Old Fashioned Banana Walnut Cupcakes

I'm a sucker for bananas...erm even banana cake, banana split, banana ball!! Haha yes, a real sucker.

When I saw this recipe from Barefoot Contessa, I was looking at the list of all the ingredients when I spotted vegetable oil and sour cream!! Aha!! With these additions, I'm sure the banana cake will turn out very moist and yummy. I think I'm beginning to like Barefoot Contessa even more than ever. She's a whiz at this!

And so, I obviously bookmarked this recipe. Check out my modifications in blue.

Ingredients:

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

168g 100g caster sugar

100g 80g light brown sugar, lightly packed

109g vegetable oil 

2 extra large eggs, at room temperature

115g sour cream

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

grated zest of 1 orange

250g all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

58g 70g to 80g coarsely chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Just before you preheat your oven, weigh your walnuts and toast them in the oven at the same time. Grease and flour a 9 by 2 inch round cake pan.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the bananas, caster sugar and brown sugar on low speed until combined.
3. With the mixer still on low, add the oil, eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract and orange zest. Mix until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. With the mixer still on low, add the dry ingredients mix until just combined. 
5. Stir in the chopped walnuts, if using.
6. Pour the prepared batter into the cake pan and bake for about 45 to 50 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
7. Spread the frosting thickly on top of the cake and decorate with walnut halves, if using.

If you like cream cheese frosting on top of your banana cake, go to the link above to get the ingredients and method for it. If you are like me, someone who detests too much frosting and love just the cake itself, then follow me. Go plain. Plain is good :) These banana-kins taste very moist and yummy which is probably due to the addition of sour cream. Yay!! For now, I love Barefoot Contessa's cake recipes. They totally rock!! If you are looking for a simple muffin recipe, try this. It won't fail you :)

I'm submitting this to Cook like a Star ALL Stars Anniversary organized by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce of bakingflavours and Mich of Piece of Cake.

I'm also submitting this to Cook-Your-Books#10 organized by Joyce of bakingflavours.