Banana Black Walnut Cupcakes with Zesty Lemon Icing

Before Hawaii: a story and recipe from The Baking Wizard!

I love the character a small amount of lusty, robust, black walnuts gives to these cupcakes. Black walnuts grow in the eastern United States and as far west as the eastern sections of Texas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. The nuts have a very tough shell that's hard to crack, and unless you live near where they're grown, you're most likely to find them in your market shelled and chopped. The nuts have an intense, smoky flavor, and they lend great distinction to many kinds of cookies and cakes. Brown sugar goes particularly well with black walnuts as do coffee, chocolate, and many spices.

Tips for Chopping Walnuts

Black walnuts are usually sold already chopped, but for this recipe they must be finely chopped. So get out your chef's knife. Don't use a food processor, which will turn some of the nuts into dust and others into a paste. If you can't get black walnuts, regular English or Persian walnuts will work just fine. Be sure they're finely chopped. Banana makes these cupcakes nice and moist and gives its own banana-y taste. For the best flavor, be sure the bananas are completely ripe. Their skins may even be black. Leftover cupcakes keep fresh in the refrigerator, well covered, for 2 or 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Here's how to make these terrific cupcakes.

To measure flour, sift more than you need onto a sheet of waxed paper. Spoon lightly into a 1-cup and 1/2-cup dry measure to overflowing. Without shaking or banging the cups, sweep off the excess flour with a metal spatula or straight edge. If you have a kitchen scale, just weigh the 6 ounces of flour.

Butter beaten with the granulated sugar and vanilla until smooth and fluffy-looking.

After the eggs have been beaten in. Batter is smooth.

Oops! What happened. After beating in the banana the batter has a curdled look. But don't worry, all will be well later.

These are the chopped black walnuts. See how dark they are?

The finished batter. After the last of the flour was stirred in the batter became completely smooth. The little bumps in the batter are the black walnuts. The batter's ready to be divided into the cupcake pan lined with paper cups.

Cupcake batter spooned into the liners. Each cup is about 2/3 full.

The baked cupcakes are golden brown and nicely domed. They must be completely cool before being iced.

Zesty lemon icing. Smooth and creamy and ready to ice the cupcakes.

Plop generous dollops of icing, about 2 tablespoons, on each cupcake and spread with the back of a teaspoon to cover the cupcakes and make attractive swirls. Let icing set about 30 minutes before eating.

I couldn't resist, so I bit into one almost immediately. Yummmmm!