The Story:
One of my very first posts was this recipe for simple banana cupcakes. But I ended up taking in down a few months ago because the photos were just SO horrendous. But then I start getting nervous emails from people because they couldn’t find the recipe anymore! So here is the recipe, but with photos to redeem myself 🙂
And if bananas is your thing, be sure to check out the Starbucks banana bread recipe which is also delicious.
Easy Banana Cupcakes
Servings 24 Cupcakes
Ingredients
Banana Cake:
- 1 box Yellow Cake Mix
- 1/2 cup flour
- 3 ripe bananas medium-small sized
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup oil
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
Chocolate Ganache:
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
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2. In a small bowl, sift cake mix and flour together.
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3. In another small bowl, finely mash bananas with baking soda and lemon juice.
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4. In a large bowl, gently whisk eggs, oil, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla extract.
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5. Add mashed bananas to the wet ingredients and stir. Add cake mix/flour and stir again.
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6. Fill liners 3/4 full and bake for 15-18 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
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7. Frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese for 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract and slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. Add milk to thin out frosting if needed.
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8. Ganache: Place chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl. Heat heavy cream on the stove top until bubbles form (not quite a boil). Pour over chocolate chips and whisk until smooth. Add honey and stir again. Let cool for 10 minutes.
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9. Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes and top with chocolate ganache and banana slices.
Use Chocolate Jimmies if you don’t want to make ganache!
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Love love love this!
Sounds amazing! Can’t wait to make them…and blog about it. 🙂
PS- my pictures are always bad! (I’m no photographer.) I find that if the product is good, people will forgive you. 🙂
What are you talking about?????????? NEVER see a horrendous picture on your web….NEVER. I think you are getting too hard on yourself. WE LOVE YOUR PICS, YOUR IDEAS AND YOUR RECIPES!!!!!
I love banana cake. My mom used to make it when I was growing up. I haven’t had it in years. These cupcakes look sooo good! I’m pinning them for sure.
These are gorgeous! They look soft and billowy. Beautiful presentation! Xxx
Hi Lizzi, do you have any secret to keep the bananas from turning brown?
I just don’t slice my bananas until just before I serve them. Lemon juice keeps apples from turning brown, so maybe that would work for bananas as well, good luck!
definitely should try this out….
The banana on top looks really perfect. Bananas and chocolate really go well together…
Hi Lizzy,
Your cupcakes are always so beautiful!!!! I have a question…. Do you grease or spray Pam on your liners before filling them with batter? Sometimes my cupcakes stick to the liners if I don’t spray them first.
Thanks and looking forward to more tutorials and cupcakes!!!!
So I tried these cuz they look amazing but mine didn’t rise ..well they did but dropped as soon as they left the oven… I’m thinking it could have been the cake mix I used but it was really msed up
OMGoodness!!! I made these last night and they are DELICIOUS!!! This is the first of many recipes I plan to try from your site. I have not iced the cupcakes just yet as I will do that this evening. But the cupcake alone was full of banana flavor which I loved. And it was on the lighter, fluffy side which was an added bonus. I think I will use your chocolate buttercream/cream cheese flavor combo for these and top with a fresh banana slice. YUMMY!!! Thanks Lizzy!
JUST MADE THESE WITH PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING!! SOOOOO GOOOOOD!
Sorry for the caps but it is that serious!!
Thank You for this recipe! 🙂 And to whoever shared the pin on pinterest! (where I found this)
Lizzy…love you recipes…made this for my daughters grad party…huge hit. I substituted dried banana chips for fresh so they would hold up longer. Question, how do you recommend storing cupcakes to keep them fresh? Do they need to be refrigerated? Freezing tips?
You can bake the cupcakes the day before anthem then frost them the day of. No refrigeration needed. If you have to freeze them, do it with the cakes only, no buttercream.
I want to try these but I don’t have a full box of yellow cake mix. I used it to make your cake batter rice crispy treats (amazing!) Do you think the box minus 1/3 cup will work with the rest of the ingredients?
Just lessen the rest of the ingredients by a little bit and you should be fine. Cake mixes are very forgiving 🙂
Me again! Would you say the mashed banana is equal to about 1 cup?
Yes, it equals 1 cup!
Thanks! I’ve got them baking right now! The batter tastes so good, I can’t wait to try them when they come out of the oven!
Made these today, really good! 😀 Love all your recipes! Learning a lot about cupcakes, and frosting them. Happy to put my kitchen aid, and cupcake tips to use.
