Banana Cupcakes: These moist and sweet cupcakes have a touch of cinnamon and are topped with creamy vanilla-cinnamon cream cheese frosting. They’re irresistibly delicious!
We love using overripe bananas in baking! Be sure to try our Cinnamon Banana Bread, Banana Chocolate Chip Cake, or Banana Bread with Greek Yogurt the next time you find yourself with leftover overripe bananas.
Banana Cupcakes
Bananas are one of the most common things I buy at the grocery store because my whole family loves them. They make such an easy snack so I’m always offering them to my kids. We are usually pretty good about eating most of the bananas before they go bad, but every couple of weeks I end up buying more than we finish and I’m left with a bunch of overripe bananas. If I’m being honest, I think we try to always leave a few bananas to over-ripen so we can make something delicious. (Like these Chocolate Banana Muffins, these Banana Pancakes, or these Banana Crumb Muffins).
But the last few months, our project has been to use all those overripe bananas to perfect a recipe for banana cupcakes. My toddler is cupcake obsessed – he could eat cupcakes for every single meal if I let him! He also enjoys making them almost as much as he loves eating them!
Ingredients
- Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder: These make the cupcake mix. Flour holds it together, and baking soda and powder make it rise.
- Spices: Use fresh spices for stronger flavor. You can also add more or less depending on how much spice you like.
- Butter, Brown & White Sugar: Mix room-temperature butter and sugars well to get light cupcakes.
- Bananas: We’re using 2 bananas to get 3/4 cup, depending on the size of your bananas you made need more or less. The riper the banana, the tastier and moister the cupcake.
- Eggs, Vanilla: Use eggs at room temperature to mix better.
- Buttermilk: Makes the cupcakes soft and slightly tangy. No buttermilk? Mix milk with vinegar as a backup.
- Cream Cheese Frosting: Use all at room temperature to make frosting easy to spread.
Quick Tip
The frosting recipe that comes with this one makes a lot, enough to really pipe a tall pile of frosting on each cupcake, just like in the pictures. If you want less frosting, just make half the amount of the frosting recipe.
How To Make Banana Cupcakes
So let’s break down these incredible Banana Cupcakes, starting with a few tips on how to make them!
- Prep: Warm cold eggs quickly by placing them in warm water for 10 minutes. Preheat your oven and get your muffin tins ready.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a bowl. Measure flour correctly by spooning and leveling it off to make sure your cupcakes aren’t too dense or wet.
- Combine Wet Ingredients: Cream the softened butter with sugars briefly to avoid excess air, then blend in mashed banana, eggs, and vanilla.
- Combine Dry and Wet Ingredients: Switch between adding dry ingredients and buttermilk to the wet mix, stirring just until blended to keep the cupcakes light.
- Bake: Fill cupcake liners three-quarters full and bake in the preheated oven. They’re done when they’re light golden, the toothpick test passes, and they have smooth, rounded tops.
How To Speed Up The Ripening Process For Bananas
Want to make these cupcakes but your bananas aren’t super ripe yet? No problem; it’s easy to do this!
Take some bananas and put them on a baking sheet without peeling them. Bake them for 7-8 minutes in an oven that’s been heated to 350 degrees F. The bananas are done when their skins are completely black (you might need to turn them over to get them all black). Let the bananas cool down, and then they’re ready to be mashed for Banana Cupcakes.
Tips For Success
- Use Ripe Bananas: The riper the bananas, the more flavor and moisture they’ll add to your cupcakes.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Make sure ingredients like eggs, butter, and cream cheese are at room temperature to mix more evenly and to get a smoother batter.
- Don’t Overmix: Mix the batter just until the ingredients are combined to avoid dense cupcakes
- Mash Bananas Well: Mash bananas until smooth so they mix well in the batter, making the cupcakes taste and feel better.
Variations
Fun Banana Cupcake Flavor Variations
- Frosting: Instead of the cream cheese frosting, you can add a peanut butter frosting or a brown sugar buttercream to these cupcakes.
- Mix Ins: If you like nuts with your banana treats, you could mix in some chopped walnuts. Or, you could add some mini chocolate chips. If you decide to add nuts or mini chocolate chips, use about 3/4 cup for this mix!
- Make them mini: Use a mini muffin tin with paper liners and bake for 10-15 minutes. Check doneness at 10 minutes with a toothpick; if it comes out clean or with few crumbs, they’re ready. If wet, bake longer.
- Topping cupcakes: I love to add banana chips on the top. Buy them at the store with dried fruits or in the bulk section. Other options include adding ground cinnamon, cinnamon sugar, fresh banana slices, crushed toasted nuts, or candied pecans on top.
Storage
How To Store Banana Cupcakes
- Storing: Keep leftover cupcakes in a sealed container in the fridge with a paper towel to prevent excess moisture. Best enjoyed within 3-4 days, with flavors peaking on the second day.
