When life gives you bananas, you wish they didn’t all ripen at the same time. But because your wish will never come true, you should banana cupcakes! Or rather, half banana, half chocolate cupcakes. These are banana-chocolate, yellow-brown, yin-yang cupcakes. This recipe was born out of a need to use up overly ripe bananas and some baking chocolate that was nearing its expiry.
Cake flour makes things light and airy because of its lower protein content. If you don’t have cake flour, just use all purpose flour; you’ll have slightly denser, but tasty cupcakes.
Beat sugar, eggs and salt together. Then beat in butter and vanilla. Fold in cake flour, baking soda and baking powder. This is your basic cake mixture.
Divide the batter in half. Add a mashed banana to one half and melted chocolate to the other half of the batter.
Now you are ready to make your yin yang, half and half cupcakes. Just place a spoon of the chocolate mixture to one side of a cupcake or muffin tin. Then place a spoon of the banana batter on the other side, so that the muffin cup is filled one half with chocolate and one half with banana batter.
You could also make banana-chocolate swirl or marble cakewith both these batters. Spoon the banana and chocolate batters alternatingly onto a cake tin. Then using a spatula, gently make swirling patterns through the batter to get the marbled cake effect.
Bake in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes and you’ll have banana-chocolate cupcakes!
Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for a few minutes. The mashed banana keeps the cupcakes incredibly moist.
Note: there is a consistency difference between the banana and chocolate halves of the cupcake. I find that the chocolate part is a bit brownie-like (maybe because I used melted chocolate and not cacao powder?). Next time, to even out the consistency, I may mix the mashed banana into the entire batter and then stir in some cacao powder to one half of the banana batter.
The secret to perfect cakes
Don’t over mix the batter. Only fold/mix the batter till the ingredients have just combined. Don’t over handle or over mix the batter.
Don’t over bake the cake. You’ll land up with dry cakes if you over bake them. If your kitchen smells like cake, it means its ready to come out of the oven in a few more minutes. (A tooth pick inserted into the cake must come out clean).
Makes about 12 cupcakes
6 tbsp butter at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar (use upto 3/4 cup if you want it sweeter)
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs at room temperature
¾ tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup cake flour or all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
½ cup mashed ripe banana (1 large ripe banana)
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted over a double boiler.
Preheat oven to 350f. If you are not using a non-stick muffin tin, grease the tin with a little butter and dust it with a little flour.
Using an electric beater or stand mixer, whisk butter, sugar and salt on high speed for about 1 minute. Then add eggs and vanilla and whisk for about 4 minutes of high or till the mixture is pale and fluffy. Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Fold this gently into the egg mixture. Don’t over mix. Divide the cake batter in half. Mix in mashed bananas to one half and melted chocolate to the other half.
Spoon the chocolate and banana batters into muffin tins as shown in the pictures above. Bake for about 18-22 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
yea..I guessed about the consistency part..Neverthless,taste is what matters n I bet this would have tasted heavenly..!
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oh boy, they sound yummy! choc banana mmmm
Rose
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Nice pictures. Looks delicious and wonderful.
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Those look so awesome! So true about those damn bananas. Why can’t they just ripen one at a time?!
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wow!! These cupcakes look yummy!! Just loved it!!
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Overly ripe bananas also inspire creativity ;-D Very pretty! I love the earthy colors of the picture esp. in that rich bowl.
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They just look fantastic.
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At first glance, I thought they are pretty choco cookies.
but no…Whatever they are…very cute and beautiful! 
Bookmarked!
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I actually LIKE that they have difference in consistency…I like that difference in textures!
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Mmmm… this reminds me of black and white cookies, but with more flavour.
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These cupcakes look amazing. Love the beautiful pictures as well.
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These look incredible and pretty easy to make.
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These look great! I’ll have to veganize them and give them a try
I love the chocolate banana combo and banana peanut butter. My mom just made me a banana bundt cake with peanut butter frosting that was delicious.
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I agree with Marc, these remind me of black & white cookies, but with WAY more flavor. Love the contrast here of banana and chocolate flavor, with Yin-Yang Cupcakes being the perfect name!
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OMG, I didn’t receive your feeds for days and I assumed you haven’t posted! I wonder why!
Gosh, are you for real, Sala?
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These look so fantastic and very tempting!
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Oh what a wonderful idea! I love the yin-yang thing. Plus I love regular banana cake and I love chocolate banana cake. I never thought to combine both into one dessert!
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Love the idea to make them side by side! If you want to merge the flavors, these banana bread cupcakes with chocolate chunks are great too.
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I just made banana chocolate chip cookies (by adding a mashed banana to the cookie batter) — chocolate and banana is such a great combination!
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Those look pretty wonderful! I seem to be coming across lots of lovely banana recipes today. I always use my nearly departed bananas to make banana bread, but today I have picked up recipes for cookies, muffins and now cupcakes. Fab!
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I made these today, and they turned out really well. I took the liberty of substituting the butter with an equal measure of vegetable oil, and I don’t think it made a difference (compared with your description). They are really moist and luscious. This is a genius idea.
I love your blog! I’m a vegetarian with a very experimental bent of mind, and it’s SO nice to see recipes that incorporate other cuisines so successfully. Next on my list is your Spiced upside down fig cake.
Thank you for sharing!
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