This is the recipe that my mom uses when she has leftover bananas to use and wants something to take into work. Her recipe is for banana bars. I made them once (as bars) and they went over really well with my coworkers. When I brought them into work, one of my coworkers commented: This is the best banana cake I’ve ever had. I never would have thought to make a cake that’s banana flavored. I had never really thought of it as a cake because of the recipe name: Banana Bars. But because Charley described the bars as a cake, I figured this recipe would work great as cupcakes.
cupcake ingredients.
- ½ c. butter, softened
- 1 ½ c. sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 c. sour cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 c. flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
frosting ingredients.
- 1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 c. butter, softened
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 3/4 to 4 c. powdered sugar
- 1 c. chopped walnuts, optional
directions.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.
- Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla.
- Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture.
- Stir in bananas.
- Spread into a greased 15” x 10” x 1” baking pan to make bars. Divide between 24 cupcake cups if making cupcakes.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool.
- For frosting, in a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Gradually beat in enough powder sugar to achieve desired consistency. Frost bars. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts, if desired. Store in refrigerator: Yields 3 to 4 dozen.
Back in 2010 when I first made these I had a hard time. I was working with three muffin tins and wasn’t sure how much distance the batter was going to give me. The first muffin tin I filled the paper liners 3/4 full. I baked them for 20 minutes, and they seemed to dark when I pulled them out. I fit the rest of the batter into the other two muffin tins, but I had to fill all the liners until full. I put both tins into the oven at the same time. After 25 minutes neither muffin tin seemed close to being done. One of the tins ended up undercooked, the other, overcooked.
Here’s what I said back in 2010: “If I ever made this recipe again as cupcakes (it’s more putzy making cupcakes), I would probably fill them 3/4 full which would probably yield closer to 3.5 or 4 dozen cupcakes. They still tasted good!”
Hmm. I must have doubled the recipe back then. When I made these again in 2018 I had absolutely no issues and the recipe yielded 24 cupcakes. I will caution you to be conservative with the frosting because I ran out with two cupcakes to go.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 