Hello sweet friends! After a blog hiatus of sorts, I’m eager to be back… especially because I’ve been wanting to share these bananalicious cupcakes with you. Soft, bursting with banana flavour and heavenly paired with cream cheese icing, they’re the kind of cupcake which even made my picky palate husband close his eyes to savour every bite.
You can find the recipe for the banana cupcakes below and the cream cheese icing recipe here.
There’s something so whimsical and endearing about sprinkles… such a simple and easy way to decorate cupcakes too. For these ones I wanted to keep a pastel color combination though, and a quick search of my usual baking haunts for pastel sprinkles came up empty. I remembered that Callye of The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle had ingeniously colored her own sanding sugar, and I wondered if the same could be done for sprinkles. A quick test proved the answer is yes! You’ll notice my photographs show I mixed mine in disposable piping bags as I was out of ziplock bags, but it worked just as well. A quick how-to follows:
Begin with white sprinkles, gel food coloring
of your choice and ziplock bags (or, as in my case, clear piping bags
).
Pour the sprinkles into your bag and add a tiny amount of food gel coloring. I think now that I’ve seen the sprinkles I made on the cupcakes, I might go with a little more food coloring next time to help them pop a bit. You can see the amount of food coloring I added to 3 Tablespoons of sprinkles in the photograph below.
Twist the top of your bag shut and shake! It’s really that easy. The more you shake the more the color disperses.
Sprinkle on top of swirled icing (I used a Wilton tip 1M
), and enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Elinor Klivans’ Hummingbird Swirls in her book, Cupcakes!
Banana Cupcake Recipe
Banana Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup canola or corn oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup mashed banana (2 bananas)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until lightened to a cream color, about 2 minutes. During mixing, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
- On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended.
- Mix in the sour cream.
- Add in the flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter is smooth.
- Stir in the cinnamon and mashed bananas.
- In a muffin tin lined with cupcake liners, fill each liner with 1/4 cup cup of the batter.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes; until the top of the cupcake feels firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely and decorate.
Notes
Cream Cheese Icing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb cream cheese, softened or room temperature
- 1/2 lb unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 lb icing sugar (confectioner's sugar), sifted
- 1 tsp white food gel coloring (optional)
Instructions
- Cream the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Slowly add the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
- Add 1 tsp white food gel coloring and mix until incorporated.
- Once cupcakes have cooled, ice as desired.
Other notes:
- I found my white sprinkles at the Bulk Barn, but you can find them online
too. - Cupcake liners are by Cath Kidston… found them in this cute little cupcake liner kit.
- The sweet mini jars are from The TomKat Studio’s shop. Find them here.
- A little secret for you regarding the cream cheese icing… To make it a brighter white, I add a little bit of white food coloring.
too.
.I’d love to see your own sweet sprinkles and banana cupcake creations! Share them with me on Facebook or tag me on Instagram. I’d love to hear from you.
Enjoy!
xo,
Marian
Welcome back! I’ve missed your posts.
I may just have to make these this week! Yum!!
Thank you, thank you Heather. xo
So glad you’re back! I have missed your sweet inspiration. Can’t wait to try these cupcakes!
Thanks, Marilyn! Hope you guys are still baking and creating at home. 🙂
I miss your posts! Sprinkles in pastel mood 🙂 Cute!
Aww, thanks for noticing hihi. xo
Yayyyy, you’re back 🙂
Love these pastel sprinkles, what a wonderful idea to color them! The piped cuppies look so so elegant!
So good you’re back blogging, my girl.
xoxo,
niner
Thank you sweet Niner! Glad to see you back blogging too. 😉
Hi Marian i am your italian fan.
I read your site every day and i’m very happy to your return. Excuse me for my bad English.
Your banana cupcakes are fantastic and pastel sprinkles so cuteeee!!!
I try these Sunday.
Thank you
Federica
Hi Frederica,
How neat is that! So glad to have a blog follower like you. Thank you for visiting me here. xo
As all of your follower have said …,,, we have missed you! So so glad you are back. Can hardly wait to try these lovely cupcakes.
YEEEEE….. you are back! I missed your posts!
Welcome Back!!!! I can’t wait to see what you’ve got for us!! <3
The frosting is soooo white, please give me your secret. Thanks
Your pics are just heavenly. Pastel sprinkles are my weakness:)
please share you white icing trick 🙂 thank you
Hi Lori and Lynn,
I’ve shared my white icing secret in the notes near the bottom of the post.
Xo
Thanks for all your sweet comments!
You’re a star. You’ve got a new big fan now 🙂 I can’t wait to try this recipe. What tip # did you use please for the icing?
You’re cute Bertha! I used a Wilton 1M
that was the most AWESOME tip i have ever heard. WHITE FOOD COLORING!! i didn’t know they made that.