brown sugar banana bread

Bananas are one of the best fruits to have around, especially in my family's household. We all like them at varying levels of ripeness, and once they're too ripe for all of us, we love banana bread. 

Our go-to recipe comes from the infamous box, but since you know, I live on my own now, I thought it would be fun to try a new recipe. Since these cupcakes were so tasty, I whipped up the batter and poured it into a loaf tin. The result was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Brown Sugar Banana Bread

1 1/3 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 egg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350*. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside. In a bowl (I had my stand mixer on medium), whisk egg and add brown sugar, mixing until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Add sour cream and melted butter and mix. Stir in dry ingredients, then add mashed bananas and mix until batter comes together. Fold in walnuts, if you're adding them. Pour batter into a greased loaf tin and bake 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let it cool a bit before slicing.

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banana cupcakes with avocado buttercream

How Sweet It Is wasn't kidding when she said you really had to trust her on this one.

Avocado in frosting? Are you crazy?

Yeah, probably. But seriously guys, these were some of the best cupcakes I've ever made. The banana cupcake was perfectly light and fluffy, and not too sweet. Don't fret, the buttercream made up for it! And I promise, you could barely taste the avocado. It made for a really creamy frosting, though. I know I made these barely 12 hours ago, but I'm seriously considering making them again before the weekend is over. 

 Since I can't be trusted around cupcakes wanted to do a nice thing, I brought half of the cupcakes down to the front desk in my building. They're always super nice and helpful!

 Now if you'll excuse me, I have leftover frosting I need to go eat straight out of the bowl with a spoon.

Brown Sugar Banana Cupcakes with Avocado Buttercream (from How Sweet It Is)

1 1/3 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 egg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large ripe bananas, mashed*

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside. In a bowl (I had my stand mixer on medium), whisk egg and add brown sugar, mixing until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Add sour cream and melted butter and mix. Stir in dry ingredients, then add mashed bananas and mix until batter comes together. Don't worry, it really should be that thick! Using an ice cream scoop (or ya know, a large spoon), scoop batter into liners. Bake for 15-18 minutes. I set the timer for 15 and toothpick-checked then, but they needed the full 18 minutes. **Let them cool completely before even thinking about adding the frosting! Otherwise you may get a slightly runny finish (see above).

Avocado Buttercream

2 ripe avocados

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

Cream avocado and butter together until smooth. Stir in salt and vanilla. Whisk in one cup of powdered sugar at a time (if using a mixer, make sure it's on low). If you still want the icing thicker after all of the sugar is added, just add more until it reaches the desired thickness.

*For the bananas, I had a few over-ripe ones hanging out in the freezer that I thawed before starting. They were perfectly mushy and mixed in really well with very little effort.