Tender, fluffy banana cupcakes topped with the silkiest, fluffiest brown sugar cinnamon ermine frosting.
The banana cupcake bases are moist, warmly spiced with a bit of cinnamon, and perfectly sweet. Use the ripest bananas, as the riper and spottier they are, the better their flavor and easier it is to incorporate them into the batter.
Ermine frosting is an old fashioned kind of icing and is sometimes called boiled milk frosting or flour frosting. Don't let those names put you off though. Once you've tried it, you'll totally understand why it's also sometimes called Magic Frosting! It's easy to veganize, not nearly as sweet as traditional American buttercream, and has a texture similar to coconut whipped cream. If you've never tried vegan ermine frosting, you're in for a real treat!
How to Make Vegan Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Ermine Frosting
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl
- Mix the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix
- Bake the vegan banana cupcakes in a standard muffin tin
- Make the flour paste (roux) for the frosting while the cupcakes bake
- Completely cool the cupcakes and roux
- Whip the roux and vegan butter to make the frosting and pipe onto the cupcakes
Based on the interest you guys have had in my other banana treats, especially my Triple Chocolate Banana Bread , Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread and Snickerdoodle Banana Muffins, I thought you'd also enjoy a new recipe to use up those over-ripe banana buddies on the counter. I hope you love these vegan banana cupcakes as much as we do!
If you make these Vegan Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Ermine Frosting please give it a rating in the recipe card or let me know in the comments! I love connecting on Instagram where you can tag me in your creations using my recipes. You can also follow me on Pinterest and Facebook. Thank you for reading along!
Vegan Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Ermine Frosting
Ingredients
For the Banana Cupcake Bases:
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 medium)
- ¾ cup unsweetened plant-based milk
- ⅓ cup neutral oil (e.g. Avocado, canola, etc)
- 2 tablespoon distilled white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Cinnamon Ermine Frosting:
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened plant-based milk
- ¾ cup soft brown sugar packed
- ¾ cup vegan butter sticks, softened at room temperature not tub style
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Banana Cupcake Bases:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare a standard sized cupcake/muffin baking tray with paper cupcake liners.
- Sift the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to blend thoroughly.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, plant-based milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla extract.
- Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry, and mix with a spoon just until combined. Do not over mix.
- With a medium scoop or large spoon, fill the paper liners about ⅔ full with the cupcake batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few cooked crumbs. Cool the bases in the tray for 5-10 minutes, then gently transfer each cupcake to a cooling rack. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting or the frosting will melt.
For the Cinnamon Ermine Frosting:
- Whisk the flour and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Pour in the cold milk slowly, whisking constantly. Pour through a fine mesh sieve into a small pot and place over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Add the brown sugar. Once the mixture thickens and is bubbling, cook another 2 minutes stirring constantly. Do not under-cook or the frosting will taste like flour and will not thicken enough.
- Pour into a bowl and place plastic wrap directly over the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool completely to room temperature.
- In a stand-mixer with whisk attachment, beat the vegan butter on high for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the speed to medium, and add the cooled flour mixture a spoonful at a time. Once it's all added, beat on high for about 5 minutes or until light, fluffy and silky.
- Pipe the frosting onto completely cooled cupcakes.
Rachel says
Delicious! I’ve made this several times and it’s always a hit. I live in Denver so adjusted the temp for high altitude 370 for 48 min and it is perfectly moist. I made 1.5x the glaze and used golden rum it’s great.
Lorenne says
Loved the frosting recipe! Would it also work with gluten-free flour?
Adelina says
We made this last week and we’re very intrigued with the frosting recipe as we haven’t made it before, nor heard about it. It was a really nice recipe as I have always had a hard time with a vegan butter frosting - it’s too runny, doesn’t pipe well, or doesn’t taste very good and this frosting changes that! Thank you for sharing a great recipe! The cupcakes were a hit!
Crumbs & Caramel says
Hi Adelina, I'm so happy you enjoyed the cupcakes and love ermine frosting as much as I do! Thanks for taking the time to let me know! ~ Bronwyn
Denali says
Great cupcakes! I baked mine for 20 minutes and they were a bit underdone and dense so I would do it longer next time! Reminded me more of banana bread than cupcakes but super yummy nonetheless. The frosting was amazing! Thanks for sharing the recipe
Crumbs & Caramel says
I'm so happy you enjoyed them! For sure, with the addition of bananas for natural flavor, they won't be as light as a plain vanilla cupcake. So glad you enjoyed the frosting, too - ermine is pretty magical! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! ~Bronwyn
Trina and Tina says
Thankful for this!