 1/2 oil (instead of the 1/3 cup) and additionally add 1/2 cup sour cream. Good luck and happy birthday to your son!
thanks for your advice and the changes you made to the recipe.
the party is this Saturday in the morning. after reading your response, I decided not to make them so far in advance and plan on making them tomorrow- then store them in containers in the fridge over night. hopefully they’ll be as good the next day. what am I saying?! I am sure they will be… looking at the picture, I feel like I gain 2 pounds every time! thanks again!
Help! I’m making these right now and the batter is suuuuper thick! Did I do anything wrong? Also, I just realized this recipe calls for no water…is that correct???
This is an old recipe of mine, I would add 1/2 cup of milk to the batter!
Eeeek! LOL I already added 1cup water and another 1/4 cup oil to make it as directed on the box. 12 cakes in the oven already. If they come out horrible….I will try the milk. Is there any reason there is no water or was that just left out?
Some of the liquid comes from the mashed banana. I never use water for liquid, only milk because it adds more flavor. Cake mix is very forgiving, your cakes should be fine
First 12 out of the oven and they are AMAZING! The extra 1/4 cup oil and 1 cup water was perfect! Thanks for your quick response…I was in flip out mode! 🙂
What’s weird is I came back to your site because I’ve made these before and they were fine as per your recipe! I don’t know what the deal is with this batch but I’m flipping out cause I’m making these for a 1st bday party for a friend!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE these cupcakes!! They are my go to cupcake if I ever need to bring a dessert anywhere. And by the way, my mom is Susan Ekman, that’s how I found your site. You are amazing and I love to make your cupcakes. Keep it up and I can’t wait for your book!
High quality well made. Leather is nice
Hi Lizzy,
I’m looking at your comment from june 22nd, 2012. So your most recent recipe is:
Chocolate Banana cupcakes:
1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Is this correct?
Thanks so much!
That looks great!
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