Banana and chia seeds cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

Who could resist a beautifully frosted cupcake? Definitely not the lil' fella. 

The texture is soft and fluffy, even on the next morning. 

My buddy Flora whatsapped me and asked if I would like to have some banana, she has abundant of them harvested at home. Immediately, I said yes. We haven't baked banana cupcakes for some time. And today, I felt like making something beautiful for the lil' fella and since I still have a little cream cheese and butter left over in the fridge, I decided to frost my delicious banana and chia seeds cupcakes. I frosted the cupcakes in front of the lil' fella. He was so amused. He shouted, 'Ice Cream!!' 'Ice Cream!!'.. Hahaa.. it does look a little like a mini ice cream. 

The cupcake is made from the best banana muffin recipe I tried out sometime back. You should try it if you're looking for a simple, yet delicious banana muffin. This time, I added 2 teaspoon of chia seeds into it and 2tbsp milk into the recipe, knowing that chia seeds does soak up some liquid. Now what is chia seeds? It's a small seed that comes with mighty nutrition, it has 3x more iron than spinach, 5x more calcium than milk, 7x more vitamin C than oranges and 8x more Omega 3 than salmon. I have shared about it in detailed in my previous post here. You should definitely take it if you hadn't. 

Recipe for cupcakes

• 3 medium banana, cut into small cubes 
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (or less than this if I have sweet banana) 
• 1 egg, beaten 
• 2teaspoon chia seeds soaked in 2tbsp milk for 10min 
• 1/3 cup rice bran oil 
• 2tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1.5cup all purpose flour

Instructions 

1. Using an electric hand mixer, whisk together chopped banana, egg, milk and chia seeds and oil until frothy. Set aside. 
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. 
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients. 
4. Pour into muffin liner. 
5. Preheat an oven to 170degC. Bake for about 15-20min or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. 
6. Let muffin cool down prior to frosting. 

Recipe for cream cheese frosting 

• 100g cream cheese, roughly chopped 
• 100g butter, at room temperature, roughly chopped
• 3tbsp icing sugar 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon 

In a bowl, using an electric hand mixer, whisk all the ingredients until soft and fluffy. Frost when the cupcakes has cooled down to room temperature.

NOTE:
I have baked few different variations of this recipe, among them include:

• Banana and cream cheese cupcakes (omitted the chia seeds, replaced with 2tbsp of chopped cream cheese) --> this version is super yummy!! 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (August 2014 Event: Flour) - organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.