Apple Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Apples and bananas seem to go together beautifully so putting them together in cupcakes seem to be as natural as combining strawberries and chocolate.  Below is my recipe for making some delicious apple banana cupcakes with a delicious cream cheese frosting.  These cupcakes will please almost any guests.

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground allspice
1 1/4 cups of granulated white sugar
2/3 cup of butter
2 large eggs
1/4 cup of buttermilk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoons of almond extract
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and shredded
1 cup of ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup of finely chopped pecans

Frosting Ingredients:

1 cup of butter
2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese
4 cups of confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract


Instructions:

You will want to begin by preheating your oven to 375 degrees F.   You will also want to line 2 (12 cup) cupcake pans with cupcake papers.

Next, you should take a medium mixing bowl and then add in your dry ingredients of flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice and whisk your ingredients together.

You should now cream the butter with the sugar, so place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat them together with an electric mixer until its well blended and nice and fluffy.  Now add your eggs into the mixture, one at a time, and beat until each egg has been fully mixed in.  You should then add in your buttermilk, a bit at a time, and continue to mix with your electric mixer.  Then add in your vanilla and almond extracts and beat your mixture until all of your ingredients are fully incorporated.    Now add in your flour mixture about a cup at a time and beat until it all has been mixed in and you have created a batter.  You now want to fold in your apple and banana and mix them into your batter with a spatula until evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Now, divide the batter evenly among the cupcake pans about 2/3rd of the way up filled.   Place them in your preheated oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through.  You can test the cupcakes to see if they are done by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the cupcake and if it comes out clean its done.  When done, remove from oven and place them on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

While the apple banana cupcakes are cooling you will want to make your frosting.  Before doing so you will want to make certain the cream cheese and butter have softened to room temperature.  Place the butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and mix them together with an electric mixer.  Next add the sugar and beat on high until its smooth, fluffy and creamy.  Now add the lemon juice and the almond extract and mix just until they are incorporated into the mix, but do not over beat the frosting.

You will want to frost the cupcakes with a butter knife or you can pipe the frosting on with a big star tip.  Garnish your apple banana cupcakes with the chopped pecans.