Banana Bread Cupcakes

What do you do with a bunch of overly ripe bananas?  Banana bread of course!  Or in my case, banana bread cupcakes!  These cupcakes were inspired by nothing more than a bunch of bananas sitting on my counter.  I added some chocolate chips for a little extra sweetness, but all in all they are pretty simple little cakes!
   
Banana Bread Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 T cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 T heavy whipping cream


1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2.  In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3.  In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4.  Add eggs, vanilla, and bananas to creamed mixture and mix until combined.
5.  Fold in chocolate chips.
6.  Fill liners 3/4 of the way full with batter, and bake for 16-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7.  Let stand for 5 minutes before removing from pans.
8.  Cool completely on wire rack.
9.  To make frosting:  beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy; add cinnamon, vanilla, powdered sugar, and whipping cream.  Mix until frosting reaches desired piping consistency.
10.  Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Banana Rum Fudge Cake

I thought it would make sense to have my first recipe post explain the name of my blog "Banana Rum."  Since my baking was inspired by my Papa, I picked a name that would pay tribute to my favorite cake that he baked.  It is a delicious dark fudge cake with a fluffy, light, pudding-based frosting.  Like the name says there is rum in it!  If you are looking to make it kid friendly just use the rum in the cake (where it will bake off) and nix the rum in the frosting.  However, I remember asking my Papa many times to just make a batch of frosting for my sister and I to eat by the spoonful.  I'm pretty sure he never left out the rum and we turned out just fine :)  I've made a few changes to the recipe over time, but it's still just as delicious as I remember!

Banana Rum Fudge Cake

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa (or Hershey's Cocoa for a lighter cake)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2-3) mashed banana

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup dark rum

3 large eggs

1 package (3 3/4 oz) instant banana cream pudding

1 cup cold milk

1 T dark rum (optional)

8 oz whipped topping, thawed

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.

2.  Add mashed bananas, water, rum, and eggs to mixture.  Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until completely combined (about 4 minutes).

3.  Pour into greased and floured 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish.  Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

4.  Cool completely.

5.  To prepare frosting combine pudding mix, milk, and rum (optional).  Beat at medium speed until thickened.

6.  Fold in whipped topping.  Spread evenly over cooled cake.

7.  Refrigerate cake (and leftovers) until serving.

The cake above was made with Hershey's Cocoa, not Special Dark Hershey's Cocoa.