Chocolate Chip and Banana Cupcakes

I feel like half the time, I pick a particular recipe solely because I have some ingredient I need to use for whatever reason. Like some corn syrup I bought ages ago for one recipe and never used again. Or that milk in the fridge that's going to go bad tomorrow if I don't use it up today. This time, it was some overly ripe bananas sitting in the fruit bowl on my kitchen counter.

After rifling through my recipe books, I came up with chocolate chip and banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. They were really easy to make, and pretty tasty as well. I wasn't crazy about the cream cheese frosting at first because I usually prefer a sweeter frosting. It went well with the banana and chocolate chip flavor though, and it grew on me as I ate pretty much the whole batch :)



Chocolate Chip and Banana Cupcakes, slightly adapted from Chocolate Chip and Banana Cupcakes in 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly.

Makes 12 small cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup self-rising flour
2 eggs
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup cream cheese
1 cuo confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
sprinkles or whatever you like to garnish (the book suggests banana slices, but that would only be a good idea if you plan on eating them right away, as the banana slices would get nasty sitting around...)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Put 12 paper baking cups in a muffin pan.

2. Use an electric mixer to combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and nutmeg in a large bowl until smooth (about 1 1/2 minutes).

3. Stir in the mashed bananas and chocolate chips until well combined.

4. Spoon the batter into the cups and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then take cupcakes out of pan and cool.

5. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer until soft and smooth.

6. Add the confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Beat quickly until smooth and well combined.

7. Frost the cupcakes and decorate however you like!