Semi-Homemade Hummingbird Cupcakes

I have never had a opportunity to sample Hummingbird Cake, but whenever I would run across a recipe, I would think about how wonderful it sounded. I mean, what’s not to love . . . a cake with bananas and pineapple, maybe a little coconut and nuts, and topped with a cream cheese frosting. Oh my, oh my!

I had kind of forgotten about it, until my friend Michelle over at A Latte Food shared her recipe for Hummingbird Bread awhile back and I’ve had it on my mind ever since. She always bakes up some amazing confections!

But I am more into semi-homemade baking, so when I did a quick online search, I found a Martha White recipe for Hummingbird cupcakes that I could make a few tweaks to, inspired by Michelle’s recipe, and bake up a tasty treat with all of the flavors, but with less work.

I wasn’t disappointed!

I always thought the banana nut muffin mixes had walnuts, but after looking at the Martha White package, there is a mixture of several kinds of nuts, including walnuts and pecans. So if you want to add a few chopped nuts to the top, use whatever you like and have on hand.

I used a 1/2 tub of Cream cheese frosting, instead of making the frosting from scratch, because I didn’t have any powdered sugar. The frosting recipe below looks super easy to make, though!

However, as much as I love cream cheese frosting, these would be just as delicious without frosting and served as muffins.

I was going to add an Amazon link to the muffin mixes, to make it easier for you to find since we’re all self-isolating, but oh my gosh! The cheapest ones were $9.97. The sellers claimed they weren’t price-gouging, but when you can buy them anywhere else for around $1.25, something doesn’t sound right. These cupcakes are good, but I don’t think I’d spend over $25 dollars to make a dozen cupcakes, by the time you add in all of the other ingredients.

Semi-Homemade Hummingbird Cupcakes

Printable recipe

Prep 10 minutes Bake 20 – 22 minutes Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

• Non-Stick Cooking Spray

Cupcake Ingredients

• 2 (7.6 oz.) packages Martha White Banana Nut muffin mix
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (1 large banana)
• Optional: 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Homemade Frosting Ingredients

• 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• Optional: chopped nuts to garnish top of cupckaes

Directions

For cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF/220°C. Spray 12 medium muffins cups with no-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together muffin mix, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk and pineapple just until blended.
3. Stir in mashed bananas and optional coconut.
4. Fill muffins cups just below full.
5. Bake for 20 – 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan 3 to 4 minutes, and then remove from pan and cool completely before frosting.

For Homemade Frosting:

1. In a large bowl (whip together on medium speed) the softened cream cheese, and butter, plus the vanilla until smooth.
2. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until blended.
3. Spread on cooled cupcakes.
4. Sprinkle optional chopped nuts on top.
   

Enjoy!