Banana Nut Crunch Cupcakes

These cupcakes are a real treat for anyone who loves banana. They are really dense, almost a combination of cake and bread. The super-sweet buttercream is the perfect topping for the milder cupcake. You can thank my Nana for the recipe! She makes a banana cake and I just turned them into cupcakes. It's her buttercream recipe, too. Speaking of the buttercream, this is a triple recipe. I made 14 jumbo cupcakes so I had some left over. If you make 30 regular cupcakes you should have just the right amount. After the cupcakes were iced, I added 3 toasted pecans to each one. To toast them I used a small stoneware dish and heated them at 30 second intervals in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring each time. You could also do it in a small pan on the stove. Just make sure you take them off the heat when you start smelling them. They can burn if you aren't paying attention. You could also chop the pecans and sprinkle them over the top. I was just feeling kinda lazy! Be sure to check out Cupcake Tuesday!

Banana Cupcakes
(makes approx. 14 jumbo or 30 regular cupcakes)

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Add vanilla. Add a third of the dry ingredients at a time and alternate with the buttermilk. Add mashed bananas and mix well.

Fill lined cupcake pans to ¾ full and bake for 24-28 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 3 minutes and then move to wire rack to finish cooling.


Vanilla Buttercream
(makes enough icing for approx. 30 regular cupcakes)

¾ cup vegetable shortening
1 ½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vanilla
9 cups powdered sugar
¾ cup milk

Mix together shortening, salt, vanilla and 3 cups of the sugar. Alternate adding the milk and remaining sugar until smooth and creamy. Add more sugar to thicken or milk to thin as needed to reach desired consistency. Beat on medium-high speed for about 10 minutes to make the icing light and fluffy.