Gluten Free Banana Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting Recipe
What’s the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? Frosting, for one thing. And while it is perfectly acceptable to eat muffins for breakfast, some would frown upon consuming cupcakes first thing in the morning.
Whenever I give my husband a muffin to try and ask his opinion, it is usually, “it’s not sweet enough” to which I reply, “it’s a muffin, not a cupcake.” That’s why I decided to tweak one of our favorite muffin recipes and turn it into a cupcake – thus this Gluten Free Banana Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting recipe was born.
The cupcake part has the elements of my muffin recipe – bananas, brown sugar, and walnuts but is a little sweeter and, of course, there’s that frosting.
This is one cupcake that my hubby feels is perfectly acceptable to eat for breakfast. I’m not sure I totally agree but I don’t disagree either.
Gluten Free Banana Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
Banana Cupcakes
- 1 cup gluten free all-purpose flour blend
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup Wholesome! organic sugar
- ½ cup Wholesome! organic light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 2 large ripe bananas mashed
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts plus more for garnish
Brown Sugar Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 cup Wholesome! organic light brown sugar packed
- ¼ teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat well.
- Turn the mixer on low and add half the flour mixture, then the sour cream, and finally the rest of the flour. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl well with a spatula to make sure everything is well combined. Stir in the bananas and walnuts. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin tins and bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
Frosting
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, beat all the ingredients together on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, frost, and garnish with chopped walnuts, if desired.
Nutrition
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Are there any viable non-dairy subs for sour cream? Applesauce? Thanks!
Hi Susan,
I know you can buy dairy-free sour cream (Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream is one option I know of). If you’re looking for another option, it might take a little trial and error to see how it works in this recipe, but you could mix dairy free butter with dairy free buttermilk (typical ratio for dairy free buttermilk is 1 cup non-dairy milk + 1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes to sour before using). From what I found, you’d do 3/4 cup DF buttermilk and 1/3 cup DF butter to replace 1 cup sour cream – so you could try that and then just use a portion of the mixture for the sour cream in this recipe. Applesauce seems like a good idea too, although it isn’t quite as thick and creamy as sour cream, but if you try it please let us know how it goes!
Hope this helps.
xo,
Carol