Banana Sundae Cupcakes

There must be something in the air lately, I've just been feeling really creative in the kitchen. I had some bananas leftover from last week that had to be used. Badly. After running through the usual options of muffins, banana bread, and banana pudding, I settled on cupcakes. I couldn't find a specific recipe I wanted to use, so I improvised on the recipe. I knew I wanted a banana cake, whip cream tasting-frosting, a chocolate drizzle, and chopped nuts.

The cupcakes turned out fantastically. Can't stop eating them good. The recipe made 24 cupcakes, so with a heavy heart, I knew I had to give most of them away. Between the hubby's aunt and uncle, and then his mother, we've managed to clear the house of most of them. They were a huge hit with all the in-laws, which I judged by the pace of which people were scarfing them down.

They were a bit laborious to undertake, but hey, the weekend was made for relaxing while baking yummy treats in the kitchen :)

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup flour
3 ripe bananas
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp lemon juice
3 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup greek yogurt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnut pieces, chopped

Recipe for frosting: Whip Cream Frosting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line 2 cupcake pans with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, combine cake mix and flour.
3. In another small bowl, mash bananas together with baking soda and lemon juice.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs through the vanilla extract. Add the banana mixture to the wet ingredients, whisk until well combined. Add the cake mix/flour to the wet ingredients, stir until batter is mostly smooth (there will be chunks of banana in the batter).
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 way full. Bake in oven 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to a cooling rack.
6. Prepare whip cream frosting.
7. When cupcakes are completely cool, frost with whip cream frosting.
8. In a double broiler, melt chocolate chips until smooth. Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes.
9. Place all cupcakes on a cookie sheet. Using a spoon, drizzle chocolate over cupcakes. Dust cupcakes with chopped walnuts. Place cookie sheet in the fridge for 30 minutes, then immediately serve. Store remaining cupcakes in fridge.

Cake recipe adapted from Your Cup of Cake