#14 - Banana Cupcakes

Teachers love professional days without students. They also love to find any excuse for a party. The only thing teachers love more than parties without students is cupcakes. When Emily was put in charge of desserts for tomorrow's surprise baby shower for the male gym teacher, she knew that cupcakes were the way to go.

Once we knew we were making cupcakes, we turned to our trusty cute cakes blog, and here's what we found.

Banana Cupcakes

From Bakerella
Most people would make a chocolate or vanilla cupcake, but we went out on a limb and made banana cupcakes because bananas are delicious and babies love bananas. There were no babies at the baby shower, but adults love bananas too.
As you know, we love our Kitchen Aid, and it had double duty today, making first the cupcake batter, and then the frosting.
We've watched enough Paula Deen (y'all) on Food Network to know a few tricks when it comes to sweet goodness, and one thing we decided to try out here was using an ice cream scooper to get nice, even fills in each cup.
The best part of a cupcake is what's on top, and this recipe called for a yellow cream cheese icing. We liked the yellow because bananas are yellow and because baby showers when you don't know the gender of the baby are yellow. And cupcakes for a baby shower when you find out the gender of the baby the day before but after you already committed to banana-flavored turn out yellow too.
Emily's always wanted to use a piping bag, and she finally got her wish with this one. Check out her handiwork; she'll be working at Georgetown Cupcake in no time.
Oh my gosh, these cupcakes were incredible. They tasted like bananas which everyone loves. And despite having a whole box of confectioner's sugar in the icing, they were oddly not sweet at all. We're hoping it's someone's birthday soon so we can make these cupcakes again.
Make these now:

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla, divided
• 1 large ripe banana, chopped
• 1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 lb confectioner’s sugar
• Yellow food coloring
• Star sprinkles

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake tray with 12 baking cups.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl with a wire whisk.
3. Cream the unsalted butter and sugar in a mixer for about four minutes.
4. Add the banana and mix until combined.
5. Add the eggs and 1 tsp vanilla and mix until combined.
6. Add about a third of the flour mixture, followed by a third of the milk, and scrape the sides.
7. Repeat until all the flour and milk has been added.
8. Scoop the batter into the baking cups.
9. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until done.
10. Cream the salted butter and cream cheese in a mixer until thoroughly combined.
11. Add 1 tsp vanilla.
12. Add the confectioner's sugar in small batches until combined and creamy.
13. Add yellow food coloring to frosting and mix until the frosting is the desired color.
14. Once the cupcakes have cooled, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate with star sprinkles.