Banana Walnut Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
These little cakes are lightly sweet, full of banana flavor and loaded with the crunch of toasted walnuts. Though they’re quite delicious on their own, add a dollop of luscious chocolate cream cheese frosting and heaven is at hand.
Equipment
- Electric mixer
- Muffin tins, with liners, 24 total cups
- wire rack for cooling
Ingredients
- For the banana walnut cupcakes:
- ¾ cup butter, at room temperature
- 1-½ cups sugar
- 3 extra-large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1-½ cups mashed ripe bananas, about 4 bananas
- 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
- For the chocolate cream cheese frosting:
- 1 package cream cheese, 8-ounces, room temperature
- ¼ cup butter, room temperature
- 3-½ cups powdered sugar, measured after sifting
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ cup toasted chopped walnuts
Instructions
- For the banana walnut cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven(s) to 350-degrees.
- Cream the butter on medium speed of your mixer until it light and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and continue beating on medium until it’s blended into the butter and the mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time blending into the butter and sugar on medium speed. Blend the batter well after adding each egg, about 20 seconds, before adding the next egg. Pour in the vanilla extract, mixing into the batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and kosher salt. Reserve about 1 tablespoon to toss with the walnuts.
- Using low speed, add about ⅓ of the remaining flour mixture to the batter alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat just until the flour disappears to prevent over beating the cupcake batter.
- Toss the walnuts with the remaining flour then blend the bananas and the walnuts into the batter, using low speed, about 20 seconds.
- Scoop the batter into muffin tins lined with paper cupcake liners, filling them about ⅔ full. A large ice cream scoop works well for this.
- Bake the cupcakes in a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes or until the cupcakes are a light golden in color and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Then remove them from the pan and finish cooling completely on the wire rack before frosting. While the cupcakes cool make the frosting.
- For the chocolate cream cheese frosting:
- Place the cream cheese and the butter into a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until blended together and very creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar, about 1 cup at a time starting on low speed, then blend into the cream cheese and butter on medium speed.
- Pour in the vanilla, scraping down the bowl if needed.
- Using low speed, stir in the cocoa powder and the ground cinnamon.
- Toss in the toasted walnuts and blend into the frosting using medium speed.
- Spread a dollop of the cream cheese frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes. Store the cupcakes in a sealed container.