Brown Butter Banana Cupcakes With Banana Frosting

What is it with kids and fruit? There are times I simply can’t keep it in the house for more than 30 seconds because they are inhaling it practically before I can get it unpacked from the car and then other times it just sits there. Of course, those days when there is no fruit in the house, suddenly everyone wants it. Then the days when I have a ton of something like bananas around because they were griping that there weren’t any, that’s when no one eats them and I end up with 382 over ripe bananas on the counter. What does that lead to? A fruit fly party. They set up tents on my counters near the bananas and late at night I’m kept awake by teeny voices singing “Kum Ba Yah” and  the flicker of a little campfire. So I then set up vinegar swimming pools for them to lure them to their tangy deaths. But I still have 382 bananas to use up that now no one will touch because, “Ewww, they’re too ripe! I don’t like them like this!”

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all a ploy. They do it on purpose to get me to buy bananas that will get too ripe to eat just so that I have to cook with them. And there is only so much banana bread one can eat. Well, unless you’re my husband who would eat it 5 times a day for like 8 weeks before complaining. So one is left trying to figure out what to do with them. I don’t have a blender since mine was broken by an over zealous teen, so that leaves out banana shakes. That’s probably a good thing though because I do so love banana shakes and would over indulge if left to my own devices.

So I made cupcakes. I searched the web for a good recipe but just wasn’t liking anything I found. So this is an amalgamation of a handful of recipes… call it the Frankensteins Monster of banana cupcakes, minus the electrical wires.

These are fairly dense, which is what I was looking for. Call me strange but I like a heavier cake, reminiscent of a pound cake, at times. Not all cakes need to be all light and fluffy. This is fairly sweet with a heavy banana taste and are quite moist. They are great with or without the frosting. I actually only frosted about half and we ate the rest of them plain.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Brown Butter Banana Cupcakes With Banana Frosting

• Cake-
• 1 cup of mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, browned and cooled*
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon banana flavoring (sold by the vanilla)
• 2 cups flour whisked together with
• 1 teaspoon baking soda and
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Banana Frosting-
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup cream cheese, room temp
• 1 large ripe banana, mashed with 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice
• 3 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (will vary)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons banana flavoring

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 16 muffin cups with paper or foil liners.
2. In a large bowl, on medium speed, beat together the sugars and browned butter until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Don’t skimp on the beating.
3. Turn the mixer to low and beat in the bananas, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream and extracts
4. Stir in the flour/baking soda/salt mixture just until combined.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the 16 prepared cups
6. Bake at 350 for 19 to 21 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Let cool in the pan for about a minute then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
8. Frost with banana frosting.
9. Banana Frosting-
10. In medium bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese, mashed banana and the extracts. Beat well for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
11. On low speed (preferably over the sink to contain sugar dust), beat in 3 cups of the powdered sugar. Beat for 3 minutes until thick and creamy. If it isn’t of spreading consistency, add in another cup to cup and a half of sugar and beat well for about 2 minutes.
12. Spread or pipe onto the cupcakes.

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