Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

How's that for a long name!!? But let me tell you, these little gems are worth every letter up there! They are so, so, so great! The banana cupcake part of it has the light & fluffy quality you love from cake but the amazing flavor you'd expect from a loaf of banana bread. As if that wasn't enough to make you love them, there is this AH-mazing cinnamon cream cheese frosting loaded up on top. Ahhhhhhh. I seriously had to exercize some hardcore restraint to keep myself from going into the kitchen for fingerful after fingerful of the frosting! (Learn from my temptation snag & wait until your cakes are cooled & ready to frost so you don't have a giant bowl of fluffy, rich Heaven on the counter taunting you!) Make 'em & love 'em, folks! You'll be glad you did! (And sorry if you have a slow connection - this is a picture-heavy post!)

Cupcake Ingredients:


Ripe bananas, flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, eggs, unsalted butter.

First mix all your whites - flour, sugar, salt, soda & powder.


Now add in your eggs, vanilla, melted butter & mashed bananas and then give it a whirl!


Line a muffin pan with baking cups and put about 1/4 cup of batter in each cup.


Put them in a 350 oven. The original recipe says 25-30 minutes - mine were done in 18. so just watch them, I guess!


All right!!! Now let them cool on a wire rack while you move on to the glorious frosting!


Frosting Ingredients:


Cream cheese, butter (regular old salted this time), powdered sugar, vanilla & cinnamon.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter & cream cheese until smooth & creamy.


..... from this - to this!


Add in the powdered sugar & whip it a little longer.


Then mix in your vanilla & cinnamon! (This is the magic part!)


LOOK AT THIS!!! Isn't it puuuuuurty!!? And delicious, too. This bowl alone could make for a content evening of over-indulgence!


Anyway - back to business - load up a zip lock bag with this stuff & snip off a corner. Then get busy frosting the cooled cupcakes.

(Yes, that is a pajama sleeve you see - I'm not Martha Stewart - I'm just Mom!)

And away we go! Start your swirl on the outside edge & work toward the center.


You should get about 18 cupcakes out of this recipe - and frosting to spare!


I hope you enjoy!

Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:

Banana cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon cream cheese frosting:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter (set out about an hour before mixing)
12 oz cream cheese (set out about an hour before mixing)
6 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a muffin pan with paper liners. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add in the butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture, being sure not to over mix. Spoon batter into muffin cups - about 1/4 cup per cupcake.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (remember I only did 18, though!), or until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

THE ICING: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until everything is combined. Add the vanilla and the cinnamon. Ice the cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Makes 18 cupcakes

Source: Leigh Anne @ Your Homebased Mom

Rainbow Cupcakes

It's birthday time again... well, sort of. Nolan will be turning 5 this summer - July 1st. His Pre-K class celebrates every kids' birthday throughout the year by allowing the kid to bring some sort of sweet treat - it's all healthy snacks every other day of the year. They get to enjoy the goodies together, the child wears a crown that day in class, the kids all sing to you & you get special *birthday hugs* from the three teachers! It's a pretty big deal when you're 4-turning-5!

Well, to be fair to the kids with summer birthdays, they celebrate them the last couple of weeks of school. And since next Wednesday is their last day, tomorrow will be Nolan's celebration day! And what better way to celebrate than with Rainbow Cupcakes!!??

Start out with a box of cake mix (I'm usually a from-scratch kind of a girl but this is a somewhat time consuming project so I like to trim some time off the front end!) Whatever your prefer - white or yellow. Get it all mixed up and then split it evenly into however many bowls/colors you'd like to use. A standard box of cake mix usually yields between 4-6 cups of batter - mine was 5 this time around so, for ease of math, I went with 5 colors! One cup of batter per bowl.

Then add your color. I prefer to use gel dye. So much richer than the 4-color box of drops I grew up on! Wilton makes a great 12-color variety box.


Now get your cupcake pan all set with the liners & start adding the batter! Carefully layer a small amount of each color into the cups. Use the back of the spoon to gently move the batter to cover evenly.... or don't! If you DO, you'll end up with a rainbow arch. If you DON'T you'll get more of a tie-dye look.


Once you get through the process of filling them all (about 2/3 full) just pop them into the oven (set to the temp on the cake instructions) & set your timer (for however long the box told you!!)


Mmmmmmmmm.... DO YOU SMELL THAT!!??

There you have it! A very impressive looking treat that will amaze toddlers & grown-ups alike! Experiment with the colors - having a sports-event party? Dye them the colors of your favorite team! Easter? Go pastel & dust them with a little powdered sugar to look like eggs. Or, if you've got the patience of a saint & the urge to channel your inner Martha you can bake each color individually in a 9-inch round pan, stack all 5 layers with a little frosting in between & turn out a pretty cool cake! Whatever you do, just make sure you have fun & have a bite for me!