Banana Cream Cupcakes

Of the 4 different cupcakes I made for my childen's classes the last week of school, this was my favorite due to the texture, but the beauty of the cupcakes and the higher potassium from the bananas, which are good for the heart.  Okay, maybe I never thought about the potassium at all when devouring these or even making them, rather it sounded good as I write this.  But, these cupcakes are so moist and delicious that you would not even know they were actually healthy.

Without the frosting, there actual cupcakes have no grains, but unfortunately, the amount of bananas I used, combined with maple syrup, these are not low sugar (albiet natural sugars).

Makes 8 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour (if you can't find this, you can use blanched almonds and put in the food processor until it looks like a meal or flour consistency . . . in a Blendtec or Vitamix, this does not take long . . .under 20 sec - if you can't find blanched almonds, you can use regular almonds or use almond meal/flour)
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (doubled this)
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar (I added this & deleted the arrowroot)
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 cup grapeseed oil (Elana used twice this but I ran out - coconut oil is really better, though)
• 1/8 cup coconut oil (I ran out of grapeseed oil, so I added this instead)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup, grade B (Elana used agave nectar, which I won't use)
• 2 very ripe bananas (they need to be very ripe)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• Line cupcake/muffin baking tins with cupcake liners.
• Sift flour/meal, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar in a medium bowl.  Set aside.
• Combine eggs, oil, maple syrup, bananas in a large mixing bowl.  I did not bother to mash the bananas.  Using a mixer or KitchenAid, blend until it's a smooth mixture or if you like it a little lumpy, that's okay.
• Gradually add the flour mixture by thirds to the wet ingredient mix, combining well after each addition.
• You should get a thick batter.  Pour into cupcake liners until just below the top of the liner.
• Bake for 17 min. at 350° F.
• Remove from oven and cool on wire racks for at least 30 min.

• Frost with whipped cream frosting and dust with Chocolate "Dirt".
• Chocolate dirt is taking chocolate and chopping finely in the food processor until it looks like large grains of sand.  I used dark chocolate morsels for this.  A little goes a long way.