Banana Cupcakes

This recipe originally appeared on Real Housemoms, where I am a contributor.

Are you ready to make the easiest cupcakes ever? Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are literally JUST five ingredients and can even be knocked down to three in a jiffy. It doesn’t get any easier. Seriously.

Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind! #easycupcakerecipes #bananacupcakes #bananarecipes www.savoryexperiments.com


 

Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. So moist and delicious!

All you need are 3-4 ripe bananas, cake mix, 2 eggs, vegetable oil and a can of frosting. The frosting and vegetable can even be omitted in a crunch making them just three ingreidnet cupcakes.

At that point they are more like banana muffins, but still totally tasty.

Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind! #easycupcakerecipes #bananacupcakes #bananarecipes www.savoryexperiments.com

Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. The natural sugars give off a robust banana flavor and the moisture prevents you from needing much else to produce a soft crumb.

Boxed cake mix is something I always have in the pantry. I buy it in bulk when it is on sale in a variety of basic flavors. It can be used to make these fabulous Banana Cupcakes, Cookie Bars, Poke Cakes, a traditional cake and more.

For these cupcakes, you can use white, yellow or chocolate.

Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind! #easycupcakerecipes #bananacupcakes #bananarecipes www.savoryexperiments.com

If you want to get super creative, add in a few other flavors you might have lying around. Chocolate chips or toffee bits pair excellently with the flavors of banana. Add a half a teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin or apple pie spice. You can also add nuts like pecans or walnuts.

Then you can customize the frosting. Cream cheese frosting is always a fabulous choice for banana cupcakes, but you can also use chocolate, German chocolate or vanilla.

Not using vegetable oil gives these Banana Cupcakes more of a muffin texture, so then I just dust them with turbando or powdered sugar.

Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind! #easycupcakerecipes #bananacupcakes #bananarecipes www.savoryexperiments.com

And if I’m really feeling like Susie Homemaker, I adorn them with banana chips, either homemade or store bought. Banana chips are surprisingly challenging to make from scratch without a dehydrator, so I usually cheat and just buy them.

Banana Cupcakes are perfect for dessert, brunch or even breakfast depending on how you decide to customize. One thing is for sure, Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes will soon be your new go-to secret weapon.

Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind! #easycupcakerecipes #bananacupcakes #bananarecipes www.savoryexperiments.com

How to make bananas ripen faster:

  1. Microwave– The quickest way, but least likely to produce super sweet results. Nuke it for 30 seconds to one minute. Basically, you are cooking it and allowing the sugars to release a little before you put it into the recipe.
  2. Oven- the same concept as the microwave. Heat to 350 degrees and bake for 5-30 minutes.
  3. Brown Paper Bag – My mother used this technique, but it still takes about a day. Place your bananas in a brown paper bag and roll it closed. Ethylene will build up and speed up the ripening process.
  4. Tropical Environment – Everything ages faster in the heat. Place your bananas someplace warm, like in a sunny window. It will still take up to a day, depending on how ripe the banana was to begin with.
  5. Single them out – lastly, pull your bananas apart. They ripen much faster separated than they do still hooked together.

Tools for making Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes:

Mixing Bowls– make sure to check out my article on Using the Right Mixing Bowl, you’d be surprised how many people aren’t!

Muffin Tin– I’m assuming you have one, but just in case…

If you liked this recipe then you’ll love these other easy dessert ideas:

Rainbow Cupcakes are super easy and cute. The perfect cupcake for St. Patrick's Day, children's birthday parties or any random day of the week! #rainbowcupcakes #stapatricksdaydesserts www.savoryexperiments.com

Rainbow Cupcakes

5 from 5 votes
Rainbow Cupcakes are super easy and cute. The perfect cupcake for St. Patrick’s Day, children’s birthday parties or any random day of the week!
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Super moist Banana Cake is a great way to use ripe bananas. Mix it with walnuts and top with a cream cheese frosting for a fabulous breakfast cake or fruity dessert. #bananacake www.savoryexperiments.com

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

4.64 from 11 votes
Super moist Banana Cake is a great way to use ripe bananas. Mix it with walnuts and top with a cream cheese frosting for a fabulous breakfast cake or fruity dessert. 
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Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake is a moist chocolate cake in a 9x13 pan with chocolate buttercream frosting. One of my favorite recipes from Grandma! #chocolatemayonnaisecake #chocolatecake #sheetcakerecipes #chocolatecakefromscratch www.savoryexperiments.com