These cupcakes look lovely. I’m wondering however, do they have a cake texture or are they more like a muffin? I’ve been searching the web looking for a banana cupcake recipe and every result I’ve found has had numerous reviews stating those recipes are like a banana muffins with icing on top. I want to make light and fluffy cupcakes!
These are definitely cupcakes and not muffins, you’ll like the texture
I just made these cupcakes. Since I’m not serving them until tomorrow, I haven’t made up the frosting yet. But of course, I had to taste the cupcakes! I tasted them, and they’re delicious! I decided to indulge in a second…and I wanted to get creative! I added a dollop of nutella on top, and OH MY GOODNESS! The light banana flavor with the chocolate and hazelnut spread on top was TOO GOOD! I might not even make frosting since they’re so good like that! Or maybe cutting out a little piece in the center, add a small dollop in the center, and then proceed to frost.
Hi,
I posted your cupcake on my blog with a link back to your lovely blog. I hope you don’t mind and maybe would like to become a new and happy follower:-)
Cheers!
I was recommended this web site by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my trouble. You’re amazing! Thanks!
Lizzy, the house smells amazing!! I love your blog and your recipes and pictures are terrific. I have leftover Nutella ganache from my almond joy cupcakes (which got rave reviews ….thanks to your recipe) I think it will be perfect between the frosting and the cupcake. Can’t wait to taste them
Keep it up you are by far my favourite blog site
So happy I found this recipe! I’m going to be making “The very hungry caterpillar” cupcakes for my son’s first birthday and he LOVES bananas! I’m going to be coloring the frosting different shades of green and red, any tips on what the best way to do that is?
Is there something you can use in place of buttermilk? I have no idea where to get buttermillk. Help 🙂
You can use milk or whole milk!
Hello Lizzy, I love all your work. Its beautiful and appealing to the eyes. I was wondering which website you go to for your greaseproof liners. I am in need of navy and fuchsia or whatever is close. Thanks so much for sharing your talent.
I use TheBakersKitchen.net and also get them from Sweets and Treats Boutique
Hey lizzy! I’m a little late on this recipe, but I really wanna try it for Mother’s Day since my mom loves banana bread! I wanna do a cupcake bouquet but still wanna incorporate all your ingredients! You think I can use the ganache as a filing instead of drizzling on top? I will be using the frosting as roses… But any tips on how to I can use the banana? I wanna give it that chocolate banana feel! Thanks can’t wait to try it! 🙂
You can do a thicker ganache (1 C. chocolate chips and 1/4 C cream melted together) and fill the cupcake with that of just dip the tops of the cake in it. You could use dried banana slices as petals on some of the cupcakes.
Hey Lizzy Early, I was wondering if you could use chocolate syurp on top of the frosting instead of the chocolate ganche. Also do you have any fourth of july cupcake recipes.
You can use chocolate syrup, though the ice cream syrup will probably be better because it’s thicker. I have my Fruity Fourth Cupcakes, check on the homepage, it was my most recent post!
WOW! I made these last night for a bake sale and they are amazing! Two people tried them and they came back and bought the rest to take home! They are fluffy, moist, flavor is so good. I will make these over and over.
I have a question though. My frosting seemed to be a bit too soft to be able to form peaks or swirls. It worked and the taste was the best I have ever had, but I’m wondering if I got the butter too warm it just wouldn’t set as much as I wanted it too. I didn’t want to add any more powdered sugar because I didn’t want to get it unbearably sweet.
I have three bananas left and might go home and make another batch! I am so thankful that I found this site!
You can refrigerate your frosting for a few minutes… but once it gets back to room temp it will soften up again. Some people add a pinch of salt to keep the frosting from tasting too sweet, you could give that a try
I’m itching to use this recipe to make cupcakes for my class; but I’ve got no sour cream or buttermilk and a low budget. I’ve heard I can use any kind of milk(we only drink almond milk) mixed with a little bit of white vinegar for buttermilk; but I’m iffy about the sour cream. Do I need it for the recipe? Would vanilla or peach (or even banana) yogurt be a decent substitute?
Yogurt is a good substitute and you can go ahead and use regular milk… I just prefer buttermilk for taste and texture.
if i were to subtract the vanilla cake mix altogether, what changes would i need to make?
How long should I bake if it’s mini cupcakes?
There are different mini sizes… some take about 8 minutes while others take 10 or so minutes.
Can i use banana extract instead of vanilla?
Hi! Would these still work/come out okay if I chopped up half of the bananas in small chunks and mashed the rest so to have little banana chunks in the cupcakes?