Banana Cupcakes with Walnut Cinnamon Topping

I always get excited by bananas going freckly and darkening merrily in the fruit-bowl – they add such awesome sweetness for baking. This recipe is a banana cake adaptation from my grandmother’s ancient copy of the Edmonds Cookery Book – I’ve made it gluten & dairy free, with about a third of the sweeteners. You can easily serve the cupcakes on their own, or go a bit fancy and make the topping too. This easily adapts to make one large cake.

 

For the cupcakes

3 beautifully ripe bananas

2 free range or organic eggs

½ cup neutral oil, like rice bran – olive is fine

¼ cup milk (rice or almond work well)

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup coconut sugar (or rapadura)

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup ground almonds

¼ cup buckwheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

 

For the topping

¼ cup coconut oil, gently melted

5 Tbsp ground almonds

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ cup roughly chopped walnuts

1 Tbsp maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 180C and get out your cupcake tray – either line with paper cases or grease gently. Coconut oil is good for this.

Put the bananas in a large bowl and use the back of a fork to mash them well. Beat in the eggs, oil and coconut sugar until you have a rich, thick paste. (you can use a stick/immersion blender to puree it all together instead, but I quite enjoy finding the odd chunk of smooth banana in my cupcake)

Heat the plant milk until hot, then add the teaspoon of baking soda and stir well – this is my daughter’s favourite part “the foamy frothy bit!”. Stir the foamy froth into the banana mixture.

Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir well. Spoon the batter into cupcake tray, about three quarters full.

For the topping, simply mix all the ingredients together then spoon a little on the top of each uncooked cupcake.

Pop into the oven for 20 minutes.

For making a cake: you can make two shallower cakes, and sandwich them together with sliced banana and whipped cream or cashew cream, or make one large cake. This will take longer to cook, as it’s quite a wet batter – after 30 mins or so, check the centre by inserting a clean knife or skewer inside to see if it comes out clean. It might end up being 40 minutes, depending on your oven’s ferocity.