Home » Recipes & Tutorials » Cakes and Cupcakes

Banana Cupcakes

Last Updated On: July 19, 2024 | Published: July 30, 2023 by Melissa Diamond | 4 Comments
Jump To Recipe Jump to Video
Jump To Recipe Jump To Video

We love banana cake recipes, and these new homemade Banana Cupcakes are sure to please a crowd! They are soft with a tender crumb, and have wonderful banana flavor!

We've paired these scratch banana cupcakes with a simple cream cheese frosting-such a great combination of flavors!

Banana Cupcakes on a pedestal.

Why we Love Them

There are so many reasons to love these banana cupcakes. Here are just a few:

Ingredients for Banana Cupcakes

Here is a quick look at the key players for our banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting! You can find the complete details in our recipe card at the bottom of this post!

Ingredients for Banana Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting.

A Few Ingredient Notes:

Ripe Bananas: Use ripe bananas for best flavor!

Buttermilk: We recommend using "full fat" buttermilk for richness and best texture. The acidity of the buttermilk softens the strands of gluten and creates a softer, more tender cake.

Cake Flour is also an important ingredient as it has a lower protein content than all purpose flour. This also creates a softer crumb.

The Cream Cheese in our simple frosting should be full fat, as low fat varieties will be a bit too soft.

How to Make Banana Cupcakes

These delicious banana cupcakes are based in part on our Banana Cream Cake recipe. We think that you will love it. You can find the full, printable recipe card further down in this post.

  • First, preheat oven to 350 degrees F, line muffin pans with cupcake liners (this recipe makes about 30 cupcakes)
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds, set aside.
Dry Ingredients in a glass bowl with a whisk.
  • In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vanilla and mashed bananas. Blend and set aside.
Bowl of wet ingredients for banana cupcakes.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the slightly softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
  • Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
Creaming Butter and Sugar with paddle attachment of stand mixer
  • Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (we do 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet ingredients). Mix just until well blended- be careful not to over-mix.
Bowl of Banana Cake Batter for banana cupcakes.
  • Next, add the banana cake batter to the cupcake liners. We put about ¼ cup batter into each liner.
Banana cupcake batter in cupcake pans.
  • Bake at 350℉ for 15-18 minutes. (Ours were done closer to 18 minutes.) After removing the cupcakes from the oven, we like to quickly remove them from the pans so that they will not continue to bake.
Banana Cupcakes on cake pedestal, unfrosted.

Cream Cheese Frosting

We love this simple cream cheese frosting and have used it often over the years! We've made many variations of it as well.

Cream cheese frostings are great for spice cake, pumpkin spice cake, as well as classic cakes like Italian Cream Cake and Hummingbird Cake!

Bowl of cream cheese frosting.
  • Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Mix on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
  • Add the softened cream cheese to the butter, mixing at low to medium speed until incorporated.
  • Add the vanilla extract. Gradually add the powdered sugar mixing on low speed until blended.
  • Increase mixing speed and mix until fluffy. Don't over mix or it will become too soft. (If this happens, chill in the refrigerator for a few minutes to improve the consistency.)

Decorating the Cupcakes

We decorated these banana cupcakes very simply with a 1M star tip. Each cupcake is swirled with cream cheese frosting. For some of our piped swirls of frosting, the piping begins in the center and spirals outward (rose swirls).

For the others, the piping begins by outlining the edge of the cupcake first and spirals inward and upward.

Learn more about cupcake decorating in our Cupcake Decorating Basics tutorial, as well as our Elegant 1M Tip Piping Techniques video!

Frosting the banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
Banana Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

More Banana Cakes

We have so many more banana cakes for you to try! Some of our most popular are our Banana Pudding Cake, Banana Cream Cake, and Banana Split Cake, and Banana Pudding Cupcakes (from cake mix).

If you love bundt cakes, we have a great Banana Nut Cake and Banana Pecan Bundt Cake as well!

Recipe FAQs

Yes, these cupcakes should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting.

However, for best texture and flavor, remove the cupcakes from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow them time to warm and soften.

Store the cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Yes! Just as with most of our favorite cupcake recipes, including our Caramel Cupcakes, Vanilla Cupcakes, Lemon Cupcakes, these will freeze beautifully.

You can freeze the room temperature banana cupcakes by lining them up on a cake board in rows. Then, place a layer or two of plastic wrap on top, and then cover them tightly with a sheet or two of aluminum foil.

They will stay fresh in the freezer for 3 months. To thaw, remove from the freezer, still wrapped, for about 30-45 minutes and then unwrap and continue thawing. (Condensation will form on the wrapping rather than the cupcakes).

Yes! We have a great easy banana cupcake recipe to share with you. Check out our Banana Pudding Cupcakes recipe.

This recipe calls for buttermilk rather than regular whole milk. The acidity of buttermilk interferes with the formation of gluten in the cake batter, creating a softer, more tender cake. It also adds richness and a hint of tanginess to cakes and cupcakes.

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this recipe for banana cupcakes.

Have you made these cupcakes? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!

Banana Cupcakes on a pedestal, swirled with cream cheese frosting.

Banana Cupcakes

BY Melissa and Bebe
These moist banana cupcakes are so flavorful! We've paired them with cream cheese frosting!
Course: Dessert
Servings: 30 cupcakes
RATE THIS RECIPE
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened (softened so that it dents when touched but not completely room temperature)
  • 2 cups (400g) sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3 cups (342g) cake flour (see Note below if you do not have cake flour)
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon 3g baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon 3g salt
  • 1 ½ cups (363g) buttermilk ( see Note below for buttermilk substitute)
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
  • 3 (277g) medium bananas, mashed (approximately 1 ¼ cup)

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 packages (8 oz per package) Cream Cheese, softened
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
  • 6 cups (690g) confectioners sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line muffin pans with cupcake liners (this recipe makes about 30 cupcakes)
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds, set aside.
  • In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vanilla and mashed bananas. Blend and set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the slightly softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
  • Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid. Mix just until well blended- be careful not to over-mix.
  • Add the banana cake batter to the cupcake liners. We put about ¼ cup batter into each liner.
  • Bake at 350℉ for 15-18 minutes. (Ours were done closer to 18 minutes.)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
  • Add the softened cream cheese to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated.
  • Add the vanilla extract. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
  • Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
  • This frosting will pipe best if used while still slightly chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.

Notes

  • Substitute for Buttermilk:  To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons vinegar or lemon juice.  Add milk  to the  1 ½ mark, stir.   Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.
  • Substitution for Cake Flour:  Using all purpose flour (plain in the UK)  to make Cake Flour:  For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.

5 from 3 votes (2 ratings without comment)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




The maximum upload file size: 8 MB. You can upload: image. Drop files here

4 Comments

  2. 5 stars
    Jag har bakat banan cupcakes och de är helt underbara. Mjuka, fluffiga cupcakes blev det och banan smaken sätter sig i gummen! Recept beskrivning och antalet cupcakes stämde väl. Tack för receptet och rekommenderar varmt .

    Reply