Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Icing

These Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Icing are delicious.   I mostly followed Martha Stewart's recipe (click here for original recipe link), you can't go wrong with Martha right?  I shared these at a belated birthday brunch for dessert and I watched my friend's 2 year old gobble up an entire cupcake!  The "cupcakes" are also great without icing too, they are like banana muffins.  But I was told the icing is one of the best parts haha.  Enjoy!

Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Icing

Printable Recipe

Ingredients for Cupcakes

1 ½ cup flour

1 teaspooon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)

1 ½ cups mashed bananas (about 3 to 4 ripe bananas)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients for Honey Cinnamon Icing

1 ½ cup powdered sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 to 2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

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Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

In a bowl, mix sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Add in bananas, eggs and vanilla.

Slowly add in dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Divide batter evenly in lined muffin pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in cupcake comes out clean.

Remove cupcakes from pan and cool on wire rack.  

While cupcakes are cooling, you can make the honey cinnamon icing.

In a stand mixer, beat powdered sugar, unsalted butter, honey, and cinnamon until smooth.

Spread (or pipe) honey cinnamon icing on cooled cupcakes.

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Makes 12 to 15 cupcakes.

One Bowl Banana Bread

This one bowl banana bread recipe is my go-to recipe for years now.  It is so easy to make and turns out delicious each time.  Cleanup is a breeze since you only need to use one bowl and I just mix everything by hand.  I honestly don't even remember where I got this recipe from but I still have it written on a piece of note paper that I keep in my recipes box.  I have used this same recipe to make muffins too, you would just reduce the bake time to about 15 to 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

One Bowl Banana Bread

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup butter, melted (I microwave in a bowl for about 45 seconds.)

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 ½ cup flour

½ cup chocolate chips (Optional but I almost always add it in!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, mash peeled bananas with a fork.

Mix in butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.  

Next, add in baking soda, salt and flour.

Stir in chocolate chips if adding.

Pour batter into greased loaf pan.  Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Blueberry Banana Cake

This blueberry banana cake is perfect for breakfast or dessert.  I was able to make 2 cakes with this recipe in loaf pans.  You could just halve the recipe to make 1 cake if you prefer.   I loved how this cake turned out and it was light, moist and sweet.   I also wanted to freeze the second cake for a friend who is expecting a baby this month.  (I let the cake cool, then wrapped it in plastic wrap and then in foil, and placed it in the freezer.) 

 

Blueberry Banana Cake

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups fresh blueberries

2 bananas, mashed

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two 9x4 loaf pans with parchment paper.

 

In a stand mixer, beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

 

Add in bananas, eggs, and vanilla to butter-sugar mixture.

 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.

 

Gradually add flour mixture into batter.  Mix until combined.

 

Stir in blueberries.

Pour batter into loaf pans.  

 

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until cake is lightly brown.  Poke cake with a toothpick, if the toothpick comes out clean, it is done.  If not, bake an additional 5 minutes.

 

Makes 2 cakes.

UPDATE: One Ingredient Ice Cream

I have finally figured out how to make the one ingredient ice cream better since the first time I made it and posted about it, here is the original posting:   http://sophieinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2012/03/one-ingredient-ice-cream.html

Here are my tips to making a perfect serving:

1.  Peel and slice 2 ripe bananas and put slices in a freezer bag. 
2.  Keep in freezer overnight, or even for a few days.
3.  Place frozen banana slices in food processor (or blender).  You will have to pulse it longer and probably remove the cover and scrape the sides down.   It might look weird at first but keep pulsing until you get a creamy consistency!  I promise it will be delicious!

The best tip is freezeing the bananas longer than a few hours, it will make the consistency more like ice cream.  I think the first time I made it, it was more like soft serve ice cream.  Now you can see how it looks more creamy and like regular ice cream.  I still enjoy putting in a spoonful of peanut butter when processing and I topped it with some chopped walnuts this time too.

Enjoy :)