Banana Nutella Cupcakes |Cooking With Amanda

How do you like your bananas?

Is that a strange question to start with? My boyfriend, Mikey, likes them after they have just turned yellow, without a trace of softness or brown. Me? I like them covered in brown spots. I will not touch them unless at least 50% of the peel is nearly black. Mikey finds it horribly disgusting, haha!

And when it comes to baking with bananas, they had better be on the verge of totally mush - we're talking completely black. Actually, I probably use bananas most people would have composted, but what can I say? I think they need to be super duper sweet to bake with!

Regardless of how you like your bananas, you're going to want to save a few to use in these cupcakes!

The cake base comes from my fave local Seattle cupcake shop, Trophy Cupcakes. I actually adore their cupcakes, and adapt pretty much every cupcake I make from them! (Remember these chocolate cupcakes with lavender goat cheese frosting? Yep, the cake was adapted from Trophy!) The resulting base is full of banana flavor, but not overly sweet. The cake has a light, sugary outer crust, and a moist, tender interior.

But the real star here? The frosting! Everyone knows that Nutella and bananas are a match made in Heaven, but add in cream cheese and you have a perfect trio! The cream cheese lends a slight tang, and silky-smooth texture that butter alone just can't provide. Of course, due to the cream cheese, it isn't quite as stiff as traditional buttercreams, but it still pipes very well!

I made a batch of these for my friend for his birthday, and sent a batch to work with Mikey, and everyone loved them! Mikey even had co-workers asking for the frosting recipe right then and there!

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Banana Nutella Cupcakes Recipe

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Ingredients

For the Cupcakes:

2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, plus 6 tablespoons
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 bananas, very ripe

For the Frosting:

16 ounces cream cheese, or neufchatel, at room temperature (2 blocks)
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup nutella
pinch of salt, small

Directions

For the Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 and 1/2 muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and vanilla; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar for 8 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
Add in the eggs and beat until combined, scraping the bowl down after. Add in the bananas and beat until combined.
On the lowest speed, alternately add in the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.
Scrape the bowl and stir until smooth. Allow the batter to rest for 15 minutes.
Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for 18 minutes, then allow them to cool for 5 minutes in the tins before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth.
Add in the confectioners' sugar and beat on high speed for 8 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Add in the Nutella and salt and beat until combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl and ensure everything is mixed.
Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag or large Ziploc with the end snipped off.
Pipe onto your cooled cupcakes!