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Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

September 26, 2011 by Mariel Goodson 23 Comments

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Mariel here. When I was a wee middle-schooler, my best friend at the time used to love making sweet breads. Banana bread in particular was her forte and we spent many an afternoon whipping up a double-batch in the kitchen and then snacking on our own personal loaves while playing Donkey Kong or modeling the newest sweaters from J. Crew. Ahh, to be 13 again.

I haven’t done much banana-based cooking since those lazy adolescent days, but when I was assigned to the Cairns Manor blog for this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I stumbled across a recipe for a Banana Cream Cheese Bread with Chocolate Chips. While I was eager to recreate her recipe, I’ve consumed enough banana bread in my lifetime to kill a chimp, so I decided to make cupcakes instead…since those are obviously totally different. I skipped the cream cheese filling and instead topped my cuppies with chocolate cream cheese frosting.

In the spirit of breakfast for dessert – or vice versa – I’d imagine someone, somewhere eats these pre-9AM (hello, bananas + cream cheese = breakfast). I say go for it, embrace your inner teenager. They may even leave you with a blemish.

Print This Recipe Print This Recipe

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients for the Cupcakes:
1¼ cup of sifted cake-flour, not self-rising – $2.99
¾ cup of granulated sugar – stock
½ cup buttermilk (or you can sub in ½ cup low-fat milk + ½ tablespoons vinegar, whisked and left to sit for five minutes) – stock
2 large bananas, mashed + ½ banana for garnish
2 large eggs – stock
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract – stock
1½ teaspoon baking powder – stock
1/2 teaspoon baking soda – stock
¼ teaspoon salt – stock
6 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted – stock

Ingredients for the Frosting:
8-oz package of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, room temperature -$1.69
1 cup confectioner’s sugar – stock
¼-cup cocoa – stock
Directions assuming “well-stocked” kitchen: $4.68
Cost per cupcake: $0.39

Directions for the Cupcakes:
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. Dig a little well in the center of flour mixture. In that divot, mix together the butter, mashed bananas, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Use a wooden spoon to incorporate flour mixture but don’t over-mix. Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 22 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

Directions for the Frosting:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar and cocoa. Frost the cupcakes when they’re totally cool and garnish – as desired – with slices of banana



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Filed Under: Recipe Index, Recipes Under $5, Sweets & Treats Tagged With: Afternoon Parties, Baking, basics, bridal party, dessert, entertaining, fall, family, kid-friendly, recipes under $5, Super Sundays, The Lows

About Mariel Goodson

The daughter in this mother-daughter duo, Mariel is the co-founder of Brass Hill Design and a former magazine writer who has contributed to Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens, SELF, Redbook and Good Housekeeping, among many others.

Comments

  1. Jojo says

    September 26, 2011 at 8:17 am

    Yum yum yum! My pregnancy craving will be satisfied tonight!

    Reply
  2. chelsy e. says

    September 26, 2011 at 8:17 am

    Anything with banana and chocolate has my name written all over it! Great recipe!

    Reply
  3. julia says

    September 26, 2011 at 9:11 am

    So theeeeese are the banana cupcakes you tweeted about. Looks faaaaantastic!

    Reply
  4. gloria says

    September 26, 2011 at 9:36 am

    Love these look amazing!!!! gloria

    Reply
  5. Mandy - The Complete Cook Book says

    September 26, 2011 at 11:35 am

    These are lovely! I make yoghurt, banana choc chip muffins but these with the frosting win hands down!
    Have a super week.
    🙂 Mandy

    Reply
  6. Jo says

    September 26, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    Bravo! The frosting looks completely decadent, would it be too much to make the cream cheese filling and your frosting for the top? I may have to do some side by side taste testing!

    Reply
  7. Eliot says

    September 26, 2011 at 8:48 pm

    Bananas? Chocolate? Cream cheese? Absolutely decadent. Great SRC post

    Reply
  8. Rhonda says

    September 26, 2011 at 8:53 pm

    Bananas and chocolate in a cupcake…or should I say muffins so I can have them for breakfast?

    Reply
  9. Georgie says

    September 26, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    Oh my! These are scrumptious! I would eat them for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and snack – all of them — in that order.

    Reply
  10. Trisha says

    September 26, 2011 at 11:59 pm

    I’ve had a bit of banana bread before, but never with frosting. This looks like a recipe that needs to be tried 🙂

    Reply
  11. marla says

    September 27, 2011 at 1:22 am

    I can see why you chose this recipe, chocolate heaven 🙂 Awesome to be in the Secret Recipe Club with you. Here is my post from group C – http://su.pr/2rtACr

    Reply
  12. veronica gantley says

    September 27, 2011 at 7:05 am

    We can eat these for breakfast right? They have bananas in them it is all good. Thanks for sharing with us.

    Reply
  13. Angie @ Bigbearswife says

    September 27, 2011 at 11:22 am

    They look great! I love making these!! Banana Cupcakes are some of my favorite, and I always put Banana chips on the tops!

    Reply
  14. Angie @ Bigbearswife says

    September 27, 2011 at 11:22 am

    Glad to be in Group C with you as well!

    Reply
  15. Rachel @ Not Rachael Ray says

    September 27, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    Oh man, these look great! I love the SRC!

    Reply
  16. Jayasri says

    October 1, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    Beautiful clicks.., my kids love banana bread, I have never made banana cup cakes, they look delicious, Glad to be with you in SRC

    Reply
  17. elizabeth says

    October 21, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    hello I just wanted to know if I can substitute the buttermilk with milk or maybe yogurt .thanks

    Reply
    • feastonthecheap says

      October 21, 2011 at 2:46 pm

      Milk would be your best bet – but you can make homemade buttermilk (or something very similar) by whisking together ½ cup low-fat milk + ½ tablespoons white vinegar and letting it sit for 5 mins

      Reply
      • elizabeth says

        October 22, 2011 at 8:47 am

        ok thank you very much

        Reply
  18. Cheryl says

    November 8, 2011 at 8:15 pm

    I didnt see baking soda in the ingredient list but it was mentioned in the directions. Should it be in there?

    Reply
    • feastonthecheap says

      November 8, 2011 at 8:33 pm

      1/2 teaspoon baking soda, sorry about that Cheryl! Somehow it didn’t make the journey from my written notes to the online version!

      Reply
  19. Debbie says

    April 28, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    I can’t wait to try this recipe! One question…how ripe should the banana be at?

    Reply
    • feastonthecheap says

      April 28, 2012 at 10:36 pm

      Hope you like it, Debbie. And as for the ripeness of the bananas – they should be ripe enough to mash easily. For the piece of banana used as garnish, it should be unblemished. Happy baking!

      Reply

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