I signed up to participate in a bonus round of the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club. Members are required to bake one recipe a month, on the 15th. A bonus round for the Banana Pecan Cupcakes was set for Sept 30 on a voluntary basis. I couldn’t pass it by. It just so happens that the kids had been asking me to make banana bread AND I had some practically rotten bananas at the ready.
Mr. MarthaAndMe grew up eating banana bread a lot. I didn’t. His mother always baked banana bread inside a clean tin can, so that it came out round. As a kid, that was a big deal to him. Although I don’t bake my banana bread in a tin can, I do make it once in a while. Mr. MarthaAndMe likes to put cream cheese on his (blech!) but the kids like theirs plain. I always use my grandmother’s recipe which is foolproof. I was ready to give Martha’s recipe a try though.
Martha’s recipe is pretty similar to mine, but she uses cake flour. Normally I 
use half white flour and half wheat flour in mine, but I followed the instructions here. The rest of the recipe was pretty unremarkable. I whipped it up and filled cupcake papers with it. Then it hit me – the recipe has no cinnamon in it! That is a travesty, so I mixed some cinnamon and coarse sugar together and sprinkled it on the tops of the cupcakes. Also, I left about 6 cupcakes without nuts for Dude Martha, who prefers no nuts in his.
These cupcakes took a lot longer to bake than Martha said – about 10 minutes more. They turned out nicely and everyone liked them. I did not frost them because these are really a muffin, not a cupcake and I also did top them with cinnamon and sugar.
I think I would stick to my grandmother’s recipe in the future, but I might make them as muffins, because they are convenient for freezing and for people to grab for breakfast.
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I make banana bread here at my B&B a lot. Didn’t know about the cinnamon. Will have to try adding it next time. Thanks for the suggestion!
It seems like I am the only one who thoroughly enjoyed this recipe! 🙂 Well of course I didn’t make the caramel buttercream, but I thought the cupcakes were great since they were moist, flavorful, and well textured.
Yours look great!
Thanks for doing the bonus round with us! Super star!
It didnt even dawn on me that there was no cinnamon in it. Your with the cinn-sugar topping sounds wonderful.
I always use cinnamon in my banana bread, so it was a necessary ingredient to get people here to eat it!
I agree – it NEEDED cinnamon – these look great! And they really don’t need any frosting – the flavor is powerful by itself. Nicely done – and I’m sure your family recipe is just as good (if not better)!
I thought they were more like a muffin too. They do look yummy and the cinnamon sugar topping sounds delightful.
Wow, I didnt even realize that there wasnt any cinnamon. I think I was just so excited about the caramel buttercream haha =]
Understandably so! If I had made that frosting I would have eaten every one of these!
Wait, she asked to use cake flour?? Whoops! I totally used all-purpose.
I agree, more like a muffin than cupcake. Cupcake makes me think chocolate..mmm..
These look really good! I like how you knew intuitively to add the cinnamon – I think it’s the sign of someone who is a true baker at heart.
Oooo – I will have to add cinnamon next time!
I’m with Dude Martha. I’ll take a care package with no nuts, please. 🙂
I also made these and they turned out great. I do agree they are more like a muffin versus a cupcake. I followed the ingredients exactly…even frosting them and garnishing with a banana slice…they were pretty delicious!!!
I agree! Cupcake=chocolate!
So pretty!
Sounds like they turned out great!