Recipe: Banana & Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Our contributor, Lauren of Crave. Indulge. Satisfy., is back with a delicious new recipe….

Spring is almost here, hooray! I am so excited it’s March for several reasons, warmer weather is near and my little guy will be ONE at the end of the month!  I am in full party planning mode for his birthday and I thought it would be fun to create a cupcake this month using one of his all time favorite foods, bananas!  Our fruit bowl is overflowing with bananas these days and it seems we can never eat them all up before they start getting pretty ripe.  So instead of turning those over ripe bananas into banana bread, I thought why not make cupcakes instead!  Makes perfect sense to me!  I hope you all enjoy my easy Banana and Cream Cheese Cupcakes!

I decided to keep the recipe really super simple this month, meaning you should probably be able to go into your pantry grab everything you need, dump the ingredients into a bowl and mix!  This recipe starts with a box yellow cake mix.  I always try to keep at least one box mix on hand for when I’m in a time crunch…which is most of the time these days with a toddler roaming around and refusing to nap for more than 30 minutes.  With the simple addition of some sour cream, bananas and vanilla extract no one will ever know they aren’t from scratch.  These cupcakes are super moist and are absolutely perfect with a nice swirl of cream cheese frosting on top.  Add some sprinkles or banana slices for a little something special!

These cupcakes can we whipped up in no time and would make the perfect after school snack.  Share them with your friends and neighbors, or with your 11-month old son as I caught my husband giving our little guy a taste.  Guess he won’t be having cake for the first time on his first birthday anymore!  Oh well, looks like he’ll be developing a sweet tooth like his momma at an early age!

Banana & Cream Cheese Cupcakes
recipe by Lauren Kapeluck
(makes 24 cupcakes)

For the cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with cupcake liners.
2. In bowl of stand mixer combine all ingredients.
3. Beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until well combined.  Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary.
4. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.
5. Bake for 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Let cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
7. Once cupcakes are completely cool frost with Cream Cheese Icing.

For the icing:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. In bowl of stand mixer beat butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in vanilla.
3. Gradually add in confectioner’s sugar 1 cup at a time beating until well combined and scraping sides of
   bowl as necessary.
4. Beat icing on medium speed for about 2 minutes until nice and creamy.
5. Place icing in piping bag fitted with French piping tip and frost cupcakes.
6. Add some sprinkles on top and garnish with banana slices.

Hope you all enjoy and Happy Spring!