Blog

Banana Coconut Cupcake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting

February 16, 2017 · Natalie 46 Comments

Good thing this Banana Coconut Cupcake is a single serve dessert, because you won’t want to share even a bite of such an easy, fluffy, frosted cake in a cup! Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free.

After completely snubbing bananas in Monday’s ice cream post, I think I owed this to them. And to you. And to myself. Because sometimes we all deserve a cup full of fluffy banana coconut cake with frosting even fluffier that comes with one spoon and one spoon only.

Considering we are just emerging on the other side of all that Valentine’s chocolate craziness, you may be thinking that’s a lot of chocolate frosting for one cupcake. Yes, yes it is. But the frosting is made mostly of coconut with just a little touch of cacao because chocolate goes too well with both banana and coconut to leave it out. I’d like to tell you the frosting is made mostly of air so just go ahead and pile it on with reckless abandon, but that would be a bit of a stretch. However, it does have a wonderfully whipped airy texture–like a cacao-flavored cloud of cream!

I am getting a little ahead of myself though, distracted by the frosting and forgetting about the coconut-filled cupcake underneath. I originally whipped up this recipe on a hungry whim planning to snap a pic, post it on Instagram, and dig in. But it was too good. So I had to ~~make another immediately and devour it in record time~~ devote a blog post to this simple 5-ingredient cake snack.

The cupcake. It’s been a while since I’ve made anything with bananas, I almost forgot how perfect they are as a base for baked things. They sweeten, they bind, and they just get more flavorful in the oven. With so many of the cupcake jobs covered already, there isn’t too much more to add. Maple syrup for extra sweetness. Baking powder for fluff. Coconut shreds for some tropical flavor. And oat flour because it wouldn’t be much of a cake without it. Sprinkle a little more coconut on top, then it’s off for a 1 to 2 minute spin in the microwave or a 15 to 18 minute stay in the oven–your choice!

Okay now we can get back to the frosting. Because without frosting it would just be a cute cup full of especially coconutty banana bread. With frosting it looks almost party-appropriate and definitely deserving of the cupcake title.

The frosting. It could almost be a treat all it’s own (and the leftovers were for me!) All it is is coconut cream + cacao powder whipped until smooth with a whisk or hand beater. You can sweeten it if you want with a teaspoon or two of maple syrup. But I kind of have a thing for slightly bitter chocolate flavors, so to me the natural coconut sweetness alone is perfect.

I don’t know about you, but I find cans of coconut milk can be really hit or miss. Sometimes they whip up to be creamy and thick, other times grainy or too watery or just weird. And there’s no telling which way it could go until you open the can. The funky ones get poured into a jar and saved for smoothies or other blender business, but for whipped frosting the texture has to flawless.

I recently discovered these little cans of coconut cream that not only seem to always have the perfect texture for whipping even without refrigeration, but also are the perfect size for a single-serve recipe like this. Although fluffy frosting leftovers are never really something to worry about.

I hope you enjoy this fluffy-frosted cupcake party of one!

Banana Coconut Cupcake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting

★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 12 minutes
Yield: 1 cupcake 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Good thing this Banana Coconut Cupcake is a single serve dessert, because you won’t want to share even a bite of such an easy, fluffy, frosted cake in a cup! Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free.

Ingredients

Scale

Cupcake

1/2 a ripe banana (mashed)
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp shredded coconut + more for sprinkling on top

Frosting

1 can coconut cream
1–2 tbsp cacao powder
1–2 tsps maple syrup (optional)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Combine all the cake ingredients in a small bowl. Mix until combined.
Transfer to a cup or ramekin and top with more coconut.
Microwave on high for 1-2 minutes. Or you can bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes at 350F.
Allow to cool while you make the frosting.
Scoop out the coconut cream into a mixing bowl. Whisk by hand or with a handheld mixer until smooth. Add the cacao powder and optional sweetener. Whisk until fully combined and creamy.
Once cool, pipe or spread the frosting on the cupcake, top with a sprinkling of coconut, and enjoy!

More single serve sweetness…
-Sticky sweet Vegan Monkey Bread Mug Cake
–Mango Blueberry Nicecream with (my favorite part) Rice Crispy Clusters
-As fudgy as breakfast can legally be -> Fudge Brownie Oatmeal
–Funfetti Mug Cake because sprinkles.
-The oh so gooey Flourless Chocolate Pudding Cake

Click Below To Pin

SaveSave

Raspberry Coconut Blender Ice Cream

February 13, 2017 · Natalie 21 Comments

No ice cream maker or bananas necessary, this healthy vegan blender ice cream recipe makes for a cold, creamy, cone-full of dessert with just 3 ingredients!

To all the banana-haters out there–I may not understand you, but I made an ice cream recipe especially for you. Blender-made and almost as easy as nice cream, but banana free!

Can it still be considered nice cream if there is no banana? It’s nice. It’s creamy. I’m not really sure what the proper ice cream naming protocol is in this situation, what qualifies a nice cream as Nice Cream? The great mysteries of life.

Anyways…

I’ve ventured down this banana-less blender ice cream road before with a sweet potato-based version. It was creamy and delicious, but also a little too complicated to appeal to lazy ice cream lovers. So I’ve switched things up, swapped sweet potato for coconut cubes, and simplified to just 3 ingredients.

Of course there are tons of vegan coconut-based ice cream recipes in the world already, but most of them require an ice cream maker. You can skip that large uni-tasking appliance purchase by simply freezing coconut milk into ice cubes overnight and then blending with frozen berries (or any frozen fruit!) the next day–no ice cream maker necessary!

I chose to sweeten the coconut cubes with a few tablespoons of maple syrup before blending, because raspberries are quite tart and there is no natural banana sweetness to balance that out. If you love a tart frozen treat, then feel free to leave it out. If you wanted to blend in a handful of dates with the coconut milk instead of maple syrup, that would work just as well.

This recipe does require full fat coconut milk. With the lite stuff a creamy ice cream texture is just not going to happen. If you are looking for a low-fat option, then going with good old bananas is your best bet.

You will notice there are actually two different shades of ice cream here, and that is due different coconut to raspberry ratios. The first time I used one cup of raspberries to one can of coconut milk -> the lighter, less intense batch you see in the photos. The second time I increased the amount of raspberries to two cups -> the darker, deeply berry batch in the video.

You choose! More raspberries equals more tart with a deliciously bold berry flavor. Less raspberries equals softer and sweeter, just like the color suggests.

Scooped into a vegan gluten-free cone, because an edible bowl is always more fun. And adorned with a berry heart because I am going to take every last chance to squeeze in the cutesy heart-themed things I can before Valentine’s Day.

Happy banana-free ice cream blending!