Chocolate Covered Banana Cupcakes: SRS

Hi All!  It’s the 20^th, which means it’s time for this month’s Surprise Recipe Swap!!

This month, I was assigned Sarah’s blog, Sarah Lynn’s Sweets.  Sarah’s blog is all about delicious sweets and beautiful creations, so it was right up my alley!

The recipe I chose to make was actually Strawberry Banana Cupcakes, but since I’m a chocolate fanatic, I swapped out the strawberry frosting for chocolate (if you’re more of a strawberry person, be sure to check out Sarah’s recipe!)

The cupcake itself is reminiscent of banana bread, only lighter and a touch sweeter.

Cupcakes weren’t the only thing I made with this recipe!  I’ll give you a sneak peek…

…but you’ll have to click on over to my other blog, Amy’s Confectionery Adventures to get all the details!

Thank you, Sarah, for a delicious recipe!  Don’t forget to stop on by and say hello to Sarah!

Recipe Notes:

*For the banana puree, process 2 large, ripe bananas, in a mini food processor until very smooth.  Alternately, use baby food bananas.

Chocolate Covered Banana Cupcakes

Adapted from Sarah Lynn’s Sweets

1 box white cake mix

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

3 tbsp canola oil

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 tsp banana extract

½ tsp vanilla extract 

1/3 cup water

1 cup pureed banana (see note)

Chocolate Frosting 

Banana slices

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin tins with cupcake liners (alternately spray desired cake pans with nonstick spray).

Place all of the cupcake ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until smooth; about 2 minutes.  Divide the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling each cup ¾ full.

Bake in the preheated oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  (8-inch cakes will take 30-35 minutes to cook through).  Move to wire racks and cool completely before frosting.

To frost, pipe chocolate frosting onto the cupcakes with a large circle tip (I used an Ateco #808), and garnish with banana slices.

Makes 28-30 cupcakes