Strawberry Banana Cupcake Recipe
This strawberry banana cupcake recipe is a quick, easy, “semi-homemade” treat. It starts with a boxed cake mix to keep things simple, but it’s jazzed up with some extra ingredients to make it extra moist and flavorful.
Although I’m typically the type of baker who likes to bake from scratch, there are days, weeks, and even entire months where I’m so crazy busy that I need all of the cooking shortcuts that I can get my hands on. This has been one of those weeks for me, which is why I’m excited to be sharing a super quick and easy cupcake recipe with you.
I’ve always loved the flavor combo of strawberry & banana, and it seems to be a kid favorite, too, so that’s what I’ll be sharing with you today.
When you check out the cupcake recipe below, don’t let the box mix fool you into thinking that these cupcakes will be lacking in flavor. I’ve made some changes and additions to assure that when you serve these to your family and guests, they’ll have a tough time believing that they weren’t made from scratch!
Oh, and if you want to make more cupcakes, I’ve got a huge collection of cupcake recipe ideas.
Now let’s go a little bananas… and strawberry, too!
Strawberry Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients
- FOR THE CAKE
- 1 box white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Super Moist)
- 10 ounces water
- â…“ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 medium bananas mashed
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8-10 fresh strawberries diced
- FOR THE FROSTING
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 4 ounces butter softened
- 1 banana mashed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
- 1 Tablespoon milk (more if needed)
Instructions
- FOR THE CAKE
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 for dark or non-stick pans). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. Lightly grease with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.
- Beat cake mix, water, oil, and bananas, yogurt, and vanilla extract in a large bowl on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well combined, stopping to scrape sides of bowl as necessary. Batter may be lumpy.
- Add diced strawberries and stir to combine. Fill paper liners about 2/3 full.
- Bake 20-23 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes in pan before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. While cupcakes cool, make the frosting.
- FOR THE FROSTING
- Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl at medium speed until smooth and combined. Add mashed banana and vanilla extract and mix for 1 minute.
- Turn mixer to low speed and gradually add powdered sugar. Once sugar is incorporated, add milk as needed until desired consistency is achieved. To make frosting thicker, add more powdered sugar. To make it thinner, add milk.
- Frost and garnish as desired.
I’m not a baker, just a Mom who bakes to relieve stress so I love to start with box mixes and make them my own, or utilize shortcuts as long as it doesn’t compromise the taste of the end result. And it’s sort of a challenge for me, to use shortcuts but have no one know because I’ve changed it so much that people don’t recognize that I’ve taken the easy way out. So this recipe is “right up my alley”. Thanks.
Karen, you do not have to find a reason to bake with boxes! I really enjoy the convenience, too!
Oh wow these cupcakes look perfect!
You’re so sweet, Katie. Thank you!
Well since I spy both strawberries and banana, aka healthy fruit, that means I can have two of these for breakfast. Sweet.
You are EXACTLY correct, Carla! Oh, and because your cheesecakes are in a canning jar, which is traditionally used for holding veggies and fruit preserves, we can each have one with our cupcake breakfast. Right?
Hello, I just made your strawberry & Banana cupcakes. My cupcakes fell. I don’t know what I did wrong because this has never happened to me. The only thing I can think of I filled the cups 3/4 full and the weight of the heavy ingredients made them fall. Any ideas???
Thanks, Laura
Hi Laura,
I’m so sorry to hear that your cupcakes fell in. I hate it when that happens! Without being there to see the batter, I can think of a couple of things that may have been the culprit:
1. Your batter was mixed for too long. If it was beaten for too long, pockets of air would have been incorporated into the batter. Those pockets of air can be easily “popped” by anything heavy (like the strawberries)
2. I don’t know if you used a boxed cake mix or not, but they rarely rise very high. If you look at the photo of my cupcakes, you’ll see that they barely rose above the lip of the cupcake liner. I can only guess that it’s because the batter is so much thinner than homemade cupcake batter. Once you add the heavy ingredients, the batter doesn’t stand up as well. Next time, you could try adding a half box of pudding mix to the batter, or even just a couple of Tablespoons of all-purpose flour.
I hope this won’t prevent you from trying the recipe again!
Hi there! I am making these right now and mine deflated also. Is it because there were no eggs?
Hi Crystal,
I’m so sorry to hear that your cupcakes deflated! I don’t think the lack of an egg was the issue. I’m more inclined to think that the small amount of leavener included in boxed cake mixes just isn’t enough to lift up the heavy batter. Between the bananas and the yogurt, that batter is pretty heavy.
Next time, try adding 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder to the batter. Hopefully your cupcakes will rise to the occasion! 🙂
I added the 1/2 tsp of baking powder and they still deflated. I even tried to cool them gradually like you would a cheesecake by cracking the oven with the mitt would adding egg help?
I have been looking for a banana frosting and I tried your frosting recipe tonight. It is quite delicious and will be a great flavor for my sons first birthday. Thanks
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed my recipe, Sherry! Thank you for letting me know..you truly made my day. I hope your son has a wonderful 1st birthday <3
Oh Becca, those are so sweet, just love them!!
Thank you, Tara. They’re simple, but delicious 🙂
Hi Becca,
I want to make the banana cream cheese frosting, but there is a discrepancy in the recipe. It says to use 2 ounces/1 stick of butter. A stick of butter is 4 ounces. Am I to use a half stick (2 ounces) or a full stick (quarter pound+4 ounces)? Thanks!
Oh my goodness, Andrea. I’m so sorry! Thanks so much for bringing it to my attention. The recipe calls for 4 ounces of butter, and I’ve corrected my error.
I use box cakes with every cake I make. It just takes the extra steps out of the baking for me. But you’d never know my cakes started from a box because by the time I’m done they taste homemade. The same with the frosting. I use store brought frosting and make it my own. These cupcakes are perfect for 2 parties that I have coming up this summer thank you.
Boxed cake mixes are great when you’re short on time, too. You’re absolutely right that they’re easy to customize. A little sour cream, flavored extracts, and/or pudding mix makes all the difference! Thank you for your comment and for rating the recipe.