Chocolate Chip Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

I find bananas to be an extremely underappreciated ingredient and flavor. They are so versatile and are one of the few foods that can take you from day to night. Who doesn't enjoy banana pancakes, banana bread, banana smoothies, banana cream pie, banana cookies, chocolate dipped bananas, banana ice cream, banana cake, banana chips, or banana splits? Bananas can be fried, mashed, frozen, diced, sliced or just eaten whole. On this Sunday while my husband was flipping between the World Cup and the US Open, I found myself reaching for our browning bananas and trying to determine what I could quickly whip up before they became wasted money. I finally settled on Chocolate Chip Banana Cupcakes. These little babies are amazing because not only will they satisfy your taste buds, but they are quick to prepare and so simple that my 4 year old niece could master them. They are perfect for a Wednesday afternoon or you can always use the frosting to nicely dress them up and wow your friends at the next dinner party. Either way, these little bites of heaven will not disappoint.


The recipe I use originates from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook Baking, however, I tend to stray somewhat from recipes based on what I am feeling and what ingredients I have on hand. Here is how I made these today:


1 ½ cups of flour


¾ cup of sugar


1 ½ teaspoons baking soda


¼ teaspoon of salt


3 Large bananas mashed


½ cup butter melted


1 large egg


3 tablespoons of low-fat milk – add lemon juice


¾ cup milk chocolate chips


First add the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Next mash the bananas, add the melted butter and egg (at room temperature). Now, the original recipe calls for buttermilk, but I was fresh out, so instead I used low-fat milk and added a few drops of lemon juice to make my buttermilk substitute. This worked great, but feel free to use buttermilk if you have that available. After adding the milk substance of your choice to the banana mixture, slowly added in the dry ingredients. The last step - add your chocolate chips. I was all out of semi-sweet (the husband had requested chocolate chip cookies earlier in the week) so I used milk chocolate chips and found these to work wonderfully.


Bake at 350 for 20 – 25 minutes. I made these cupcakes a little bit smaller so they did not require the full 25 minutes. If you make full sized cupcakes, be sure to bake for the full cooking time.


Quick Chocolate Frosting:

½ cup of melted butter


4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped and melted


1 ½ cups of confectioner’s sugar


3 tablespoons of milk (add more as needed)


Let the cupcakes cools completely before frosting, otherwise you will have melting frosting on your hands. Enjoy with a glass of ice cold milk!