Banana Cupcakes, light, moist cupcakes topped with THE BEST brown sugar frosting.
These banana cupcakes will become your go-to recipe, guaranteed!
Banana Cupcakes
If you are looking for a knock-out banana cupcake recipe you have come to the right blog!
These seriously are some of the best cupcakes I’ve ever made and tasted.
What frosting goes best with banana cupcakes?
The banana cupcake recipe itself is like an amped up extra light but still seriously moist banana bread. But let’s not forget another winner here is the brown sugar frosting.
It’s one of those weird recipes, you know where you cook flour and milk together… I know, it sounds weird but… but…. wow. It’s the best cupcake frosting I have ever made. EVER.
It might be the only frosting I will ever make again. EVER.
BUT, if you are more on the traditional side, my best buttercream frosting works too!!
I have also made a version of these banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting if that is more your style. They even have walnuts, yum!
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Things you may need for this recipe:
Admittedly, the frosting can take a bit of work and can be a little tricky. But, once you taste it, you will understand the deliciousness.
How to make homemade banana cupcakes
- Add dry ingredients to a medium-sized bowl, set aside. Add mashed bananas, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined, with no dry patches. This is the most important step on how to make moist banana cupcakes.
- Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners, bake at 350-degrees for 17-19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean. A couple crumbs attached is okay, any wet batter needs longer to bake.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely. While cooling, make your desired frosting.
How to make banana cupcakes from scratch
Banana Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting
Ingredients
Banana Cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas about 3 medium bananas
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 egg lightly beaten
Brown Sugar Frosting
- 2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
Instructions
Banana Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line muffin tin with wrappers, set aside. In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine, add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until just combined and no dry spots. Divide the batter among the 12 cupcakes wrappers, about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 17-19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean. Place on a wire rack for 5 minutes, take out and place directly on the rack to cool completely.
Brown Sugar Frosting
- In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and cook over medium heat, whisking continuously until thick. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and let cool to room temp.
- With a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and there is no graininess left. Add the cooled milk mixture and beat it on high speed until a whipped cream consistency. This can take a while, do not give up! Well worth the effort. Frosting cupcakes and enjoy! Any leftover cupcakes should be refrigerated.
Nutrition
This post was updated on 5/31/2018 with text adjustment and newly edited photos.
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Comments & Reviews
Rowena says
Can I use the whip attachment when making the frosting
Hannah Jacob says
can i make these without bananas?
Dana DeVolk says
No, since they are a huge part of the recipe, it needs the bananas. However, you can make the frosting separate and use that on any desserts you wish.
Dawn says
Best way to use overly ripe bananas!! YUM!! Brown sugar frosting delicious!!
Gina says
No butter or oil?
Dana DeVolk says
Nope, the mashed bananas make up for it.
Thomas says
Best cupcakes ever!!!
Cynthia says
Delicious. I was concerned about the lack of oil, but the bananas worked very well. The frosting recipe was a new technique for me, but it’s so creamy! This got a very enthusiastic thumbs up from my adult son. This is a keeper!
Jamie says
For the frosting, how thick should the milk-flour mixture be before removing from heat? Also, you state the mixing process can take awhile….do you have an approx time frame? I’ve had mine going in my stand mixer for 1/2 hour and it still looks like soup. 🙁
Jamie says
Follow – up on frosting. As soon as I posted the question about the frosting, I checked my stand mixer, and voila! It looks like whipped cream!
Amanda says
Would this recipe translate well into a layer cake?
Dana DeVolk says
I’ve never tried so I can’t say for sure.
Callie says
My experience with this recipe: I felt like more description of the thickness of the milk flour paste would have been helpful – or some pics of it. Same with the batter – mine was very thick, and I thought – these are going to come out like banana bread muffins, and I was right. Probably should have added some milk. Also, pics or length of time listed for creaming the butter & brown sugar. I creamed the butter for a minimum of 15 minutes and it still retained a small amount of graininess – there had been no change in that for the last 5 minutes in the mixer so I decided it was as good as it was going to get. I initially made the milk flour part way too thick, it was gloopy. I added more milk in slowly after it cooled off and had it at about pancake batter thickness. I added it into the mixer with the butter and it was immediately whip cream like as stated for the desired texture. All the other comments mentioned letting it whip for like 30 minutes so maybe my milk was still too thick? It was perfect but then I made it split by adding just a bit more milk because I thought maybe it needed it so it could whip longer, ugh.
Daisy says
Delicious! That frosting is bloody amazing 😍