Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Yesterday morning our teammate Shannon asked if we were interested in baking with bananas this weekend because she had several that were getting quite brown.  Of course we jumped at the opportunity and decided to attempt a recipe we had seen on marthastewart.com.  We were eager to do this healthier alternative to traditional cupcakes keeping our strength coach, Lew, in mind.   We love to bring our baked creations to the varsity weight room on campus and pass them out to the guys who work there.  Lew is losing weight for a competition so he is not eating many sweet things, so when we told him that we were using bananas today he was very excited!  The only problem with baking this morning was class; we were on a time crunch so everything needed to run smoothly and efficiently.

Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 12

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Spread tops with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting. Just before serving, peel and slice banana into rounds, and place one on each cupcake, if desired.

Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat confectioners' sugar, unsalted butter, honey, and ground cinnamon until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes

We decided to double the recipe.  When mixing our cupcake batter, I thought that it would be a good idea to throw a few handfuls of walnuts into the mix, because everyone loves walnuts in banana bread! 

After we filled our regular sized cupcake tins, we realized we still had a substantial amount of batter left over.  Because our teammates have been so supportive of our blogging endeavors we buttered and floured a pan of mini cupcakes to pass out after our practice tonight. 

The bananas and butter smelled wonderful and 25 minutes later they came out of the oven a beautiful golden brown.  When beginning to craft our frosting, we realized that we had used all of our butter, an embarrassing novice mistake.  In a desperate attempt to find 2 sticks of butter we contacted all of our friends in Ariel’s apartment building.  Unfortunately everyone was at class or sleeping, so our only option was to run a few blocks to a small convenience store.  We ran down the streets of Ann Arbor in sweat pants and flip flops carrying butter and looking completely ridiculous.  Luckily by the time we made it back to the apartment, the cupcakes had cooled and were ready to be lathered in frosting!

The Honey Cinnamon Frosting held the sweetest most magnificent flavors I have ever tasted.  The butter and honey complimented one another and the cinnamon added a subtle touch.  When combined with the banana walnut of the cupcake it was blissful.