Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Is it a muffin or a cupcake? It's all in the frosting, leave it off and you have a delicious muffin for breakfast, add it on and YUM, awesome little cupcakes! Both the cupcake and frosting are adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, I just think they needed something extra. I've made these before and they were unbelievable, but decided to make just one more change, exchanging some of the butter for applesauce instead and I'm glad I did. So that you don't have a super sweet cupcake, make sure your applesauce isn't sweetened, or use baby food!

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (about 4 very ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
¼ cup ground pecans (finely grind in a food processor), optional
* more ground pecans for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, applesauce, mashed bananas, eggs, and both extracts. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not over mix). Fold in pecans. Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups. (Ice cream/cookie scoop is best).
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. (Start checking at 20 minutes, and remove as soon as toothpick is clean, do not over bake). Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, 15 minutes out of fridge is best
1 tablespoon honey
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract

1. Cream butter with electric mixture until warm and smooth. Add honey, cinnamon, and extracts. Beat on high 4-5 minutes.
2. Frost cupcakes with the back of spoon once completely cooled.
3. Sprinkle with extra ground pecans.

Tip: If you only have sweetened applesauce, cut bake slightly on the sugar. Print this post