Who says you can’t put frosting on muffins? If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you know I just got piping bags and decorating tips from Wilton! I couldn’t wait to use them. I wanted to make a cake but since I would be the only one eating it, I decided to make muffins instead. And these are more like banana cake muffins, anyway. Plus, chocolate buttercream is super tasty and easy and I figured, hey, that would go good together 🙂 If you do not want to make the buttercream, you don’t need to. The muffins are very delicious on their own.  So let’s bake…

What you will need:

Muffin tin lined or sprayed
Tip: If spraying with a non-stick spray, do so just before pouring the batter in. This will prevent it from pooling at the bottom.

For the banana bread:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup milk

For the chocolate buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
Piping bag (optional)
Decorating tip (optional) I used a Wilton 1M

To make the banana bread muffins:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

In another large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs and mix until well incorporated.

Peel the bananas and place them in a bowl. Mash well with a fork. Add them to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add half of the milk and another 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix. Then add the rest of the milk and flour and mix until combined.

Scoop batter evenly into prepared pan about half full. Bake for 14-16 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing them and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream:

Look at me piping! Bad picture but so exciting 🙂

In a large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat butter until smooth and creamy. Slowly add in the cocoa powder and beat until incorporated. Add vanilla and the powdered sugar slowly. Beat in milk as needed (depending on how thick you want it) and mix until you get the desired consistency.

Frost the muffins once they are cooled. You can pipe, like I did, or just use a knife or spatula. Enjoy!

Made 17 muffins and more than enough buttercream.