Last week I had a request to send cupcakes to my husband’s office. One of the flavor requests was for a cupcake with bananas and some sort of nuts. I’ve made banana with peanut butter before (which is super tasty), but I hadn’t ventured out into a different flavor combo yet. So this month I’m sharing Banana Walnut & Maple Cupcakes.
I referenced my friend Betsy’s banana cupcake recipe except instead of chocolate chips and peanut butter, I used walnuts and maple syrup. Since both bananas and maple syrup are sweet I thought the walnuts would work nicely since they’re not a particularly sweet nut. I also made a nut topping with some chopped walnuts and a little butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and sea salt. It adds a nice crunch, you get that whole “salty-sweet” thing too, and according to my husband, “that makes the cupcake!” Personally I thought that these taste very much like breakfast… in a cupcake. The only thing missing really was some delicious bacon! 😉
These were well received all around. My youngest daughter usually licks all the frosting off of cupcakes, has two or three bites of the cake, and leaves the rest. When I gave her one of these banana walnut & maple cupcakes she ate every. Single. Bite. I was pretty surprised to look down and see her practically cleaning the crumbs off her cupcake wrapper.
Grab those ripe bananas you’ve got hiding out in the freezer (oh, is that just me?) and make some Banana Walnut & Maple cupcakes this weekend.
Happy baking friends!
xox Roxana – The Red Eye Baker
If these cupcakes look tasty check out Banana Cupcakes with Fluffy Brown Sugar Frosting or Maple Bacon Sweet Potato Cupcakes.
- BANANA WALNUT CUPCAKES
- 1 1/2 c flour
- 3/4 c sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 c canola oil
- 4 ripe bananas, smashed
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 c sour cream
- 1 c chopped walnuts
- MAPLE BUTTERCREAM
- 1 c (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
- 2 c powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 c maple syrup
- WALNUT TOPPING
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 c chopped walnuts
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- sea salt to taste
- maple syrup for drizzling (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, smash the ripened bananas. Add the oil, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream and mix until smooth.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in. Whisk the wet and the dry together just before combined, about 10 strokes.
- Add the chopped walnuts and fold them in, about another 10 strokes just until the ingredients are combined.
- Using a scoop, scoop batter into the prepared pans to about 3/4 full. Bake for 17 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a few cupcakes comes clean. Cool in the pans for about a minute then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip the butter for a few minutes until it lightens in color.
- Add the salt and with the mixer on low speed begin adding the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, increasing the to medium high speed and beating well after each addition.
- Add the maple syrup and beat on medium speed until the buttercream is light and fluffy.
- In a small pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the chopped walnuts.
- Toast the nuts for a couple minutes. Be careful not the burn them because they will become very bitter.
- Remove the pan from the heat, add the brown sugar, maple syrup, and sea salt to taste. Allow to cool before topping cupcakes.
- Fill a decorating bag fitted with your favorite tip with buttercream.
- Pipe a swirl of buttercream on the cooled cupcakes and top each one with about a tablespoon of walnut topping.
- Drizzle with a little maple syrup and enjoy!
