Banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

I made these cupcakes for two reasons. 1) It was my brother Jase's birthday 2) It was Sam's work friend Shane's last day at the office.


Jase isn't a big fan of cakes/cookies/any baked goods. He sometimes eats banana cake though - plain and uniced. Shane likes banana cupcakes too. 

This recipe is for banana cake, slightly adapted from Exclusively Food (I love this website - everything I have tried is good). I have made this recipe many times, as both a cake and cupcakes. The recipe produces a moist cake or cupcake with a lovely banana flavour. For best results, use very ripe bananas. 

The recipe can easily be doubled to make two cakes or lots of cupcakes. The only thing I would note though is that the batter is made by popping everything in the food processor. Make sure your food processor can handle the volume that goes with doubling the recipe if you choose to do so!

The cupcakes are great for decorating as they are only very slightly domed.

Makes one 22 cm round cake or approximately 15 cupcakes.

Banana cupcakes

125g unsalted butter, softened 

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 very slightly rounded cup mashed banana (2-3 very ripe large bananas)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Cream cheese frosting
100g cream cheese, softened
50g butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar (plus more depending on how "stiff" you want your icing).
1 3/4 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (fan-forced) or 180 degrees C if you don't have a fan-forced oven. Grease and line cupcake pans (or cake pan) with liners or baking paper.

Wisk flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda together in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a food processor, place butter, sugar, bananas and vanilla. Process for a minute or two, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add buttermilk and process. Add flour mixture and process until just combined, being careful not to over mix.

Pour batter into baking pans. I fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full for this recipe. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 18-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Half way through baking I rotate the pan to ensure even baking (my oven bakes a little unevenly).

For the frosting, beat cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer or using an electric mixer until creamy. Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and beat to combine. Add more icing sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Decorate your cupcakes.

Notes
Cupcakes/cake suitable to freeze uniced.

For the frosting, you could replace the lemon juice with vanilla if desired.