- Freezing: Freeze unfrosted cupcakes by first placing them on a tray for 45 minutes, then storing in an airtight bag in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before frosting.
More Delicious Desserts
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies with a “secret” ingredient that makes these the best!
- Magic Cookie Bars sweetened condensed milk gooey bars
- Carmelitas with a chocolate caramel center
- Mini Cheesecakes with a raspberry sauce topping
- Strawberry Scones with a simple glaze topping
Banana Cupcakes
Equipment
- Muffin pan
Ingredients
Banana Cupcakes
- 1-1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 overripe bananas
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup buttermilk see note 1
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 (8-ounce) package full-fat cream cheese room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- Optional: banana chips to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cavity muffin pan with cupcake liners, and line a second pan with 4 liners, filling the unused cavities halfway with water (see note 2). Set aside.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy. Mash enough bananas to make 3/4 cup and blend them into the mixture until smooth. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, and continue beating until smooth.
- Gradually add half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk to the wet mixture, mixing just until combined. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk. Be careful not to overmix.
- Fill the prepared muffin cups 3/4-full with batter, distributing all the batter evenly among 16 cavities (see note 2). Bake in the preheated oven for 18–22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting. Cream the room temperature butter and cream cheese until smooth, then mix in vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Gradually add powdered sugar while mixing on low until smooth. Chill the frosting until ready to use.
- Frost the cooled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and if desired, garnish with a banana chip.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made these today for my dear daughter’s 8th birthday to share with the her entire class. My child’s school has strict rules on what to bring for bdays. They only allow fruit cupcakes and no icing or frosting. So I spent the night searching for a recipe that will click with kids. After I baked and tasted it, I knew it was yummy but still I was worried if the kids will like it as they can be really fussy. Besides, I’m not much into baking and its my first attempt at it so I just followed everything that you wrote as much as possible. Anyway, I made 35 cupcakes for a class of 23, just made sure there extras just in case. Low and behold, daughter called up on the way home telling me that her classmates loved the cupcakes! After class, the her classmates asked for the spare cupcakes and gave out all of it. One classmate tod her, your mum’s cupcake are the best! One told her, can we exchange mum’s? Hahahahahha! Now trouble is, classmates asked her to asked mum to make banana cupcakes again! Anyway, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe. You made my 8 year old’s bday really special!
Ahhh you made my whole day!! I’m so happy these were such a hit with the kids! You’re a rockin mom! Thanks so much! And happy birthday to your little girl! 🙂
Made these and they were wonderful. I tweaked the recipe and added extra cinnamon into the batter. Also for the frosting subsituted about 2 tablespoons of butter for 2 table spoons of peanut butter. May have been more bc i added peanut butter until the taste was right. I thought peanut butter might be a nice addition to banana and it was! I also used a sift for all dry ingredients in cake and frosting.
So happy to hear you enjoyed these! Love your tweaks 🙂
Have you ever made this eggless? I have egg substitute powder. Can you email me?
I’m sorry Dawn, I haven’t tried these with egg powder so I can’t say for sure.
Delicious! I made the cupcakes exactly per the recipe. My bananas had been frozen then brought up to room temp prior to use. For the frosting, I used 2 cups of powdered sugar (instead of 3). I don’t feel the cream cheese taste overpowered the banana in the cake. This recipe is a keeper. Next time I might amp up the spices a bit by adding a dash (small dash) of ginger or allspice. Thank you Chelsea!!
So happy to hear it!! Thank you for the comment Elizabeth 🙂
Wow, these turned out GREAT! I used commercial icing on my first batch and pretty tasty. Utilized the icing recipe for a repeat baking, EXCELLENT flavor but wayyyy too much leftover 🙁 I don’t like to slather icing on heavy I guess. How long will it keep?
It will definitely last at least a week in your fridge in a air-tight container. I’m so glad you enjoyed these!! 🙂
These cupcakes look so super amazing just like all of your other recipes! Thank you for blessing us all with these finger lickin’ good banana cupcakes!
Oh my gosh you are so sweet!! Thank you Ella! I’m so glad you enjoyed! 🙂
And how big are the cupcakes if you want it to be the exact 16 pcs? 🙂
This recipe makes 16 cupcakes so they’ll look just like the photos size wise 🙂
Its me again, haha! Would you suggest that i chill the cupcakes first before serving it to a party? 🙂
Hi!! Would the frosting hold its shape? Im going to make this for a party and i just want to make sure that the shape would hold up. Thank you!!
The frosting holds its shape well! Not as good as a buttercream, but it does well! Try to keep it at room temperature or chilled as much as possible (in the heat it would melt)
What kind of flour would i use? Just All-purpose? Any hoo, these cupcakes were TO DIE FOR!!! SO YUMMY!!!
All purpose 🙂 So glad you enjoyed these cupcakes!