Grandma’s Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

4.27 from 61 votes
Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake is a moist chocolate cake in a 9×13 pan with chocolate buttercream frosting. One of my favorite recipes from Grandma!
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Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind! #easycupcakerecipes #bananacupcakes #bananarecipes www.savoryexperiments.com
Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind! #easycupcakerecipes #bananacupcakes #bananarecipes www.savoryexperiments.com

Banana Cupcakes

4.70 from 39 votes
Five Ingredient Banana Cupcakes are a fabulous alternative to making banana bread with overly ripe bananas. This easy cupcake recipe will blow your mind with flavor and ease! 
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 24 minutes
Total Time: 34 minutes
Servings: 12 cupcaks

Ingredients

  • 16.5 ounce box vanilla cake mix
  • 3-4 ripe bananas
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • Cream Cheese Frosting

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with liners.
  • In a medium bowl, mash bananas.
  • Add cake mix, eggs and vegetable oil. Blend until just mixed.
  • Divide mix evenly among muffin tins.
  • Bake for 18-24 minutes, or until tops gently spring back when touched and pass the toothpick test.
  • Allow to cool fully before frosting. If serving as a muffin or without frosting, dust with powdered sugar and serve warm.
  • If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was! 

Nutrition

Calories: 200 kcal, Carbohydrates: 38 g, Protein: 2 g, Fat: 4 g, Saturated Fat: 2 g, Cholesterol: 27 mg, Sodium: 294 mg, Potassium: 134 mg, Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 20 g, Vitamin A: 60 IU, Vitamin C: 2.6 mg, Calcium: 88 mg, Iron: 1 mg
Author: Jessica Formicola
Calories: 200
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: banana cupcakes, easy cupcakes
Did you make this recipe?I’d love to see your recipes – snap a picture and mention @savoryexperiments or tag #savoryexperiments!
Jessica Formicola in her ktichen

About the Author

Jessica Formicola

Jessica the mom, wife and food lover behind Savory Experiments. She is obsessed with butter, salt and bacon and spends all her time in the kitchen and behind a camera. Jessica is a contributor to PopKitchen by Parade, Better Homes & Gardens, The Daily Meal Food + Travel and more!

Read More About Jessica

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Recipe Rating




Questions and Reviews

  1. 5 stars
    Made these today with chocolate cake mix and made peanut butter icing. They turned out phenomenal! Thanks for the recipe

  2. 5 stars
    Today I made my 3 rd batch of the banana cupcakes and I love them! My kids and my grandchildren too !

    1. Yay! Love to hear that! They also freeze well, but it sounds like they go to fast for leftovers. LOL.

  3. 5 stars
    I made these cupcakes today and they are so yummy 😋! This was my first time ever making something out of mashed bananas and I was a little worried about the batter being so thick but they are fabulous !

  4. 5 stars
    I made this recipe and we loved it! My son is really picky and he even loved them. Thanks for the easy recipe!! I used Betty Crocker French vanilla cake mix.

  5. 5 stars
    The banana muffins were to die for. I toasted pecans chopped up and added to the batter was delicious. They were super moist and delicious. And above all it was very easy. Thank u, it my go to banana muffin firever❤️

  6. 5 stars
    It was very easy & very yummy.
    The store didn’t have vanilla cake, so I used white cake & added vanilla extract.
    I didn’t even have to put any toppings, frostings & such.
    Almost couldn’t stop at just one.
    Had to share with my family & save some for myself to eat later.
    It was wonderful warm fresh out of the oven & just as yummy a cool snack when refrigerated.

  7. 5 stars
    So i made these cupcakes tonight after the huMidity got the best of our bananas this week. I filled the center with sundae caramel and topped with a cream cheese frosting. They are Phenomenal! Thank you!

    1. Hi Anita,

      Probably, but I haven’t tried it personally. I would estimate around 10 minutes too. Just use the toothpick test and if you could report back the time, I’ll add it to the notes so others will know as well.

      Thanks!
      Jessica

    1. Hi Cindy! Thanks for pointing that out, I just updated it. Looks like 38 grams, it is by no means a low-carb cupcake. 🙂

  8. I was hoping for five ingredients. It’s a bit frustrating sorting through all these recipes that list “cake mix” as a single ingredient when I’m looking for simple recipes. I wish it would say “cake box recipe” or something else less misleading.

    Nothing against your recipes or blog. I just wish it was easier to search for what I’m looking for by title.

    1. Thank you for the feedback. It really is only 5 ingredients though. You only use the actual cake mix, not the ingredients you would typically use to make the cake.

  9. 5 stars
    I love pretty these look and I love how easy these are to make. Banana has got to be a family favorite in our home. We will eat anything banana and this sounds like a treat. yum!

  10. These look so good and so (dare I say it) moist! Way to go with doctoring up a cake mix to make these beauts!