Hazelnut Flour and Banana Cupcakes

Baking has my heart.  I love cooking, but there are few greater joys than baking an awesome batch of greatness that everyone loves.  I was spending some time with my friend and her family, and was up for doing some cupcake decorating.  I'd only attempted it once, but it seemed like a fun activity to try out with a friend.

I brought my supplies over, and the next decision had to be made--what kind of cake could we bake?  Fortunately she had a bag of hazelnut cake mix with her.  Hazelnut flour is gluten free and since some of her family follow a gluten-free diet, it was the perfect choice.





I'd never tried hazelnut flour, as my previous gluten-free attempts were made with an all-purpose mix of flours.  My friend also happened to have some bananas she wanted to use up, so I found a link on using them as an egg replacement.  Now we had something really different to try!

I first mashed up 2 bananas into a pulp.



Next, I mixed the bananas with the cake mix, which was composed of hazelnut flour, sugar, and cornstarch, the baking powder, water, and some butter and coconut oil.  I took the 1/3 cup of butter requested in the original recipe and divided in half to use both coconut oil and butter.



Now for the cupcakes to bake in, we used tin foil wrappers instead of a standard cupcake pan.  I have seen these before, but thought the foil wrapper was for decor and didn't realize they would stand strong enough for baking on their own.  That's really neat!



The cupcakes baked for 30 minutes and the toothpick test proved they were finished.



After they cooked down to room temperature, I whipped up a batch of the peanut butter honey frosting from the Gluten-Free Cocoa Cupcakes recipe to go on top.  And the frosting fun began...



The cupcakes were small and dense, really only rising slightly.  But they had an awesome flavor, especially with the peanut butter frosting on top.  I used a peanut butter that had coconut oil in it as well, so the cupcakes overall had a slight coconut flavor that was just phenomenal.  I loved the banana swap and the taste it added!  I will certainly try that again.

Hazelnut Flour and Banana Cupcakes Recipe

Ingredients:

1 package cake mix with hazelnut flour, sugar, and cornstarch

2 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 cup water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Mash 2 eggs in a medium bowl.  Mix with hazelnut flour mix, bananas, baking powder, butter, coconut oil, and water until combined.  Spoon into a pan lined with cupcake papers and bake for 30 minutes.  Frost as desired once cool.