Vegan Banana Cupcakes

swirlycinnacakes's Note:

vegan dessert

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 12

• 1/2 cup ripe banana, mashed
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil or 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup soymilk or 2/3 cup rice milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your pan with paper liners.
2. Throw your mashed banana in a blender or push it through a sieve to make sure there are no lumps in it.
3. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl, mix well. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, soy or rice milk, vanilla, almond and mashed banana. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry, don’t over mix or you’ll get tough cupcakes. Small lumps are fine.
4. Fill liners 2/3 full, top the batter of each cupcake with 1 tsp of finely chopped chocolate and use a toothpick to gently stir them inches.
5. Bake 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Reviews

[magpie diner]

This will definitely be on my 'best of 2011' list - these are fantastic cupcakes. Soft and moist cake, but airy...which I find can be tricky in vegan baking. Granted, I used all-purpose (unbleached) flour, normally I add something whole grain. But I really think it's the addition of banana that made these so fantastic. And another reviewer said, the banana flavour is subtle and the almond really compliments. I also agree that you could cut down a bit on the sugar if you wanted to. However as a birthday treat mainly for children, it was a great recipe to follow exactly as written. A cream cheese or peanut butter frosting would be great with these - I paired with Orange Frosting.

[Caramellajane]

These were a hit! I didn't have any vegan chocolate so I left it out completely and this didn't hurt the recipe at all. You could easily reduce the amount of sugar to 1/2 cup if you wanted to make them a little bit healthier too. I will be making these for my son's school lunchbox, they're great.

[ladypit]

Oh wow these are good! I have some soymilk to use up and so went in search of recipes to use it up. This is lovely. I used one banana that had been frozen. The banana flavor is not strong, but the almond extract really helps the flavor. As we are not vegan I put some regular semi-sweet chocolate chips on the top. Next time I'd fold a small handful into the batter. I think everyone needs some baking recipes that don't call for eggs or milk and this one is wonderful. Thanks.