Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes

As promised, I give unto you the first recipe of the five glorious cupcakes tasted at the Cupcake Tasting produced by my friend Ann.  I went into this thinking it would be my favorite one.  And it was.  Although the Grapefruit & Buttermilk definitely gave it some intense competition and made me really take a look inward and evaluate myself.  I came out of this a better person, I think.

(Bonus!  There's a 4x6 recipe card below for you to print.  Just click to enlarge and then right click & save!)

Banana Cream Pie Cupcake

2 ½ c flour

1 T baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

½ c unsalted butter, room temp

1 c sugar

¾ c light brown sugar

2 lg eggs

1 tsp vanilla

4 very ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 c plain yogurt

Crushed cinnamon graham crackers

Banana slices for garnish, or banana chips

Premake filling and frosting (see below).  They need at least 30 min in the fridge before they can be used.  Preheat oven to 375.  Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and set aside.  In mixer, cream butter with sugars until light.  Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla.  Add flour mixture alternating with bananas and yogurt, mix on low until just moistened.  Batter may be lumpy.  Do not over mix.  Bake 20-25 min.  Cool 5 min in pan then remove to a rack.  When cool, remove a bit of the center of each cupcake for filling.  Fill with banana filling and top with Vanilla Frosting.  Garnish with crushed graham crackers, and bananas if desired.  Keep chilled.

Banana Filling

1 pkg instant banana pudding

2 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix banana pudding with milk and add vanilla.  Chill filling for at least 30 minutes before using.

Vanilla Frosting

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding

1 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

8 oz extra creamy whipped topping (or real whipped cream)

¼ c powdered sugar

For frosting: mix vanilla pudding with milk and vanilla, fold in cream and powdered sugar until frosting is creamy.  Chill for at least 30 minutes to set.

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