Banana & White Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Banana & White Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana & White Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Prep time:

  • Cook time:

  • Total time:

  • Portion/Yield:

    Makes 12 cupcakes

  • Difficulty:

    Easy

Four lonely bananas have been lying in the fruit bowl for two weeks now. I’m feeling too guilty to throw them in the food bin, so thought I had better do something with them. Mr P dislikes bananas and it was a lengthy battle before he allowed me to have them around.

The smell of these banana and white chocolate cupcakes when they are baking is terrific. It lingers throughout the house and it’s heaven (for me, at least!). With Mr P not eating these delights, I will have to take them to work tomorrow, otherwise the devil will be sitting on my shoulder prompting me to eat them all. I’m in serious need to shake off the pounds and these tasty delights will definitely not help my cause. So one for me and the rest will go to work and cheer up my colleagues.

I’m a real girl and love glitz and novel things. Finding edible glitter at the specialist cake shop in town made me smile from ear to ear. Ooh, it’s like getting a new car; all you want to do is use it! So, I decorated these delicious cupcakes with a fabulous cream cheese frosting, a few silver balls and finally, for the ‘piece de resistance’, a sprinkle of my magical disco white hologram edible glitter! They are as pretty as a picture and I can’t wait to take them to work.

Ingredients & Method

For the cupcakes

  • 150g unsalted butter, softened
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 1 very ripe banana, peeled and mashed
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 125g plain flour
  • 25g cornflour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 50g white chocolate chips

For the cream cheese frosting

  • 100g cream cheese or full-fat soft cheese (Philadelphia is perfect for this)
  • 200g icing sugar, sifted
  • 25g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • silver balls and edible glitter (see Cook's Notes), to decorate

First make the cupcakes. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cupcake cases.

Cream the butter and caster sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Stir in the mashed banana, then gradually mix in the eggs. Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder over the creamed mixture, add the white chocolate chips, then fold everything together. Do not overwork the batter, otherwise you’ll end up with heavy cupcakes.

Fill a disposable piping bag with the cupcake batter, snip the tip off, then pipe the cupcake batter into the paper cases, filling each case about three-quarters full. (Alternatively, just spoon the cupcake batter into the paper cases, dividing it evenly.) Bake the cupcakes in the oven for 20–22 minutes or until risen and golden brown (insert a metal skewer into the centre of a cupcake; if it comes out clean, they are cooked).

Remove from the oven, cool slightly in the tin, then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.

Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy (I use an electric hand-held mixer with a whisk attachment to make the frosting). Pour the cooled melted butter slowly into the cream cheese mixture, whisking as you go, then continue whisking for a couple more minutes or so to incorporate more air. Cover and chill the frosting in the fridge for at least an hour before using (see Cook’s Notes). This frosting is fairly soft, so take it out of the fridge just a few minutes before you use it.

Spoon or pipe the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cupcakes, then decorate them with silver balls and edible glitter to make them look pretty. These cupcakes are best served on the day they are made, but will keep in an airtight container at a cool room temperature overnight to serve the next day.

Cook’s Notes

This frosting is best made the day before it is required so that it can set slightly and develop a fantastic gloss. Keep it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

I buy edible glitter from our local cake craft shop (though make sure the glitter is edible and do not use craft glitter), but some supermarkets also stock it. A small tub goes a very long way provided you apply the glitter with a small brush. I found a very fine brush at the same cake shop, but you could simply buy a cheap painter’s brush from a craft shop. Dip the dry brush into the glitter and shake it over the frosted cupcakes to apply a bit of glitz, glamour and sparkle!