Halloween is just around the corner and as the snow begins to fly, I find that it is just perfect weather for baking. I'm not sure about you, but I have too many frozen bananas in my freezer and I often need to get rid of them via Banana Bread or other baked treats. I recently combined a banana cupcake recipe with a simple cream cheese frosting and the results were super yummy! Here are some happy treats for your Halloween party!
Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- ½ Cup Butter
- ½ Cup granulated sugar
- ¾ Cup brown sugar
- 4 mashed bananas
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Flour
- 2 Tablespoons water
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup milk
- ¾ cups pecans or walnuts
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugars, add mashed bananas. Add eggs and vanilla. Add flour, water, baking soda and salt. Add milk. Stir in pecans or walnuts. (I prefer pecans, myself.)
Scoop into 12 cupcake papers (beware, I had more than enough for 21 total cupcakes). Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick (or spaghetti noodle) inserted near the center comes out clean.
I added ingredients for high altitude baking, so these should be fairly cupcake-fluffy above 6,000ft. (Especially since they were fine here at 9,000ft!)
Pumpkin-Face Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
- 2 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar (con-fec-tion-er noun "a person whose occupation is making or selling candy and other sweets) Don't worry, you can use powdered sugar instead. ;) -1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring drops (red and yellow)
- Gel frosting for Pumpkin faces (black and green)
Directions:
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners', er, powdered sugar. Drop the red and yellow food coloring drops according to the directions on the food coloring box. (Mine was 2 red to 3 yellow). Add until you have the desired color of orange for the pumpkin frosting. Store in the refrigerator after use. Draw the faces using the black gel frosting and do the same with the green gel for the pumpkin leaves on top. Enjoy!