For those still in the academic style de vie, it’s exam season! Or final paper season. Most of my friends are still in school, so I’m sending happy vibes of hope and optimism because exam season always looks bleak and terrifying in the beginning. I know the feeling. I finished one out of my two final papers for the semester, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I’ll do what I do best and distract you from the end of year/semester stress and titillate your visual senses with these amazing cupcakes. I had some leftover bananas and I wanted to find a new recipe to use up three overripe bananas, and I think I found one! This ain’t some plain jane banana bread, these banana cupcakes are light, fluffy, and dreaaaamy.
Before I get to the recipe, I just wanted to share something for my Ottawa readers! I know I’m not in Ottawa anymore, but my heart is still in Ottawa, so you should go check out this event. Taboo Eats is going to be showcasing foodies (both non-professional chefs and people who love to cook) in a competition in who cooks the best food in each neighbourhood of Ottawa! All proceeds go to the Ottawa Food Bank, and it sounds like lots of fun. I wish I could be there! Check out this poster and this site for more details about Taboo Eats – My Neighbourhood Bites.
I don’t have much else to say today, I know I’ve been a little MIA because of finals, so I just wanted to post this before I dive into my second paper, so you could have something to look forward too when your bananas get too ripe! Oh, and stay tuned for my post next week on December 12! I participated in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap so I’ll be posting the cookies that I made for my cookie matches. They’re one of my favourite holiday cookies because they’re soft, delicious, and totally addictive. I won’t spoil the surprise =P you’ll have to wait until December 12 to see the post!
So best of luck to my readers still in school, and to my readers who are working grown-up jobs with salaries and benefits and being successful, stress-free and stuff, well, aren’t you just lucky. =P
Recipe Adapted from The Delicious Appreciations of Pick Yin
- (Banana Fudge Cupcakes)
- 105 grams all-purpose flour
- 150 grams sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 50 grams unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 100 millilitres buttermilk (I used milk + 1 tsp of vinegar)
- 130 grams banana puree (I used 2 bananas)
- 1 egg
- 80 millilitres hot coffee (I used instant espresso)
- (Banana Cream Cheese Frosting)
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 brick of cream cheese (4 oz/250 g)
- 1½ cup icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 overripe banana, mashed
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg until pale and frothy.
- Add banana purée (2 bananas), buttermilk, coffee, vanilla, sugar and oil and mix until incorporated.
- Mix in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt until incorporated. You should have a fairly runny batter. That’s okay.
- Spoon the batter into a cupcake tin lined with paper liners.
- Bake for about 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 350F or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke it into the middle of a cupcake.
- Let cool on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, purée your last banana until it is super super smooth. If there are any chunks, your frosting will look unappetizing.
- Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add the banana purée and icing sugar. Feel free to add a little more icing sugar if you find the frosting a little runny.
- Add vanilla and mix.
- Transfer to a piping bag, and pipe little clouds of dreamy banana cream cheese frosting on your ever-so-light fluffy cupcakes.
I have only one suggestion: please choose to give either metric OR Imperial system measurements – having half in each is simply annoying. I was raised with Imperial and so prefer it. If I see a recipe entirely in metric I simply skip over it and don’t bother. But to see it done like this one is is just plain frustrating.
Hi Deneen,
I usually like having one or the other as well. I’m Canadian but we’re raised to use half in metric half in imperial despite being officially in metric. This recipe is done like this because the original recipe I was working from used those measurements and it was really specific so it would yield exactly 12 cupcakes.
Thanks for your input! Considering most of my readers are American, I tend to try to keep my measurements in Imperial, but I’ll make more an effort from now on.
Canadian here too.;) an OLD Canadian apparently. Lol!
Hahah, yeah I think in the past 15 years or so they’ve tried to incorporate more metric terms into the curriculum.